documentaries
by dr_remlaw | created - 10 Mar 2014 | updated - 19 Apr 2018 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. 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: 12,128 | Gross: $0.03M
2. The Act of Killing (2012)
Not Rated | 117 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
A documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
Directors: Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine Cynn | Stars: Anwar Congo, Herman Koto, Syamsul Arifin, Ibrahim Sinik
Votes: 40,801 | Gross: $0.49M
3. Four Seasons (1975)
29 min | Documentary, Short
The last collaboration of Artavazd Peleshian and cinematographer Mikhail Vartanov is a film-essay about Armenia's shepherds, about the contradiction and the harmony between man and nature, scored to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
Director: Artavazd Peleshian
Votes: 928
4. 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: 27,971
5. À Propos de Nice (1930)
Not Rated | 24 min | Documentary, Short, Comedy
What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
Directors: Boris Kaufman, Jean Vigo
Votes: 4,629
6. Forest of Bliss (1986)
Unrated | 90 min | Documentary
A look at daily life in the city of Benares, India, one of the most religious places in the country.
Director: Robert Gardner
Votes: 324
7. Leviathan (I) (2012)
Not Rated | 87 min | Documentary
A documentary shot in the North Atlantic and focused on the commercial fishing industry.
Directors: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel | Stars: Brian Jannelle, Adrian Guillette, Arthur Smith, Asterias Vulgaris
Votes: 3,794 | Gross: $1.09M
8. 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: 21,453
9. The Mad Masters (1955)
36 min | Documentary, Short, Horror
A documentary short depicting a Hauka ceremony where young workers are possessed by British colonial officers.
Director: Jean Rouch | Star: Jean Rouch
Votes: 1,772
10. Blood of the Beasts (1949)
22 min | Documentary, Short
Bucolic scenes from the outskirts of Paris are contrasted with stark footage from slaughterhouses.
Director: Georges Franju | Stars: Georges Hubert, Nicole Ladmiral, Alfred Macquart, Maurice Griselle
Votes: 2,595
11. 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: 5,562
12. My Winnipeg (2007)
Not Rated | 80 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this portrait of film-maker Guy Maddin's home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Director: Guy Maddin | Stars: Darcy Fehr, Ann Savage, Louis Negin, Amy Stewart
Votes: 5,628 | Gross: $0.16M
13. Of Whales, the Moon, and Men (1963)
105 min | Documentary
At the instigation of the filmmakers, the young men of the Ile-aux-Coudres in the middle of the St-Lawrence River try as a memorial to their ancestors to revive the fishing of the belugas interrupted in 1924.
Directors: Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault | Stars: Léopold Tremblay, Alexis Tremblay, Abel Harvey, Louis Harvey
Votes: 710
14. Les raquetteurs (1958)
15 min | Short, Documentary
Footage of a snowshoe festival in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Depictions of culture in the early years including snowshoe races, and musical attractions.
Directors: Michel Brault, Gilles Groulx
Votes: 394
15. The Battle of Chile: Part I (1975)
Not Rated | 97 min | Documentary, History
The chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.
Director: Patricio Guzmán | Stars: Abilio Fernández, Salvador Allende
Votes: 1,613
16. Titicut Follies (1967)
Unrated | 84 min | Documentary
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Votes: 5,106
17. Unsere Afrikareise (1966)
13 min | Short
A trip to Africa is edited into a brief documentary without continuity between sound and image or story and time.
Director: Peter Kubelka
Votes: 771
18. The Hart of London (1970)
80 min | Documentary
A surreal sequence of images of nature and London, Ontario, life and death.
Director: Jack Chambers
Votes: 452
19. Window Water Baby Moving (1959)
13 min | Documentary, Short
Stan Brakhage films the birth of his first child, Myrrena.
Director: Stan Brakhage | Stars: Stan Brakhage, Myrrena Schwegmann, Jane Wodening
Votes: 2,457
20. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
288 min | Documentary, Biography
Director Jonas Mekas provides an intimate glimpse of his personal life by constructing a feature length narrative from over 30 years of private home movie footage.
Director: Jonas Mekas | Stars: Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Hollis Frampton
Votes: 1,461
21. Austerlitz (2016)
94 min | Documentary
There are places in Europe that have remained as painful memories of the past - factories where humans were turned into ash. These places are now memorial sites that are open to the public ... See full summary »
Director: Sergey Loznitsa | Star: Jean-Luc Julien
Votes: 544
22. The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016)
90 min | Documentary
A film about the prison from the places we least expect to find it.
Director: Brett Story | Stars: Charisse Davidson, Lyndon B. Johnson
Votes: 203
23. 88:88 (2015)
65 min | Documentary
An experimental film diary about young people in Winnipeg who have difficulty making ends meet.
Director: Isiah Medina | Stars: Erik Berg, Eliza Bronte, Alexandre Galmard, Avery Medina
Votes: 199
24. I Had Nowhere to Go (2016)
100 min | Documentary
Scottish video artist Douglas Gordon's portrait of American avant-garde pioneer Jonas Mekas.
Director: Douglas Gordon | Star: Jonas Mekas
Votes: 32
25. Mrs. Fang (2017)
86 min | Documentary
Surrounded by the careless family and neighbors, Fang Xiuying is deprived of all intellectual abilities and she slowly dies in a modest room, in some of the villages of South China.
