Documentary 2002-2003

Jos� Padilha: "Bus 174" is about the life story of a Rio de Janeiro street kid who became a criminal and ended up surrounded by the police inside a bus he was trying to rob. It is about the reasons why he became a criminal and the reasons why he behaved in such a strange way inside the bus.

Michael Moore''s feature-length expose of gun culture in the U.S. takes us to the dark heart of the American dream


Anyone who has seen Moore''s TV work will know his cinema verite technique. Pick a topic and blow it wide open, using a combination of dry humour, hard-hitting statistics, and Louis Theroux-style interviewing.

But how does it translate to the feature film circuit?

Moore has wisely picked a subject with plenty of meat, and like a 19th-Century surgeon, he tickles the funnybones and tugs at the heartstrings to see what makes it tick.

At times his tear-jerker tactics go a little too far, and some of the audience manipulation is dubious.

But structurally the documentary hangs together well. And when the momentum dips, Moore wheels out another insane gun nut to provide a laugh.

This is a personal crusade for Moore. He clearly feels deeply about his subject and that''s what makes the film compelling - this isn''t some dry, disinterested fact-slinger.

Who else would take two Columbine victims with bullets still lodged in them back to the supermarket where the bullets were bought, in order to "return the merchandise"?

In common with other recent feature-length documentaries like Dogtown and Z-Boys , Moore proves that passion and inquisitiveness can turn out something equally as emotive as any fictional drama

Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Interview with Jose Padilha
Bus 174 (Jose Padilha 2003) -personality in political documentary