My Favorite Documentaries
My favorite documentaries, leaving out concerts, stand-up comedy films, and a couple borderline experimental shorts.
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- DirectorVíctor EriceStarsAntonio LópezMaría MorenoEnrique GranThe artist Antonio López tries to capture the sunlight hitting his quince tree all autumn, but the struggle seems futile.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsLucille BillingsleyZella GrahamCal HarbertsA documentary about a pet cemetery in California, and the people who have pets buried there.
- DirectorMarlon RiggsStarsAngela DavisEssex Hemphillbell hooksA film about black experiences with a "backdrop of Creole cooking."
- DirectorOrson WellesGary GraverOja KodarStarsOrson WellesOja KodarFrançois ReichenbachA documentary about fraud and fakery.
- DirectorSeth GordonStarsSteve WiebeBilly MitchellMark AlpigerDie-hard gamers compete to break world records on classic arcade games.
- DirectorTerry ZwigoffStarsRobert CrumbAline Kominsky-CrumbCharles CrumbAn intimate portrait of controversial cartoonist Robert Crumb and his traumatized family.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniSeveral stories depicting the landscapes and fauna of India are mixed with documentary footage.
- DirectorAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesCharlotte ZwerinStarsPaul BrennanCharles McDevittJames BakerFour dogged door-to-door Bible salesmen travel from Boston to Florida on a seemingly futile quest to sell luxury editions of the Good Book to working-class Catholics.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsAmilcar CabralFlorence DelayArielle DombasleA woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
- DirectorHiroshi TeshigaharaStarsIsidro Puig BoadaAntoni GaudíSeiji MiyaguchiThe work of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí, as seen by Japanese New Wave director Hiroshi Teshigahara.
- DirectorRoss McElweeStarsSteve AscherMichael BlumenthalRobert GardnerForty year old documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee has a penchant for filming everything around him. Following the announcement of his impending marriage to his film-making partner Marilyn Levine - marriage something that he and his family never thought would happen for him - McElwee turns on the camera to film life as it happens in respect to this new phase in his life. Both in real terms (as it applies to himself and those around him) and philosophical terms, McElwee discusses, through self-narration, life, death, love, family and babies.
- DirectorChantal AkermanStarsChantal AkermanImpersonal and beautiful images of Akerman's life in New York are combined with letters from her loving but manipulative mother, read by Akerman herself.
- DirectorChris SmithStarsMark BorchardtMike SchankTom SchimmelsDocumentary about an aspiring filmmaker's attempts to finance his dream project by finally completing the low-budget horror film he abandoned years before.
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsNikita MikhalkovAnna MikhalkovaNadezhda MikhalkovaDirector Nikita Mikhalkov documents the history of Russia from 1980 to 1991 by annually asking his daughter Anna questions.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRandall AdamsDavid HarrisGus RoseA film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsAndrei TarkovskyTonino GuerraAleksandr SokurovA film in homage to Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. It concentrates on his absence from the Soviet Union and what he left behind. There are episodes of his funeral and places he lived in Moscow.
- DirectorMichal LeszczylowksiStarsBrian CoxSusan FleetwoodErland JosephsonDocumentary on the making of "The Sacrifice."
- DirectorRoss McElweeStarsRoss McElweeYung Su AnBobby DeLaughterA documentary by and about a man who carries a film camera around most of the time and films the events of his life, including himself being interviewed by a news crew, and focusing on some of the real people behind the tragedies shown daily on the six o'clock news: a woman living on an island hit by a hurricane; a man whose wife was murdered in her store.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsMartin ScorseseWorld-renowned director Martin Scorsese narrates this journey through his favorites in Italian cinema.
- DirectorBert SternAram AvakianStarsLouis ArmstrongMahalia JacksonChuck BerryThe highlights of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsFrançois WertheimerAgnès VardaJean La PlancheVarda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
- DirectorBenjamin ChristensenStarsBenjamin ChristensenElisabeth ChristensenMaren PedersenFictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in Eastern Europe.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsMark W. ClarkJohn HustonDirector John Huston documents the Battle of San Pietro Infine in December 1943.
- DirectorPare LorentzStarsThomas ChalmersThis documentary short film looks at the devastating and costly problems, including seasonal flooding and erosion of precious topsoil, associated with the Mississippi River system and promotes more Federal projects to remedy the situation.
- DirectorSteven M. MartinStarsLeon ThereminRobert MoogClara RockmoreA documentary about the inventor of the first electronic synthesiser instrument and his subsequent life after he was abducted by the KGB as well as a history of his instrument.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStory of distant mountainous region in Georgia that depicts folklore, lifestyle and daily routines of Svani people, focuses on the scarcity of salt in Svaneti region. Rich with documentary value, the movie also served for Soviet propaganda.
