The Rubber-Keyed Wonder (2025)

Anthony Caulfield and Nicola Caulfield directs Clive Sinclair, Jo Twist and Nigel Searlein this documentary exploring the history of affordable home computer the ZX Spectrum and its cultural impact on Eighties Britain.

The only documentary on this round-up I’m going to accuse of being a little too indulgent and in need of an edit. The best moments are the montages of 8 bit footage to forgotten pop classics.

7

Lenny Cooke (2013)

Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie direct Lenny Cooke, Tom Konchalski and LeBron James in this sport documentary about a black youth who was the number-one ranked high school basketball player in America on the millennium.

Watched as part of my Safdies completist streak. A genuinely sad story of the capitalist system exploiting and then devaluing talent. They collage a lot of other folks older footage but their own self filmed final act hits a wonderful emphatic grace note. A good side dish to Hoop Dreams, but also very Josh and Benny. One wonderful sequence illustrates how a patient adult should address argumentative youths with respect and a constant even tone.

7

The Battered Bastards Of Baseball (2014)

Chapman Way and Maclain Way directs Bing Russell, Kurt Russell and Todd Field in this sport documentary that transports us back to 1973, when Hollywood actor Bing Russell starts an independent minor league baseball team in Portland consisting of outcasts and has-beens.

Just an absolute delight. Really funny remembrance of a brawling, boozy underdog story. The Where Are They Now epilogue wouldn’t even be believable at the end of an SNL spoof comedy. Loved this. It is on Netflix if you wanna hunt it down.

10

The Times Of Harvey Milk (1984)

Rob Epstein directs Harvey Fierstein, Harvey Milk and Anne Kronenberg in this Oscar winning documentary of the successful life, career and assassination of San Francisco’s first elected openly gay city supervisor.

Helped me understand the extraordinary strides and success Harvey Milk achieved in his community. Also the individual who assassinated him’s head space. Far more so than the Sean Penn dramatisation.

8

All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (2022)

Laura Poitras directs Nan Goldin, David Velasco and Marina Berio in this documentary which follows two strands; the life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family, the pharmaceutical dynasty who was greatly responsible for the prescribed opioid addiction epidemic of the 21st century.

Nan Goldin has lived a unicorn of a life. Grubby, dangerous and fabulous. Her battle to gets the Sackler name out of art institutions plus glimpses of her autobiographical slideshows are hypnotic. There are some viciously harmful moments revived here but it makes for a unique life story.

8

High School (1968)

Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students in 1968.

Fly On The Wall. This is all about conformity and authority. Shaping young people to fit into the mould that society wants them to fit. There are funny moments – a fashion walk full of negative feedback, a sex education lecture that is honest and funny. There are strange moments – a fake space mission achieved in real time, a near constant atmosphere of persuasive unvoiced racism. And the most telling shots are when the camera sidelines the interactions then zooms tightly onto the parent’s fingers. They tremble and tic. More uncomfortable to be dragged back into this pressure cooker environment than the educators or children.

8

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