You the jury: Marilyn Gaunt and Heather Croall

Jimmy Rosenberg: The Father the Son and the Talent, Sky Arts

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Reading, riffing and religion

I don't subscribe to Sky Arts, but Jimmy Rosenberg: The Father the Son and the Talent, a beautifully made tapestry of a film about the hugely talented one-time child prodigy of the gypsy guitar, makes me wish I did.

Using archive from earlier performances and new footage shot over several years the film starts with Jimmy in a Belgium clinic describing his drug problems, relationships with his father and music, and his feelings of alienation from his gypsy community.

All this is intertwined with wonderful virtuoso guitar playing. The destructive power of fame, talent and family love is palpable in this bittersweet film - hopefully coming to a cinema near you - where its slow pace and visual power will be better appreciated than on the small screen.

Seven Wonders of the Muslim World is an over-reverent paean to Islam, sugar-coated for Islamophobes with wonderfully ornate and beautifully shot Islamic buildings.  The first Wonder is the Kaaba in Mecca, the rest, all mosques conveniently placed in cities around the world. It's a neat idea as a way of explaining the origins and tenets of Islam but was a bit long on ideology.

We need programmes about Islam to redress the fear engendered by 9/11 and 7/7, but an uncritical approach such as this one, however beautifully made, isn't the way to do it. What next? The Seven Wonders of Christianity. If so, don't expect the Spanish Inquisition.

Beginning with the shocking statistic that 5 million people in Britain can't, teacher Phil Beadle is challenged to teach six people to read and write in just six months. Can't Read, Can't Write is a hoary old concept that guarantees an audience and my heart sank a bit at the start. But, by the end of two episodes, I'm hooked. It blows the stereotype, that if you can't read you're thick, right out of the water. The interesting characters and back stories raise this three-parter above the banality of the reality TV format it comes from.

One grouse is the plinky-plonky music. Like sonic Tippex, it erases crucial consonants from dialogue and narration. For pity's sake, forbear - as some of the contributors will now be pleased to read.
Marilyn Gaunt is a Bafta Award-winning documentary film-maker and Grierson trustee

One of the great music documentaries screened at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2007 was Jimmy Rosenberg: The Father, the Son and the Talent by Dutch documentarian Jeroen Berkvens. It's a fantastic, down-to-earth portrait of the extraordinary guitarist, Joseph (Jimmy) Rosenberg. Clearly born with an extra gene dedicated to the guitar, the one-time child prodigy soars through swing, gypsy and standard jazz classics with the ease of a musician three times his age. Rosenberg is forced to rediscover himself and his craft after surrendering to a vicious drug addiction that results in stints in a rehabilitation clinic, forcing him to reassess his life and understand his own talent before his addictions kill him. When Jimmy emerges from rehab and is reunited with his guitar we get a taste of his improvisational talents and hear him playing his truest notes.

Devotion is close to mind in the Channel 4 doc The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World, which visits major Muslim centres giving introductions to marvels of Islamic architecture.

Famous constructions like the Kaaba, the Dome of the Rock, and the Blue Mosque are examined with personal stories from patrons and scholars, each describing the significance of an element of ritual or prayer. The surprise is the great mud mosque in Djenné, Mali where funds are restricted but tradition and commitment to religion are boundless. Despite the "muzak", and the Lonely Planet guide feel, the buildings retain their majesty and audiences get a lesson in Islamic practice and history.

Which is exactly what the subjects in another C4 doc, Can't Read, Can't Write, missed out on in school. It's a surprisingly emotional series about adult illiteracy in the UK. When these forty-somethings finally decide to learn to read, the scars of shame and ridicule from missing out the literacy basics in early school years come to the surface. Dreams of ordering from a menu are close - but, when you have a reading age of a six-year-old, learning to read your mother tongue is like learning Chinese and can take its toll on everyone around you. Embarrassing cracks in Britain's educational reading curriculum start to reveal a generalist approach that ensures such cases of illiteracy go unnoticed in the first place.
Heather Croall is director of Sheffield Doc/Fest