MU's Robert Greene lands 2 films on IndieWire list of best 21st-century documentaries

The greater film community keeps affirming what Columbia feels fortunate to know: Robert Greene is among the most important artists of our age.

A True/False Film Fest mainstay before becoming faculty at the University of Missouri, two of Greene’s films landed on IndieWire’s recently revised list of the best documentaries of the 21st century so far.

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Greene’s films inventively, compassionately blend nonfiction and fiction techniques to examine how life and performance are collaborators, intruding upon — and often becoming inseparable from — one another.

2016’s “Kate Plays Christine” made the list at Number 27; the film follows indie actor Kate Lyn Sheil as she prepares for a movie role (which may or may not exist) as Christine Chubbuck, a Florida news reporter who killed herself on air in 1974.

“Richer, more compelling, and more aggressive than anything Greene had made before, (the film) leverages a morbid historical footnote into an essential documentary about the ethics of exhuming the dead on screen,” IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote.

Greene’s 2021 offering “Procession” sits at Number 31. Set around Kansas City, the film finds the director collaborating with now-grown survivors of clergy sex abuse to tell their story in scenes that offer promises of reclamation and some tenuous peace.

"It’s an act of faith," Greene told the Tribune of his cast's participation. "And faith has many dimensions. Faith is about belief, it’s about hope — but it’s also about coming together."

More: Robert Greene brings powerful 'Procession' to Missouri Theatre before Netflix run

“Greene isn’t afraid to leave in questions about the ethics of his doc in the final edit, and the film doesn’t try to swing for uplift or claim that the men are completely healed, but you get the sense they come out of the experience better than they started,” IndieWire’s Wilson Chapman noted.

A plethora of past True/False films also made the list, including Joshua Oppenheimer’s sibling works “The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence” (No. 1 and 10), Garrett Bradley’s “Time” (No. 7), Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell” (No. 9), Raoul Peck’s James Baldwin doc “I Am Not Your Negro” (No. 11) and Sara Dosa’s 2022 offering “Fire of Love” (No. 16).

The IndieWire list was launched in 2017, and is periodically updated with the release of new films. The list was revised March 26; find the whole slate at https://www.indiewire.com/feature/best-documentaries-21st-century-1201857688/.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Robert Greene lands 2 films on IndieWire list of top 21st-century docs