For the latest instalment in my Lily Loves ABC, I thought I’d introduce a selection of my favourite entertainment with D is for Documentaries.
If I’m going to watch a movie, my genre of choice is gangsta films. But outside of that field, I love watching documentaries. In particular, I like ones about creative people in fashion and music. One of the best ever is The Eye Has to Travel about my idol, Diana Vreeland. It explores her life as the editor of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Likewise, Lagerfeld Confidential, about Karl Lagerfeld is amazing, plus The September Issue and Unzipped, the documentary about Isaac Mizrahi.
Music is obviously a huge focus for me and this extends to the things I watch. Ryan Hawaii recently put me on to Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, about the guy that managed Alice Cooper, Blondie and Teddy Pendergrass. It’s so good, the best bit is when he gets shared custody of his cat with Cary Grant! I loved Marley too, about Bob Marley’s life.
Outside of fashion and music, I love crime documentaries, the best is, The House I Live In, which focuses on America’s War on Drugs. This is one of the most powerful documentaries I’ve ever seen and I’ve watched it so many times. I regularly watch the Gangland ones on YouTube and most recently watched a good one about the history of the Gambino family….
Sometimes people tell me about films focused on topics that I’m usually uninterested in, which I then find fascinating. One example is Senna, about the eighties F1 racing driver. It’s made entirely with archive footage, much of which is his own family’s home movies. The result is really personal and emotive.
One of the weirdest but most amazing documentaries I’ve ever seen is The Queen of Versailles, about a family building the biggest home in America. They’re half way through creating a house bigger than Obama’s but they’re running out of funds. It’s one of the most insane documentaries you’ll ever watch.
I’m always looking for new documentaries to watch, so drop me some suggestions in the comments….
Ps, I’m desperately searching for some kind of documentary on Buju Banton and have only found one that’s really old. Can someone send me links to more, or alternatively, make a Buju doc with me?
