This year’s crop of Oscar-nominated documentaries includes narratives both well-known and new, from the story behind Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations to that of a troubled national park in the Congo. Here, a guide to the documentary films vying for an Academy Award this year.
Virunga", "caption":"Executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, this documentary takes its name from the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of few places where endangered mountain gorillas can still be found. Virunga is unfortunately also home to a wealth of resources (read: oil), which makes it incredibly contested ground and vulnerable to corporations, armed militias, and poachers. Orlando von Einsiedel\u2019s film captures the battle to save Virunga and follows the remarkable few who regularly risk their lives to preserve the park and its animal inhabitants.\n
Available on Netflix", "tagList":{"list":}, "credit":"Photo: Courtesy of \u00a9 Grain Media Finding Vivian Maier", "caption":"At a Chicago auction, director John Maloof, an avid collector, stumbled upon a trove of negatives taken by Vivian Maier, an unknown former nanny who had passed away in 2009. Enamored with her black-and-white images, Maloof tracked down thousands more of her prints and eventually posted them on Flickr. Maier posthumously became an art-world star, and exhibitions of her work have since been displayed around the world. In Finding Vivian Maier, Maloof tries to piece together the story behind the reclusive photographer.\n
Available on Amazon Instant Video", "tagList":{"list":}, "credit":"Photo: Courtesy of \u00a9 IFC FilmsIn 2013, filmmaker Laura Poitras started receiving encrypted emails from a man going by the alias Citizenfour, who promised to reveal information about the NSA\u2019s surveillance program. Poitras pairs up with journalist Glenn Greenwald, and the two eventually travel to Hong Kong to meet their source\u2014Edward Snowden. What follows is a fascinating look at the days immediately preceding and following their encounter. Trust us: This is probably the scariest movie you\u2019ll watch all year.\n
Premiering on HBO on Monday, February 23 at 9 p.m.", "tagList":{"list":}, "credit":"Photo: Courtesy of \u00a9 Radius-TWCLast Days in Vietnam", "caption":"It\u2019s impossible not to see the many parallels between the story told in this documentary, which examines the 1975 fall of Saigon...
