I stumbled upon a little documentary while I roamed around Youtube and while it’s far from perfect I think it gives a balanced overview of otakus. It’s so well made in fact I think it’s the one documentary to show any questioning parents so they have a good understanding of our little subculture.
The piece True Otaku: The Documentary is an amateur documentary that explains the otaku fandom by going straight to the source, questioning regular fans and industry professionals in Otakon and Anime USA about many different topics related to the subject.
It explains the anime boom that occurred in the US and how it led to the surge in anime fans that created such large conventions, lolita fashion, fan groups, and cosplay. Granted, they focused too much on cosplay and not enough on anime and manga, nor popular otaku video games such as visual novels and the unbelievably popular shooter Touhou nor fighting games like Persona 4, and not even on collectors of anime merchandise, but it’s a good introductory film to any questioning individual and I believe if everyone saw it they’d have more respect for the otaku community.
You can see the film for free on Youtube where it’s split into 3 parts: You can watch the first part here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdv0n5DUb4E and see the rest at leisure. Happy watching!