January 18, 2009 09:00PM EST

Don't Miss: Three More Docs

As suggested by the excellent Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature, 2008 was a particularly good year for nonfiction films. While everyone is speculating about which five will get actual nominations on Thursday, I wanted to wax proselytical about three other must-see docs that should be widely available soon. Each is an incredible story of survival, and though the three depict widely disparate circumstances, they all share the tender language of humanity.

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Stranded: I've Come From a Plane that Crashed in the Mountains

Dir. Gonzalo Arijón
If you think this winter has been cold, you only need to watch this film to count your toasty blessings. Gonzalo Arijon’s life-affirming documentary picks up where Alive left off, checking in with the survivors of the 1972 plane crash that caused human spirits (and bodies) to triumph against all odds in the Andes snow. However controversial their survival, Arijón’s friendship with his subjects (all from the same Uruguayan town) led to this sensitive celebration of their subsequent 35 years of life. The most poignant moment? One of the survivors explains that, through embracing life and having families, the original group of sixteen survivors has now grown into an “extended family” of over 100 people.

Find a screening near you.
While the DVD has not yet been released, you can save the film in your Netflix queue.

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Under Our Skin

Dir. Andy Abrahams Wilson
A 2008 Tribeca Film Festival premiere, this riveting film is an unfiltered look at how people’s lives have been shattered by Lyme Disease—both by the symptoms of the illness and by the medical community’s utter ignorance about the disease. The immensely likable victims profiled here have spent fortunes on useless treatments prescribed by skeptical physicians, many of whom misdiagnosed the symptoms as merely psychosomatic. Even the scientific history of Lyme is outlined in clear and fascinating terms, tracing the disease back to the same roots as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Parkinson’s, and even syphilis. This intimate film is a call to arms; with any luck, it will shed light on this increasingly common—and tragically underestimated—affliction.

In advance of the official DVD release, you can buy a no-frills version of the film direct from the filmmakers.
Or find a community screening near you.

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Dear Zachary

Dir. Kurt Kuenne
This heartbreaking and elegiac film started out as the filmmaker’s attempt to pay tribute to his brutally-murdered best friend—Andrew Zagby, a promising young doctor with an undeniable joie de vivre. Kuenne also aimed to introduce Bagby’s young son to the father he would never know. Along the way, the project morphed into a tragic true crime chronicle and a searing exposé of a flawed Canadian court system. Throughout this intimate film, we meet Andrew’s devoted friends and his beyond-words-amazing parents, all of whom paint the portrait of a life senselessly lost to hateful violence and shameful societal neglect. Don’t read too much more before you see the film—you will want to be surprised by the many turns it takes. But it will break your heart.

The film’s distributor, Oscilloscope, struck a deal with MSNBC to show the film as part of the network’s Doc Block. Watch the trailer online, and check your local listings.  

The DVD is available for order before its release on February 24.