Lost Songs of Anatolia is not only a brilliant musical documentary (the rich visuals and dynamic editing support the technical aspects), but it also transforms itself into one of the most important visual archives of the last decade.

For some years, Mr. Ophuls continued to make his brilliant and revealing documentaries, but few filmmakers have followed.

Undaunted, he reeled off an unprecedented string of a dozen brilliant documentaries.

It's an earnest and enterprising project, if not a brilliant documentary.

Thelonious Monk's biography, "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser," an often brilliant documentary, to be shown next Friday and Saturday, catches Mr. Monk in fine form.

(Paul and I knew each other in Georgia; he did a brilliant documentary about the lack of electricity there during the Shevardnadze years and we shivered through a winter together in the late 90s.)

Also, Errol Morris made this movie called "Gates of Heaven," which is a brilliant documentary about suburban pet cemeteries.

The brilliant feature-length documentary is now available on a videocassette that looks almost as mint-fresh as the movie.

This brilliant documentary follows two inner-city teenage boys - William Gates and Mr. Agee - who dream of escaping poverty by playing for the National Basketball Association.

If you really want to see the single take used to devastating effect, check out the 8-minute static shot in the brilliant French documentary Beyond Hatred - a good contender for most underrated film of 07.