Top 100 Documentaries of All Time
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- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
- DirectorAndrzej BrzozowskiThe lesson commences at the school for blind children. Today the pupils will study an egg to learn its shape through touching and smelling it.
- DirectorMarek PiwowskiThe final stages of alcohol addiction are juxtaposed with the official attitude of Polish authorities towards the success of the ever-growing national alcohol industry.
- DirectorBarbet SchroederStarsIdi AminFidel CastroGolda MeirA documentary on the military dictator of Africa's Uganda.
- DirectorWojciech WiszniewskiStarsWanda GosciminskaTextile worker Wanda Gosciminska was a 1950s communist propaganda icon and role model for other workers. The system exploited her, just like so many other individuals, and turned her into a tool of ideological manipulation.
- DirectorWojciech WiszniewskiFrom the alphabet to the patriotic children's poem, an allegorical vision of social consciousness of 1970s Poland unravels and haunts us with a crowd of sad people in depressing surroundings.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsMarian OsuchA factory night watchman, who is a fanatic of total control, shares his opinions on various topics.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiPeople of different age, profession and social status answer two simple questions: who they are and what they want from life.
- DirectorAndrzej FidykStarsWojciech GassowskiIl-Sung KimJong-Il KimNorth Korea, late 1980s. The communist authorities hold enormous parades celebrating the 40th anniversary of Democratic People's Republic of Korea and worshipping its leader, Kim Ir Sen. But all this splendor, pomp and incredible lavishness is also to eclipse sports olympics taking part in South Korea.
- DirectorMaciej J. DrygasStarsRyszard SiwiecMaria SiwiecInnocenta SiwiecThe story of an ordinary accountant, Ryszard Siwiec, who set himself on fire during the large harvest festival at the Warsaw stadium in 1968. He did it to protest against the military invasion in Czechoslovakia.
- DirectorPawel LozinskiStarsHenryk GrynbergAfter almost 50 years, Holocaust survivor Henryk Grynberg visits the village he grew up in. He was also hiding there during the Nazi occupation. Grynberg wants to know what happened to his father and younger brother during the war.
- DirectorMarcel LozinskiStarsTomasz LozinskiAn energetic six-year-old boy talks to elderly strangers relaxing in the park. He confronts his childish knowledge of the world with their life-long experience.
- 1995–19983h 45m8.5 (5.1K)TV EpisodeDirectorMartin ScorseseMichael Henry WilsonStarsMartin ScorseseAllison AndersKathryn BigelowMartin Scorsese describes his initial and growing obsession with films from the 1940s and 50s as the art form developed and grew with clips from classics and cult classics.
- DirectorMichael MooreStarsMichael MooreCharlton HestonMarilyn MansonFilmmaker Michael Moore explores the roots of America's predilection for gun violence.
- DirectorHeidi EwingRachel GradyStarsMike PapantonioLou EngleBecky FischerA documentary on kids who attend a summer camp hoping to become the next Billy Graham.
- DirectorAri FolmanStarsAri FolmanRon Ben-YishaiRonny DayagAn Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
- DirectorPeter GeyerStarsKlaus KinskiKlaus KInski's interpretation of the new testament as reformer in a solo theater-happening in Berlin,1971.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsAgnès VardaAndré LubranoBlaise FournierAgnès Varda explores her memories, mostly chronologically, with photographs, film clips, interviews, reenactments, and droll, playful contemporary scenes of her narrating her story.
- 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".
- DirectorBartosz KonopkaThe untold story about wild rabbits which lived between the Berlin Walls.
- DirectorMatthew AkersJeff DupreStarsMarina AbramovicUlayKlaus BiesenbachA documentary that follows the Serbian performance artist as she prepares for a retrospective of her work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
- DirectorMalik BendjelloulStarsRodriguezStephen 'Sugar' SegermanDennis CoffeyTwo South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n roller, Rodriguez.
- DirectorYann Arthus-BertrandStarsLuis CancuAtmanBerthonyA collection of stories about and images of our world, offering an immersion to the core of what it means to be human.
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsPaul von HindenburgThis movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
- DirectorJerzy BossakJaroslaw BrzozowskiStarsAndrzej LapickiOver a decade after the almost total wartime destruction, Warsaw still looks bruised and battered. Ruined houses are nevertheless inhabited which can be dangerous for the local population.
- DirectorJerzy HoffmanEdward SkórzewskiMass Catholic pilgrimage to the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska Sanctuary where amateur actors perform the Passion of the Christ.
- DirectorJan LomnickiThe last assembly works at the Gdansk Shipyard are followed by the ceremonial launching of a new ship.
- DirectorMarek PiwowskiPolish society is represented here by the customers of a dingy bar who drink, flirt and chat about things both extremely vital and completely trivial.
