Best Documentary Nominees I Need to Watch (2000-Present + a few more)
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- DirectorTalal DerkiStarsTia AlkerdiYara IbrahimAbu OsamaTalal Derki returns to his homeland where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years.
- DirectorJRAgnès VardaStarsAgnès VardaJRJeannine CarpentierDirector Agnes Varda and photographer/muralist J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
- DirectorSteve JamesStarsThomas SungHwei Lin SungCyrus Vance Jr.A small financial institution called Abacus becomes the only company criminally indicted in the wake of the United States' 2008 mortgage crisis.
- DirectorGianfranco RosiStarsSamuele PucilloMattias CucinaSamuele CaruanaCapturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.
- DirectorJuliano Ribeiro SalgadoWim WendersStarsSebastião SalgadoWim WendersLélia Wanick SalgadoThe life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.
- DirectorJohn MaloofCharlie SiskelStarsVivian MaierJohn MaloofDaniel ArnaudA 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.
- DirectorRick RowleyStarsJeremy ScahillNasser Al AulaqiSaleha Al AulaqiInvestigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America's expanding covert wars.
- DirectorDror MorehStarsAmi AyalonAvraham ShalomAvi DichterA documentary featuring interviews with all surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency whose activities and membership are closely held state secrets.
- DirectorEmad BurnatGuy DavidiStarsEmad BurnatSoraya BurnatMohammed BurnatA documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsPina BauschRegina AdventoMalou AiraudoA tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.
- DirectorJoe BerlingerBruce SinofskyStarsGary GitchellTodd MooreDana MooreA further followup of the case of the West Memphis Three and the decades long fight to exonerate them that finally gained traction with new DNA evidence.
- DirectorDanfung DennisStarsNathan HarrisAshley HarrisThe Marines of Echo CompanyWhat does it mean to lead men in war? What does it mean to come home? Hell and Back Again is a cinematically revolutionary film that asks and answers these questions with a power and intimacy no previous film about the conflict in Afghanistan has been able to achieve. It is a masterpiece in the cinema of war.
- DirectorLucy WalkerKaren HarleyJoão JardimStarsVik MunizOn the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, where men and women sift through garbage for a living. Artist Vik Muniz produces portraits of the workers and learns about their lives.
- DirectorJosh FoxStarsJosh FoxDick CheneyPete SeegerAn exploration of the fracking petroleum extraction industry and the serious environmental consequences involved.
- DirectorRebecca Cammisa"Which Way Home" is a feature documentary film that follows unaccompanied child migrants, on their journey through Mexico, as they try to reach the United States. We follow children like Olga and Freddy, nine-year old Hondurans, who are desperately trying to reach their parents in the US.; children like Jose, a ten-year old El Salvadoran, who has been abandoned by smugglers and ends up alone in a Mexican detention center; and Kevin, a canny, streetwise fourteen-year old Honduran, whose mother hopes that he will reach the U.S. and send money back to her. These are stories of hope and courage, disappointment and sorrow. They are the children you never hear about; the invisible ones.
- 20091h 32mNot Rated7.7 (2.4K)75MetascoreDirectorJudith EhrlichRick GoldsmithStarsPeter ArnettBen BagdikianAnn BeesonAn exploration of the life and work of Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, former Marine and military strategist, who was responsible for the publication of secret government documents that revealed the truth behind America's involvement in Vietnam.
- DirectorAnders ØstergaardStarsGeorge W. BushJoshua Min HtutKo MuangUsing smuggled footage, this documentary tells the story of the 2007 protests in Burma by thousands of monks.
- DirectorCarl DealTia LessinStarsMichael BrownGeorge W. BushJulie Chen MoonvesA redemptive tale of an aspiring rap artist surviving failed levees and her own troubled past and seizing a chance for a new beginning.
- DirectorScott Hamilton KennedyStarsDanny GloverDaryl HannahAntonio VillaraigosaFrom the ashes of the L.A. riots arose a lush, 14-acre community garden, the largest of its kind in the United States. Now bulldozers threaten its future.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogScott RowlandStefan PashovFilm-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there.
- DirectorEllen KurasThavisouk PhrasavathStarsThavisouk PhrasavathThe epic story of a family forced to emigrate from Laos after the chaos of the secret air war waged by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Kuras has spent the last 23 years chronicling the family's extraordinary journey in this deeply personal, poetic, and emotional film.
