A must see documentaries
by starricco | created - 19 Jul 2011 | updated - 08 Jan 2017 | PublicWork in progress.
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1. The Corporation (2003)
Not Rated | 145 min | Documentary, History
Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance.
Directors: Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott | Stars: Mikela Jay, Rob Beckwermert, Christopher Gora, Nina Jones
Votes: 21,777 | Gross: $1.88M
2. Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)
Not Rated | 167 min | Documentary, Biography, War
A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.
Directors: Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick | Stars: Noam Chomsky, Mark Achbar, Karin Aguilar-San Juan, Paul Andrews
Votes: 4,930
3. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
R | 110 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.
Director: Alex Gibney | Stars: John Beard, Tim Belden, Barbara Boxer, George W. Bush
Votes: 20,104
4. Inside Job (2010)
PG-13 | 109 min | Documentary, Crime
Takes a closer look at what brought about the 2008 financial meltdown.
Director: Charles Ferguson | Stars: Matt Damon, Gylfi Zoega, Andri Snær Magnason, Sigridur Benediktsdottir
Votes: 78,910 | Gross: $4.31M
5. Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)
R | 127 min | Documentary, Crime, History
An examination of the social costs of corporate interests pursuing profits at the expense of the public good.
Director: Michael Moore | Stars: Michael Moore, William Black, Jimmy Carter, Elijah Cummings
Votes: 43,855 | Gross: $14.36M
6. Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (2008)
66 min | Documentary, Family, Fantasy
Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and ... See full summary »
Directors: Adriana Barbaro, Jeremy Earp | Stars: Daniel Acuff, Enola Aird, Michael Brody, George W. Bush
Votes: 592
7. Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2008)
Unrated | 84 min | Documentary, History, News
Using smuggled footage, this documentary tells the story of the 2007 protests in Burma by thousands of monks.
Director: Anders Østergaard | Stars: George W. Bush, Joshua Min Htut, Ko Muang, Aung San Suu Kyi
Votes: 2,517 | Gross: $0.05M
8. The Anatomy of Hate (2009)
86 min | Documentary
Reveals the shared narratives found in individual and collective ideologies of hate, and how we as a species can overcome them. For six years the filmmaker worked with unprecedented access ... See full summary »
Director: Mike Ramsdell | Stars: Justin Barrett, Kerry Noble, Terrence Deacon, Fred Phelps
Votes: 131
9. U.N. Me (2009)
PG-13 | 90 min | Documentary
Documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz takes us on a brutal tour of a number of places where the UN has intervened. Through interviews with those involved - some of whom wish to remain ... See full summary »
Directors: Matthew Groff, Ami Horowitz | Stars: David Bosco, Roberta Cohen, Norm Coleman, Simon Deng
Votes: 129
10. Holy Wars (2010)
84 min | Documentary
Take one Muslim advocate for global jihad and put him in a room with one conservative Christian on a mission to evangelize the world's Muslims. Which man will be left standing? Touching ... See full summary »
Director: Stephen Marshall | Stars: Khalid Kelly, Aaron D. Taylor, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad Fostok, Sam Harris
Votes: 166
11. Japan: A Story of Love and Hate (2008)
60 min | Documentary
Naoki once had it all - the fast car, the executive home. Boss of his own business he lived the good-life when Japan's economy was at it's height. Then the bubble burst - and he met Yoshie.
Director: Sean McAllister | Stars: Naoki Sato, Yoshie Sato, Sean McAllister
Votes: 465
12. The Atheism Tapes (2004)
Documentary
Jonathan Miller interviews five atheists and one theologian on the subject of atheism.
Stars: Jonathan Miller, Arthur Miller, Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg
Votes: 433
13.
Without Walls (1990–1996)
Episode:
Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa
(1994)
25 min | Documentary, Biography
Christopher Hitchens investigates whether Mother Teresa of Calcutta deserves her saintly image. He probes her campaigns against contraception and foeticide and her questionable relationships with wealthy religious and political leaders.
Director: Jenny Morgan | Stars: Christopher Hitchens, Mother Teresa, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Mihir Bose
Votes: 488
14. The Cove (2009)
PG-13 | 92 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
Using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists, led by renowned dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry, infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.
