The world through a screen - Top documentaries
List of my favorite documentaries, no particular order.
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- DirectorKazuo HaraStarsKenzo OkuzakiRiichi AikawaMasaichi HamaguchiA documentary following Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, as he tries to expose the needless executions of two Japanese soldiers during the war.
- DirectorPaolo CavaraGualtiero JacopettiFranco ProsperiStarsStefano SibaldiRossano BrazziYves KleinA "shockumentary" consisting of a collection of mostly real archive footage displaying mankind at its most depraved and perverse, displaying bizarre rites, cruel behavior and bestial violence.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.Check out the rest of the series as well.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsFini StraubingerM. BaaskeElsa FehrerThrough examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since adolescence, and her work on behalf of other deaf and blind people, this film shows how the deaf and blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.
- DirectorMarc SingerStarsMarc SingerA cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.
- DirectorMarshall CurrySam CullmanStarsDaniel McGowanLisa McGowanTim LewisA rare behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat.'
- DirectorGodfrey ReggioStarsEdward AsnerPat BenatarJerry BrownA collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology.
- 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.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsTariq AliTony BlairWolf BlitzerA road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media's misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents.
- DirectorDavid ShapiroLaurie Gwen ShapiroStarsTobias SchneebaumNorman MailerMichael RockefellerA retired gay anthropologist revisits the native cultures he studied in his youth.
- DirectorScott NobleStarsGeorge BushGeorge W. BushNoam ChomskyPsywar explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an emphasis on the elitist theory of democracy; and the relationship between war, propaganda, and class.
- DirectorNewton Thomas SigelPamela YatesStarsRigoberta MenchúSusan SarandonA documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with firsthand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu.
- DirectorJonathan StackJames BrabazonStarsGeorge W. BushZubin CooperCharles Taylor"Liberia, a nation burdened by its past. America, a nation with no memory at all." In Liberia, the summer of 2003 was pure insanity. A rebel army attempts to overthrow a government run by an indicted war criminal. Two armies engage in the final battle of a decade long civil war. Hundreds of innocent civilians die from mortar shells launched from afar and thousands more suffer hunger while the soldiers, mostly teenagers, keep the capital city under siege. The nation prays that America, the world's sole superpower, will put an end to the violence. Conceived in Washington in the early 1800s, its constitution written at Harvard, its founding fathers freed slaves who returned to Africa, Liberia is the one country in the world worthy of the title, Made in America. By the year 2000, Liberia, once considered the gem of Africa, was ranked last in the world for quality of life.
- StarsThomas MortonShane SmithSarah HarrisThe show follows Vice employees as they travel to dangerous, weird, and offbeat locations throughout the globe.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsFred A. Leuchter Jr.Robert Jan Van PeltDavid IrvingA cinematic portrait of the life and career of the infamous American execution device designer and holocaust denier.
- DirectorJeff MalmbergStarsMark HogancampEmmanuel NnejiEdda HogancampDocumentary about Mark Hogancamp. After a vicious attack leaves him brain-damaged and broke, Mark seeks recovery in "Marwencol", a 1/6th scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard. Inspired the movie Welcome to Marwen (2018)
- DirectorTatsuya MoriStarsHiroshi ArakiAum Shinrikyo, the Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara and responsible for the 1995 Sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway, becomes the subject of this documentary.
- DirectorErik GandiniStarsJohn ZerzanGeorge W. BushFidel CastroLooks at the arguments for capitalism and technology, such as greater efficiency, more time and less work, and argues that these are not being fulfilled, and they never will be.
- DirectorBilly CorbenStarsJon RobertsAl SunshineSam BurstynThe story of how Miami became the cocaine capital of the United States in the early 1980's and the police officers who turned the tide on crime.
- CreatorJosh SeligStarsJohn LurieWillem DafoeRobb WebbMusician John Lurie knows nothing about fishing, but that doesn't stop him from embarking on fishing in exotic locations with friends.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsAlbert BitterlingRoscoe CollinsGeorge HarrisA documentary on the eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida.
- DirectorPerry HenzellStarsJimmy CliffJanet BartleyCarl BradshawWishing to become a successful reggae singer, a young Jamaican man finds himself tied to corrupt record producers and drug pushers.
- DirectorGualtiero JacopettiFranco ProsperiStarsSergio RossiGualtiero JacopettiJomo KenyattaThe cruel acts of animal poaching and violence, executions, and tribal slaughtering, all taking place on the African continent.
- DirectorTegan BukowskiLoressa ClisbyKevin MacdonaldStarsHiroaki AikawaCindy BaerTeagan BentleyA documentary shot by film-makers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the twenty-fourth of July, 2010.
