Documentaries
by florian-karpfinger-1 | created - 07 Oct 2015 | updated - 06 Jan 2023 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (2015)
TV-MA | 102 min | Documentary
This Cannes-selected documentary reveals the true story behind the infamously troubled film shoot that nearly destroyed the career of Hollywood icon Steve McQueen.
Directors: Gabriel Clarke, John McKenna | Stars: Steve McQueen, Alan Trustman, Neile Adams, Chad McQueen
Votes: 1,694 | Gross: $0.00M
2. Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015)
PG-13 | 79 min | Documentary
Filmmakers discuss how Francois Truffaut's 1966 book "Cinema According to Hitchcock" influenced their work.
Director: Kent Jones | Stars: Wes Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, David Fincher, Bob Balaban
Votes: 7,178 | Gross: $0.30M
3. 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: 2,326 | Gross: $0.06M
4. A Letter to Elia (2010)
Not Rated | 60 min | Documentary
A documentary on the late Elia Kazan.
Directors: Kent Jones, Martin Scorsese | Stars: Martin Scorsese, Elia Kazan, Elias Koteas
Votes: 1,121
5. The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014)
TV-14 | 114 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A documentary that weaves together the stories of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of one of the most prominent and influential families in American politics.
Stars: Peter Coyote, George F. Will, Geoffrey C. Ward, Doris Kearns Goodwin
Votes: 2,650
6.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
Naamsaang-neuiseung
(1998)
80 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Stanley Kwan examines queer themes in Chinese film for this insightful documentary, produced for the British Film Institute's "Century of Cinema" series. Using film clips, personal ... See full summary »
Director: Stanley Kwan | Stars: Cheh Chang, Kaige Chen, Leslie Cheung, Peggy Chiao
Votes: 162
7.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
Nihon eiga no hyaku nen
(1995)
60 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Nagisa Oshima explores the first century of Japanese cinema.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Nagisa Ôshima, William B. White
Votes: 379
8.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
Gilwe-eui younghwa
(1995)
52 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Director: Jang Sun-woo
Votes: 54
9.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
A Personal History of British Cinema by Stephen Frears
(1995)
52 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Director Stephen Frears casts a subjective eye over British cinema, from World War Two, the 1960s and the emergence of working-class voices, to the erratic 1980s, where spectacular success and catastrophic failure go hand in hand.
Directors: Michael Dibb, Stephen Frears | Stars: Michael Apted, Stephen Frears, Gavin Lambert, Alexander Mackendrick
Votes: 133
10.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
Ourselves Alone?
(1995)
51 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Theatre director and documentary filmmaker Donald Taylor Black contributes a thoughtful essay about Ireland's need to make images of itself for itself.
Director: Donald Taylor Black | Stars: Cathal Black, Gabriel Byrne, Joe Comerford, Thomas Cooper
Votes: 68
11.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
2 x 50 Years of French Cinema
(1995)
51 min | Documentary, Biography, History
At a lakeside hotel, Michel Piccoli discusses the centennial of cinema with Jean-Luc Godard. Godard asks why should cinema's birthday be celebrated when the history of film is a forgotten ... See full summary »
Directors: Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie Miéville | Stars: Michel Piccoli, Cécile Reigher, Estelle Grynszpan, Dominique Jacquet
Votes: 387
12.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
Die Nacht der Regisseure
(1995)
87 min | Documentary, Biography, History
150 German filmmakers of all generations are led through a fictitious ultramodern Cinema of Time, where they can experience a taste of what ambience and technology can offer.
Director: Edgar Reitz | Stars: Henry Arnold, Wolfgang Becker, Frank Beyer, Detlev Buck
Votes: 85
13.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
100 lat w kinie
(1995)
62 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Director: Pawel Lozinski
Votes: 65
14.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
Russkaya ideya
(1996)
52 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Director: Sergey Selyanov | Star: Aleksey Petrenko
Votes: 38
15.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
And the Show Goes On: Indian Chapter
(1996)
54 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Director: Mrinal Sen | Stars: Shyam Benegal, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Chidananda Das Gupta, Shashi Kapoor
Votes: 24
16.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
Cinema de Lágrimas
(1995)
95 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A Brazilian director goes to Mexico city to study the great Mexican melodramas of old. He meets a student he had previously met in Brazil and he becomes his assistant. But the student ... See full summary »
Director: Nelson Pereira dos Santos | Stars: Cosme Alves Neto, André Barros, Raul Cortez, Jorge Luís Hidalgo
Votes: 84
17. 100 ans de cinéma (1995– )
Documentary
ARTE and BFI present one hundred years of world cinema seen by the greatest directors of each country: 100 years of stars, 100 years of fatal passions, 100 years of lyrical musings, torrid suspense and tragic abysses, etc.
18.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
40,000 years of dreaming
(1997)
67 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Australian born film maker George (Mad Max) Miller offers a personal view of Australian films. He suggests that they can be regarded as visual music, public dreaming, mythology, and ... See full summary »
Director: George Miller | Stars: Harvey Adams, Elizabeth Alexander, Dorothy Alison, Jack Allen
Votes: 163
19.
Century of Cinema (1995–1998)
Episode:
Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill
(1995)
52 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A personal journey through Sam Neill's childhood and memories.