- DirectorSean FineAndrea NixStarsDominicNancyRoseThree children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.
- DirectorRichard RobbinsStarsSharon D. AllenBeau BridgesColby BuzzellA unique documentary about troops' experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, based on writings by soldiers, Marines, and air men. Some writings were published in the New Yorker in summer 2006. A larger assortment was published as a book by Random House last September. The film drew upon the submissions by soldiers for the book. It's a remarkable portrait of troops at war - the complexities, doubts, and fears - written with honesty. The 81-minute version of the film (which will be in theatres) includes 11 pieces of writing, with different visual strategies, along with interviews with the writers, and with more established American writers who are also veterans. In the latter group are Tim O'Brien, Yusef Komunyakaa, Tobias Wolff, Joe Haldeman, James Salter, Anthony Swofford, Richard Currey, and Paul Fussell. The visual approaches range from poet Brian Turner reading directly to camera, to archival footage, to an animated "graphic novel," to a still photo sequence shot by photographer Antonin Kratochvil. It's rooted in a program by the NEA that created a series of writing workshops at military bases. After those workshops, the writers submitted pieces for consideration in the book, edited by Andy Carroll. From those writings were selected 11 for inclusion in the film. There is also a 53-minute version of this film which will be airing on PBS as part of the series "America at a Crossroads" in April, 2007. Both of these are different from the other film 'Operation Homecoming" from 2007, directed by Lawrence Bridges. That piece was produced by the NEA as a documentary about their writing workshops.
- DirectorCharles FergusonStarsCampbell ScottGerald BurkeAli FadhilA comprehensive look at the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq war and its occupation of the country.
- DirectorLaura PoitrasDocumentary by Oscar winner Laura Poitras about the war in Iraq.
- DirectorJames LongleyStarsMarmar AlhilaliMohammed HaithemSuleiman MahmoudStories from modern day Iraq as told by Iraqis living in a time of war, occupation and ethnic tension.
- DirectorHubert SauperStarsElizabeth 'Eliza' Maganga NseseRaphael Tukiko WagaraDimond RemtuliaA documentary on the effect of fishing the Nile perch in Tanzania's Lake Victoria. The predatory fish, which has wiped out the native species, is sold in European supermarkets, while starving Tanzanian families have to make do with the leftovers.
- DirectorLauren LazinStarsTupac ShakurRappin' 4-TayConrad BainHome movies, photographs, and recited poetry illustrate the life of Tupac Shakur, one of the most beloved, revolutionary, and volatile hip-hop M.Cs. of all time.
- DirectorByambasuren DavaaLuigi FalorniStarsJanchiv AyurzanaChimed OhinAmgaabazar GonsonWhen a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
- DirectorZana BriskiRoss KauffmanStarsKochiAvijit HalderShanti DasTwo documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagchi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district.
- DirectorNathaniel KahnStarsEdmund BaconEdwina Pattison DanielsBalkrishna DoshiDirector Nathaniel Kahn searches to understand his father, noted architect Louis Kahn, who died bankrupt and alone in 1974.
- DirectorAndrew JareckiStarsArnold FriedmanJesse FriedmanDavid FriedmanDocumentary 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.
- DirectorCarles BoschJosep Maria DomènechStarsGuillermo ArmasMaria Celeste ArrarasRafael CanoThe story of Cuban refugees who risked their lives in homemade rafts to reach the United States, and what life is like for those who succeed.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRobert McNamaraJohn F. KennedyFidel CastroThe story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara.
- DirectorJacques PerrinJacques CluzaudMichel DebatsStarsJacques PerrinPhilippe LabroDocumentary on the migratory patterns of birds, shot over the course of three years on all seven continents.
- DirectorMalcolm ClarkeStuart SenderStarsIan HolmRobert LantzEleonore HertzbergDocumentary about Holocaust victim Kurt Gerron.
- DirectorGail DolginVicente FrancoStarsMai Thi KimHeidi Neville-BubGerald FordSeparated at the end of the Vietnam war, an "Americanized" woman and her Vietnamese mother are reunited after 22 years.
- DirectorChristian FreiStarsJames NachtweyChristiane AmanpourHans-Hermann KlareDocumentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.
