Documentaries to see
by peternelson333 | created - 06 Apr 2016 | updated - 12 Dec 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Square (2013)
Not Rated | 95 min | Documentary, Drama, History
A group of Egyptian revolutionaries battle leaders and regimes, risking their lives to build a new society of conscience.
Director: Jehane Noujaim | Stars: Ahmed Hassan, Khalid Abdalla, Magdy Ashour, Ramy Essam
Votes: 9,404 | Gross: $0.12M
2. A Story of Children and Film (2013)
106 min | Documentary, History
A Story of Children and Film is the world's first movie about kids in global cinema. It's passionate, poetic, portrait of the adventure of childhood: its surrealism, loneliness, fun, ... See full summary »
Director: Mark Cousins | Stars: Mark Cousins, Ben, Laura
Votes: 712
3. 56 Up (2012)
Not Rated | 144 min | Documentary, Biography
Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
Directors: Michael Apted, Paul Almond | Stars: Michael Apted, Bruce Balden, Jacqueline Bassett, Symon Basterfield
Votes: 2,470 | Gross: $0.70M
4. Big Men (2013)
Not Rated | 99 min | Documentary
The film's central story follows a small group of American explorers at Dallas-based oil company Kosmos Energy. Between 2007 and 2011, with unprecedented, independent access, Big Men's ... See full summary »
Director: Rachel Boynton
Votes: 657 | Gross: $0.04M
5. Blackfish (2013)
PG-13 | 83 min | Documentary
A documentary following the controversial captivity of killer whales, and its dangers for both humans and whales.
Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite | Stars: Tilikum, Dave Duffus, Samantha Berg, Dean Gomersall
Votes: 72,482 | Gross: $2.07M
6. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Not Rated | 107 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
Documentary 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.
Director: Andrew Jarecki | Stars: Arnold Friedman, Jesse Friedman, David Friedman, Elaine Friedman
Votes: 27,145 | Gross: $3.12M
7. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
G | 90 min | Documentary, History
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Jean Clottes, Julien Monney, Jean-Michel Geneste
Votes: 17,796 | Gross: $5.23M
8. Crumb (1994)
R | 119 min | Documentary, Biography, Comedy
An intimate portrait of controversial cartoonist Robert Crumb and his traumatized family.
Director: Terry Zwigoff | Stars: Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Charles Crumb, Maxon Crumb
Votes: 21,602 | Gross: $3.17M
9. Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
G | 99 min | Documentary
Film-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Scott Rowland, Stefan Pashov, Doug MacAyeal
Votes: 19,260 | Gross: $0.94M
10. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
R | 87 min | Documentary, Comedy, Crime
Following the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.
Director: Banksy | Stars: Banksy, Mr. Brainwash, Space Invader, Debora Guetta
Votes: 68,836 | Gross: $3.29M
11. Grizzly Man (2005)
R | 103 min | Documentary, Biography
A 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.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Timothy Treadwell, Amie Huguenard, Werner Herzog, Carol Dexter
Votes: 61,926 | Gross: $3.17M
12. Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015)
PG-13 | 79 min | Documentary
Filmmakers discuss how Francois Truffaut's 1966 book "Cinema According to Hitchcock" influenced their work.
Director: Kent Jones | Stars: Wes Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, David Fincher, Bob Balaban
Votes: 7,187 | Gross: $0.30M
13. Hoop Dreams (1994)
PG-13 | 170 min | Documentary, Drama, Sport
A film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.
Director: Steve James | Stars: William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates, Curtis Gates
Votes: 28,025 | Gross: $7.83M
14. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? (2013)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Animation, Biography
A series of interviews featuring linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky done in hand-drawn animation.
Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Noam Chomsky, Michel Gondry, Richard Feynman, Michèle Oshima
Votes: 3,681 | Gross: $0.13M
15. Listen to Me Marlon (2015)
Unrated | 103 min | Documentary, Biography
A documentary that utilizes hundreds of hours of audio that Marlon Brando recorded over the course of his life to tell the screen legend's story.
Director: Stevan Riley | Stars: Marlon Brando, Stella Adler, Bernardo Bertolucci, Michael Borne
Votes: 7,922 | Gross: $0.43M
16. Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001)
Not Rated | 111 min | Documentary, Crime
Oscar-winning documentary that documents a murder trial in which a 15-year-old African-American is wrongfully accused of a 2000 murder in Jacksonville, Florida.
Director: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade | Stars: Ann Finnell, Patrick McGuinness, James Williams, Michael Glover
Votes: 4,519
17. Murderball (2005)
R | 88 min | Documentary, Sport
Quadriplegics, who play full-contact rugby in wheelchairs, overcome unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Directors: Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro | Stars: Joe Soares, Keith Cavill, Mark Zupan, Robert Soares
Votes: 10,459 | Gross: $1.52M
18. My Perestroika (2010)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Biography, Family
Tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world ... See full summary »
Director: Robin Hessman
Votes: 690 | Gross: $0.24M
19. Nostalgia for the Light (2010)
Not Rated | 90 min | Documentary
A 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.
