The Documentary Films of 2024, ranked
What's on My DVR?

We talk a lot about our penchant for whipping the realities of life into narrative form, of our “imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images,” as Joan Didion wrote in The White Album. But we often forget why we tend to do this, neglecting to consider the weight of the latter half of Didion’s famous line, that we need these stories to survive. We tell ourselves stories in order that we may have hope and move from one day to the next. This survival tactic is something Afghan-Canadian documentarian Fazila Amiri’s And Still I Sing soberly reminds us of.

Continued on The Asian Cut

Cute premise for a docu on these harsh realities of Afghan women.
Pop goes my bubble with gladness! Never let me forget just how hardcore women and girls are treated worldwide. 
One young woman was hospitalized from the shock of her life being threatened…for singing. 
Bravery is contagious. All the sacrifices made can be inspirational for others to follow their own dreams. Quite empowering as it is harrowing.

When during trump administration it was announced that American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan we all knew what that will have meant for women.
Considering what women and girls are going through (not even allowed to go to school) makes this a tough view.
Afghan/Canadian Fazila Amiri turns a subplot of a singing contest into the more vital plot of women being banned from expressing selves.

Heart-rending story, centred around the TV singing competition Afghan Star, about musical aspirations and feminist activism at the precipice of the 2021 Taliban takeover. The moment of the two women doing henna sticks with me. Vivid, urgent, and audacious. (Watched on the plane to China)

Thirteen years after AFGHAN STAR won the Audience Award for World Documentary at Sundance, a new generation of "Afghan Star" competitors take to the stage. It's 11 years after the season depicted in the earlier film, and women have made great strides in Afghan society. Spoiler: for the first time in "Afghan Star" history, a woman wins the title. It's not easy as death threats and family disapproval haunt the women competitors (and judges) at every turn. Less than 2 years later, the Afghan government collapses when the Taliban seizes control of the country and all the women who participated in the competition need to flee the country for their lives.

Utrolig kjedelig, men hadde en bra historie og viktig tema!!

Huge privilege check for white feminists, holy.

Why do have to watch this again and on the last day of women's month.
With the horrible reports/news coming out of Afghanistan (and Iran) everyday viewing this comprehensive doc just hurts.
Damn this world!
* also, cheers to Chantal Kreviazuk for exec producing it.

Solid, fairly conventional, but not overproduced or overly wordy documentary fare that feels of the kind to catch at a local festival. On the subject, certainly women's rights are the first emphasis, but I also appreciated getting a dose of ethnicity violence that factors in. American media trends not really capture that in Afghanistan (or elsewhere). Hasara culture becomes a highlight of the experience.