- DirectorAndrzej BrzozowskiArcheologists excavate numerous items on the site of the crematorium at former Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. These objects help us remember and understand what happened there.
- DirectorKrzysztof Kieslowski24 hours in the life of a hospital from the point of view of the doctors and nurses.
- DirectorMarcel LozinskiStarsLeszek BanachowskiAndrzej RozhinBarbara RozhinSummer camp for young married couples, during which they compete for the main prize, a washing machine, is used by its organizers to promote communist ideas of a happy family life.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsSergey BondarchukGrigoriy AleksandrovEisenstein shows us Mexico in this movie, its history and its culture. He believes, that Mexico can become a modern state.
- 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.
- DirectorMaria Zmarz-KoczanowiczThe 1980s Poland was a country of empty stores and long lines of people, standing all night and day to buy virtually anything. This film takes a look at such a gigantic queue and recreates its surreal dialogues and atmosphere.
- DirectorAndrzej CzarneckiThe only professional rat exterminator in Poland, who works on an industrial scale, presents his unorthodox methods of destroying the intelligent enemies.
- DirectorMarcel LozinskiAt the famous Grand Hotel in Sopot, each worker - whether a porter, a maid, a cook or a stoker - feels an important part of their workplace. Perhaps even the most important.
- DirectorMarcel LozinskiStarsMalgorzata UngerTV reporters conduct a street survey, asking random people "How are the youths of today?". This brief collection of opinions unexpectedly turns into powerful study of media manipulation.
- DirectorJacek BlawutStarsTomasz GniatkowskiHenryk LangeJanusz MachajA new music teacher comes to the institution for mentally disabled children. He's got a month to teach them to play some instruments. But it takes much more than time to understand and accept these children. And vice versa.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogAnna HitchVissarionWhat is faith and religion to Russians after the fall of communism? We get the insight into the Russian Orthodox church as well as different folk and shamanic beliefs.
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsNikita MikhalkovAnna MikhalkovaNadezhda MikhalkovaDirector Nikita Mikhalkov documents the history of Russia from 1980 to 1991 by annually asking his daughter Anna questions.
- DirectorRob EpsteinJeffrey FriedmanStarsLily TomlinTony CurtisSusie BrightA documentary surveying the various Hollywood screen depictions of homosexuals and the attitudes behind them throughout the history of North American film.
- DirectorKazimierz KarabaszA contemplative look at the 1990s Poland seen through the eyes of ordinary Varsovians.
- DirectorSergei DvortsevoyThe story of old people living in a forgotten village. Once a week they need to push the carriage with bread for several kilometers towards their gloomy settlement.
- 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.
- DirectorEwa BorzeckaArizona is a brand of cheap wine which happens to be the only escape and consolation for the unemployed and depraved former workers of PGR (State Farming Cooperative) that now stands in ruins.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogKlaus KinskiClaudia CardinaleThe love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the deep trust between the director and the actor, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.
- 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.
- DirectorMarcin KoszalkaA bold uncompromising look at the hell of the director's real-life family life. He still shares the apartment with his dysfunctional parents who use verbal violence towards him on a daily basis.
- DirectorNicolas PhilibertStarsGeorges LopezAlizéAxel ThouveninA documentary portrait of a one-room school in rural France, where the students (ranging in age from 4 to 11) are educated by a single dedicated teacher.
- DirectorMika RonkainenStarsPetri SirviöMarkku AlataloAntti AnnunenA documentary film about the Finnish screaming male choir.
- 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.
- DirectorSimon PummellSimon Pummell's epic movie tells the story of a human life, using found footage from the last 100 years of cinema, cut to a powerful score by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead.
- DirectorPirjo HonkasaloStarsPirkko SaisioA searing examination of the unrelenting Chechen conflict, observed through the prisms of a Russian military boys academy, a war-torn town and a children's refugee camp.
- DirectorMichael GlawoggerA documentary on the extremes to which workers will go to earn a living.
- DirectorMaria Zmarz-KoczanowiczStarsTeresa ToranskaEva RozenbaumFreda UziyelPolish Jews, who were forced to leave their country in 1968, meet every year in Ashkelon. After nearly 40 years, they share their memories of exile, loss and regret, and still consider themselves Polish.
- DirectorJolanta DylewskaStarsJan BorysiakMichal DarochaJózefa Dabrowska"Po-lin" is a story of a world long gone. Of place and time when two cultures, Polish and Jewish intertwined and coexisted. The documentary shows a collection of unique, black and white films, that take us back to a small villages and towns caught on camera right before the second World War.
- DirectorPeter KerekesStarsVassily Nikolaevich LogunovFranz WeinhartKlavdia Matveevna LobanovaInterviews with military cooks from various European armies.
