The 33 Best Documentaries of All Time

Documentary is not a genre , but an entire subdivision of moving picture - making . So pit various qualifying contenders against each other to determine the 33 respectable … well , that ’s difficult . And when you ’re coming down from the wildest election in American history , it ’s evenmoredifficult .

Have I included enough music docs ( Do n’t attend Back , Gimme Shelter ) , extraneous entry ( Tokyo Olympiad , TheSorrow and the Pity ) , or emergence - driven motion picture ( Super Size Me , An Inconvenient Truth ) ? I ’m decidedly miss great shorts and series ( Night and Fog , Civil War , The Staircase , theUpfilms ) , as we ’ve limited the lean to feature of speech longer than an 60 minutes . And pic that mainstreamed the form , likeNanook of the North , The King of Kong , Crumb , The Endless Summer , enamour the Friedmans , Paris Is burn down , Spellbound , Bowling for Columbine , The Times of Harvey Milk , andThe Fog of War , did not make the undercut .

What the statute title ranked below have in unwashed is that they are masterpiece of nonfiction storytelling , and you demand to see them all :

Portrait Films Grey Gardens

Portrait Films (Edited)

33.Roger & Me(1989)

Back before he was the most notable documentarian animated , Michael Moore could make a first - mortal - style investigatory film where he was as much the guinea pig as the issues he focused on , and the result was a brilliant admixture of the personal and political . InRoger & Me , Moore ’s comically naïve hunt for the CEO of General Motors spotlights the harm being done to the city of Flint , Michigan by the shuttering of local auto plant .

32.Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D(2010)

include the 3-D in the title above is important – this movie is not the same in just two dimensions . employ 3-D for a virtual visit to the otherwise publically impenetrable Chauvet Cave , Werner Herzog unearthed the next step in cinematic certification , put up the right depth perception for our guided exploration of geologic shapes and textures – at the same time present ancient cave - paries paintings as proto - filmmaking . We get the touch of really being present in various time period , as if undone in fourth dimension .

31.How to Survive a Plague(2012)

A story of the AIDS epidemic through the mid-1990s is obviously one of the most gut - wrenching photographic film of all time , but this is a documentary that elicits as many tear of joyfulness as tears of heartbreak because it chronicles a story of Bob Hope , determination , and ultimate victory . Comprised mostly of footage shot during the early old age of the crisis , much of it by camerapeople who did n’t live to see the movie , the quest of organizations ACT UP and TAG to find better treatment for HIV and AIDS is experience up close and personal through David France ’s archival - vérité approach shot .

30.The Battle of the Somme(1916)

There is some debate over what is the first feature article docudrama ever made , and this is my answer if I ignore the straight transcription of a sporting event and the full - on reenactments in early ethnographical films . Combining literal front - credit line trench footage with some toppingly stag struggle scenes , this controversial ( yet passing popular at the clip ) propaganda movie captures the Great War as it ’s materialize , and it was released quickly enough to have an enormous impact on British morale . Plus , this was the best - selling motion-picture show in the UK for 60 year – until the dismission ofStar war .

29.The Last Waltz(1978)

Seven years after taking part in the making of Michael Wadleigh’sWoodstock , which itself is a noteworthy concert film that sadly just missed a place on this list , Martin Scorsese directed a feature on The Band ’s 1976 farewell show that so utterly contrasts against the previous decade ’s more liberal - signifier music docs . It ’s an apt delegacy of where music was extend at the time , as it ’s almost epically overproduced , with all the legendary Hollywood craftsmen to be found in the credits upstaging , for some of us , the player appearing on degree and screen .

28.Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One(1968)

Apologies to classics likeBurden of DreamsandHearts of Darkness , but the good documentary about making a celluloid is n’t tied to any completed flick . It ’s this multilayered , brain - bending experimental feature made by people who were n’t sure what it was to begin with , which wound up too complex to research in a undivided paragraph . Put merely , it ’s an acting exercise inwardly of a direct exercise inside of a production exercise , shoot mostly on locating in Central Park with almost too much transparency . I see and relish it on one layer as a serious farce about the collaborative art , but that ’s just a single reading among many .

27.Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills(1996)

Now primarily revered for how it finally , along with its two sequel , helped to free three distinctly innocent men , Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky ’s initial celluloid on a horrendous treble - homicide subject regard little son in West Memphis , Arkansas , and the ensuing test of the then - teenage suspects , is a tiptop accomplishment in court - focused true - criminal offence infotainment . But it ’s not a great film because of its impact . It ’s a not bad film because of its comprehensive documentation of a compelling story , which inspired viewers to actively take part in what happened next .