Director: Wang Bing | Star: Fang Xiuying
Votes: 316
26. The Central Region (1971)
Not Rated | 180 min | Documentary
One of most influential films in avant-garde cinema, this experimental film by Michael Snow was shot over a period of 24 hours using a robotic arm, and consists entirely of preprogrammed ... See full summary »
Director: Michael Snow
Votes: 594
27. Edvard Munch (1974 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 210 min | Biography, Drama, History
This biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch focuses on the influences that shaped his art, his devastating affair with a married woman that will haunt him for the rest of his life
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Geir Westby, Gro Fraas, Kerstii Allum, Eric Allum
Votes: 3,375 | Gross: $0.04M
28. Rat Film (2016)
82 min | Documentary
Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. This documentary uses the rat to explore the history of Baltimore.
Director: Theo Anthony | Stars: Theo Anthony, Dan Deacon, Matt Fouse, Will Kearney III
Votes: 986 | Gross: $0.04M
29. Makala (2017)
96 min | Documentary
Trials tribulation dreams and aspirations of a young farmer earning a living making and selling charcoal in Congo.
Director: Emmanuel Gras | Stars: Kabwita Kasongo, Lydie Kasongo
Votes: 773
30. 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: 6,742
31. Faces Places (2017)
PG | 94 min | Documentary, Adventure
Director Agnes Varda and photographer/muralist J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
Directors: JR, Agnès Varda | Stars: Agnès Varda, JR, Jeannine Carpentier, Clemens Van Dungern
Votes: 13,595 | Gross: $0.95M
32. Heart of a Dog (2015)
Not Rated | 75 min | Documentary
Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson reflects on her relationship with her beloved terrier Lolabelle.
Director: Laurie Anderson | Stars: Laurie Anderson, Archie, Jason Berg, Heung-Heung Chin
Votes: 2,548 | Gross: $0.42M
33. Rain (1929)
12 min | Documentary, Short
Regen is an experimental documentary film directed by Joris Ivens in 1929. It can be defined as a cinematic-poem. In 2021 Breve Storia Del Cinema restored the film with a new score composed by Nikolas Labrinakos.
Directors: Mannus Franken, Joris Ivens
Votes: 1,914
34. Hapax Legomena I: Nostalgia (1971)
36 min | Short
Frampton slowly burning his black and white photographs as he describes and tells the story behind them.
Director: Hollis Frampton | Star: Michael Snow
Votes: 730
35. The Other Side (VIII) (2015)
Unrated | 92 min | Documentary, Drama
In an invisible territory at the margins of society lives a wounded community who face the threat of being forgotten by political institutions and having their rights as citizens trampled. ... See full summary »
Director: Roberto Minervini | Stars: Mark Kelley, Lisa Allen, James Lee Miller, Austin Anderson
Votes: 1,322 | Gross: $0.01M
36. Very Nice, Very Nice (1961)
Not Rated | 7 min | Short
Through an unconventional use of concise narrative, a conceptual collage of sounds and images, and a rapid-fire montage, Arthur Lipsett's first film vividly portrays the urban estrangement in the times of social erosion and materialism.
Director: Arthur Lipsett
Votes: 883
37. At Sea (2007)
60 min | Documentary
This is a soundless story of the building of 'Toledo Spirit', the container ship, its sailing and eventual beaching. Insignificant men crawl on cranes and gantries to build it and other men, sans the equipment, scrape it after beaching.
Director: Peter B. Hutton
Votes: 342
38. Nails (1979)
13 min | Documentary, Short
A film about the manufacturing of nails.
Director: Phillip Borsos
Votes: 107
39. From the Pole to the Equator (1987)
96 min | Documentary
Directors: Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi | Star: Raimondo Franchetti
Votes: 115
40. Field Niggas (2015)
60 min | Documentary
A slow-motion portraiture combined with a soundtrack of snippets of people's conversations and interviews.
Director: Khalik Allah
Votes: 321
41. The Hour of the Furnaces (1968)
Unrated | 260 min | Documentary, History, War
Divided into three segments, namely 1 Neocolonialism, 2 Act for liberation, 3 Violence and liberation, the documentary lasts more than 4 hours this deals with the defense of the revolution ... See full summary »
Directors: Octavio Getino, Fernando E. Solanas | Stars: María de la Paz, Fernando E. Solanas, Edgardo Suárez, Julio Troxler
Votes: 1,188
42. Dislocation Blues (2017)
17 min | Documentary, Short
An incomplete and imperfect portrait of reflections from Standing Rock.
Director: Sky Hopinka
Votes: 87
43. La Libertad (2017)
Not Rated | 30 min | Documentary, Short
La Libertad follows a group of matriarchal weavers in Mexico, formally mimicking the examination of an object through subtle shifts in scale and space.
Director: Laura Huertas Millán | Stars: Crispina Navarro, Inés Navarro, Gerardo Navarro, Margarita Navarro
Votes: 99
44. Bisbee '17 (2018)
PG | 112 min | Documentary, History, Western
An old mining town on the Arizona-Mexico border finally reckons with its darkest day: the deportation of 1200 immigrant miners exactly 100 years ago. Locals collaborate to stage recreations of their controversial past.
Director: Robert Greene | Stars: Mike Anderson, Charles Bethea, Chris Dietz, Mary Ellen Dunlap
Votes: 715 | Gross: $0.12M
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