Your Favorite Documentaries of All Time

Here are my favorite 40

Night and Fog
Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Hearts and Minds
Land of Silence and Darkness
Samsara
The Thin Blue Line
Powaqqatsi
Glas
Nostalgia for the Light
Senna
Alamar
Blackfish
Sans Soleil
Encounters at the End of the World
Pina
Toute La Memoire Du Monde
Ram Ke Naam
Searching for Sugar Man
The History of the Self
Super Size Me
Touching the Void
War and Peace
Bishar Blues
Crumb
Inside Job
Bowling for Columbine
Baraka
Manakamana
Sicko
Malegaon Ka Superman
Road to Guantanamo
The Cove
Exit Through the Gift Shop
The Corporation
Bobby Fisher Against the World
Zoo
Burden of Dreams
Harlan County USA
Hoop Dreams
Wal Mart: High Cost of Low Prices

__________________
To Suggest Is To Create, To Name Is To Destroy

Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman
My Best Fiend

My 25 from the Documentaries Countdown:

01.Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
02.Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse
03.The Up Series
04.Going Clear
05.Grizzly Man
06.Crumb
07.Encounters At The End Of The World
08.Earth
09.Hoop Dreams
10.Dear Zachary
11.Waltz With Bashir
12.The Fog of War
13.Spellbound
14.King of Kong
15.Paradise Lost
16.When We Were Kings
17.My Best Fiend
18.Taxi To The Dark Side
19.Grey Gardens
20.Titicut Follies
21.Tabloid
22.Exit Through The Gift Shop
23.One Day In September
24.Shoah
25.Magic Trip

If i was to do one now, i'd probably drop Magic Trip and One Day in September and replace them with Capturing The Friedmans at #7 and Burden of Dreams somewhere in the top 15.

Ken Burns' "The Civil War."

I don't watch many documentaries at all, but I'm usually down to watch one about a bad movie, like Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) which was kind of insane and is probably the one I would recommend the most.

Other than that, I found Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show (2014) to be fairly enlightening, but I don't think it has mass general appeal and is mainly just a couple of showrunners telling different stories of varying interest.

Great Thread!!

Nice if people write what its about because sometimes you cant tell by the name,but i can of course imdb it

I should see the cove as im very involved with animal rights but havent been able to bring myself to see it yet.

I've mentioned it before, but Dark Days is probably my favorite. A very gritty doc about homeless people living in a dilapidated underground environment. It actually has a satisfying ending too, making it feel almost like a written narrative.

Encounters at the End of the World is a beautiful, unique, and enveloping account of Antarctica, but I've also heard that it paints a rather Romantic picture of the area.

Also, Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends is a really fun series. Theroux confronts a myriad of strange people about unique and often taboo practices.

Louis Theroux has a lot of great documentaries,havent seen that one though

If you ever played the game, or loved the game, Ken Burns Baseball is a must see for all baseball fans worldwide.

The stories are exceptional, and you get an effortless education on what you thought you knew about baseball. At times it lags when they yarn on about their personal love of the game, or how bad the black baseball players had it in comparison, but Ive seen the whole series twice, and its really special.

Harlan County, USA

Hearts & Minds

The Yoni Netanyahu Story

Dancing With Bashir

One Day in September

State of Siege

Z

Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

The Disappearance of the Lions

Rachel: An American Conscience: (an interesting but rather grisly film about a young woman who was bulldozed to death by an Israeli soldier-operated bulldozer while she was attempting to protect an ordinary Palestinian family's home in the southern town of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip from being demolished by bulldozing. Ms. Corrie kept climbing up on the pile of dirt until she was within eye-level of the two Israeli soldiers in the cockpit of the bulldozer and could easily be seen. Unfortunately, the soldiers in the bulldozer kept on going, Rachel stumbled over the blade of the bulldozer, was pulled under the pile of dirt, the soldiers operating the bulldozer ran over her and then backed up...twice, ultimately killing her. Not good. Israel doesn't belong in the West Bank, Gaza Strip or East Jerusalem at all, and should get out...now. This is admittedly not a film I'd care to see again, by any stretch of the imagination, however. Please note: This particular film is only available on DVD. It's never, ever played in the movie theatres, for obvious reasons.

Gimme Shelter.

Monterey Pops

Bowling for Columbine

Sicko

__________________
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

Was Waltz With Bashir released as this some places?

I LOVE documentary films!

20 ft from Stardom
The Act of Killing
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Amy
Blackfish
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Bowling for Columbine
Citizenfour
Close-Up
The Cove
Crumb
Don't Look Back
Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film
Food, Inc.
Grey Gardens
Grizzly Man
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Hoop Dreams
How to Survive a Plague
The Imposter
An Inconvenient Truth
Jodorowsky's Dune
Life Itself
The Look of Silence (companion piece to The Act of Killing)
Man on Wire
Marley
Muscle Shoals
Nanook of the North
Paris Is Burning
Pina
Project Nim
The Queen of Versailles
Restrepo
Shoah
The Thin Blue Line
This Is Not a Film
Tim's Vermeer
Waltz With Bashir (animated documentary film)
West of Memphis
What Happened, Miss Simone?
When We Were Kings
Winged Migration
Virunga

I also love going clear-sciontology and the prison of belief.

Leah Remini (King of Queen) did a 20/20 special after leaving aswell as writing a book



I hear david whatshisface wrote a book about it recently aswell and is doing a 20/20 special. i cant wait to read it.
i find it so fascinating.
Also so much cred to Leah for speaking out for those people are crazy and scary.
I get that Katie Holmes is a very private person but i find it odd how silent shes been on the matter.
i know that if she was to speak out about sciontology that tom cruise wouldnt be able to talk to her and that would,
from my not-knowing-anything point of view make it easier?

__________________

nevermind he already did the 20/20 special

Night and Fog would now be my #2 on that list i posted.

does anyone have any recommendation about cult like documentaries?
ive seen most about sciontologyi think,but do leave them aswell if you have any,ive seen most on the manson family, and ive seen one on heavens gate and peoples temple.

What about this? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_Family

I haven't seen it i just googled Documentaries about cults and this was the non Manson, Applewhite, Jones,one that came up a few times.

Thank you! I havent heard of them,i think.
i genuinely find these kind of things so fascinating.

I listened to a Podcast about Jonestown a few weeks ago. Messed up.

yeah its absolutely insane