- DirectorB.Z. GoldbergJustine ShapiroCarlos BoladoStarsMoishe Bar AmB.Z. GoldbergShlomo GreenSeveral Jewish and Palestinian children are followed for three years and put in touch with each other, in this alternative look at the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. The three filmmakers followed a group of seven local children between 1995 and 1998. They all have a totally different background. These seven children tell their own story about growing up in Jerusalem. Through this portrait of their generation, we see how deep rooted and almost insoluble the problems of the Middle East have become. When the protagonists speak out in an epilogue a couple of years later, it becomes apparent that all have lost their childlike innocence.
- DirectorDeborah DicksonSusan FroemkeAlbert MayslesStarsLaLee WallaceReggie BarnesThis documentary follows a Mississippi Delta school district and a single Delta family as they struggle against the crippling effects of poverty in the wake of more than one hundred years of slavery.
- DirectorEdet BelzbergStarsCristina IonescuMihai Alexandre TudoseVioleta 'Macarena' RosuA profile of homeless Romanian children who were born victims of the nation's reckless population growth policy during its communist era.
- DirectorJean-Xavier de LestradeStarsAnn FinnellPatrick McGuinnessJames WilliamsOscar-winning documentary that documents a murder trial in which a 15-year-old African-American is wrongfully accused of a 2000 murder in Jacksonville, Florida.
- DirectorJosh AronsonStarsJaime Leigh AllenJemma BrahamFreeda CatIf you could make your deaf child hear, would you? Academy Award-nominated Sound and Fury follows the intimate, heart-rending tale of the Artinians, an extended family with deaf and hearing members across three generations. Together they confront a technological device that can help the deaf to hear but may also threaten deaf culture - and their bonds with each other. For Peter Artinian and his wife, both of whom are deaf, a surgical ear implant for their five-year-old daughter Heather means a choice between two worlds - an unfamiliar hearing world and the deaf world, a robust culture in its own right united by a uniquely visual and artistic language. Heather Artinian - precocious, vivacious, and avidly curious about implant surgery - is caught between her deaf parents and her hearing grandparents, as they argue passionately about her future. The debate is sometimes silent, but by no means quiet. When all is done, Sound and Fury speaks volumes about the choices we make and the battles we fight in order to be heard..
- DirectorBarak GoodmanDaniel AnkerStarsFrances McDormandStanley TucciAndre BraugherThe history of the "Scottsboro Boys," a group of African American men who were victims of a racist miscarriage of justice that became a national controversy.
- DirectorDeborah HoffmannFrances ReidStarsMary BurtonPumla Gobodo-MadikizelaMongezi ManqinaThis documentary tells four stories of Apartheid in South Africa, as seen through the eyes of the Truth and Reconciliation commission. White soldiers who have killed ANC activists, black activists who have killed whites in political attacks: can there be forgiveness when the full truth comes out?
- DirectorTod LendingStarsAlaissa CollinsMarquis CollinsNickcole CollinsA documentary that tracks five years and three generations of a Chicago family's life in public housing. The murder of a family member has an immediate impact, but eventually changes them toward a more positive outlook on life in the end.
- DirectorMark Jonathan HarrisStarsJudi DenchLory CahnKurt FuchelThe secret smuggling of 9,300 Jewish children out of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s.
- DirectorJoshua WaletzkyStarsPhilip BoscoElmer BernsteinClaudine BouchéA documentary that explores the work of a composer who created music for over 50 films, collaborating with such diverse directors as Orson Welles, Nicholas Ray, and Martin Scorsese.
- DirectorSushmit GhoshRintu ThomasStarsMeera DeviShyamkali DeviSuneeta PrajapatiIn a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, emerges India's only newspaper run by Dalit women. Chief Reporter Meera and her journalists break traditions, redefining what it means to be powerful.
- DirectorMstyslav ChernovStarsMstyslav ChernovEvgeniy MaloletkaLiudmyla AmelkinaAs the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.
- DirectorMoses BwayoChristopher SharpStarsBarbie KyagulanyiBobi WineFollows Ugandan opposition leader, activist and musical star Bobi Wine. He used his music to fight the regime led by Yoweri Museveni, the person who led the country for 35 years.
- DirectorKaouther Ben HaniaStarsOlfa HamrouniEya ChikhaouiTayssir ChikhaouiBetween light and darkness stands Olfa, a Tunisian woman and the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania invites professional actresses to fill in their absence.