Directors: Sam Neill, Judy Rymer | Stars: Timothy Balme, Melanie Lynskey, Elizabeth Moody, Sam Neill
Votes: 149
20. 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: 6,741
21. Behemoth (2015)
Not Rated | 95 min | Documentary
Under the sun, the heavenly beauty of grasslands will soon be covered by the raging dust of mines. Facing the ashes and noises caused by heavy mining , the herdsmen have no choice but to ... See full summary »
Director: Liang Zhao
Votes: 1,211
22. Terror's Advocate (2007)
Unrated | 135 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A documentary on Jacques Vergès, the controversial lawyer and former Free French Forces guerrilla who has defending unpopular figures such as Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.
Director: Barbet Schroeder | Stars: Jacques Vergès, Klaus Barbie, Barbet Schroeder, Bassam Abu Sharif
Votes: 1,698 | Gross: $0.04M
23. The Ascent of Man (1973)
50 min | Documentary, History
An account of man's development through his scientific and technological achievements.
Stars: Jacob Bronowski, Joss Ackland, Roy Dotrice, Stefan Bor-Grajewicz
Votes: 898
24. Civilisation (1969–1970)
TV-G | 698 min | Documentary, History, Music
Sir Kenneth Clarke walks through the ages exploring the glorious rise of civilization in Western man.
Stars: Kenneth Clark, Ian Richardson, Ronald Lacey, Patrick Stewart
Votes: 1,065
25. Civilizations (2018)
60 min | Documentary, History
Nine-part series telling the story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day, for the first time on a global scale. It is now nearly half a century since Kenneth Clark's ... See full summary »
Stars: Liev Schreiber, Simon Schama, Maya Jasanoff, Mary Beard
Votes: 669
26. Cold War (1998)
47 min | Documentary, History
A 24-part series which deals with the relations between the United States, the Soviet Union and their respective allies between the end of World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Anatoli Dobrynin, Robert McNamara, Vladimir Yerofeyev
Votes: 1,038
27. Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema (2014)
109 min | Documentary
A tribute from filmmakers and critics around the world to the Taiwan New Cinema movement in the 1980s.
Director: Chinlin Hsieh | Stars: Tadanobu Asano, Olivier Assayas, Jingjing Bao, Wang Bing
Votes: 250
28. Fellini: I'm a Born Liar (2002)
R | 105 min | Documentary, Biography
A look at Fellini's creative process. In extensive interviews, Fellini talks a bit about his background and then discusses how he works and how he creates. Several actors, a producer, a ... See full summary »
Director: Damian Pettigrew | Stars: Federico Fellini, Roberto Benigni, Luigi 'Titta' Benzi, Italo Calvino
Votes: 986 | Gross: $0.11M
29. Searching for Ingmar Bergman (2018)
99 min | Documentary
Internationally renowned director Margarethe von Trotta takes a closer look at Bergman's life and work and explores his film legacy with Bergman's closest collaborators, both in front and ... See full summary »
Directors: Margarethe von Trotta, Bettina Böhler, Felix Moeller | Stars: Ingmar Bergman, Ruben Östlund, Liv Ullmann, Olivier Assayas
Votes: 654 | Gross: $0.04M
30.
Great Performances (1971– )
Episode:
Kurosawa
(2000)
TV-G | 100 min | Music, Musical
Adam Low's Kurosawa is a 90-minute documentary that looks at Kurosawa's life and works. Originally broadcast on PBS in the US, the film follows a fairly conventional approach as it ... See full summary »
Director: Adam Low | Stars: Akira Kurosawa, Sam Shepard, Paul Scofield, James Coburn
Votes: 396
31. The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004)
TV-PG | 98 min | Documentary, History
Documentary about the art of film editing. Clips are shown from many groundbreaking films with innovative editing styles.
Director: Wendy Apple | Stars: Kathy Bates, Zach Staenberg, Jodie Foster, Michael Tronick
Votes: 3,195
32. François Truffaut: Portraits volés (1993)
88 min | Documentary
Twenty-six people - including two daughters, an ex-wife, his last lover, actors, fellow directors and writers, a neighbor, and boyhood friends - talk about François Truffaut. They discuss ... See full summary »
Directors: Michel Pascal, Serge Toubiana | Stars: Fanny Ardant, Olivier Assayas, Alexandre Astruc, Jean Aurel
Votes: 132
33. Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember (1997)
Not Rated | 198 min | Documentary, Biography
In 1996, Marcello Mastroianni talks about life as an actor. It's an anecdotal and philosophical memoir, moving from topic to topic, fully conscious of a man "of a certain age" looking back.... See full summary »
Director: Anna Maria Tatò | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Berta, Manoel de Oliveira, Diogo Dória
Votes: 425 | Gross: $0.01M
34. Visions of Light (1992)
92 min | Documentary, History
Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography, illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from The Birth of a Nation (1915) to Do the Right Thing (1989).
Directors: Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy, Stuart Samuels | Stars: Conrad L. Hall, John Bailey, Vilmos Zsigmond, Charles Lang
Votes: 3,334 | Gross: $0.80M
35. Trespassing Bergman (2013)
107 min | Documentary
A group of filmmakers visit Ingmar Bergman's house on the remote Swedish island of Faro to discuss his legacy.
Directors: Jane Magnusson, Hynek Pallas | Stars: Tomas Alfredson, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Harriet Andersson
Votes: 977
36. Tarkovsky: Time Within Time (2015)
73 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Tarkovsky: Time Within Time explores the acclaimed Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky through his diary to discover the man and the vision to which he aspires. While developing a film ... See full summary »
Director: P.J. Letofsky | Stars: Oleg Vidov, Marina Tarkovskaya, Tonino Guerra, Andrey Konchalovskiy
Votes: 22
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