- DirectorErik GandiniStarsSilvio BerlusconiFlavio BriatoreFabio CalviA look at segments of the Italian population who are consumed with celebrity worship.
- DirectorPeter LiechtiStarsPeter MettlerAlexander TschernekNikola WeisseA hunter in a remote and idyllic forest stumbles on a make shift tent fashioned from sheets of plastic and containing the mummified remains of a corpse. A detailed journal found on site reveals the man committed suicide by self-imposed starvation. Who was this man? Why did he kill himself in such a manner? Inspired by this true event and by the novella 'Until I Am a Mummy' by Shimada Masahiko, Insects sensuously evokes the mysterious man's last days.
- DirectorPedro González-RubioStarsJorge MachadoRoberta PalombiniNatan Machado PalombiniBefore their inevitable farewell, Jorge, a young man of Mayan roots, and Natan, his half-Italian son, spend time together living off the Banco Chinchorro coral reef.
- DirectorJosh FoxStarsJosh FoxDick CheneyPete SeegerAn exploration of the fracking petroleum extraction industry and the serious environmental consequences involved.
- DirectorRithy PanhStarsRandal DoucJean-Baptiste PhouRithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.
- DirectorMichel GondryStarsNoam ChomskyMichel GondryRichard FeynmanA series of interviews featuring linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky done in hand-drawn animation.
- DirectorGöran Hugo OlssonStarsLauryn HillKati OutinenGayatri Chakravorty SpivakThe most daring moments in the struggle for liberation from colonial rule.
- DirectorJuliano Ribeiro SalgadoWim WendersStarsSebastião SalgadoWim WendersLélia Wanick SalgadoThe life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.
- DirectorDziga Vertov"Sixth Part of the World" was the size of Soviet Union of the time. Many peoples of many customs composed it. Ice and desert, forest and ocean. Bread, furs, machines. All and every is a part of great unity.
- DirectorBohdan KosinskiThe tenement houses at the Old Town of Lublin have two contradictory faces: beautiful facades for the eyes of the tourists and hidden derelict courtyards and apartments for the inhabitants.
- DirectorJean RouchStarsOumarou GandaGambiPetit Touré"I, a Negro" depicts young Nigerien immigrants who left their country to find work in the Ivory Coast, in the Treichville quarter of Abidjan, the capital. These immigrants live in squalor in Treichville, envious of the bordering quarters of The Plateau (the business and industrial district) and the old African quarter of Adjame. The film traces a week in these immigrants' lives, blurring the line between their characters' routines and their own. Every morning, Tarzan, Eddy Constantine and Edward G. Robinson seek work in Treichville in hopes of getting the 20 francs that a bowl of soup costs them. They perform menial jobs as dockers carrying sacks and handy labor shipping supplies to Europe. At night, they drink away their sorrows in bars while dreaming about their idealized lives as their "movie" alter-egos, alternatively as an FBI Agent, a womanizing bachelor, a successful boxer, and even able to stand up to the white colonialists that seduce away their women. These dream-like sequences are shot in a poetic mode. Each day is introduced by an interstitial voice of god omniscient narration from Jean Rouch, providing a universal thematic distance to the movie's events. The film is book-ended by a narration directed at both Petit Jules and the audience from Edward G. Robinson fondly looking back on his childhood in Niger and concluding that his life is worthy of his dreams.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsSean LynchMick JaggerBrian JonesWhile The Rolling Stones rehearse "Sympathy for the Devil" in the studio, Godard reflects on 1968 society, politics and culture through five different vignettes.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsLouis MalleWith minimal narration by the director and very little context this is a kaleidoscope of stunning visuals from Calcutta, a city of 8,000,000 in the late 1960's: rich and poor, exotic and mundane, secular and religious, children and adults, animate and inanimate. Given only the images, the viewer can read any meaning she or he wants into the film.
- DirectorMarek PiwowskiA satirical look at the Soviet-block hairdressing contest which was held in Warsaw in 1971.
- DirectorMarcel LozinskiStarsUrszula FlisMarta WesolowskaErazm CiolekA portrait of a young country girl working hard at her farm, whose intellectual aspirations and passion for books are not accepted by the local community.
- DirectorRob EpsteinStarsHarvey FiersteinHarvey MilkAnne KronenbergA documentary of the successful career and assassination of San Francisco's first elected gay city supervisor.
- DirectorRaymond DepardonStarsRaymond DepardonA contemplative look at New York's dazzling cityscape during the day and at night.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsMichael GoldsmithWerner HerzogAugustine AssematDocumentary examining Bokassa's rule in the Central African Republic using the testimony of witnesses and visits to key sites.
- DirectorRaymond DepardonStarsMichèle Bernard-RequinThis documentary is a collection of footage of 14 suspects being 'interviewed' by the deputy public prosecutors.
