Best documentaries
by mazenazach | created - 23 Jan 2019 | updated - 2 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Fyre (2019)
TV-MA | 97 min | Documentary, Crime, Music
An exclusive behind the scenes look at the infamous unraveling of the Fyre music festival.
Director: Chris Smith | Stars: Billy McFarland, Jason Bell, Gabrielle Bluestone, Shiyuan Deng
Votes: 52,058
2. Room 237 (I) (2012)
Not Rated | 102 min | Documentary
An exploration of various interpretations of Stanley Kubrick's horror film, The Shining (1980).
Director: Rodney Ascher | Stars: Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan
Votes: 23,117 | Gross: $0.26M
3. 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: 72,915 | Gross: $3.97M
4. We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists (2012)
Not Rated | 93 min | Documentary
A documentary on the workings and beliefs of the self-described "hacktivist" collective, Anonymous.
Director: Brian Knappenberger | Stars: Anon2World, Anonyops, Julian Assange, Aaron Barr
Votes: 10,420
5. 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: 15,084 | Gross: $1.51M
6. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)
Not Rated | 105 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
The story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz, who took his own life at the age of 26.
Director: Brian Knappenberger | Stars: Aaron Swartz, Tim Berners-Lee, Cindy Cohn, Gabriella Coleman
Votes: 18,040 | Gross: $0.05M
7. Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? (2006)
PG-13 | 74 min | Documentary
In this documentary, veteran filmmaker Harry Moses exposes the controversy in the world of high priced artwork. He paints a vivid picture of how art is bought and sold in America.
Director: Harry Moses | Stars: Teri Horton, Tod M. Volpe, Ben Heller, Nick Carone
Votes: 1,292 | Gross: $0.01M
8. Public Speaking (2010)
84 min | Documentary
A feature-length documentary starring Fran Lebowitz, a writer known for her unique take on modern life. The film weaves together extemporaneous monologues with archival footage and the ... See full summary »
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley, Truman Capote, Pau Casals
Votes: 2,327 | Gross: $0.06M
9. For the Bible Tells Me So (2007)
Unrated | 95 min | Documentary, Romance
An exploration of the intersection between religion and homosexuality in the U.S. and how the religious right has used its interpretation of the Bible to stigmatize the gay community.
Director: Daniel G. Karslake | Stars: Imogene Robinson, Victor Robinson, Gene Robinson, Isabella 'Boo' McDaniel
Votes: 4,519 | Gross: $0.31M
10. The Celluloid Closet (1995)
R | 102 min | Documentary, History
A documentary surveying the various Hollywood screen depictions of homosexuals and the attitudes behind them throughout the history of North American film.
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman | Stars: Lily Tomlin, Tony Curtis, Susie Bright, Arthur Laurents
Votes: 7,517 | Gross: $1.51M
11. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
TV-14 | 119 min | Documentary
A look at 1970s Hollywood when it was known as New Hollywood, and the director was the star of the movie.
Director: Kenneth Bowser | Stars: Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, Peter Bogdanovich, Sam Peckinpah
Votes: 3,092
12. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Not Rated | 107 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
Documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.
Director: Andrew Jarecki | Stars: Arnold Friedman, Jesse Friedman, David Friedman, Elaine Friedman
Votes: 27,135 | Gross: $3.12M
13. The Imposter (2012)
R | 99 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years.
Director: Bart Layton | Stars: Adam O'Brian, Nicholas Barclay, Carey Gibson, Bryan Gibson
Votes: 50,468 | Gross: $0.89M
14. First Position (2011)
Not Rated | 95 min | Documentary
A documentary that follows six young dancers from around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world.
Director: Bess Kargman | Stars: Aran Bell, Rebecca Houseknecht, Joan Sebastian Zamora, Miko Fogarty
Votes: 3,455 | Gross: $1.10M
15. Dancing with the Birds (2019)
52 min | Documentary
From ruffling their majestic feathers to nailing im-peck-able courtship routines, birds in paradise flaunt their best moves in hopes of landing a mate.
Director: Huw Cordey | Star: Stephen Fry
Votes: 2,759
16. The Trader (2018)
TV-PG | 23 min | Documentary, Short
A traveling trader provides a window into rural life in the Republic of Georgia, where potatoes are currency and ambition is crushed by poverty.
Director: Tamta Gabrichidze
Votes: 3,447
17. The Light Bulb Conspiracy (2010)
75 min | Documentary
This is the story of companies who engineered their products to fail.