26.Koyaanisqatsi(1982)

A gestural , tale - free cinema comfortably fuck for its clip - lapse cinematography and original score by Philip Glass , this too is the first of a trilogy ( 1988’sPowaqqatsiand 2002’sNaqoyqatsifollowed ) . At the time , there had been nothing like it before – and 35 days afterward , it ’s still a rarefied piece of nonfiction film art . Whether you wish well to view it as a prescient work with an inexplicit environmentalist root or just a trippy , meaningless montage of " life out of balance , " it ’s a arresting spectacle that now also functions as a curious time abridgment . Many other docs can be that , too , but this one is unambiguously improbable for its ambiguous movement pictures represent at various focal ratio .

25.Waltz with Bashir(2008)

While hardly the first animated documentary , Ari Folman ’s Oscar - nominated feature attempting to recount his experiences during the Lebanon War is the best of its sort . It does a magnificent job of present all that invigoration can do as a reenactment tool , depicting not just the actuality of events , but also the phantasmagorical nature of memory and psychological internal representation . Then he concludes the film with actual graphic footage of the withering Sabra and Shatila massacre , impinge on us with the realisation that some parts of a story like this one need to necessitate photographic grounds

24.The Arbor(2010)

It ’s constantly a letdown how many biographical documentaries about creative person fail to get hold an approach befitting their study . That ’s why Clio Barnard ’s film about British playwright Andrea Dunbar is such a revelation . This extremely original work engage the proficiency of " verbatim theatre , " frame actors in the roles of the film ’s interviewee and having them lip - sync real the great unwashed ’s words . Plus , it also stages voice of Dunbar ’s autobiographical drama , The Arbor , in the court of a housing undertaking like the one she grew up in . There ’s really nothing like it .

23.The Look of Silence(2014)

The stronger one of Joshua Oppenheimer ’s flick confronting the mid-1960s race murder in Indonesia ( the other isThe Act of Killing ) follows an optometrist as he meets and interviews the individual creditworthy for the death of his brother , none of whom have been hold accountable before . It vocalise so simplistic , and at first it plays so serenely , then step by step , it build into a powerful record of the candid confessions of men still considered heroes in their country . Another documentary about computer storage , this one focuses on the legacy of events that will shortly only be in the hands and mind of a generation detach from and mistake about the events of 50 long time ago .

22.Chronicle of a Summer(1961)

Now that most docudrama seem to be first and foremost about their own qualification , this once - groundbreaking film by anthropologist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin may not seem too particular to modern audiences . Yet everything it state and does with its confrontational flair – human - on - the - street urging about happiness , cryptical discussion with Parisians on important issue of the clip , and glimpses of the subjects ' own chemical reaction to themselves on screen – remains fascinating in its self-referent approach to provoked and observed truth .

21.Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation Kazakhstan(2006)

This nonfiction comedy , led by a fictional character traveling across the US , is more the speed of the modern crowd , in part because we expect bodily fluid in our news show " reporting " and therefore also in our documentary movie . As " Borat , " actor Sacha Baron Cohen holds a mirror to America , and the truth is as horrible as it is hilarious . The old guard was clearly too focussed on the estimate that the observing tv camera blot out the real accuracy of what is being observe . As it change state out , those observe will be most honest in front of a tv camera they think serves only some distant strange consultation .

20.Last Train Home(2009)

Lixin Fan ’s story of a family displume asunder throw us an sinful glance at the common plight of migratory workers in China . It is an incredibly absorbing pic that check a fluid admixture of illuminating , observational , make up , and , in one sinewy moment , quite provocative stuff . It ’s pretty much a perfect documentary , as it check off every box for what a workplace of nonfiction film can do . We have n’t gotten many docs yet this one C that qualify for that horizontal surface of distinction .

19.The War Room(1993)

The legal age of political run moving picture rivet on the candidates , in part because they ’re a bigger draw . But this documentary film from Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker ( who ’d worked on a kind of poor herald 30 year earlier , titledCampaign Manager ) created moving picture star out of James Carville and George Stephanopoulos , turn them into an unlikely attractor for audience . It might not have been so popular a film if Bill Clinton had n’t become president , but either agency , it ’d still be a riveting looking inside the workings of a to the full charged political simple machine .

18.Grizzly Man(2005)

Herzog ’s good feature - length Dr. is a sort of forensic quality study , an exploration into the mind and action of bear lover Timothy Treadwell through his own footage , leading up to his and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard ’s decease at the hands ( paw ? ) of grizzly . This sensational multi - tiered study , boast guide voice - over commentary from the director , turns nature documentary on their head , and its significance has only grown outstanding following the expiration of Disney ’s nonfictional prose filmBears , which depicted real bears , filmed in the same space that Treadwell died , as cute , well-disposed , humanlike creatures .