- DirectorJoachim SchroederTommy SowardsStarsK.K. CalvinJumbo ChrisDig Dug DouglasA documentary on five members of one of the world's most notorious gangs, the Bloods.
- DirectorJames MarshStarsPhilippe PetitJean François HeckelJean-Louis BlondeauA look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century".
- DirectorHeidi EwingRachel GradyStarsMike PapantonioLou EngleBecky FischerA documentary on kids who attend a summer camp hoping to become the next Billy Graham.
- DirectorLucy WalkerKaren HarleyJoão JardimStarsVik MunizOn the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, where men and women sift through garbage for a living. Artist Vik Muniz produces portraits of the workers and learns about their lives.
- DirectorSteven FischlerJoel SucherStarsPaul AvrichJello BiafraMurray BookchinA colorful and provocative survey of anarchism in America, the film attempts to dispel popular misconceptions and trace the historical development of the movement. The film explores the movement both as a native American philosophy stemming from 19th century American traditions of individualism, and as a foreign ideology brought to America by immigrants. The film features rare archival footage and interviews with significant personalities in anarchist history including Murray Boochkin and Karl Hess, and also live performance footage of the Dead Kennedys.
- 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.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRobert McNamaraJohn F. KennedyFidel CastroThe story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsTimothy TreadwellAmie HuguenardWerner HerzogA devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.
- DirectorJacques PerrinJacques CluzaudMichel DebatsStarsJacques PerrinPhilippe LabroDocumentary on the migratory patterns of birds, shot over the course of three years on all seven continents.
- DirectorSam DunnScot McFadyenJessica Joy WiseStarsTom ArayaGavin BaddeleyBlasphemerAn examination of the heavy metal music subculture that tries to explain why, despite the longevity and popularity of the genre, fans are marginalized and ridiculed for their passion.
- DirectorRob EpsteinStarsHarvey FiersteinHarvey MilkAnne KronenbergA documentary of the successful career and assassination of San Francisco's first elected gay city supervisor.
- DirectorConstance MarksPhilip ShaneStarsKevin ClashWhoopi GoldbergFrank OzThe Muppet Elmo is one of the most beloved characters among children across the globe. Meet the unlikely man behind the puppet - the heart and soul of Elmo - Kevin Clash.
- DirectorAntonio ClimatiMario MorraStarsGiuseppe RinaldiPit DernitzIlona StallerA notorious mondo film depicting unbelievable and bizarre rituals, animal killing and cruelty, and people being killed and eaten, all by either animals or humans against each other or themselves.
- DirectorJohn MaringouinStarsMatthew MohlkeBorut StrelMartin StrelMartin Strel attempts to cover 3,375 miles of the Amazon River, the longest continuous swim in history.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogScott RowlandStefan PashovFilm-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsThe Dalai LamaLama Lhundup WoeserTakna Jigme SangpoWheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.
- DirectorRalph SteinerWillard Van DykeStarsMorris CarnovskyA prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
- DirectorLouie PsihoyosStarsRichard O'BarryLouie PsihoyosHardy JonesUsing 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.
- DirectorJames MarshStarsNim ChimpskyStephanie LaFargeHerbert TerraceTells the story of a chimpanzee taken from its mother at birth and raised like a human child by a family in a brownstone on the upper West Side in the 1970s.
- 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.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogRichard LopezMichael PerryConversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people - and the state - kill.
- DirectorTim HetheringtonSebastian JungerStarsThe Men of Battle Company 2nd of the 503rd Infantry Regiment 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat TeamJuan 'Doc RestrepoDan KearneyA year with one platoon in the deadliest valley in Afghanistan.
- DirectorJanus MetzDanish soldiers are sent to Afghanistan in 2009 for 6 months, to help stabilize the country against the Taliban. They're stationed on Armadillo military base in Helman province. Unlike other war movies, this is the real deal - no actors.
- DirectorDeborah ScrantonStarsZack BazziDuncan DomeyBen FlandersCalled up for service in Iraq, several members of the National Guard were given digital video cameras. This film, edited from their footage, provides a perspective on a complex and troubled conflict.
- DirectorRobert GreenwaldStarsKaty Helvenston-WettengalScott HelvenstonDonna ZovkoRobert Greenwald looks at war profiteering in Iraq by private contracting companies Halliburton, CACI, and KBR.
- DirectorChristian FreiStarsJames NachtweyChristiane AmanpourHans-Hermann KlareDocumentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.
- DirectorRon FrickeStarsPatrick DisantoA collection of expertly photographed scenes of human life and religion.