Director: Cosima Dannoritzer | Stars: Richard Jones, Molly Malcolm, Steve Bunn, Markus Krajewski
Votes: 2,316
18. McQueen (2018)
R | 111 min | Documentary, Biography
The life and career of fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen: from his start as a tailor, to launching and overseeing his eponymous line and his untimely death.
Directors: Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui | Stars: Alexander McQueen, Joyce McQueen, John Hitchcock, Danny Hall
Votes: 8,419 | Gross: $1.26M
19.
American Masters (1985– )
Episode:
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
(2019)
Not Rated | 114 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Musicians, scholars, family and friends reflect on the life of jazzer Miles Davis to reveal the man behind the legend. Full access to Davis' estate provides rare footage and photos, outtakes from recording sessions and new interviews.
Director: Stanley Nelson | Stars: Carl Lumbly, Miles Davis, Reginald Petty, Quincy Troupe
Votes: 3,283 | Gross: $0.19M
20. Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez (2020)
TV-MA | 67 min | Documentary, Crime, Sport
A three-part documentary series examining what led to the murderous fall and shocking death of former NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez.
Stars: Kevin Armstrong, Dan Wetzel, Stephen Ziogas, Patrick Haggan
Votes: 18,983
21. The Confession Tapes (2017– )
TV-MA | 46 min | Documentary, Crime
A critical look into some true crime cases where American law enforcement made up for lack of actual physical evidence by using devious psychological tactics during interrogation in order to extract confessions from naive suspects.
Stars: David Burns, Brian Hutchinson, James Konat, Loretta Fisher
Votes: 5,706
22. Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski (2018)
TV-MA | 115 min | Documentary, Biography
This documentary chronicles the life of Polish-American artist Stanislav Szukalski (1893-1987) from his early years in Chicago, to his time in Poland and Los Angeles, and his artistic and political contributions to the world.
Director: Ireneusz Dobrowolski | Stars: Stanislav Szukalski, Glenn Bray, Robert Williams, Suzanne Williams
Votes: 4,637
23. The Devil Next Door (2019)
TV-MA | 46 min | Documentary, Crime, History
A Cleveland grandfather is brought to trial in Israel, accused of being the infamous German death camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible.
Stars: Yoram Sheftel, Eli Gabay, Michael Shaked, Eli Rosenbaum
Votes: 15,086
24. The Pharmacist (2020)
TV-MA | 54 min | Documentary, Crime
Dan Schneider, a small-town pharmacist in Louisiana, makes effort to identify his son's killer, which leads to his gathering of evidence against a prolific "pill mill" doctor in New Orleans.
Stars: Dan Schneider, Annie Schneider, Jack Stephens, M.
Votes: 8,681
25. Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021)
TV-MA | 55 min | Documentary, Crime, Mystery
College student and tourist Elisa Lam vanishes, leaving behind all of her possessions in her hotel room. The Cecil Hotel grows in infamy.
Votes: 19,999
26. Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art (2020)
94 min | Documentary, Crime
Made You Look is an American crime documentary about the largest art fraud in American history set in the super rich, super obsessed and super fast art world of New York.
Director: Barry Avrich | Stars: Ann Freedman, M.H. Miller, Perry Amsellem, Patricia Cohen
Votes: 4,876
27. Citizen K (2019)
Not Rated | 126 min | Documentary
The strange case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, who rocketed to prosperity and prominence in the 1990s, served a decade in prison, and became an unlikely martyr for the anti-Putin movement.
Director: Alex Gibney | Stars: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Vladimir Putin, Leonid Nevzlin, Boris Berezovsky
Votes: 1,607
28. Wild Wild Country (2018)
TV-MA | 67 min | Documentary, Crime
When Osho, the world's most controversial guru, builds an Utopian city deep in the Oregon country, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal.
Stars: Ma Anand Sheela, Philip Toelkes, Jane Stork, George Meredith
Votes: 35,107
29. Operation Odessa (2018)
TV-MA | 92 min | Documentary, Crime
In the early 1990s, three friends set out to hustle the Russian mob, the Cali cartel and the DEA for the score of a lifetime.
Director: Tiller Russell | Stars: Ludwig Fainberg, Juan Almeida, Nelson Yester, Kristy Galeota
Votes: 6,922
30. Raël: The Alien Prophet (2024)
180 min | Documentary
Featuring interviews with his followers, critics and Raël himself, this docuseries traces how a UFO-inspired religion spiraled into a controversial cult.
Stars: Claude Vorilhon, Nadine Gary, Georges Fenech, Brigitte Boisselier
Votes: 1,056
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