17.The Battle of Chile(1975-1979)

Today , every revolution is covered to an utmost – but never excessive – level . principally by social media and documentary films of all sizes , if not always the mainstream news outlets . But back when Patricio Guzman and his collaborator defined embedded and endangered documentary film news media with this three - part account of the 1973 Chilean coup d’etat , it was an astonishing achievement . And not without its own casualties – the first part ends with one of the most unforgettable injection in doc history : cameraman Leonardo Henrichsen filming his own death .

16.Portrait of Jason(1967)

As in painting , many of the best portrayal done by docudrama artists are those of otherwise unidentified figures . Aaron Payne , aka Jason Holliday , is every bit as captivating as theMona Lisa , and despite the assume context you ’d get from a movie that ’s entirely made up of a single interview , he winds up remaining almost as secret a eccentric . A hustler and performing artist by patronage , he displays a somewhat invent , yet often very frank personality , but who knows how much of his highly entertaining taradiddle are adorn ? And as he gets more and more intoxicated as the consultation die on , how much of Jason – an out - and - majestic , sexually blunt gay man at a time when that was n’t prosperous – becomes buried or revealed as the film plays out ?

15.Titicut Follies(1967)

Frederick Wiseman is wrongly experience for being a passive observational movie maker – yet his most illustrious body of work , which was also his directorial introduction , is staggeringly thought-provoking , and one of the most renowned deterrent example of the impact of docudrama . This production , which looks at the disturbing conditions for patient at a hospital for the reprehensively mad , may have directly tempt changes at the facility . More so , it continues to have a powerful effect on its audience , and their notions of the mentally ill and their care .

14.Grey Gardens(1975)

Thank goodness the Beales existed in a time before New reality television system . And thank goodness they were capture through the lens of the eye of buddy Albert and David Maysles . Big Edie and Little Edie are the sort of infotainment characters who all but spring off the screen door . Their report , of a high - class mother and girl live on in a literally and metaphorically crumbling mansion , is the epitome of the unknown - than - fiction idea . It ’s also a fomite through which we get to run across two terrifically kooky ladies who are fascinating beyond opinion .

13.Sans Soleil(1983)

Chris Marker ’s classic essay film , a meditation on fourth dimension and memory , is really just a very creative family moving-picture show , if we want to crudely reduce it to something even he recognise it as being . But oh , how originative , with its distinction from the common personal docudrama and travelogue in its exercise of a female narrator relay the words of a false cinematographer about his time in West Africa , Japan , Iceland , and San Francisco . To rephrase a line from the cinema , even if you do n’t understand it , you will love it .

12.Streetwise(1984)

Martin Bell is the theatre director of this Oscar - name face at homeless teens in Seattle ( then " America ’s most liveable city " ) , but his lensman wife , Mary Ellen Mark , and writer Cheryl McCall deserve a lot of credit for originally documenting the kids for aLifemagazine clause and helping to earn their trust . It ’s absolutely astonishing , the variety of characters and events they manage to entrance within this tragically exotic world of runaways , street girl , and hooker , including both a boy left alone by his lag father ( whose sprightliness enliven Bell ’s dramatic play filmAmerican Heart ) and a 14 - year - old prostitute . It becomes even more heartbreaking when you search up what became of all these kid after the film ’s loss .

11.F for Fake(1973)

Orson Welles host viewers through a twisty narration of pseudo and pseudo and fiction , and it plays like a cinematic magic show . or else of sleight of hired man , theCitizen Kanedirector uses sleight of redaction , offering up a loose and demanding nonlinear tale ask art forger Elmyr de Hory , hoax author Clifford Irving , and Welles ' beautiful helper – used as a distraction , of course – actress Oja Kodar . Plus , Welles himself as a self - admitted charlatan . Like most movies about the art of illusion , this one begs to be picture multiple time .

10.Hoop Dreams(1994)

One of the rarefied doctor to be nominated for an editing Oscar , Steve James ' crowd - pleasing sport film follow two African - American teenager through their high schoolhouse hoops life history . It ’s a ware of perfect luck and superb storytelling , a compounding that makes for a extremely entertaining and regard lineament that also carry a lot of societal significance . For nearly three hour , we become completely clothe in the life of William Gates and Arthur Agee , concerned with nothing other than what happens to these two boy .

9.Salesman(1968)

In this vintage piece of Americana , the Maysles brothers , with Charlotte Zwerin , capture the world of door - to - door Bible pedlar as if they ’re an endangered species . The film maker might as well have been documenting foregone traditions of the Inuit or the conservation of the last mountain gorillas in the Congo . The Maysles ' in effect celluloid concern ends of epoch , marking turning point in ethnic history with child and small , and this one is a biggie , representing not just the death of the salesman , but the reverberating question of whether God was dead . Neither actually went totally extinct , but this film still documents dinosaurs of a sort , performer of a now - rare art form .

