Out of hundreds of documentary films watched, these are just a few of my favorites. They are listed in chronological order from most recent to oldest. Additional films will be added below as I watch more and more. Most descriptions below are from imdb.com.
Links for viewing are not included below as availability/accessibility varies from time to time among different providers. To learn more about these films, to see trailers, and to watch the actual films, go to Netflix.com, DVD.Netflix.com, Snagfilms.com, imdb.com and YouTube.com as well as other sources you might be able to find online.
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2017
Daughters of Destiny (Roth, India, 2017, 239 minutes). Follows a group of kids, born into the most discriminated against and impoverished families on earth, as they grow up.
2016
First Contact: Lost Tribe of the Amazon (Macqueen, Amazon/Brazil, 2016, 49 minutes). Documents first contact with members of a previously isolated tribe called the Txapanawa on the bank of the Envira River in the village of Simpatia in Brazil.
Citizen Soldier (Salzberg/Tureaud, Afghanistan, 2016, 105 minutes). Set in one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan at the height of the surge, it is a heart-pounding, heartfelt grunts’ eye-view of the war. Using real footage from multiple cameras, including helmet cams, these Citizen Soldiers give the audience an intimate view into the chaos and horrors of combat and, in the process, display their bravery and valor under the most hellish of conditions.
2015
Chau, Beyond the Lines (Marsh, Vietnam, 2015, 33 minutes). Chau, a 16-year-old boy living in a Vietnamese peace camp for kids disabled by Agent Orange, battles with the reality of his dream to one day become a professional clothing designer.
The Propaganda Game (Longoria, North Korea, 2015, 93 minutes). Granted controlled access by national officials, filmmaker Álvaro Longoria tours North Korea to contrast his findings to the typical Western depiction of the nation.
Under the Sun (Mansky, North Korea, 2015, 109 minutes). A propaganda documentary about North Korea that reveals a few hidden facts because the director continues filming between the scripted scenes.
In the Name of Honor (Gula, India/Jordan/Palestinian Territories, 2015, 72 minutes). Honor killings, rape, treatment of women. IN THE NAME OF HONOR exposes frightening cases of honor killings from India, Jordan and Palestine. Hindu, Muslim and Christian families all share the tragic experiences that wrecked their lives.
Inspired to Ride (Dion, USA, 2015, 88 minutes). On June 7, 2014, forty-five cyclists from around the world set out on the inaugural Trans Am Bike Race, following the famed TransAmerica Trail. Their mission is to cover 4,233 miles in one enormous stage race, traversing through ten states in a transcontinental adventure of epic proportions. Inspired To Ride follows closely the journey of a handful of these cyclists as they prepare, compete and experience what riding 300 miles a day feels like with only a few hours sleep. There are no support teams, no follow vehicles and no prize money waiting at the end.
In Jackson Heights (Wiseman, USA, 2015, 189 minutes). Frederick Wiseman Style of Documentaries. The subject of the film is the daily life of the people in this community-their businesses, community centers, religions, and political, cultural and social lives-and the conflict between maintaining ties to traditions of the countries of origin and the need to learn and adapt to American ways and values.
2014
Love Me! (Narducci, Ukraine/USA, 2014, 94 minutes). Mail order brides/dating.
2013
When Hari Got Married (Sarin/Sonam, India, 2013, 75 minutes). When Hari, a small-town taxi driver, has an arranged marriage to a girl he has never met, the result is an intimate and humorous look at the changes taking place in India as modernity and globalization meet age-old traditions and customs.
At Berkeley (Wiseman, USA, 2013, 244 minutes). Frederick Wiseman Style of Documentaries. At Berkeley, shows the major aspects of university life, its intellectual and social mission, its obligation to the state and to larger ideas of higher education, as well as illustrates how decisions are made and implemented by the administration in collaboration with its various constituencies.
2012
The Queen of Versailles (Greenfield, USA, 2012, 100 minutes). Riches to Rags/Overspending of Wealth. A documentary that follows a billionaire couple as they begin construction on a mansion inspired by Versailles. During the next two years, their empire, fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money, falters due to the economic crisis.
