Documentaries: The Complete List
by trapeziumalty | created - 26 Jun 2014 | updated - 27 Feb 2016 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Alone (2013)
89 min | Documentary, Family
Three sisters aged 10, 6 and 4 have to cope more or less on their own in a remote mountainous region of Yunnan. Terrible poverty in China, shown with gripping compassion by today's best documentary maker. Shorter version of Three Sisters.
Director: Wang Bing
Votes: 65
★★★★★
2. Sans Soleil (1983)
Not Rated | 100 min | Documentary, Drama
A woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Amilcar Cabral, Florence Delay, Arielle Dombasle, Riyoko Ikeda
Votes: 12,137 | Gross: $0.03M
★★★★★
3. Close-Up (1990)
Not Rated | 98 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah
Votes: 23,040 | Gross: $0.00M
★★★★★
4. Hello Cinema (1995)
75 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf | Stars: Shaghayeh Djodat, Behzad Dorani, Feizola Gashghai, Maryam Keyhan
Votes: 2,186
★★★★★
5. Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
G | 99 min | Documentary
Film-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Scott Rowland, Stefan Pashov, Doug MacAyeal
Votes: 19,259 | Gross: $0.94M
★★★★★
6. Last Train Home (2009)
Not Rated | 85 min | Documentary, Drama
A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.
Director: Lixin Fan | Stars: Changhua Zhang, Yang Zhang, Suqin Chen, Qin Zhang
Votes: 3,717 | Gross: $0.29M
★★★★★
7. Man with No Name (2010)
92 min | Documentary
Man with No Name is an intimate portrait of an anonymous man living in a deserted wasteland in an unnamed part of China. He lives in an underground cave, in a harsh and otherworldly ... See full summary »
Director: Wang Bing
Votes: 134
★★★★★
8. The House Is Black (1963)
20 min | Documentary, Short
Set in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness", of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.
Director: Forugh Farrokhzad | Stars: Forugh Farrokhzad, Ebrahim Golestan, Hossein Mansouri
Votes: 5,568
★★★★★
9. Samsara (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 102 min | Documentary, Music
Filmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, and shot on seventy-millimetre film, Samsara transports us to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.
Director: Ron Fricke | Stars: Balinese Tari Legong Dancers, Ni Made Megahadi Pratiwi, Puti Sri Candra Dewi, Putu Dinda Pratika
Votes: 38,060 | Gross: $2.67M
★★★★★
10. This Is Not a Film (2011)
Not Rated | 75 min | Documentary
It's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
Directors: Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Jafar Panahi | Stars: Jafar Panahi, Igi, Mrs. Gheirat, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
Votes: 5,645 | Gross: $0.08M
★★★★★
11. Lessons of Darkness (1992 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 54 min | Documentary, War
This film surveys the disaster of the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames, with little narration and scarcely any interviews. Hell on Earth is presented in such transcendent visions and music that one can only be fascinated by it.
Director: Werner Herzog | Star: Werner Herzog
Votes: 6,754
★★★★★
12. La Soufrière (1977)
31 min | Documentary, Short, Biography
Herzog takes a film crew to the island of Guadeloupe when he hears that the volcano on the island is going to erupt. Everyone has left, except for one old man who refuses to leave. Herzog ... See full summary »
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein, Edward Lachman
Votes: 2,304
★★★★★
13. A Man Vanishes (1967)
130 min | Documentary, Drama
Plastics salesman Oshima disappeared without a word to anyone, and has been missing for two years. Shohei Imamura and his crew follow Oshima's fiancé Yoshie and actor Shigeru Tsuyuguchi as they investigate the disappearance.
Director: Shôhei Imamura | Stars: Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Yoshie Hayakawa, Shôhei Imamura
Votes: 830
★★★★
14. Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
PG-13 | 86 min | Documentary, Biography, Music
Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n roller, Rodriguez.