- DirectorClaude NuridsanyMarie PérennouStarsKristin Scott ThomasJacques PerrinA documentary on insect life in meadows and ponds.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsDieter DenglerWerner HerzogEugene DeatrickGerman-American Dieter Dengler discusses his service as a U.S. naval pilot in the Vietnam War. Dengler also revisits the sites of his capture and eventual escape from the hands of the Viet Cong, recreating many events for the camera.
- DirectorMarcel LozinskiStarsUrszula FlisErazm CiolekAgnieszka KublikAfter 23 years, the film crew visits the same woman, Urszula Flis, who lives a reclusive life of a countryside intellectual in a remote village. Much has changed all around her but has she really changed herself?
- DirectorJean-Xavier de LestradeStarsAnn FinnellPatrick McGuinnessJames WilliamsOscar-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.
- DirectorJacques PerrinJacques CluzaudMichel DebatsStarsJacques PerrinPhilippe LabroDocumentary on the migratory patterns of birds, shot over the course of three years on all seven continents.
- DirectorMalgorzata LupinaStanislaw ManturzewskiStarsJan HimilsbachThe story of Jan Himilsbach, the iconic Polish character actor and talented writer, who was originally a stoker, a sailor and a mason. The movie traces the numerous ups and downs in his exceptional life.
- DirectorJørgen LethLars von TrierStarsClaus NissenMajken Algren NielsenDaniel Hernandez RodriguezFilmmaker Lars Von Trier challenges Jørgen Leth, the filmmaker behind The Perfect Human (1967), to remake his classic short under circumstances of increasing constraint.
- DirectorJonathan CaouetteStarsJonathan CaouetteRenee LeblancAdolph DavisFilmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8 film, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more - culled from nineteen years of his life.
- DirectorVít KlusákFilip RemundaStarsVarhan Orchestrovich BauerJaromír KalinaVít KlusákTwo students from the Czech Film Academy commission a leading advertising agency to organize a huge campaign for the opening of a new supermarket named Czech Dream. The supermarket however does not exist and is not meant to. The advertising campaign includes radio and television ads, posters, flyers with photos of fake Czech Dream products, a promotional song, an internet site, and ads in newspapers and magazines. Will people believe in it and show up for the grand opening?
- DirectorDoug BlockStarsCarol BlockDoug BlockEllen BlockIn the wake of his mother's passing, filmmaker Doug Block discovers a trove of unearthed secrets in the pages of her diary.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorJames LongleyStarsMarmar AlhilaliMohammed HaithemSuleiman MahmoudStories from modern day Iraq as told by Iraqis living in a time of war, occupation and ethnic tension.
- DirectorAnna BucchettiStarsGiuseppe ImbucciSalvatore MarraAngela NioliIn the narrow streets of Naples a lottery parlour has been run by one family for a few generations. Each and every customer has their favourite numbers and theories as to what brings good luck and how to interpret dreams using numbers.
- DirectorJeroen BerkvensStarsJimmy RosenbergA child guitarist is at the brink of a great musical career. At 17, however, drug addiction, mental problems and the imprisonment of his father all lead to his fast decline. Will Jimmy manage to get back on track?
- DirectorYung ChangStarsJerry Bo Yu ChenCampbell Ping HeCindy Shui YuAt the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
- 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.
- DirectorMichael GlawoggerStarsEmmaNingTohAn examination of the lives, needs, troubles, and hopes of prostitutes in Thailand, Bangladesh, and Mexico.
- DirectorCyril TuschiStarsMikhail KhodorkovskyPavel KhodorkovskyMarina KhodorkovskayaKhodorkovsky, the richest Russian, challenges President Putin. A fight of the titans begins. Putin warns him. But Khodorkovsky comes back to Russia knowing that he will be imprisoned, once he returns. When I heard about it, I asked myself: why didn't he stay in exile with a couple of billions? Why did he do that? A personal journey to Khodorkovsky.
- DirectorAndreas PichlerStarsTudy SammartiniGiorgio GrossLaura GrossAn examination of Venice, Italy, its rise as a tourist attraction and its linked decline as a functioning city.
- DirectorSarah PolleyStarsMichael PolleyJohn BuchanMark PolleyA film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers.
- DirectorPawel LozinskiStarsMarcel LozinskiPawel LozinskiTwo acclaimed documentary film-makers - father and son - drive from Poland to Paris to see the place where the ashes of the father's mother are buried. What accompanies them on the way are resentments, quarrels and sincere confessions.
- DirectorNadav SchirmanStarsMosab Hassan YousefGonen Ben YitzhakSheikh Hassan YousefThe son of a founding leader in the Palestinian organization, Hamas, becomes a spy for the Israelis.
- 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.