Burn (Putnam/Sanchez, USA/Detroit, 2012, 85 minutes). Firefighting, budget cuts, cities in decline. The city of Detroit, Michigan has been in severe decline in recent decades. Among the resulting problems is the dramatic rise of fires in a decaying urban-scape of abandoned buildings that seems to have no future. This film profiles the lives and trials of the personnel of the Detroit Fire Department, who are on the front line of this taxing battle. Facing constant emergencies in the face of shrinking budgets, the firefighters of Detroit are determined to protect the city as best they can, whatever the cost.
2011
Pygmies: Children of the Jungle (Barabas, Central African Republic, 2011, 52 minutes). The adventurer, Ivan Bulík, traveled all through Africa. However, one of his dreams still eluded him: He desired to capture the life and customs of the smallest people on Earth, to find the undisturbed civilization of Pygmies.
How to Die in Oregon (Richardson, USA, 2011, 107 minutes). Assisted suicide. In 1994 Oregon became the first state to legalize a terminally ill person’s request to end his or her life with medication. At the time, only Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands had legalized the practice. ‘How to Die in Oregon’ tell the stories of those most intimately involved with the practice today — terminally ill Oregonians, their families, doctors, and friends — as well as the passage of a similar law in Washington State.
2010
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (Vasyukov/Herzog, Russia, 2010, 94 minutes). Uninhabited land- living off the land. A documentary depicting the life and work of the trappers of Bakhtia, a village in the heart of the Siberian Taiga, where daily life has changed little in over a century.
2009
Johnny Berlin and Johnny Berlin Part 2: Notes from the Dumpster (DeJoseph, USA, 2005 and 2009, 51 and 68 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/USA. Simultaneously funny and dark, this documentary follows Jon Hyrns, a porter aboard a refurbished 1930s luxury train. Passengers on the Seattle to L.A. trip know him as “Johnny Berlin” – the man responsible for making their beds and cleaning their toilets. We get to know him differently – as a middle-aged, struggling writer with a workaday job and as many dreams as he has beds to clean. Boyishly charming and with many stories to tell, Johnny takes us on a trip through his life. He’s a true wanderer, a man without a home base, whose only plan is to spend his savings on a trip to Cambodia to write his long-gestating novel. The film is ultimately an intimate, offbeat, and humorous portrait of mid-life crisis presented as a traveling monologue. JOHNNY BERLIN PART 2: NOTES FROM THE DUMPSTER, picks up where JOHNNY BERLIN left off, right after Johnny’s tour of duty as a porter aboard a luxury train ended. We find Johnny lying in a hotel room bed, talking about how he gambled away almost all of the money he had saved for his trip while working on the train, and thus ended up destitute in Phnom Penh where he had visions of leaping off of a bridge into the Mekong River.
Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy (Wang-Breal, China/USA, 2009, 90 minutes). International adoption- China. From 2000 to 2008, China was the leading country for U.S. international adoptions. There are now approximately 70,000 Chinese adoptees being raised in the United States. Ninety-five percent of them are girls. Each year, these girls face new questions regarding their adopted lives and surroundings. This is a film about Chinese adopted girls, their American adoptive families and the paradoxical losses and gains inherent in international adoption.
Sweetgrass (Barbash, USA, 2009, 101 minutes). Portrait of a way of life. In the summer of 2003, a group of shepherds took a herd of sheep one final time through the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, in the extreme north-west of the United States. It was a journey of almost three hundred kilometres through expansive green valleys, by fields of snow, and across hazardous, narrow ridges – a journey brimming with challenges. The aging shepherds do their very best to keep the hundreds of sheep together; the panoramic high mountains are teeming with hungry wolves and grizzly bears.