Director: Malik Bendjelloul | Stars: Rodriguez, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman, Dennis Coffey, Mike Theodore
Votes: 72,923 | Gross: $3.97M
★★★★
15. Voyage in Time (1983 TV Movie)
62 min | Documentary
Acclaimed Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and his screenwriter Tonino Guerra travel all over Italy to scout locations for the film Nostalghia.
Directors: Tonino Guerra, Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Tonino Guerra, Lora Jabloskina, Andrei Tarkovsky
Votes: 2,093
★★★★
16. Talking Heads (1980)
16 min | Documentary, Short, Biography
People of different age, profession and social status answer two simple questions: who they are and what they want from life.
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Votes: 3,772
★★★★
17. The Koumiko Mystery (1965)
54 min | Documentary
While filming the Olympics, a filmmaker encounters a Japanese girl. Manchurian born and French educated, she's an intriguing anomaly. He films her around Tokyo, as she speaks of Japan, being Japanese and her unique perspective on life.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Chris Marker, Kumiko Muraoka
Votes: 678
★★★★
18. France/tour/détour/deux/enfants (1980)
26 min | Documentary
A series in which the auteur interrogates a boy and a girl from two families in an attempt to get back to the origins of language and movement.
Stars: Camille Virolleaud, Arnaud Martin, Betty Berr, Albert Dray
Votes: 132
★★★★
19. Everything Is a Remix, Part I (2010)
7 min | Short
The first installment of an ambitious four-part documentary on the history and cultural significance of sampling and collaborative creation.
Director: Kirby Ferguson
Votes: 234
★★★★
20. Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Not Rated | 68 min | Documentary
A man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
Director: Dziga Vertov | Stars: Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova
Votes: 28,003
★★★★
21. Tim's Vermeer (2013)
PG-13 | 80 min | Documentary, History
Inventor Tim Jenison seeks to understand the painting techniques used by Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer.
Director: Teller | Stars: Tim Jenison, Penn Jillette, Martin Mull, Philip Steadman
Votes: 8,557 | Gross: $1.66M
★★★★
22. Moi, un noir (1958)
Not Rated | 70 min | Drama
"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 ... See full summary »
Director: Jean Rouch | Stars: Oumarou Ganda, Gambi, Petit Touré, Alassane Maiga
Votes: 1,098
★★★★
23. Please Vote for Me (2007)
Not Rated | 58 min | Documentary
Democracy in China exists, that is, in a primary school in Wuhan where a grade 3 class can vote who they want as class monitor.
Director: Weijun Chen | Stars: Cheng Cheng, Luo Lei, Xu Xiaofei
Votes: 1,449
★★★★
24. Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)
PG-13 | 90 min | Documentary
The story of cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's ambitious but ultimately doomed film adaptation of the seminal science fiction novel.
Director: Frank Pavich | Stars: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, H.R. Giger, Chris Foss
Votes: 27,592 | Gross: $0.65M
★★★★
25. The Soul of a Man (2003)
103 min | Documentary, Biography, History
The dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of director Wim Wenders's favorite blues artists.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Chris Thomas King, Keith B. Brown, James Hughes, David F. Hughes
Votes: 936
★★★★
26. Night and Fog (1956)
TV-14 | 32 min | Documentary, Short, History
The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Michel Bouquet, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler
Votes: 21,476
★★★★
27. Mou hitotsu no kyouiku - Ina shogakkou haru gumi no kiroku (1991)
47 min | Documentary, Drama
An elementary school in Japan begins an experimental program that frames the students' curriculum around one single project: the raising of a calf from adolescence to adulthood. Through ... See full summary »
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu
Votes: 137
★★★★
28. Far from Vietnam (1967)
Not Rated | 120 min | Documentary, Drama, War
In seven different segments, Godard, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais, and Varda show their sympathy and support for the North Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War.
