documentary

Al Gore will save us all. No, seriously. Not only has he hired shouting-mouthpiece Keith Olbermann to try to enlighten the world one withering tirade at a time, he is also responsible for one of the more altruistic news programs on television, and perhaps one you’re not familiar with.

I discovered Current TV’s Vanguard series last summer. Sometime when I was wondering why Terminator: Salvation was on for the seventy millionth time, I came across this show that was so engrossing in such a real way that it left me absolutely stunned. I’ve never encountered documentary journalism like this. I became totally invested, and the subject matter — the plight of Mail Order Brides, drew me in for over an hour. The gritty, documentary style reporting, the raw and unfiltered coverage — it was everything CNN wishes it could do and more. This show is really what investigative journalism is at its core.

With minimal film crews, and lacking in canned monologues, exorbitant speeches, faux-fury, or shock just for shock sake, mostly it focuses on ripping away the trappings of the spoiled Western mindset to offer a glimpse into someone else’s world, willing the observer to absorb their life, their history, their pains, their indignation, and their joys — oftentimes halfway around the world. Inexplicably though, it can feel like it’s too much, like you’re infringing too much, like you’re seeing too much. The empathy and at times embarrassment, depending on the subject matter, is that palpable. And yes, the reporters are not the staunch, grizzled, “newsman” types of yore. Or the perfectly coiffed silver-haired “anchors on assignment” we see now in their muscled shirts and jeans.

The team of Adam Yamaguchi, Christof Putzel, Mariana van Zeller, and Kaj Larsen, representatives of the X and Y generations, who you imagine are never far from their smart phones, laptops, or Facebook pages, but as we watch, they’re walking into shanty towns and discussing topics like open defecation, the lost boys of the soccer trade, and homegrown terrorism, forgetting for once about the prevalence of “me” that permeates young people in the States, and telling stories happening out there, beyond our borders that just need to be told.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHuIoKhMEcw

Which may be what you’d expect from a cable channel run by Al Gore, inventor of the internet, hunter of the manbearpig and exasperated politician. Yes, Mr. Gore has revamped and rekindled this channel and this news-art documentary storytelling in a burgeoning channel that implores you understand the challenges facing our fellow human brethren.

In most instances you just can not look away, because if you do, you feel that you are betraying the teller of the story. The person who has sacrificed much to share with you the most human feelings one can share with another. Truly it is journalism for the new millennium, and as such is worthy of acknowledgment from the “good old boys” in the business. Not that it needs the accolades or acceptance from mainstream media. But it’s earned it, last year as winner of the 69th annual Peabody Award and the 2010 Television Academy Honor Award, the show is truly making its mark. It is one of the only multi-award winning long-form investigative documentary series on cable television, and if you watch, you’ll quickly learn why — it tackles issues others ignore, it goes to places others wouldn’t fathom, and it bravely discusses topics others can’t or won’t cover.

In short, it’s really not your grandmother’s 60 Minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq_8PyRIo_E

Here is a list of other topics covered by the Vanguard team:

• Missionaries of Hate
• Rape on the Reservation
• World’s Toilet Crisis
• American Jihadi
• War Crimes
• Life and Death on the Border
• Marijuana Wars, Part 1
• Marijuana Wars, Part 2