The world through a screen - Top documentaries
List of my favorite documentaries, no particular order.
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- DirectorKazuo HaraStarsKenzo OkuzakiRiichi AikawaMasaichi HamaguchiA documentary following Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, as he tries to expose the needless executions of two Japanese soldiers during the war.
- 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.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.Check out the rest of the series as well.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsFini StraubingerM. BaaskeElsa FehrerThrough examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since adolescence, and her work on behalf of other deaf and blind people, this film shows how the deaf and blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.
- DirectorMarc SingerStarsMarc SingerA cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.
- DirectorMarshall CurrySam CullmanStarsDaniel McGowanLisa McGowanTim LewisA rare behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat.'
- 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.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsTariq AliTony BlairWolf BlitzerA road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media's misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents.
- DirectorDavid ShapiroLaurie Gwen ShapiroStarsTobias SchneebaumNorman MailerMichael RockefellerA retired gay anthropologist revisits the native cultures he studied in his youth.
- DirectorScott NobleStarsGeorge BushGeorge W. BushNoam ChomskyPsywar explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an emphasis on the elitist theory of democracy; and the relationship between war, propaganda, and class.
- DirectorNewton Thomas SigelPamela YatesStarsRigoberta MenchúSusan SarandonA documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with firsthand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu.
- DirectorJonathan StackJames BrabazonStarsGeorge W. BushZubin CooperCharles Taylor"Liberia, a nation burdened by its past. America, a nation with no memory at all." In Liberia, the summer of 2003 was pure insanity. A rebel army attempts to overthrow a government run by an indicted war criminal. Two armies engage in the final battle of a decade long civil war. Hundreds of innocent civilians die from mortar shells launched from afar and thousands more suffer hunger while the soldiers, mostly teenagers, keep the capital city under siege. The nation prays that America, the world's sole superpower, will put an end to the violence. Conceived in Washington in the early 1800s, its constitution written at Harvard, its founding fathers freed slaves who returned to Africa, Liberia is the one country in the world worthy of the title, Made in America. By the year 2000, Liberia, once considered the gem of Africa, was ranked last in the world for quality of life.
- StarsThomas MortonShane SmithSarah HarrisThe show follows Vice employees as they travel to dangerous, weird, and offbeat locations throughout the globe.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsFred A. Leuchter Jr.Robert Jan Van PeltDavid IrvingA cinematic portrait of the life and career of the infamous American execution device designer and holocaust denier.
- DirectorJeff MalmbergStarsMark HogancampEmmanuel NnejiEdda HogancampDocumentary about Mark Hogancamp. After a vicious attack leaves him brain-damaged and broke, Mark seeks recovery in "Marwencol", a 1/6th scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard. Inspired the movie Welcome to Marwen (2018)
- DirectorTatsuya MoriStarsHiroshi ArakiAum Shinrikyo, the Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara and responsible for the 1995 Sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway, becomes the subject of this documentary.
- DirectorErik GandiniStarsJohn ZerzanGeorge W. BushFidel CastroLooks at the arguments for capitalism and technology, such as greater efficiency, more time and less work, and argues that these are not being fulfilled, and they never will be.
- DirectorBilly CorbenStarsJon RobertsAl SunshineSam BurstynThe story of how Miami became the cocaine capital of the United States in the early 1980's and the police officers who turned the tide on crime.
- CreatorJosh SeligStarsJohn LurieWillem DafoeRobb WebbMusician John Lurie knows nothing about fishing, but that doesn't stop him from embarking on fishing in exotic locations with friends.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsAlbert BitterlingRoscoe CollinsGeorge HarrisA documentary on the eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida.
- DirectorPerry HenzellStarsJimmy CliffJanet BartleyCarl BradshawWishing to become a successful reggae singer, a young Jamaican man finds himself tied to corrupt record producers and drug pushers.
- DirectorGualtiero JacopettiFranco ProsperiStarsSergio RossiGualtiero JacopettiJomo KenyattaThe cruel acts of animal poaching and violence, executions, and tribal slaughtering, all taking place on the African continent.
- DirectorTegan BukowskiLoressa ClisbyKevin MacdonaldStarsHiroaki AikawaCindy BaerTeagan BentleyA documentary shot by film-makers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the twenty-fourth of July, 2010.
- DirectorJoachim SchroederTommy SowardsStarsK.K. CalvinJumbo ChrisDig Dug DouglasA documentary on five members of one of the world's most notorious gangs, the Bloods.