2008
Immokalee, U.S.A. (Koszulinski, USA, 2008, 100 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/USA. Every season, tens of thousands of migrant farmworkers converge on small communities like Immokalee, Florida where they plant and harvest the food that Americans consume. A vast majority of these workers are undocumented, leaving them at the mercy of the large agribusinesses who hire them, the crew leaders who contract them and the landlords and businesses that profit from the seasonal arrival of migrant workers. Their “undocumented” legal status allows for a system of exploitation that leaves workers and their families to endure conditions and wages that rarely meet international human rights standards. Immokalee U.S.A. documents these daily experiences, leading the viewer to examine their own role in the issues migrant workers face in the U.S.A.
Big Rig (Pray, USA, 2008, 95 minutes). Portrait of American truck drivers. A portrait of contemporary American life, as seen through the eyes of long-haul truck drivers.
Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia’s Children (Connell, Cambodia, 2008, 83 minutes). Street children/3rd world/poverty. The struggles of the street and garbage dump children of Cambodia are examined through the personal stories of five children and their journey toward education.
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors without Borders (Hopkins, 3rd world various, 2008, 93 minutes). Doctors without borders/war/3rd world poverty. In the war-zones of Liberia and Congo, four volunteers with Doctors Without Borders struggle to provide emergency medical care under extreme conditions.
2007
Encounters at the End of the World (Herzog, Antarctica/McMurdo Station, 2007, 100 minutes). Antarctica/McMurdo Station. Film-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent’s beauty and investigate the characters living there.
The Devil Came on Horseback (Steidle, Sudan, 2007, 85 minutes). Sudan (Darfur Region)- war. A documentary that exposes the genocide raging in Darfur, Sudan as seen through the eyes of a former U.S. marine who returns home to make the story public.
Please Vote for Me (Chen, China, 2007, 57 minutes). Growing up. 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.
Cracked Not Broken (Perrier, Canada, 2007, 52 minutes). Portrait/drugs/prostitution. Coming from an upper-middle class background with a good education, close friends and family members (she has one adolescent daughter), 37 year old Canadian Lisa seemed to be the least likely person to get caught up in the dangerous and self-destructive world of crack addiction and prostitution (which is how she funds her habit). She discusses in a very honest, open and articulate manner here in the film’s intimate setting (her Toronto hotel room to be precise) just what led her down this tragic path that she currently finds herself in, and how she ultimately wants nothing more than to reach full sobriety someday so as to not only return to some semblance of a normal life as a mother, daughter and friend but to hopefully educate and help others, specifically women, who have found themselves in a similar situation as hers.
Up the Yangtze (Chang, China, 2007, 93 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/Foreign. A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze – navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as “The River.” The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history. At the river’s edge – a young woman says goodbye to her family as the floodwaters rise towards their small homestead. The Three Gorges Dam – contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle – provides the epic backdrop for Up the Yangtze, a dramatic feature documentary on life inside modern China.
Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma (?, Somalia/Rwanda/Congo, 2007, 88 minutes). Doctors without borders/war/3rd world poverty. Acclaimed doctor James Orbinski, former head of Doctors Without Borders, returns to Africa to confront the harsh reality of conditions there and explores what it means to be a humanitarian.
2006
Easy Street (?, USA, 2006, 90 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/USA. According to homeless people and experts alike, St. Petersburg, Florida is one of the best places to be if you’re homeless. ”Easy Street” documents the daily existence of homeless people throughout the city over the course of one year.
Jesus Camp (Ewing/Grady, USA, 2006, 84 minutes). Extreme religion. Jesus Camp follows several young children as they prepare to attend a summer camp where the kids will get their daily dose of evangelical Christianity. Becky Fischer works at the camp, which is named Kids on Fire. Through interviews with Fischer, the children, and others, Jesus Camp illustrates the unswerving belief of the faithful. A housewife and homeschooling mother tells her son that creationism has all the answers. Footage from inside the camp shows young children weeping and wailing as they promise to stop their sinning. Child after child is driven to tears. Juxtapose these scenes with clips from a more moderate Christian radio host (who is appalled by such tactics), and Jesus Camp seems to pose a clear question: are these children being brainwashed?
