HARD PILL TO SWALLOW Vitamania and the Science Behind Supplements
In this era of entertainment oversaturation, when films can live or die on word-of-mouth praise, the documentary is having a mini moment. Showing in Australian cinemas at the time of writing are blockbuster documentaries on two fashion luminaries (McQueen, Ian Bonhôte, 2018; Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist, Lorna Tucker, 2018) and one on US President Donald Trump (Fahrenheit 11/9, 2018) by pop-doco superstar Michael Moore. Time reports that, over the 2018 American summer alone, three US documentaries with theatrical releases – Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s RBG, and Tim Wardle’s Three Identical Strangers – collectively grossed US$45.7 million at the domestic box office.1 And online it’s no different: streaming services Netflix, Stan and their competitors have stocked up on a cache of documentaries on everything from the murder of child-pageant star JonBenét Ramsey (Casting JonBenet, Kitty Green, 2017) to the phenomenon of relationships with sizeable age differences (Netflix’s Age Gap Love).
Among these expansive interest areas, there’s always a special spot in our hearts for what might be categorised as ‘pop-health’ docos: films exploring subjects in the health-sciences sector that are of great interest to