Director: Louie Psihoyos | Stars: Richard O'Barry, Louie Psihoyos, Hardy Jones, Michael Illiff
Votes: 51,415 | Gross: $0.87M
15. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004)
Unrated | 78 min | Documentary
Documentary on reported Conservative bias of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News Channel (FNC), which promotes itself as "Fair and Balanced". Material includes interviews with former FNC employees and the inter-office memos they provided.
Director: Robert Greenwald | Stars: Douglas Cheek, Walter Cronkite, Bob McChesney, Jeff Cohen
Votes: 6,276 | Gross: $0.24M
16. The Tillman Story (2010)
R | 94 min | Documentary, Biography, Mystery
Chronicles the life of the late Pat Tillman, who walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals in 2002 to join the Army but died from friendly fire in Afghanistan.
Director: Amir Bar-Lev | Stars: Pat Tillman, Josh Brolin, Mary Tillman, Russell Baer
Votes: 5,430 | Gross: $0.80M
17. Human Planet (2011)
TV-PG | 50 min | Documentary
A cinematic experience bringing you the most amazing human stories in the world. Humans and wildlife surviving in the most extreme environments on Earth
Stars: John Hurt, Roger Munns
Votes: 27,769
18. Hot Coffee (2011)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary
How the infamous McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit and similar cases were exploited as part of a right wing crusade to weaken civil justice.
Director: Susan Saladoff | Stars: Chuck Allen, Judy Allen, Jay Angoff, David Arredondo
Votes: 4,011
19. Planet Earth (2006)
TV-PG | 49 min | Documentary, Family
A documentary series on the wildlife found on Earth. Each episode covers a different habitat: deserts, mountains, deep oceans, shallow seas, forests, caves, polar regions, fresh water, plains and jungles. Narrated by David Attenborough.
Stars: Sigourney Weaver, David Attenborough, Nikolay Drozdov, Thomas Anguti Johnston
Votes: 219,834
20. March of the Penguins (2005)
G | 80 min | Documentary, Family
In the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family.
Director: Luc Jacquet | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Romane Bohringer, Charles Berling, Jules Sitruk
Votes: 59,924 | Gross: $77.44M
21. The Century of the Self (2002)
59 min | Documentary
A documentary about the rise of psychoanalysis as a powerful means of persuasion for both governments and corporations.
Stars: Adam Curtis, Robert Reich, Ann Bernays, Alfred Pritz
Votes: 6,355
22. The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2002)
Not Rated | 80 min | Documentary
A film about the war crimes of the American diplomat, Henry Kissinger.
Director: Eugene Jarecki | Stars: Brian Cox, Henry Kissinger, Anna Chennault, Daniel Davidson
Votes: 2,094 | Gross: $0.52M
23. Night and Fog (1956)
TV-14 | 32 min | Documentary, Short, History
The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Michel Bouquet, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler
Votes: 21,424
24. Lake of Fire (2006)
Unrated | 152 min | Documentary
A graphic documentary on both sides of the abortion debate.
Director: Tony Kaye | Stars: Noam Chomsky, Bill Baird, Flip Benham, Dallas Blanchard
Votes: 2,732 | Gross: $0.02M
25. How to Die in Oregon (2011)
Not Rated | 107 min | Documentary, Drama, Family
In 1994 Oregon became the first state to legalize a terminally ill person's request to end his or her life with medication. At the time, only Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands had ... See full summary »
Director: Peter Richardson | Stars: Harry Bruton, Ray Carnay, Cody Curtis, Paul Darley
Votes: 2,018
26. Budrus (2009)
Unrated | 70 min | Documentary, Action, Biography
Follows a Palestinian leader who unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter jumps into the fray.
Director: Julia Bacha
Votes: 405 | Gross: $0.07M
27. Occupation 101 (2006)
90 min | Documentary
A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. political involvement.
Directors: Abdallah Omeish, Sufyan Omeish | Stars: James Akins, Arik Ascherman, Bishop Barltlett Jr., Phyllis Bennis
Votes: 1,905
28. Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (2004 Video)
80 min | Documentary
This video shows how the foreign policy interests of American political elites-working in combination with Israeli public relations stratgies-influence US news reporting about the Middle ... See full summary »
Directors: Sut Jhally, Bathsheba Ratzkoff | Stars: Seth Ackerman, Stav Adivi, Arik Ascherman, Hanan Ashrawi
Votes: 567
29. No End in Sight (2007)
Not Rated | 102 min | Documentary, War
A comprehensive look at the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq war and its occupation of the country.
