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 LeszczylowksiStarsErland JosephsonAndrei TarkovskyLarisa TarkovskayaDocumentary 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.