Documentaries have, for the most part, replaced ethical journalism. If you read this as a journalist and you are offended, think about this: how often these days are we able to read the real story amidst the headline-grabbing sensationalism, opinionated punditry, and time-restricted blurbs instead of facts researched patiently and well that has replaced straightforward information? Documentary filmmakers have the luxury of time, something that has long been lost in the fast news cycles that cater to and cause attention deficit disorder. Nowhere has this been made more clear than during film festivals, and this year Sundance was once again on the forefront. Their documentary selection spanned all genres. Here are a few examples:

The award winner for best dramatic US documentary, Descendant, is a story of a very late racial justice. The film follows the community of Africatown, Alabama, located only three miles north of Mobile. It was founded by a group of 32 West Africans, who in 1860 were included in the last known illegal shipment of slaves to the United States. All current inhabitants are direct descendants of the Clotilda, the ship that arrived four decades after the African slave trade became a crime. It was burned and disappeared. The doc shows not only its resurrection but the reclaiming of the past for the people whose ancestors started the community, and their generational trauma as well as their current hardships in the face of the industrialization of a place that was once thriving. The film leaves the viewer both with the hope that the descendants will be able to claim their own history and with the fear and dread that some white politician might instead steal all the glory for recovering the remains of the ship.

Another topic successfully tackled was that of sexual abuse. Not just in the afore written up We Need to Talk About Cosby, but in the very personal Phoenix Rising, of which only part 1 (of 2) was shown at the festival. Directed by Amy Berg, it shows Golden Globe-winner Evan Rachel Wood expose the pain of a relationship that led her to become a fighter for women’s rights and an activist who successfully lobbied to get a law called the Phoenix Act passed. Says Wood: “In the midst of the Phoenix Act and being bombarded with the heartbreaking stories of the other survivors, I went to Amy very desperate to be heard and for this story to be told and for people to finally pay attention to what we’ve been saying and how serious it is and how it’s not just us. Unfortunately, my story is not unique. It’s unique in the way that it’s been in the spotlight and that it’s gone virtually unnoticed, but the tactics and everything involved is very common. I was very grateful when Amy decided not only to tell my story, but to elevate the stories of other survivors and not just expose to this person, but to explain domestic violence and how it works.” This person being Marilyn Manson with whom Wood got involved when she was barely 18.

The drama of comedy, no pun intended, is the focus of Lucy and Desi, which can be called the documentary version of Being the Ricardos. It was a dream project of Golden Globe winner Amy Poehler who makes her directorial debut with this film. Poehler has always cited Lucille Ball as her biggest inspiration and jumped at the chance when the production company offered her the job and assured her that Lucie Arnaz, the protagonists’ daughter, was very much in favor: “[They] came to me, said, “Do you want to do it? Lucie is on board. We’re all going to work together to tell this story.” And I thought, ‘How can I say yes faster than just saying yes?’ So, it was a really easy, very quick origin story. “

History and politics mix in Riotsville, U.S.A. The year is 1968. The civil rights movement could have led to justice. Or at least to a chance for something resembling it, a first step in the direction. But no. That is not what America did. The hitherto untold story of what happened instead is now being told by director Sierra Pettengill. Riotsville was an artificial town built by the US military by converting former Confederate forts into training facilities for the police with the sole purpose of silencing “civil unrest” – aka protests and demonstrations – by any means necessary. Using archival footage, Pettengill shows audiences the mechanisms that were created for a country to wage a war against its own people. The relevance of this cannot escape the viewer, especially after what we have experienced during the past two years.

Do we really need another documentary on Princess Diana? We were not the only ones asking that very question, accompanied by a dismissive yawn, when the program for the festival came out. “How long are they going to keep milking the year that would have marked her 60^th birthday?” So, it was with a slight sense of trepidation that one started the screening for The Princess. But instead of re-hashing old commentary, the filmmakers asked themselves the same questions, as director Ed Perkins says: “The honest truth is that, because there’ve been so many documentaries about Diana made over the years, there have been a lot of documentary companies, production companies that have scoured the planet like we have done for this footage. And so, it was always going to be a very tall order. I think our archive team did a phenomenal job trying to find everything that’s out there.” The pleasant surprise is that there is no commentary in this film. Perkins let the footage speak for itself, and it is in the silences that we begin to grasp more of what kind of person she was and the dynamic that went on between her and Charles. Explains the director: “The whole point of this film is to try to tell a story with the lightness of touch and allow audiences to bring their own hindsight to bear on the story.”

This freedom to form our own opinions without having a director hammering it in is what all these documentaries have in common. Some of them are required viewing because of their subject matter. Some are just pure joy to watch.