The 20 best films I saw in 2013, part III - 7 documentaries

Completing my list of the 20 best movies I saw in 2013 - once again it's been a great year for documentaries which have clearly moved ever closer to the mainstream of cinema in the past few years, thanks in part I think to increasing use of and familiarity with personal documentary video on social media and YouTube, the ready availability of good documentaries on Netflix and other media that bypass commercial theater distribution, and the ever-increasing portability and affordability of videocameras. Here are the best documentaries, many of them disturbing and unsettling, a few of them uplifting as well, that I saw this year (listed alphabetically):

Five Broken Cameras. A fine and disturbing Palestinian documentary made up of footage by an amateur videographer who started out buying a camera to film family birthday parties etc. and ends up filming various marches, public events, and encounters with the Israeli military - without meaning to, he becomes the unofficial chronicler of the struggles in his village; as the title tells us, he has had his camera smashed and destroyed during at least 5 encounters - each one chillingly captured live.

The Imposter. A weird film about about a family whose 14-year-old son disappeared - and then three years later a kid shows up who claims to be their son. Very mysterious and unnerving, and will leaving you thinking, and puzzled, right up through the end and beyond.

Last Train Home. A terrific documentary from China that shows the lives of a family of garment workers who migrate from a seemingly idyllic countryside into the extremely over-crowded city in order to earn enough to survive. Relation between parents and daughter, seeking her independence, is very powerful and sad.

Marwencol (2010). An excellent and thoughtful look at the work of a great outsider artist, Mark Hogancamp. Sad and disturbing in some ways, but also triumphant, as the artist gains recognition for her very peculiar oeuvre.

Searching for Sugarman. By far the best-known documentary on this list, the excellent story about an obscure American singer-songwriter, Rodrigues, who for some reason became hugely popular in South Africa - and who completely faded from public life, to the point where there were rumors of suicide, or death during a show. Turns out - not so.

Stories We Tell. Sarah Polley is emerging as one of the most talented and innovative directors; this semi-documentary, which uses a lot of recreated footage, tells the story of her family, with many secrets revealed, to her and to us, during the course of the making of this movie. Unlike so many family documentaries, this one is not filled with misery and abuse. The relationship w/ her father is very moving.

This Is not a Film. An Iranian documentary made surreptitiously by a filmmaker whom the censors have confined to his apartment. He takes great risks and pushes the limits of censorship, and some very disturbing sequences, particularly toward the end of the film, show the dangers dissident artists face every day in repressive societies.