Directors: Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda | Stars: Anne Bellec, Karen Blanguernon, Fidel Castro, Bernard Fresson
Votes: 887
★★★★
29. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
Not Rated | 80 min | Documentary, Biography, Drama
German-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.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Dieter Dengler, Werner Herzog, Eugene Deatrick
Votes: 6,835
★★★★
30. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)
Not Rated | 122 min | Documentary
A 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.
Director: Kazuo Hara | Stars: Kenzo Okuzaki, Riichi Aikawa, Masaichi Hamaguchi, Toshio Hara
Votes: 2,125
★★★★
31. Sunday in Peking (1956)
22 min | Documentary, Short
Director Chris Marker begins by recounting his childhood dream of visiting the city of Peking, a city he was once only able to admire in books. The viewer is taken on a journey through this... See full summary »
Director: Chris Marker | Star: Gilles Quéant
Votes: 534
★★★★
32. Birth/Mother (2006)
39 min | Documentary, Short
Naomi Kawase raises her voice in anger, blaming her foster mother for threatening to abandon her as a young girl. The camera reveals Kawase's impatience when coming to terms with her foster... See full summary »
Director: Naomi Kawase | Stars: Uno Kawase, Naomi Kawase, Mitsuki Kawase
Votes: 156
★★★★
33. The Making of Longbird (2011)
16 min | Documentary, Animation, Short
A 'behind-the-scenes' look at an Animator/Filmmaker as he struggles with his character.
Director: Will Anderson | Stars: Will Anderson, Tobias Feltus, Vitalij Sicinava
Votes: 94
★★★★
34. Hao si bu ru lai huo zhe (2003)
88 min | Documentary
A portrait of a Chinese family living with and dying of HIV/AIDS.
Director: Weijun Chen | Stars: Shenyi Ma, Mei Lei, Ningning Ma, Rong Ma
Votes: 114
★★★★
35. Wheel of Time (2003)
Not Rated | 80 min | Documentary
Wheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: The Dalai Lama, Lama Lhundup Woeser, Takna Jigme Sangpo, Matthieu Ricard
Votes: 2,738
★★★★
36. Bells from the Deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia (1993)
60 min | Documentary
What 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.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Anna Hitch, Vissarion, Yuri Yurievich Yurieff
Votes: 1,103
★★★★
37. Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
Not Rated | 83 min | Documentary, Biography, Mystery
A documentary on the late Vivian Maier, a nanny whose previously unknown cache of 100,000 photographs earned her a posthumous reputation as one of the most accomplished street photographers.
Directors: John Maloof, Charlie Siskel | Stars: Vivian Maier, John Maloof, Daniel Arnaud, Simon Amédé
Votes: 15,087 | Gross: $1.51M
★★★★
38. Good Ol' Freda (2013)
PG | 86 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A documentary in which Freda Kelly looks back at her career as lifelong secretary for The Beatles.
Director: Ryan White | Stars: Freda Kelly, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison
Votes: 2,114 | Gross: $0.14M
★★★★
39. Tokyo-Ga (1985)
92 min | Documentary
Moved by the work of director Yasujirô Ozu, Wim Wenders travels to Japan in search of the Tokyo seen in Ozu's films.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Werner Herzog, Yûharu Atsuta, Chris Marker
Votes: 3,341
★★★★
40. Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
G | 105 min | Documentary, Music
Aging Cuban musicians whose talents had been virtually forgotten following Castro's takeover of Cuba, are brought out of retirement by Ry Cooder, who travelled to Havana in order to bring the musicians together, resulting in triumphant performances of extraordinary music, and resurrecting the musicians' careers.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González, Octavio Calderon
Votes: 20,550 | Gross: $7.00M
★★★★
41. Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still (1972)
52 min | Documentary
Letter to Jane (1972) is a postscript film to Tout va bien directed by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin and made under the auspices of the Dziga Vertov Group. Narrated in a ... See full summary »
Directors: Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin | Stars: Marlon Brando, Moshe Dayan, James Dean, Maria Falconetti
Votes: 527
★★★★
42. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
G | 90 min | Documentary, History
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Jean Clottes, Julien Monney, Jean-Michel Geneste
Votes: 17,796 | Gross: $5.23M
★★★★
43. Chronos (1985)
Not Rated | 43 min | Documentary, Short
Carefully picked scenes of nature and civilization are viewed at high speed using time-lapse cinematography in an effort to demonstrate the history of various regions.
