Almost nobody understands how the Oscar folks choose the finalists for best documentary feature. And a new attempt to streamline the process, which requires contending films to screen for at least one week in New York and LA before the end of August, seems like it will shut out a lot of deserving works (specifically: the acclaimed new film “Waltz with Bashir,” an animated doc about the Middle East that is coming to the St. Louis International Film Festival in November).

One of our favorite gadflies on the topics of docs and Oscar is former St. Louisan AJ Schnack, the director of the music-themed documentaries “Gigantic” and “About a Son.” If you’re interested in the politics of docs–if not necessarily docs about politics, which Schanck says have dominated the discussion–I recommend his blog, All These Wonderful Things, particularly his page about the Oscar-alternative Cinema Eye Awards.

(By the way, my prediction for the next Oscar winner is the daredevil documtary “Man on Wire,” which celebrates the beauty of the World Trade Center and thus should please both conservative and liberal members of the Academy.)