4) In the Realms of the Unreal
Documentaries can often demonstrate the fact that we’re surrounded by pretty amazing stories all the time. Those who are able to find them and present them to an audience in a fascinating way are nothing short of heroes of narrative. One of the best examples of how ignorant we are to unknown wonders next door is the 2004 documentary In the Realms of the Unreal.
The movie tells the story of Henry Darger. Darger was a janitor during his life, but after his death it was discovered that he had written a 15,000 page novel with hundreds of watercolor illustrations. He lived a sheltered and reclusive life, but created some remarkable art in his private apartment, becoming something of a celebrated eccentric artist posthumously. His stories are from a seemingly simple mind that had little knowledge and experience in the world around him, but detail this complex fantasy world that paint an incredible portrait of the mind of a man that was virtually unknown to anyone, even his neighbors.
The takeaways for me from this movie were numerous, but most prominent were the notions that art is one of the purest forms of expression, especially for those who are unable for one reason or another of expressing themselves verbally to others, and also that the sources of great art come from such unexpected places so often that it might be wise to invert such expectations altogether.
