If 2021 was a year of major documentaries, then 2022 is already shaping up to be even better for reality-based filmmaking. Sundance and Slamdance both had amazing documentaries to offer last month, but here are two other great documentaries to seek out post-haste.

“The Conductor” Director: Bernadette Wegenstein

Oh, how optimistic we all were this time a year ago, when Sundance went online—as we hoped, just that one time. Twelve months later, and omicron continues to run around ruining pretty much everything. Thus it forced Sundance online once again this year, and I had to enjoy whatever films I could from the comfort of my home rather than the chill and elevation of Park City.

(this article closes our 2022 coverage of the 2022 Sundance Festival) This has been a very good year for films at the Sundance Film Festival for works by actors or actresses who have changed my opinion on their abilities. With the smart satire “When You’re Finished Saving the World,” actor Jesse Eisenberg has found his true calling, as writer and director.

The film’s excellent title attests to

Another year of fantastic films at the Sundance Film Festival is under our cinematic belts. On Friday, Sundance revealed their award winners for the 2022 festival. Once again (due to the rise in Omicron cases in the U.S.) the ceremony was handled virtually on Twitter.

Festival Director Tabitha Jackson said in her statement on Friday, “This year’s Festival expressed a powerful convergence

W. Kamau Bell is one of the smartest and funniest comedians working today and an important voice for social justice. His views on America are sharp and pointed and relevant. A three-time Emmy winner for his excellent CNN series “The United Shades of America”, Bell now directs the powerful think-piece miniseries, “We Need to Talk About Cosby.”

Bill Cosby is many things, and his life

Directed by Christian Tafdrup and co-written with his brother Mads, “Speak No Evil” is a film where the kindness of strangers is something that should be sidestepped, as two families (one Danish, one Dutch) learn after meeting on holiday.

Premiering as part of the festival’s “Midnight Selection” category, this is director Tagdrup’s first film (after two tries) to be

“What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.”

Filmmaker Kogonada’s “After Yang” was selected as part of the Sundance Film Festival’s “Best of the Fest.” These are films that are chosen to make their Sundance premiere even as they may have already been shown at another festival. In this case, “After Yang” premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival

Writer/Director Michael Polish has created an intriguing ten-episode series that’s modern Western with a philosophical edge that made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

There is a lead character surrounded by death. Revenge. Pistols. Blood. The whole piece exists as a visual representation of a quote from “Once Upon a Time in America”, “People like that have something inside... something to do

2021 was a much stronger year for cinema than 2020, creativity and originality both made a comeback. Sure, Hollywood overwhelmed us with too many big budget money grabs and there is always some type of comic book adaptation playing somewhere, but directors of weight made a welcome return. It made my cinema-loving heart glad to see films from Jane Campion, Paul Schrader, Pedro Almodovar, Steven Soderbergh, Clint Eastwood

Despite our most fervent hopes, 2021 was the second strange year for both cinema and the world. Festivals were either online or continued a hybrid format (Slamdance just announced that due to omicron, they will be online only in January), and that communal feeling we have missed being in theaters together has only partially returned. All this to say it was a most unusual twelve months—again.