Director: Ron Fricke
Votes: 3,845
★★★★
44. Here and Elsewhere (1976)
53 min | Documentary, War
The movie incorporates footage of fedayeens taken for an aborted pro-Palestinian film which had been abandoned when subjects were killed. Here and Elsewhere takes its name from the footage it shows of the fedayeens and of a French family.
Directors: Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie Miéville | Star: Jean-Luc Godard
Votes: 890
★★★★
45. Afghan Alphabet (2002)
45 min | Documentary
Documentary showing the life of children of the Afghan villages bordering Iran, and how their life and culture were affected by Taliban regime.
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf | Stars: Ghafour Barahouyi, Maryam Ozbak, Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Votes: 302
★★★★
46. From the East (1993)
107 min | Documentary
A look at life in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Director: Chantal Akerman | Star: Natalia Chakhovskaia
Votes: 950
★★★★
47. Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Not Rated | 85 min | Documentary
Through 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... See full summary »
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Fini Straubinger, M. Baaske, Elsa Fehrer, Heinrich Fleischmann
Votes: 3,202
★★★★
48. South (1999)
71 min | Documentary
A documentary examining the effect of a man dragged to death on the residents in Jasper, Texas.
Director: Chantal Akerman
Votes: 396
★★★★
49. Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (1974)
Not Rated | 98 min | Documentary
In this uncomfortably intimate film, documentary filmmaker Kazuo Hara visits his ex-girlfriend Miyuki and records her new relationships.
Director: Kazuo Hara | Stars: Kazuo Hara, Miyuki Takeda, Sachiko Kobayashi
Votes: 403
★★★★
50. Origins of the 21st Century (2000)
13 min | Short, Documentary
Commissioned by the heads of the 2000 Cannes Film Festival to make an opening-night short commemorating cinema as it enters its second full century, Godard instead offers up a 17-minute ... See full summary »
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Pierre Guyotat, Ronald Chammah
Votes: 581
★★★★
51. South (1999)
71 min | Documentary
A documentary examining the effect of a man dragged to death on the residents in Jasper, Texas.
Director: Chantal Akerman
Votes: 396
★★★★
52. Remembrance of Things to Come (2001 Video)
Not Rated | 42 min | Documentary, Short
Through photos made by the French photographer Denise Bellon, a personnal history of France.
Directors: Yannick Bellon, Chris Marker | Star: Pierre Arditi
Votes: 291
★★★★
53. Belfast, Maine (1999)
245 min | Documentary
Shot in Frederick Wiseman's trademark blank style - no narration, no music, and minimal editing - this four hour documentary follows a cross-section of the small Maine city's workers, from ... See full summary »
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Votes: 317
★★★★
54. Elsa la rose (1966)
Not Rated | 20 min | Documentary, Short
The story of a poet's (Louis Aragon) love for his wife, the writer Elsa Triolet.
Director: Agnès Varda | Stars: Louis Aragon, Michel Piccoli, Elsa Triolet
Votes: 556
★★★★
55. Lion in the Mirror (1936)
24 min | Documentary, Short
A short documentary about a great Kabuki dancer.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Kikugoro Onoe, Kinjirou Onoe, Shigeru Onoe, Wafuu Matsunaga
Votes: 303
★★★★
56. Love, Marilyn (2012)
Not Rated | 107 min | Documentary, Biography
Modern day celebrities interpret excerpts from memoirs written by people who knew Marilyn Monroe as well as her recently discovered personal journals and letters.