- DirectorChantal AkermanStarsNatalia ChakhovskaiaA look at life in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- DirectorJ.L. AronsonStarsSteve AlbiniBrandon EbelDavid Garland"Danielson: a Family movie" is a documentary about unbridled creativity vs. accessibility, Christian faith vs. popular culture, underground music vs. survival, and family vs. individuality. The film follows Daniel Smith, an eccentric musician and visual artist, as he leads his four siblings and best friend to indie rock stardom, eventually facing the struggle to become viable as a solo act. Along the way he mentors an unknown singer-songwriter named Sufjan Stevens whose own subsequent success stands in stark contrast to the music world's uneasy reception of Danielson just a few years prior. Makes use of collage, direct cinema and animation.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsAlbert BitterlingRoscoe CollinsGeorge HarrisA documentary on the eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsGeorges RouquierA witty examination of life and culture in Siberia.
- DirectorDusan HanákPictures of the Old World is an unquestioned masterpiece of European documentary cinema, with existential radicalism that offers a contrast to the shallowness of hundreds of other documentary films showing images from the outskirts of civilization. The outskirts here are a Slovakian town in the Tatra Mountains. Though censored for 17 years, Dusan Hanáks poetic visual essay is not a political or even social film. It goes to far deeper and more fundamental levels of human experience. Inspired by the photographs of Martin Martinek, the films power lies in its unusual portraits of people whose raw visual beauty radiates from their very souls. Some, like the village cosmos aficionado or the disabled old man who climbs stairs on his knees, are hard to forget.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students.
- DirectorGeorges RouquierOne year in the life of a French peasant family, whose existence is closely tied with the changing of the seasons.
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsJean RenoirHenri LangloisÉric RohmerEric Rohmer leads a conversation with Jean Renoir and Henri Langlois on the art of filmmaker Louis Lumière. The cinematographic pioneer Lumière produced thousands of documentaries in the end of the 19th century, but also some short comedies with amateur actors. The films are done in one shot and are only 1 minute in length. Lumiére and his operators chose a place, put up the camera and then recorded what happened in front of the lens. In spite of this both Renoir and Langlois argue that the films of Lumière are not simply reproductions of reality, but pieces of art. Renoir points out that Lumiére didn't just reproduce the externals of what he saw, but also its spirit and inner life. The films are not only showing a piece of contemporary reality, but Lumière's vision of that reality. Langlois remarks that the films of Lumière were not made at random, but out of a consciously chosen dramaturgy and composition. Lumiére and his team chose, after long deliberations, the motif of the film as well as the camera-angle. There is usually some kind of beginning and end of the film. The main action never occurs in the center of the screen, but either at the right or the left side of it. This means that the main movements happen along a diagonal across the screen, which produces a dynamic impression. The films are made in one shot, but the shots are usually very deep, which means that you get some close-ups in the foreground at the same time as you see something happen in full scale behind that and something else even more far away. The conversation with Renoir and Langlois is interspersed with some of Lumière's films, to underline the arguments.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGiuseppe RinaldiA documentary on China, concentrating mainly on the faces of the people, filmed in the areas they were allowed to visit. The 220-minute version consists of three parts. The first part, taken around Beijing, includes a cotton factory, older sections of the city, and a clinic where a Caesarean operation is performed using acupuncture. The middle part visits the Red Flag canal and a collective farm in Henan, as well as the old city of Suzhou. The final part shows the port and industries of Shanghai and ends with a stage presentation by Chinese acrobats.
- DirectorLes BlankSkip GersonStarsMance LipscombElnora LipscombHattie FranklinA deeply moving tribute to the Texas songster, Mance Lipscomb, considered by many to be the greatest guitarist of all time.
- DirectorLes BlankStarsClifton ChenierCleveland ChenierRobert St. JulienDocumentary about noted Zydeco artist Clifton Chenier. Based out of New Orleans, Chenier was the self-crowned "King" of Zydeco (a New Orleans musical hybrid containing elements of blues, folk and Tex-Mex music). Included are interviews with Chenier himself as well as relatives and friends, and scenic shots of the New Orleans area Chenier calls home, all of which is edited together by Les Blank.
- DirectorForugh FarrokhzadStarsForugh FarrokhzadEbrahim GolestanHossein MansouriSet in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness", of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsStephen HawkingIsobel HawkingJanet HumphreyA film about the life and work of the cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, who despite his near total paralysis, was one of the great minds of all time.
- DirectorD.A. PennebakerStarsBob DylanAlbert GrossmanBob NeuwirthDocumentary covering Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England, which includes appearances by Joan Baez and Donovan.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorLes BlankCece ConwayAlice GerrardStarsTommy JarrellJulie Jarrell LyonsTogie McGeeA documentary about Tommy Jarrell, a fiddler from North Carolina. This films shows a bit of his current life and those around him and includes a lot of his Appalachian Old-Time music.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsWalter HustonBenjamin SimonA group of mentally traumatized veteran patients is followed as they go through psychiatric treatment.
- DirectorChris HegedusJehane NoujaimStarsKaleil Isaza TuzmanTom HermanKenneth AustinTraces the birth and failure of new media company govWorks.com.
