documentary films: excessively depressing, culturally relevent, or both? discuss.

If any of you saw the Oscars, you may have stuck it through long enough to watch Jerry Seinfeld present the Best Documentary award. His monologue was a bit strange and excessively long, and it struck me at the time that he was winging it because someone was in the bathroom or something and he had to kill time. It was funny, but insulting to the films and their makers and out of step with the tone of the show. One of the nominated filmmakers, John Sinno, has written an open letter over at Indiewire regarding the speech which raises some interesting points about the category, the introduction, and the show in general. Read it here.