8.Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer(2003)

Nick Broomfield , the original faux - naïve first - person investigative movie maker , made ( with co - director Joan Churchill ) this documentary on death - row convict Aileen Wuornos after being subpoenaed as a informant because of his 1992 feature article about her , Aileen Wuornos : The Selling of a Serial Killer . It ’s a deeply fascinating follow - up because of how much of Wuornos ' story is changed from one celluloid to the next , as well as for its proceed condition of the complex and often unbalanced relationship between documentarian and subject .

7.Man with a Movie Camera(1929)

The expectant deconstructionism of the infotainment form occur while nonfiction cinema was still in its early childhood , before conventions like voice - over recital , talking heads , and a focal point on social issues became the norm . Dziga Vertov ’s playful phonograph record and manipulation of reality depicts day-to-day life in Soviet metropolis with continual monitor that we ’re just watching a movie . assist by his editor in chief married woman Elizaveta Svilova and cinematographer brother Mikhail Kaufman , Vertov reflexively employs a number of techniques , including reverse - motion editing and stop - motion animation , that should be more usual in doctor , so they might turn a loss some of their association with seriousness .

6.Harlan County U.S.A.(1976)

The first of Barbara Kopple ’s two Academy Award - winning infotainment on striking proletarian ( the other beingAmerican Dream ) , this riveting motion-picture show transport us to Kentucky ember - mineworker country during a major labor dispute in the seventies . It bury us in the community and the civilization and the issues of that meter , with the director alternating between phantom observer and engaged player . One thing that ’s not admit , let alone appreciated enough , with the plastic film is that it ’s also a kind of nonfictional prose musical , the soundtrack punctuating what is already a powerful piece of American folk cinema .

5.Man on Wire(2008)

James Marsh is the maestro of the well - planned infotainment , and his bully film is about the master of well - plan high - wire stunt . An impeccably polished portrait of Philippe Petit that chronicles his 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers , it ’s also a electrifying protection to those since - fallen bodily structure and an era recede to the terrorist attack of 9/11 . With all its pre - production work , hard lead interviews , dramatized reenactment , and nimiety of demonstrative archival footage , this is a documentary as far from the experimental mode as can be , yet it ’s one of the most marvelous example of experiential nonfictional prose there is .

4.Welfare(1975)

Most of Frederick Wiseman ’s documentaries are exceeding to the point that they ’re hard to weigh against one another , but this one is arguably the most fascinating . That ’s surprising have that it ’s a film of a bureaucratic foundation , specifically a local welfare post in Downtown Brooklyn . We see people sour with and for the system , as well as a couple who are seemingly cultivate the system . And through Wiseman ’s impressionist crystalline lens , always reflecting his sense and experience of wherever he ’s bring his camera , we get a bewitching portrait of the place .

3.Sherman’s March(1985)

Many have try out , but nobody can do personal documentary quite like Ross McElwee . With this turning point piece of cinematic memoir , which somehow never feels self - lenient , he guides us through the American South as he attempts to make a plastic film about General Sherman ’s " March to the Sea " military campaign during the US Civil War and lift up weave a more foreground narrative of his own quixotic endeavour . It does n’t vocalize like something that would work , but it does , thanks to McElwee ’s lyrical insights and the meddling of his uproarious mentor and acquaintance Charleen , undoubtedly one of the spanking doc reference of all time .

2.Shoah(1985)

Claude Lanzmann ’s narrative of the Shoah , or the Holocaust , is an unequaled achievement . There ’s been room for legion other documentaries on various specifics of that low point for mankind , but this is the epic that rules them all . At more than nine hours in length , it ’s not a comprehensive history , as that ’s just not potential with this subject , no matter the scope . Yet it carefully addresses every sort of hold up firsthand view of what millions of Jews have on their way toward liquidation . Consisting solely of testimony – with no archival footage – the film is an important diachronic criminal record . And as those good word are solely memories recollected and relayed , the film is a repository of commemorate unwritten history .

1.The Thin Blue Line(1988)

Even if this nonfiction investigator film had n’t help disembarrass an innocent man from death row , its importance would still be tremendous . Errol Morris , who was working as a individual detective at the prison term he began the project , uses movie theatre to review the case of a murder Dallas officer and to represent the incident through multiple perspectives and possibilities . Despite what you may recall , there are no reenactments in this keen example of documentary noir , only dramatized scenario , each one slimly convert for represent the dissimilar point of view of witnesses to the offence . It is a very actual film , and specifically focalise , but it is a necessary lesson in the broader consideration of sensing as truth , and frailty versa .