But the absence of first-hand, near-contemporary witnesses for the life of Christ has often bothered the kind of "people of the book" who need or seek a documentary crutch for faith.
This 45-minute documentary sought to demonstrate that the booming record industry wasn't all packed-out Shay stadiums and shagging Marianne Faithfull.
America has no equivalent to the work of Peter Watkins, which is almost Brechtian in its desire to expose the tricky mechanics of media presence at real or reconstructed events - or of Ken Loach, who sought to import documentary realism to maximise the impact of his political message in early TV works such as Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home.
The actor Maximilian Schell sought to make a documentary film about her.
In creating the new documentary, she sought to explore not only why Dolores Hart left Hollywood, but also what she had done all the years since.
According to on-screen text at the film's opening, more than 7,000 sought amnesty, and the documentary chooses four stories to tell.
These films put into action ideas that have been part of moviemaking since its earliest days, and which came to the fore around 1960, when modernist directors called attention to the artifices of fiction and a new breed of documentary filmmakers sought their subjects' self-aware participation.
But the documentary also sought to establish that while many intelligence professionals considered the Iraqi leader dangerous -- especially if attacked -- they were uncomfortable with political efforts to turn raw intelligence into unequivocal fact so as to portray him an imminent threat to Western interests.
A few years back, for instance – inspired by Géza Vermes, the great Jewish historian of the historical Jesus – Howard Jacobson made a TV documentary that sought to reclaim for Judaism the man who is, after all, the most famous Jew who ever lived.
The documentary-makers sought out students who were approachable and outgoing, and the cast seem to have thrived on the experience.
