The 10 Best Music Documentaries of 2013

6. Sound City
Director: Dave Grohl
Sound City is about more than a piece of recording equipment. It’s the story of Fleetwood Mac. It’s the story of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It’s the story of drum tones and ’80s hair metal and Nevermind and Johnny Cash’s recordings with Rick Rubin. It’s a sprawling documentary that laments what’s been lost in analog recording without ignoring the benefits of technology. And as the legendary board leaves its original home and lands in Grohl’s studio, the documentary shifts to a celebration of studio magic. Grohl invites musicians like Rick Springfield, Stevie Nicks and Paul McCartney to join him in the studio and make new music. In one of the best moments of any film I saw at Sundance, Grohl and McCartney are in the midst of a particularly great jam, and Grohl turns to Sir Paul saying “Don’t you wish it was always this easy?” Macca looks at him and says, “It is.”—Josh Jackson (review here)

5. The Punk Singer
Director: Siri Anderson
Kathleen Hanna often found herself at the forefront of ideological shifts in music. She came onto the scene as the laid-bare singer of Bikini Kill in the early ’90s, which led to her being the de-facto spokesperson for the entire riot grrrl movement and contemporary feminism. As Sini Anderson’s invaluable rock documentary shows, Hanna’s role as feminist icon was often unwitting. The Punk Singer contextualizes Hanna within rock history, but also works as a character study of an endlessly fascinating and complex person, chronicling the singer’s ostensibly paradoxical marriage to Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz and recent battle with late stage Lyme disease. Hanna’s insights easily carry Anderson’s plainly composed homage; a distinction altogether deserved.—John Oursler

4. A Band Called Death
Directors: Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino
More than just being a standard music documentary, A Band Called Death explores the relationships between a tight-knit family, interconnected through their passions and through their loyalty to one another. Bobby and Dannis display the kind of sincerity that can only come from true selflessness. It’s not for the cameras; it’s how they live their lives and have raised their own families. Even if you didn’t know a thing about the band and you don’t even typically listen to the kind of music they play, you’re going to find yourself thankful that the Hackney brothers are now in your life.—Matt Shiverdecker (review here)

3. Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
Directors: Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin
How Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer plays into the group’s imprisonment is rather understated. The audience is seated on the sidelines of packed court hearings that bounce from chaos to stunned silence in the face of the absurdity of the situation. For a charge of disturbing the peace, the three bandmates faced years in prison. Never mind their suffering families left outside, like Alyokhina’s daughter. Each set of parents was interviewed—some were proud of their daughters, others were ashamed. A few outsiders offer their opinions, but for most of the movie the camera is a fly on the wall, eyeing the women fielding reporter’s questions from behind plexiglass holding cells. The camera never gets close enough.—Monica Castillo (review here)

2. 20 Feet From Stardom
Director: Morgan Neville
20 Feet from Stardom is a thorough—to the point of feeling a bit long—document on the craft, revealing the special skill set required to achieve a perfect blend of voices and the spiritual high that can sometimes result; the difference between backup singers and eye candy (looking at you, Ike Turner); and the recording of “Sweet Home Alabama” amid the civil rights movement. And it’s all set to a soundtrack some of the best tunes to come out of the second half of the 20th century.—Annlee Ellingson (review here)

1. Muscle Shoals
Director: Greg “Freddy” Camalier
Freddy Camalier’s masterly Muscle Shoals is about the beginnings and heyday of the recording scene in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a tiny town that improbably changed the face of rock’n’roll, putting out along the way some of the greatest records in the history of American music. Many of those moments are recounted to great effect in the film; first-timer Camalier is obviously a natural storyteller. But there’s so much more to the doc—the cinematography is lush and beautiful, the editing is crisp and precise, and it’s in turns heartbreaking, inspiring, wry, thought-provoking, nostalgic, and genuinely funny. It’s simply a stunning debut film. It helps that Camalier and his producing partner Stephen Badger are after more here than just a dry lesson in musical history. They delve into the Civil Rights Movement and its effect specifically on Alabama, especially as it relates to a Muscle Shoals music scene that was, shockingly enough, lacking in any racial tension. They return again and again to the ancient Native American legend about the river that flows through the town, and the water spirit who lived there, sang songs, and protected the town. And the personal life of Fame Records founder Rick Hall, the protagonist of the film, is itself worthy of a Faulkner novel. It’s thrilling, it’s engaging, it’s fascinating, it’s stirring. It’s the best documentary of the year, whether you’re a music lover or not.—Michael Dunaway (review here)