- DirectorMichael GlawoggerA look at the people who live precariously, but with an unusual level of resourcefulness and imagination, in four gigantic urban agglomerations: Mumbai, New York City, Moscow and Mexico City.
- DirectorClaude LanzmannStarsSimon SrebnikMichael PodchlebnikMotke ZaïdlClaude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
- DirectorDaniel GordonStarsDamion CruzzBruce CumingsJames Joseph DresnokA British documentary about US Army defector James Dresnok currently living in North Korea after having defected during the 60s.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogJean ClottesJulien MonneyWerner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.
- DirectorGualtiero JacopettiFranco ProsperiStarsStefano SibaldiHenning SkaarupPeter UstinovThe official sequel to the original shockumentary, presenting new and bizarre behavior from around the world, including cruelty, graphic gore, and strange rituals.
- DirectorStanley NelsonStarsRebecca MooreJanet ShularTim CarterFeaturing never-before-seen footage, this documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.
- DirectorLucy WalkerStarsVelda BontragerMark BontragerDewayne ChuppAmish teenagers experience and embrace the modern world as a rite-of-passage before deciding which life they will choose.
- DirectorKevin MacdonaldStarsMichael DouglasAnkie SpitzerJamal Al GasheyThe Palestinian terrorist group Black September holds Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich.
- 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.
- DirectorJeffrey BlitzStarsAngela ArenivarUbaldo ArenivarJorge ArenivarSpellbound follows eight teenagers on their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee.
- DirectorEllen HovdeAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesStarsEdith Bouvier BealeEdith 'Little Edie' Bouvier BealeBrooks HyersMeet a mother and daughter, high-society dropouts, reclusive cousins of Jackie O., managing to thrive together amid the decay and disorder of their East Hampton, NY, mansion, making for an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot.
- DirectorWilliam GazeckiStarsDan GiffordJim CavanaughDick DeGuerinA reassessment of the tragedy at Waco that left 76 members of the Branch Davidian religious sect dead.
- DirectorCindy MeehlStarsBuck BrannamanGary MyersBibb FrazierAn examination of the life of acclaimed 'horse whisperer' Buck Brannaman, who recovered from years of child abuse to become a well-known expert in the interactions between horses and people.
- DirectorPeter BrosensDorjkhandyn TurmunkhStarsNyam DagyrantzBanzar DamchaaBaatar GalsansukhIn Ulan Bator, Mongolia, the cur Baatar is shot by a hunter hired by the authorities to get rid off the dogs in the city. Its soul recalls its life, when it was a shepherd dog of a family and was abandoned in the field and walked to the city. Then it recalls when it meets a young woman that is near to have a baby.
- DirectorBarbara KoppleStarsJohn L. LewisCarl HornNorman YarboroughA heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
- DirectorZana BriskiRoss KauffmanStarsKochiAvijit HalderShanti DasTwo documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagchi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district.
- DirectorLes BlankStarsWerner HerzogKlaus KinskiClaudia CardinaleA documentary following German auteur Werner Herzog as he deals with difficult actors, bad weather and getting a boat over a mountain, all in an effort to make his film Fitzcarraldo (1982).
- DirectorClaude NuridsanyMarie PérennouStarsKristin Scott ThomasJacques PerrinA documentary on insect life in meadows and ponds.
- 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.
- DirectorPatricio GuzmánStarsGaspar GalazLautaro NúñezLuís HenríquezA documentary about two different searches conducted in the Chilean Atacama Desert: one by astronomers looking for answers about the history of the cosmos, and one by women looking for the remains of loved ones killed by Pinochet's regime.
- DirectorDavid GregoryStarsDavid FlintBenito FrattariGualtiero JacopettiA look at the careers of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi who invented the mondo genre with MONDO CANE in 1962. It follows their career until their split in following the making of GOODBYE UNCLE TOM in 1971.
- DirectorMark LewisStarsTip ByrneH.W. KerrGlen IngramA documentary detailing the spread of Hawaiian sugar-cane toads through Australia in a botched effort to introduce them as counter pests.
- DirectorRon FrickeStarsBalinese Tari Legong DancersNi Made Megahadi PratiwiPuti Sri Candra DewiFilmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, and shot on seventy-millimetre film, Samsara transports us to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.
- DirectorBart LaytonStarsAdam O'BrianNicholas BarclayCarey GibsonA documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years.
- DirectorLauren GreenfieldStarsJaqueline SiegelDavid SiegelLorraine BarrettA 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.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
- DirectorMathieu RoyHarold CrooksStarsRonald WrightMark LevineRobert WrightTheorists consider the evolution of human society and question the sustainability of the current paradigm.
