When 71-year-old Nick Fraser first encountered documentaries in the 1960s, he admits he found them “not very interesting”. That changed, partly because of a cultural shift – Fraser cites DA Pennebaker in the US and Nick Broomfield here as pioneers – and Fraser played his own part as well. From the late 1990s, for 17 years, he was editor of the BBC strand Storyville and worked on films such as Man on Wire and One Day in September, which both won Oscars.
I agree. When well done they can educate people on matters they would have thought beyond them. They can correct false beliefs, eg De Gaulle's version of Vichy France. They can inspire people to look into publicly available lectures that they could never afford to attend.
Brian Cox, Khalili, Curtis, Steward... They have definitely changed my life
See Black Fish for evidence.