At CineGeek.com we’ve been covering several of the documentaries that are a part of Docurama’s Film Festival 1 Platinum Package. This package features 10 documentary films that all performed well at film festivals. The idea is to give the viewer the experience of seeing the best documentaries from a film festival while sitting in their easy chairs. In concept it’s kind of gimmicky because it doesn’t “feel” any different than any other box set of documentary films. But the films themselves rise above cheesy marketing concepts. Of the 10 films we’ve reviewed Aging Out, The Fire Next Time, and Doing Time, Life Inside the Big House.

Of those we’ve looked at Aging Out is definitely the strongest. That film follows a group of young adults who spent their childhood as part of the foster program and are literally “aging out” of the system. It’s interesting to follow them as they try to find their way in the adult world without the security of a family to fall back on. This film comes highly recommended.

Doing Time: Life Inside the Big House is an incredibly interesting subject that is incredibly poorly executed. There’s a real art to creating a documentary. Many people think that all you have to do is get in their with a camera and start asking questions but that’s not all of it, and even that part must be done with finesse. The Q & A sessions are just plain boring. There’s an HBO documentary from a few years ago (the title escapes me) that does this subject real justice.

The Fire Next Time is a flawed but intriguing film about the social and economical changes a small town goes through. The film lacks some focus, jumping from issues of racism to ecology, to economy without a lot of rhyme or reason. At the same time, how each of these issues changes the town is gripping.

All of the films in the box set are available individually too. We plan to review a few more of them in the coming weeks.

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