The One Percent (Johnson, USA, 2006, 76 minutes). Wealth in America. In this hard-hitting but humorous documentary, director Jamie Johnson takes the exploration of wealth that he began in Born Rich one step further. The One Percent, refers to the tiny percentage of Americans who control nearly half the wealth of the U.S. Johnson’s thesis is that this wealth in the hands of so few people is a danger to our very way of life. Johnson captures his story through personal interviews with Robert Reich, Adnan Khashoggi, Bill Gates Sr., and Steve Forbes, during which both Johnson’s and his subjects’ knowledge and humor shine. And he’s not afraid to butt heads with Milton Friedman, the economist who coined the term “the trickledown effect.” He also shows how the other half lives, using real-world examples of the wealth gap: he takes a tour of a dilapidated housing project in Chicago, rides around with an enlightened taxi driver, and sees the human toll of the unfair economics of the Florida sugar industry. Johnson’s film is at its most powerful when it reveals how the super-rich work to preserve their own monetary dominance. As a member of the “Johnson & Johnson” family, he gets rare access to an exclusive wealth conference at which the über rich learn strategies for preserving their fortunes, and learns the personal management styles of some of the countries wealthiest employers. No great society has survived such a massive wealth gap; who knows if ours will?
2005
Workingman’s Death (Glawogger, Ukrain/Indonesia/Nigeria/Pakistan, 2005, 122 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/Foreign. A documentary on the extremes to which workers will go to earn a living.
Seoul Train: Independent Lens (Butterworth et. Al., North Korea, 2005, 54 minutes). Inside Communist North Korea. With its riveting footage of a secretive “underground railroad,” SEOUL TRAIN is the gripping documentary exposé into the life and death of North Koreans as they try to escape their homeland and China. SEOUL TRAIN also delves into the complex geopolitics behind this growing and potentially explosive humanitarian crisis. By combining vérité footage, personal stories and interviews with experts and government officials, SEOUL TRAIN depicts the flouting of international laws by major countries, the inaction and bureaucracy of the United Nations, and the heroics of activists that put themselves in harm’s way to save the refugees.
The Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary (Torres, Central America/Mexico, 2005, 90 minutes). Central American Migration to USA.
2004
I Like Killing Flies (Mahurin, USA, 2004, 79 minutes). Portrait/philosophy about life. A documentary on the oddball Greenwich Village eatery, Shopsin’s.
Darwin’s Nightmare (Sauper, Tanzania, 2004, 107 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/Foreign. The larger scope of the story explores the gun trade to Africa that takes place under the covers — Russian pilots fly guns into Africa, then fly fish back out to Europe. The hazards and consequences of this trade are explored, including the pan-African violence propagated by constant flow of weapons into the continent. If it is a “survival of the fittest” world, as Darwin concluded, then the capitalist interests that fund the gun runners are climbing the evolutionary ladder on the backs of the Africans in this stark Darwinian example. Much like the foreseeable extinction of the Lake Victoria perch, and death of Lake Victoria itself, the Africans are in grave jeopardy, even as they survive in the only ways they know how.
A State of Mind (Gordon, North Korea, 2004, 94 minutes). Inside Communist North Korea. A British documentary that follows two young North Korean girls as they prepare for the Mass Games, the world’s largest choreographed gymnastics performance.
Born into Brothels (Briski/Kauffman, India, 2004, 85 minutes). 3rd world/children/poverty. Documentary photographer Zana Briski journeyed into Calcutta’s underworld to photograph the city’s prostitutes. In return, she offered to teach the prostitutes’ children the basics of photography so that the kids could document their own lives on the streets of one of the world’s poorest cities. The resulting photographs, often astonishing, were exhibited around the world; many of them are seen in this film, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2005.