- DirectorCosima DannoritzerStarsRichard JonesMolly MalcolmSteve BunnThis is the story of companies who engineered their products to fail.
- DirectorLaura GabbertJustin ScheinStarsColin BeavanMichelle ConlinFollow the Manhattan-based Beavan family as they abandon their high consumption 5th Avenue lifestyle and try to live a year while making no net environmental impact.
- DirectorAnthony WonkeStarsMichael IasparroDominic IasparroJames RandallSummer 2005: federal agents and police record over a thousand hours of surveillance footage inside a crack house in Rockford Illinois. For six weeks the gang smoke weed, play with guns and sell crack and heroin, unaware that their every move is being filmed. The customers come and go with no clue that their secret lives would be exposed. This is an intimate portrait of the rise and fall of a crack house and of an American urban community brought down by drugs. Interviews with gang members, their families and cops reveal the inescapable tragedy - and occasional dark comedy - of a world that lies hidden within every modern city.
- DirectorTony GatlifStarsLa CaitaThe journey of the Romany people told through musicians and dancers of India, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, France, and Spain.
- StarsChris MoriartyRita ScottEddie RameyA taxi was rigged with six lipstick-size hidden cameras. The passengers are real and talk about their personal life, sometimes sexual, to the driver. The passengers did not know they were being videotaped until after the ride had ended.
- DirectorNikolaus GeyrhalterStarsClaus Hansen PetzArkadiusz RydellekBarbara HinzOUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn't always easy to digest - and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.
- DirectorLee HirschStarsAlex LibbyLona JohnsonKelby JohnsonA documentary on peer-to-peer bullying in schools across America.
- DirectorJeff StilsonStarsChris RockMaya AngelouAl SharptonChris Rock explores the wonders of African-American hairstyles.
- DirectorEmad BurnatGuy DavidiStarsEmad BurnatSoraya BurnatMohammed BurnatA documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
- DirectorBarbet SchroederStarsIdi AminFidel CastroGolda MeirA documentary on the military dictator of Africa's Uganda.
- DirectorAndrew JareckiStarsArnold FriedmanJesse FriedmanDavid FriedmanDocumentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.
- DirectorDavid RedmonAshley SabinStarsAshley ArbaughRachel BlaisOlivia ArbenA 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.
- DirectorJoe BerlingerBruce SinofskyStarsDelbert WardRoscoe WardLyman WardThis compelling documentary details the strange-but-true murder trial of Delbert Ward, accused of the mercy killing of his brother in rural upstate NY. This real-life murder mystery won the Audience Award at Sundance.
- 2006–20075 epsTV-MA8.5 (4.8K)TV Mini Series89MetascoreStarsDarleen AsevedoJay AsevedoShelton Shakespear AlexanderAn examination of the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
- DirectorEugene JareckiStarsGore VidalJohn McCainKen AdelmanIs American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.
- DirectorTony KayeStarsNoam ChomskyBill BairdFlip BenhamA graphic documentary on both sides of the abortion debate.
- DirectorDavid de VriesStarsStruan RodgerJohn AndersonDavid BrinVisit the ghostly villages surrounding Chernobyl (abandoned by humans after the 1986 nuclear disaster), travel to remote islands off the coast of Maine to search for abandoned towns that have vanished from view in only a few decades, then head beneath the streets of New York to see how subway tunnels may become watery canals. A visual journey, LIFE AFTER PEOPLE is a thought provoking adventure that combines movie-quality visual effects with insights from experts in the fields of engineering, botany, ecology, biology, geology, climatology, and archeology to demonstrate how the very landscape of our planet will change in our absence.
- DirectorDanielle BernsteinAnne SlickA documentary about the history and struggle of the remote Ecuadorian town, Junín and the conflicts that have arisen due to international mining interests.
- DirectorJosé Luis GuerínStarsJuana Rodríguez MolinaIván Guzmán JiménezJuan López LópezAn author spent a year and a half filming what happened as a new apartment building was built in the El Chino neighborhood of Barcelona. En Construccion focuses less on the practicalities of raising a building than the impact the project has on those who live in the neighborhood, including a teenage couple squatting in a nearby building, an illegal alien looking for work for himself and his son, and a neighborhood girl who becomes infatuated with one of the construction workers. The death of a stray cat and the discovery of a mass grave during construction also points to the tragic losses that are sometimes part and parcel of progress.
- DirectorMichael BliedenStarsBrian UngerGary CohanRobert GoreStand up comedian and marijuana user Doug Benson documents thirty days of pot free living and thirty days of non-stop use to compare the effects of both.
- StarsShane SmithGianna ToboniThomas MortonDocumentary series featuring startling, groundbreaking stories from around the world.