Director: Charles Ferguson | Stars: Campbell Scott, Gerald Burke, Ali Fadhil, Omar Fekeiki
Votes: 8,627 | Gross: $1.43M
30. The Devil Came on Horseback (2007)
85 min | Documentary
A documentary that exposes the genocide raging in Darfur, Sudan as seen through the eyes of a former U.S. marine who returns home to make the story public.
Directors: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg | Stars: Nicholas Kristof, Brian Steidle
Votes: 1,621 | Gross: $0.13M
31. The Queen of Versailles (2012)
PG | 100 min | Documentary
A documentary that follows a billionaire couple as they begin construction on a mansion inspired by Versailles. During the next two years, their empire, fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money, falters due to the economic crisis.
Director: Lauren Greenfield | Stars: Jaqueline Siegel, David Siegel, Lorraine Barrett, June Downs
Votes: 13,701 | Gross: $2.40M
32. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012)
R | 91 min | Documentary
A documentary that chronicles artist and activist Ai Weiwei as he prepares for a series of exhibitions and gets into an increasing number of clashes with the Chinese government.
Director: Alison Klayman | Stars: Ai Weiwei, Dan Ai, Lao Ai, Lee Ambrozy
Votes: 4,526 | Gross: $0.53M
33. Taste the Waste (2010)
92 min | Documentary
Why do we throw away so much food? And how can we stop this kind of waste?Amazing but true: On the way from the farm to the dining-room table, more than half the food lands on the dump. Most of it before it ever reaches consumers.
Director: Valentin Thurn | Stars: Klaudia Fischer, Jörn Franck, Michael Gerling, Sylvain Sadoine
Votes: 530
34. Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark (2011)
Not Rated | 51 min | Documentary
As the "Arab Spring" protests for justice and democracy spread through the middle east in early 2011, people long repressed by the Bahrain monarchy spontaneously gathered at the central Pearl Square to join in the call for their rights.
Director: May Ying Welsh | Stars: Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
Votes: 95
35. Girl Model (2011)
Not Rated | 78 min | Documentary, Thriller
A documentary on the modeling industry's 'supply chain' between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S., told through the experiences of the scouts, agencies, and a 13-year-old model.
Directors: David Redmon, Ashley Sabin | Stars: Ashley Arbaugh, Rachel Blais, Olivia Arben, Tigran Khachatrian
Votes: 2,306 | Gross: $0.02M
36. Vice (2013–2021)
TV-MA | 30 min | Documentary, News
Documentary series featuring startling, groundbreaking stories from around the world.
Stars: Shane Smith, Gianna Toboni, Thomas Morton, Ben Anderson
Votes: 4,380
37. The Men Who Built America (2012)
TV-14 | 37 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Astor, Ford and Morgan. Their names are part of history and synonymous with the American dream. These men transformed every industry they touched: oil, rail, steel, shipping, automobiles, and finance.
Stars: Campbell Scott, H.W. Brands, Mark Cuban, Donny Deutsch
Votes: 4,570
38. Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
PG-13 | 86 min | Documentary, Biography, Music
Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n roller, Rodriguez.
Director: Malik Bendjelloul | Stars: Rodriguez, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman, Dennis Coffey, Mike Theodore
Votes: 72,849 | Gross: $3.97M
39. Making a Murderer (2015–2018)
TV-14 | 60 min | Documentary, Crime
Filmed over a 10-year period, Steven Avery, a DNA exoneree who, while in the midst of exposing corruption in local law enforcement, finds himself the prime suspect in a grisly new crime.
Stars: Steven Avery, Dolores Avery, Laura Nirider, Allan Avery
Votes: 102,737
40. Planet Earth II (2016)
TV-G | 50 min | Documentary
David Attenborough returns with a new wildlife documentary that shows life in a variety of habitats.
Stars: David Attenborough, Chadden Hunter, Gordon Buchanan, Michael J. Sanderson
Votes: 157,644
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