2003
2002
Daughter from Danang (?, USA/Vietnam, 2002, 81 minutes). International Adoption – Vietnam. In 1975, as the Vietnam War was ending, thousands of orphans and Amerasian children were brought to the United States as part of “Operation Babylift.” Daughter from Danang tells the dramatic story of one of these children, Heidi Bub (a.k.a. Mai Thi Hiep), and her Vietnamese mother, Mai Thi Kim, separated at the war’s end and reunited 22 years later. Heidi, now living in Tennessee – a married woman with kids – had always dreamt of a joyful reunion. When she ventures to Vietnam to meet her mother, she unknowingly embarks on an emotional pilgrimage that spans decades and distance. Unlike most reunion stories that climax with a cliché happy ending, Daughter from Danang is a real-life drama. Journeying from the Vietnam War to Pulaski, Tennessee and back to Vietnam, Daughter from Danang tensely unfolds as cultural differences and the years of separation take their toll in a riveting film about longing and the personal legacy of war.
Country Boys (Sutherland, USA, 2002, 180 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/USA.
2001
2000
Dark Days (Singer, USA, 2000, 84 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/USA. Near Penn Station, next to the Amtrak tracks, squatters have been living for years. Marc Singer goes underground to live with them, and films this “family.” A dozen or so men and one woman talk about their lives: horrors of childhood, jail time, losing children, being coke-heads. They scavenge, they’ve built themselves sturdy one-room shacks; they have pets, cook, chat, argue, give each other haircuts. A bucket is their toilet. Leaky overhead pipes are a source of water for showers. They live in virtual darkness. During the filming, Amtrak gives a 30-day eviction notice.
1990’s
The Farmer’s Wife (Sutherland, USA, 1998, 220 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/USA. “The Farmer’s Wife” takes us deep inside the world of Juanita and Darrel Buschkoetter, a remarkable young Nebraska farm couple, to tell a compelling love story. It follows the Buschkoetters over three years as they face seemingly insurmountable economic hardship, only to confront an even greater challenge: repairing their damaged marriage. What emerges is an epic story of faith, perseverance, and triumph, and an indelible portrait of a real American family’s struggle to hold onto their dreams, and to each other.
Soldier Child (Abramson, Uganda, 1998, 55 minutes). Uganda- war. A documentary filmed in Northern Uganda about a religious fanatic named Joseph Kony who abducts, then brainwashes children turning them into “child soldiers.” Since 1990, Kony has kidnapped more than 12,000 children and forced them to commit unspeakable atrocities against their families and communities. This film is about the efforts of the Ugandan people to rehabilitate these children and reintroduce them into society.
Hoop Dreams (Marx/James/Gilbert, USA, 1994, ? minutes). This documentary follows two young African-Americans through their high school years as they perfect their skills in basketball in the hopes of getting a college scholarship and eventually play in the NBA. Arthur Agee and William Gates both show great potential and are actively recruited as they look to enter high school. They start off at the same high school but unable to pay an unexpected bill for tuition fees, Arthur has to withdraw and go to the local public high school. The film follows them through their four years of high school and their trials and tribulations: injuries, slumps and the never-ending battle to maintain their grades. Through it all, their hoop dreams continue.
Moon Children (Wu Yii-Feng, Taiwan, 1993, ? minutes).
The War Room (Pennebaker/Hegedus, 1993, ? minutes). A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. Bill Clinton himself is almost never seen.
1980’s
The Store (Wiseman, 1983, ? minutes). Frederick Wiseman style documentary. A look at the employees and shoppers at the Neiman-Marcus department in Dallas, Texas during the holiday season.
Third Avenue: Only the Strong Survive (?, USA, 1980, 60 minutes). Portrait/Economic Hardship/USA.
1970’s
Best Boy (Wohl, USA, 1979, ? minutes). Portrait of a person/mentally disabled. In this documentary, the director follows the day-to-day activities of his retarded, middle-aged cousin Philly, over a three-year period.
The Police Tapes (Raymond, USA, 1976, 90 minutes). Film Theory: Direct Cinema. A documentary about a police precinct in the South Bronx.