- DirectorMichael MooreStarsMichael MooreCharlton HestonMarilyn MansonFilmmaker Michael Moore explores the roots of America's predilection for gun violence.
- DirectorFax BahrGeorge HickenlooperEleanor CoppolaStarsDennis HopperMartin SheenMarlon BrandoDocumentary that chronicles how Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) was plagued by extraordinary script, shooting, budget, and casting problems--nearly destroying the life and career of the celebrated director.
- DirectorRoss McElweeStarsRoss McElweeDede McElweeRoss McElwee Jr.Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee sets out to make a movie about Union General Sherman's March to the Sea towards the end of the American Civil War, but keeps getting sidetracked by his own love life.
- DirectorJacques RichardStarsHenri AlekanCatherine AllégretJo AmorinLife and work of the founder of the Cinémathèque Française.
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsPablo PicassoHenri-Georges ClouzotClaude RenoirA filmed record of Pablo Picasso painting numerous canvases for the camera, allowing us to see his creative process at work.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsJacques DumesnilThis documentary explores the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, its priceless treasures, and how humanity remembers itself.
- DirectorKon IchikawaStarsAntonio AmbuGary AndersonGerry AshworthKon Ichikawa examines the beauty and rich drama on display at the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo, creating a record of observations that range from the expansive to the intimate.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackMarguerite HarrisonThe struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsColman 'Tiger' KingMaggie DirraneMichael DirraneIn this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
- DirectorAlan BerlinerStarsAlan BerlinerOscar BerlinerA portrait of the director's father, searching for the extraordinary in the subject's seemingly normal existence.
- DirectorPatrick MontgomeryStarsEdward BinnsPaul KohnerMarcel DalioErich von Stroheim was an director of silent movies, as well as an actor in both silents and talkies. Uncompromising and rigid, he battled the studio system for control over his pictures' content, and his career had many ups and downs as a result. Through interviews, photos, and archival footage, The Man You Loved to Hate explores von Stroheim's career. The title refers to von Stroheim's frequent casting as a German villain in films of the early 1940s. Von Stroheim's last famous acting role was in Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd.
- DirectorGeorges FranjuStarsMichel SimonChoeurs des Petits Chanteurs de St. FrançoisA tour of the Hotel des Invalides, and more particularly of the Army Museum and the Saint Louis Chapel. From François I's armor to Guynemer's airplane, to Napoleon's and Marshall Foch's tombs. But this is no ordinary tour,it is rather a chilling visit guided by Georges Franju and narrated by Michel Simon emphasizing - at times through biting humor -not the glory but the nonsense of wars, but their tragic aftermath.
- DirectorJayne LoaderKevin RaffertyPierce RaffertyStarsPaul TibbetsHarry S. TrumanW.H.P. BlandyDisturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.
- DirectorBill KrohnMyron MeiselOrson WellesStarsManuel 'Jacare' Olimpio MeiraJeronimo André De SouzaRaimundo 'Tata' Correia Lima"It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles" is a 1993 documentary feature about Orson Welles's ill-fated Pan-American anthology film "It's All True," shot in 1941-42 but never completed.
- DirectorManfred KirchheimerStations of the Elevated (1981) is a 45-minute city symphony directed, produced and edited by Manfred Kirchheimer. Shot on lush 16mm color reversal stock, the film weaves together vivid images of graffiti- covered elevated subway trains crisscrossing the gritty urban landscape of 1970s New York, to a commentary-free soundtrack that combines ambient city noise with jazz and gospel by Charles Mingus and Aretha Franklin. Gliding through the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan - making a rural detour past a correctional facility upstate - Stations of the Elevated is an impressionistic portrait of and tribute to a New York that has long since disappeared.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsAleksandr SokurovFrom a misty night into the dark exposition rooms of a museum to ponder philosophically at paintings by 'Pieter Jansz Saenredam', 'Hercules Pieterszoon Seghers', Hendrikus van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Andreas Schelfhout, Vincent van Gogh, Pieter Bruegel, Charles Henri Joseph Leickert.
- DirectorPare LorentzStarsThomas ChalmersBam WhiteThis documentary is about what happened to the Great Plains of the United States when a combination of farming practices and environmental factors led to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobbie RobertsonMuddy WatersNeil YoungA film account and presentation of the final concert of The Band.
- DirectorSteve JamesStarsWilliam GatesArthur AgeeEmma GatesA film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.
- DirectorHumphrey JenningsStewart McAllisterStarsLeonard BrockingtonJoseph MacleodBud FlanaganA depiction of life in wartime England during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.
- DirectorMichael MooreStarsMichael MooreGeorge W. BushBen AffleckMichael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after September 11 and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- DirectorJack GlennStarsJackson BeckJoseph GoebbelsAdolf HitlerA newsreel made to condemn the militarization, oppressiveness, and ideology of the Nazi regime - using reedited stock footage of Nazi rallies in both Germany and the United States, with added narration to drive home its points.