Stilyagi, Human, and the Up Series [7/9 2025]
Recommendations from Me
In this letter I want to highlight three ambitious interview-based documentaries that I’ve watched and loved this year.
Human (2015) consists of stunning aerial footage of communities around the world, paired with vulnerable first-person conversations. Topics range from sexuality to armed conflict, agriculture to migration. The scale of the project is exceptional: the filmmakers interviewed around 2000 people in 60 countries over the course of three years.
In Cuba and the Cameraman, Jon Alpert returns to Cuba over a period of 45 years to interview several ordinary Cubans, who become his close friends. I can’t imagine anyone watching this film without being deeply moved by the warmth and resilience of its subjects, like the Borrego brothers, who spend their final decades quietly tending their small farm despite persistent financial hardship.
The British Up series is the longest-running documentary series of all time. It began in 1964, when fourteen seven-year-old children were interviewed about their lives and their hopes for the future. Every seven years since, the filmmakers have returned to interview them again. 70 Up is set to be released in 2026. I can’t overstate how special and affecting this series is. In a matter of hours you fulfilled ambitions, frustrated plans, relationships formed and lost. It’s impossible not to confront your own ageing while watching it. I’m so grateful that this series exists, and that these people were willing to have their lives documented in such an open and vulnerable way.
Recommendations from Others
Amaan 2023
‘My auntie told me to start every day by telling myself ‘life is beautiful.’ I forget most mornings, but I recommend trying this from time to time. Life is beautiful.’
Phil 2023
‘The album Leonard Cohen wrote while dying, You Want It Darker.’’
Alexa 2025
‘Start a list of meaningful questions on your notes page. Thought provoking, funny, vulnerable etc. Go through these at random moments with friends.’
Everett 2023
‘Stilyagi — a weird Russian film about a subculture in Moscow in the 1950s’
Elsie 2025
‘Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata, and Paganini’s Violin Concerto No.1.’'
Cover photo - Rotterdam, Netherlands