Hearts & Minds (Davis, Vietnam/USA, 1974, 112 minutes). War. This film recounts the history and attitudes of the opposing sides of the Vietnam War using archival news footage as well as its own film and interviews. A key theme is how attitudes of American racism and self-righteous militarism helped create and prolong this bloody conflict. The film also endeavors to give voice to the Vietnamese people themselves as to how the war has affected them and their reasons why they fight the United States and other western powers while showing the basic humanity of the people that US propaganda tried to dismiss.
Sad Song of Yellow Skin (Rubbo, Canada/Vietnam, 1970, ? minutes). War. Presents the people of Saigon as seen through the eyes of 3 young American journalists exploring the consequences of the Vietnam war, and the American presence in Saigon.
1960’s
You are on Indian Land (Ransen, Canada, 1969, ? minutes). Protest film.
Calcutta (Malle, India, 1969, 105 minutes). Ethnographic film. With minimal narration by the director and very little context this is a kaleidoscope of stunning visuals from Calcutta, a city of 8,000,000 in the late 1960’s: rich and poor, exotic and mundane, secular and religious, children and adults, animate and inanimate. Given only the images, the viewer can read any meaning she or he wants into the film.
Phantom India (Malle, India/France, 1968, ? minutes). Ethnographic film.
A Time for Burning (Jersey, USA, 1966, ? minutes). Race Relations. In the mid-1960s, 1200 White people attend Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska. Nearby, Negro Lutherans worship at Hope Lutheran Church. Reverend Bill Youngdahl, Augustana’s pastor, proposes that ten couples visit ten Negro families from Hope. It’s a controversial idea; within weeks, Youngdahl resigns. The camera observes: Augustana parishioners discuss the idea, the social ministry committee meets with Hope leaders, and Hope youth talk about race and religion. Ernie Chambers, a Negro barber, predicts Youngdahl’s failure, and Chambers’ implacable questions help lead Ray Christensen, an Augustana social ministry member, to a conversion.
Primary (Leacock/Drew, USA, 1960, ? minutes). Film Theory: Direct Cinema. It’s the tail end of winter in 1960. U.S. Senators Hubert Humphrey and John Kennedy seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. Wisconsin’s primary – one of the few direct primaries at the time – is on April 5. We see both candidates on the road; it’s retail politics, shaking hands, signing autographs, smiling. We hear part of a standard stump speech from Kennedy; we watch Humphrey talk to farmers in a rural hall. Kennedy is favored. We see his wife, his brother Robert briefly, and on election night his sisters Pat and Eunice. Jacqueline speaks a few words of Polish at a Milwaukee rally. The returns come in; it’s on to Indiana and West Virginia.
1950’s
Glass (Haanstra, Holland, 1958, 10 minutes). Film Theory.
Paul Tomkowicz: Street Railway Switchman (Kroiter, Canada, 1954, 9 minutes). Film Theory.
1940’s
1930’s
1920’s
Rain (Ivens, ?, 1929, 12 minutes). Film Theory.
The Bridge (Ivens, Amsterdam, 1928, 11 minutes). Film Theory.
Nanook of the North (Flaherty, USA/Canada, 1922, 79 minutes). Ethnographic. Documents one year in the life of Nanook, an Eskimo (Inuit), and his family. Describes the trading, hunting, fishing and migrations of a group barely touched by industrial technology. Nanook of the North was widely shown and praised as the first full-length, anthropological documentary in cinematographic history.
1910’s
1900’s
1890’s
Arrival of a Train (Lumiere, France, 1895, 1 minute). Film Theory.
- I Like Killing Flies (Mahurin/USA/2004/79 minutes)
- Big Rig (2008).
- Immokalee, U.S.A. (2008)
- The Farmer’s Wife (1998).
- Workingman’s Death (2005).
- The Queen of Versailles (2012).
- First Contact: Lost Tribe of the Amazon (2016).
- Please Vote for Me (2007).
- When Hari Got Married (2013).
- Jesus Camp (2006).
[MANY MORE FILMS TO BE ADDED- PLEASE CHECK BACK AT A LATER DATE].
Documentary Discussions 