Today I watched the latest installment of ESPN’s amazing documentary series, “30 for 30.”

The docs began airing last year as the network celebrates its 30th anniversary. Part of what makes them so great is that they tell very specific stories–instead of talking about basketball star Reggie Miller’s life, they did an hour on his relationship with his rival, the New York Knicks.

ESPN also took a smart approach by bringing in well-known directors to tackle each project. Barry Levinson (“Wag the Dog,” “Toys,” “Rain Man,” “The Natural”) directed a piece about the Baltimore Colts band. Peter Berg (“Friday Night Lights,” “Hancock”) tackled Wayne Gretzky’s trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. Steve James (“Hoop Dreams,” “Prefontaine”) told the story of Allen Iverson’s arrest and trial as a high school student in Virginia.

The latest doc, “June 17, 1994,” is the most groundbreaking to date. Director Brett Morgen brings a style that departs from the usual documentary template. Instead of having a narrator push along the story and rely on current interviews to tell the story of the past, he uses only period footage to present his narrative.

The result is gripping, a style that pulls the viewer into a deeper experience of feeling as if one is seeing something happen live.

June 17 was a Friday. It featured several big sporting events, including game five of the NBA Finals, a parade for the newly crowned Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers and the second round of the U.S. Open, which turned out to be the final one for golf legend Arnold Palmer.

It was also the day O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings led police on a low-speed chase down a California highway as the nation watched on live television.

Morgen blends footage from all of those events to give a sense of what it was like to be sitting in front of a TV that day. In doing so, he also creates juxtapositions among the seemingly isolated events–the crowds at the Rangers parade vs. the crowds that lined the freeways during the infamous Ford Bronco chase, for example.

With no narrator and no after-the-fact analysis, the viewer is left to take in the coverage of various news outlets and broadcasts from the games and weave them into previously held thoughts about those events.

If you missed it, ESPN is showing it again June 30 at 11 p.m. on ESPN2. You can also find more about the film at the series website.

If you would rather hear something interesting about spaghetti sauce from best-selling author Malcom Gladwell, here’s a link to his TED talk about finding out what consumers really want no matter what they may say. It’s from 2005, but I just stumbled across it today. You may recall that I somewhat recently read two of his books–“Blink” and “The Tipping Point” both of which I would highly recommend.

There are people in this world who see someone in need of help and walk past. Someone else will help, most of us think.

Then there are those who stop. They ask what’s wrong. They take action.

This weekend I came across two stark examples of how good people trying to better the lives of others can have completely different outcomes. The positive ending came last night with a viewing of “The Blind Side” with a much sadder outcome this morning in the form of a Washington Post story.

“The Blind Side” is one of those films that I found incredibly enjoyable despite the fact that I already read the best-selling book by Michael Lewis. If you are not familiar, the story follows Michael Oher, a black teenager in Memphis who ends up at a mostly-white, private Christian school. He has survived some of the most challenging conditions a child in America can face, including never really knowing his father and spending long stretches in foster homes away from his mother.

He is taken in by a white family who gives him the stability and support he needs to achieve academically and athletically, eventually earning a football scholarship to the University of Mississippi. The story is about football, but more than anything it is about human beings–both the Tuohy family and Oher–opening their hearts to one another.

Not surprisingly, you can’t help but feel optimistic about how we can affect one another in positive ways by the time the movie ends.

That’s how I went to sleep.

This morning I opened the Post to read the story of a Maryland State Trooper who was gunned down in the parking lot of an Applebee’s where he had just finished a shift doing security. Police say the killing stems from an argument with a patron who was removed from the restaurant after refusing to pay his bill.

The story describes the trooper as a young man, 24, who had just asked his girlfriend to marry him and who was scheduled to take a group of kids on a trip to New York. In 2007, he founded an organization that mentors teenagers, takes them on trips and brings in professionals to talk to the kids.

Where the Tuohys were able to overcome difficulties in connecting with an initially reticent kid and the stigmas of their community (rich, white side of town vs. poor, black side), this trooper was senselessly yanked from the lives of kids he was trying to help.

We hear about these kinds of negative outcomes too often, but it is heartening to know that there will always be people trying to help out those who need a hand.

I am slowly but surely making it through last year’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture.

Last night I watched “An Education,” though I spent 90 percent of the movie trying to figure out why Carey Mulligan looked so familiar. It’s quite possible I have seen her in something else, or maybe I just remember seeing her at the Oscars (where she was nominated for Best Actress).

Hm, I just checked IMDb, and the only other movie of hers that I have seen is “Brothers,” and while that was an excellent film she only had a small role. So we are back to possibly resembling someone I know.

Let’s try something. Go look at yourself in the mirror. Do you look like this?

If so, please let me know. If not, do you know any of my friends who look like that?

As for the movie itself, I thoroughly enjoyed it. That’s not surprising since the screenplay was written by Nick Hornby, the author of several books I have read in the past few years. (From last year, A Long Way Down and from 2008, How to be Good).

In addition to “An Education,” I have also taken in “Up” (fantastic), “Up in the Air” (pretty solid) and “Inglourious Basterds” (also fantastic).

Earlier in the week I watched “Crazy Heart” which was not nominated for Best Picture but did feature Jeff Bridges’ Best Actor performance. Not a huge fan of that movie. It’s possible I was just tired, but I wasn’t the least bit interested in what was going on.

Maybe I will just blame Maggie Gyllenhaal. I didn’t dislike her before, but she probably killed this movie for me. Put in Kate Beckinsale and things may have been different.

It’s always interesting to watch an older movie and then go back and read how people reacted at the time and put it in context. This is especially true for movies that broke ground in the way movies are made and especially those that kick open the doors on societal taboos.

After watching “Philadelphia” last night, and living as we do in the context of 2010, I was curious to see what the response was in 1993 when the movie was made. The story is credited as being one of the first to openly discuss not only AIDS, but also homosexuality.

To anyone who has seen “Milk,” for which Sean Penn won a best actor Oscar, it is striking how tamely “Philadelphia” portrays the interactions of its gay characters. Granted, much of the film takes place in places like a courtroom and a hospital and doesn’t delve into the behind the scenes relationships that told much of Harvey Milk’s story. But even in moments of affection, I can’t recall anything more than a kiss on the forehead.

Being 10 years old at the time, I didn’t exactly have my hand on the pulse of American culture in 1993. Thanks to the Internet and a review from Roger Ebert, the film is put in the context of that contemporary reality.

In closing his review, Ebert writes: “Sooner or later, Hollywood had to address one of the most important subjects of our time, and with “Philadelphia” the ice has been broken. In a year or two, it will be time for another film to consider the subject more unblinkingly. This is a righteous first step.”

It is in steps–sometimes very small–that cultural awareness becomes acceptance. Ebert cites the 1967 film “Look Who’s Coming to Dinner” as one of those groundbreaking works, a story he says is the first major film about an interracial romance. We are a long way from 1967, but the issue of whom others think it is acceptable for you to love is still very much a challenge for our society.

In 2005, I was certainly old enough to remember no real backlash over “Guess Who,” a remake of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (except of course those who hated Ashton Kutcher for many other reasons). At last year’s Oscars, Milk was nominated for best picture (Philadelphia was not nominated, though Tom Hanks won best actor).

Progress, yes. But I wonder what they’ll be saying about us in 2025.