Director: Liz Garbus | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Elizabeth Banks, Adrien Brody, Ellen Burstyn
Votes: 1,992
★★★★
57. Leaving the Factory (1895)
Not Rated | 1 min | Documentary, Short
Workers leaving the Lumière factory for lunch in Lyon, France in 1895; a place of great photographic innovation and one of the birth places of cinema.
Director: Louis Lumière
Votes: 7,555
HONORABLE MENTION
58. Pina (2011)
PG | 103 min | Documentary, Music
A tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Pina Bausch, Regina Advento, Malou Airaudo, Ruth Amarante
Votes: 15,953 | Gross: $3.52M
59. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? (2013)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Animation, Biography
A series of interviews featuring linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky done in hand-drawn animation.
Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Noam Chomsky, Michel Gondry, Richard Feynman, Michèle Oshima
Votes: 3,680 | Gross: $0.13M
60. The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007)
180 min | Documentary
The many ways in which Western notions of personal and political freedom are changing in the 21st Century are explored in this three-part documentary from writer and filmmaker Adam Curtis.
Stars: John Nash, Robert Spitzer, Jerome Wakefield, Paul McHugh
Votes: 2,018
61. E o kaku kodomotachi: jidôga o rikai suru tame ni (1956)
38 min | Documentary, Short
Director: Susumu Hani
Votes: 43
62. Al hayatt al yawmiyah fi quariah suriyah (1976)
80 min | Documentary
A documentary about the impact of newly introduced political reforms on a rural village in Syria - a place plagued with tribalism, ignorance and evil.
Director: Omar Amiralay
Votes: 100
63. Black Panthers (1968)
Not Rated | 31 min | Documentary, Short
A short film of interviews and protests at a rally to free Huey P. Newton.
Director: Agnès Varda | Stars: Bill Brent, Huey P. Newton, Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver
Votes: 2,695
64. On the Bowery (1956)
Not Rated | 65 min | Documentary, Drama
By focusing on the lives of three down-and-out alcoholic transients, the film creates a wrenching portrait of the tragic hopelessness of life on "The Bowery" in New York City.
Director: Lionel Rogosin | Stars: Ray Salyer, Gorman Hendricks, Frank Matthews, George L. Bolton
Votes: 1,163 | Gross: $0.01M
65. Qaleh (1966)
18 min | Documentary, Short
It's a short documentary about prostitutes zone in Tehran which called "Shahre no" before Iran's revolution on 1979. based on interviews with it's inhabitants
Director: Kamran Shirdel
Votes: 200
66. Junun (2015)
Not Rated | 54 min | Documentary, Music
Musician Jonny Greenwood travels to Rajasthan, where he performs with a multitude of Indian musicians.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Jonny Greenwood, Ehtisham Khan Ajmeri, Nihal Khan, Nathu Lal Solanki
Votes: 2,228
67. Minamata (1971)
105 min | Documentary
A documentary about the plight of the victims of Minamata disease, which was caused by the ingestion of fish containing abnormal amounts of mercury released into the sea by a fertilizer factory owned by the Chisso company.
Director: Noriaki Tsuchimoto
Votes: 198
68. The Cruise (1998)
PG-13 | 76 min | Documentary
Timothy "Speed" Levitch, an eccentric New York City tour bus guide, takes tourists around the island of Manhattan and shares an archive of beautifully distorted information about the city.
Director: Bennett Miller | Star: Timothy 'Speed' Levitch
Votes: 1,933 | Gross: $0.24M
69. Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Music
The highlights of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
Directors: Bert Stern, Aram Avakian | Stars: Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Chuck Berry, Chico Hamilton
Votes: 1,944
70. News from Home (1976)
85 min | Documentary
Impersonal and beautiful images of Akerman's life in New York are combined with letters from her loving but manipulative mother, read by Akerman herself.
Director: Chantal Akerman | Star: Chantal Akerman
Votes: 2,813
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