'Food, Inc.' and 'An Inconvenient Truth' in NY Magazine's List of the 20 Essential Documentaries of the Century

'Food, Inc.' and 'An Inconvenient Truth' in NY Magazine's List of the 20 Essential Documentaries of the Century

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Food, Inc. promo showing a cow with a barcode on it's side.

The following documentaries from the 21st century were chosen for their abiding influence and/or “Wow!” factor. Most of them—not all—we also happen to love. But we did leave out some more obscure personal favorites to make room for the penguins, etc.

13. Food, Inc. (2008)

This talking-heads doc broke through to a wide audience, and no wonder: It’s about how most of what we eat comes from, like, five companies and has little to do with nature, family farms, or anything else on the label. It’s the stuff of the most paranoid science fiction—The Matrix for the diet-conscious. (D.E.)

 

14. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Like a molasses-voiced prophet of the apocalypse, Al Gore presents the case for climate change, and chills you to your bones. With one fell swoop, director Davis Guggenheim helped resurrect Gore’s image (remember when we all thought he couldn’t give a decent speech?), put climate change at the forefront of public discourse, and made the hero-driven social-issue doc the premier mode of American nonfiction filmmaking. (B.E.)

See the full list here