Yet, the awards and acclaim came to an abrupt stop when James was once again snubbed by the Academy Awards, just as he has been throughout his career. That realization was to come because of James’ sensitive portrait of film critic Roger Ebert’s last days in Life Itself. In 2014, the world was on its way to coming around to what most people with even passing knowledge of documentary already knew: Steve James’ compassionate approach to psychologically damaged and sociologically unfortunate Americans might be the most important voice we have today.
