It's more the superficiality of Burstein's latest that irked me, not so much the questionable line between fiction and nonfiction that informs many works in this increasingly strange era. Documentarian extraordinaire Werner Herzog has been complaining about "the accountant's truth" for decades, but I'd be hard pressed to determine what's been re-forged from reality in "Encounters at the End of the World," his predictably astonishing visit to Antarctica to witness the brave scientific community willing to work in such extreme isolation for their livelihoods. Hell, if "American Teen" is considered a doc, then so should Guy Maddin's artful and hilarious "My Winnipeg," his self-described "docu-fantasia," which combines stock footage, honest emotions (i.e. Maddin's love-hate relationship with his hometown), locales both real and mythologized and actors playing himself and his family. Likely ineligible for any year-end doc awards, the film should confuse video store clerks for years to come: where does one file a quasi-documentary?

Best in show this year were the doc portraits, for sure. James Marsh's brilliant, lovely, exhilarating "Man on Wire" was, by very definition, a pop doc -- that I can advocate it to both nose-in-the-air cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike helps make it my fave of 2008. Re-enacted like a heist thriller, the film chronicles French acrobat Philippe Petit's death-defying, life-invigorating and totally illegal high-wire walk between the World Trade Center towers in 1974, and never feels the need to overstate the obviousness of 9/11. Equally subtle in its world events analogy is Nina Davenport's infuriatingly funny "Operation Filmmaker," which accidentally stumbles into richer parallels about the war in Iraq than most films directly about it have mustered. After charming Baghdad film student Muthana Mohmed is given a chance by Liev Schreiber to crew for his "Everything is Illuminated" shoot and proves to be a work-shirking, ungrateful manipulator, Davenport is forced into the spotlight of her own film when she unwittingly becomes Mohmed's new benefactor: what's the road to Hell (or Iraq) paved with again?

The single most memorable, shrill and absolutely shattering reveal of the year arrives two-thirds of the way through Kurt Kuenne's "Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father," a posthumous, present-tense portrait of his lifelong pal Andrew Bagby, who was murdered in cold blood by the woman he loved. Obviously, nothing should be given away beyond a steadfast recommendation, but prepare to be shaken to the core by the domestic disturbances unfolding in the middle of Kuenne's masterfully edited production. Another haunting remembrance, Matt Wolf's "Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell" nearly resurrects the avant-disco pioneer and downtown New York fringe icon, who died of AIDS in 1992. Musicians like former Modern Lover Ernie Brooks, Jens Lekman and Philip Glass all toast to Russell's undervalued work, the latter of whom was also canonized this year in "Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts."

All in all, the year in docs was, like our very culture, disparate and spread thin in identity. Critically acclaimed films like "Trouble the Water," "The Order of Myths" and "Up the Yangtze" were little seen outside of New York, L.A. and a handful of festivals, and some of 2008's finest docs (my first thoughts point to "Guest of Cindy Sherman," "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" and "In a Dream") have yet to see the light of theatrical distribution. Living under this oversaturated, YouTubed, Hulu'd, always-connected infotainment watch of the news media, i-Reporters and armchair pundits ready to document anything, everything and sometimes nothing, what should documentarians be focused on next? All-encompassing examinations of hot button topics (if there's anything left to cover)? Pushing the language of cinema forward (if there's anything original to do that's still considered non-fiction)? Perhaps interactivity is the wave of the future, but until then, many of us will settle for compelling subject matter alone.

[Additional photos: "Waltz With Bashir," Sony Pictures Classics, 2008, "Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father," Oscilloscope Pictures, 2008]