2019 Doc Days Recap & Rankings

Doc Days continues to be my favorite local festival. The fantastic film selection and the relaxed, friendly atmosphere make it a great experience. The festival is scheduled to return for its third year in 2020, and you should attend. Anyway, on to the part where I reduce complex art into an arbitrarily ordered list.

Doc Days 2019 Films, Ranked

Tier 1 — Completely engrossing. See these as soon as they’re released.
1. The Amazing Johnathan Documentary
2. American Factory
3. City of Joel

Tier 2 — Interesting films worth seeing if you can.
4. Caballerango
5. Cold Case Hammarskjold
6. Kabul, City in the Wind
7. What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?
8. Dark Suns

Tier 3 — It’s fine.
9. Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

Tier 4 — Why does this exist?
10. Over the Rainbow

Nothing quite reached the emotional highs of The Sentence or Minding the Gap from 2018, but there were a lot of really smart films in the festival this year. The top film on my list is a hilarious, constantly twisting mystery, and films 2 and 3 are intelligent analyses of local culture clashes that serve as microcosms for larger societal issues.

That’s it. I can’t wait for Doc Days 2020 so that I can once again annoy my friends with steaming hot takes on movies they’ll never see.

Michael Dixon is a mild mannered accountant by day and a mild mannered movie watcher by night. He will not do your taxes for you. He lives in Austin, Texas with his lovely television and collection of fine whiskies. You can’t purchase his book anywhere because it doesn’t exist.