Director: Patricio Guzmán | Stars: Gaspar Galaz, Lautaro Núñez, Luís Henríquez, Miguel Lawner
Votes: 6,117
20. Samsara (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 102 min | Documentary, Music
Filmed 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.
Director: Ron Fricke | Stars: Balinese Tari Legong Dancers, Ni Made Megahadi Pratiwi, Puti Sri Candra Dewi, Putu Dinda Pratika
Votes: 38,060 | Gross: $2.67M
21. Sherpa (2015)
Not Rated | 96 min | Documentary
In 2014, director Jennifer Peedom was working on a documentary about the Sherpas of Mount Everest when the largest avalanche in recent history occurred on the mountain, killing 16 Sherpas.
Director: Jennifer Peedom | Stars: Russell Brice, Tim Medvetz, Pasang Tenzing Sherpa, Phurba Tashi Sherpa
Votes: 5,416
22. Shoah (1985)
Not Rated | 566 min | Documentary, History, War
Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
Director: Claude Lanzmann | Stars: Simon Srebnik, Michael Podchlebnik, Motke Zaïdl, Hanna Zaïdl
Votes: 10,560 | Gross: $0.02M
23. Stories We Tell (2012)
PG-13 | 108 min | Documentary
A film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers.
Director: Sarah Polley | Stars: Michael Polley, John Buchan, Mark Polley, Joanna Polley
Votes: 14,121 | Gross: $1.60M
24. Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
R | 106 min | Documentary, Crime, History
Alex Gibney exposes the haunting details of the USA's torture and interrogation practices during the War in Afghanistan.
Director: Alex Gibney | Stars: Alex Gibney, Brian Keith Allen, Moazzam Begg, Christopher Beiring
Votes: 16,805 | Gross: $0.27M
25. 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: 51,458 | Gross: $0.87M
26. Der ewige Jude (1940)
62 min | Documentary, History
Under the guise of a brutally honest documentary, this malevolent propaganda film aims to be an "indispensable tool in the hands of the Aryan race", designed to depict the "true" Jew when the masks of western civilisation fall off.
Director: Fritz Hippler | Stars: Curt Bois, Charles Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Adolf Hitler
Votes: 3,931
27. The Gatekeepers (2012)
PG-13 | 101 min | Documentary, History, War
A documentary featuring interviews with all surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency whose activities and membership are closely held state secrets.
Director: Dror Moreh | Stars: Ami Ayalon, Avraham Shalom, Avi Dichter, Yaakov Peri
Votes: 5,891 | Gross: $2.42M
28. The Interrupters (2011)
Unrated | 125 min | Documentary, Crime
A year in the life of a city grappling with urban violence.
Director: Steve James | Stars: Tio Hardiman, Ameena Matthews, Toya Batey, Cobe Williams
Votes: 3,616 | Gross: $0.28M
29. The Salt of the Earth (2014)
PG-13 | 110 min | Documentary, Biography, History
The life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.
Directors: Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders | Stars: Sebastião Salgado, Wim Wenders, Lélia Wanick Salgado, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Votes: 23,478 | Gross: $1.34M
30. The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Not Rated | 101 min | Documentary, Crime
A film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.
Director: Errol Morris | Stars: Randall Adams, David Harris, Gus Rose, Jackie Johnson
Votes: 25,985 | Gross: $1.21M
31. This Is Not a Film (2011)
Not Rated | 75 min | Documentary
It's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
Directors: Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Jafar Panahi | Stars: Jafar Panahi, Igi, Mrs. Gheirat, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
Votes: 5,646 | Gross: $0.08M
32. We Were Here (I) (2011)
Not Rated | 90 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A deep and reflective look at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how individuals rose to the occasion during the first years of this unimaginable crisis.
Directors: David Weissman, Bill Weber | Stars: Ed Wolf, Daniel Goldstein, Guy Clark, Eileen Glutzer
Votes: 2,280
33. Winged Migration (2001)
G | 89 min | Documentary
Documentary on the migratory patterns of birds, shot over the course of three years on all seven continents.
Directors: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats | Stars: Jacques Perrin, Philippe Labro
Votes: 12,371 | Gross: $10.76M
34. Stop Making Sense (1984)
PG | 88 min | Documentary, Music
Considered by critics as the greatest concert film of all time, the live performance was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December of 1983 and features Talking Heads' most memorable songs.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: David Byrne, Bernie Worrell, Alex Weir, Steven Scales
Votes: 20,072 | Gross: $5.02M
35. 49 Up (2005 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 180 min | Documentary, Biography
Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
Directors: Michael Apted, Paul Almond | Stars: Bruce Balden, Jacqueline Bassett, Symon Basterfield, Andrew Brackfield
Votes: 3,019 | Gross: $0.24M
36. F for Fake (1973)
PG | 89 min | Documentary
A documentary about fraud and fakery.
Directors: Orson Welles, Gary Graver, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach | Stars: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach, Elmyr de Hory
Votes: 18,307
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