Lightning Over Water

I've heard many directors say in order to make a successful documentary you must fictionalize it. Even though Cinema Verite may be a boring concept, there is something about the innocence of trying to create a film about reality, even if it is altered by the camera.
Wenders in 1980's, Lightning Over Water
As for Wim Wenders and Nicholas Ray's film, Lightning Over Water, which chronicles Ray last few weeks before his death of lung cancer, the film is extremely stylized and staged. Even though there is a rawness to it (Wenders said he could see Ray dying in the viewfinder), each shot was set up to provide correct lighting and shot/reverse shot editing techniques. The film was immensely well photographed, but what made the film feel authentic was the inclusion of Tom Farrell's videos that show behind the scenes of Wenders and his crew preparing the shots.
Some criticize Wenders for taking advantage of Ray and his illness, but I saw it as Wenders trying to let Ray complete one last film before his death, which was imminent.

Though I thought the best part of the film was the inclusion of Wenders, Ray, his wife, and Farrell watching (the now hard to find) We Can't Go Home Again, Ray's 1976 film about the 1968 democratic national convention that was rephotographed footage and extremely stylized. I wish I could find this film in its entirety because it seems like one of the most interesting artifacts from the '68 riots (instead of the duller grainy black and white documentation).