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Wartorn 1861 - 2010 (2010)
Wartorn is a James Gandolfini-produced HBO documentary following armed forces sufferers of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through American history. We are shown letters from soldiers in the...
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Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
Is it real, or is it art? Maybe its both. The anonymous Banksy (who has since effectively been unmasked as Robin Gunningham, or former public schoolboy Robin Gunningham as the Daily Mail would have it)...
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When We Were Kings (1996)
It seems a bit ridiculous to write about this movie that is so awesome, so famous and so well covered by better people than me. But its even worse to leave it out of the list. This is Leon Gast's...
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Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
This is big one. Several coincidences come together to make this a documentary with incredible events and unprecedented footage. But what it really represents is doubt. And its absolutely fascinating....
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Lionel Messi Never Dives (2012) and Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait(2006)
Ok so this isn't exactly a documentary but it is absolutely awesome and entirely factual. This is a compilation of clips from football matches of Lionel Messi refusing to fall over while being...
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Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines (2010)
This is an absolute gem of a documentary with incredible (unique?) access to a world of real opacity. Najibullah Quraishi is an Afghan journalist who made Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death in 2002...
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The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005)
What is it about mental illness in documentaries? Why would it provide such a solid platform for entertainment? The character at the centre of this documentary is Daniel Johnston, who is now a globally...
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The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara(2003)
This is a superb documentary, rife with ambiguity and complexity. Errol Morris, a documentary grandee, interviews Robert McNamara with his direct-to-lens style filming technique (the"Interrotron")...
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Chuck Jones Memories of Childhood (2009)
Do you know who created Daffy Duck? Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner? Bugs Bunny? Porky Pig? This guy, he did the animation by hand, wrote the stories and directed the TV shows. Chuck Jones, how...
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The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1981)
Some kind of 80s TV documentary gives us an inspiring interview with Nobel Laureate (though he is quite clear on how much he disregards this attribute) Richard Feynman. For an exceptional physicist,...
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The War Room (2003)
Documentaries are at their very best when they give you exposure to something you would otherwise never see, and this is a fantastic example of that. Chris Hegedus and Da Pennebaker get incredible...
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The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
Blurring lines between objective fact based filmaking and narrative is a classic challenge for documentary makers. But in some instances the possibility is fully embraced, and a quest for objectivity...
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Snuff: A Documentary About Killing on Camera (2008)
I'm not certain whether this counts as a documentary. Or rather whether the circular point at the centre of it makes it a film that can't be watched without hypocrisy, so doesn't do what documentaries...
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Dreams of a Life (2011)
Dreams of a Life is an analysis of a quirk of life and an attempt to understand and explain it. A body is found in an apartment in London of a woman in her 30s. The body has been there for 3 years...
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Fat Girls and Feeders (2003)
Updated 1 October 2013. Original post 10 June 2013It's not often that a made for tv documentary has this kind of impact, particularly one that falls into the category of "look at this weird person, but...
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The Birth of Big Air (2010)
Whenever I see documentaries like this I wonder how these people get to sustain their hobbies. Maybe he has a lucrative day job, or maybe even family money somewhere along the line ... but even a guy...
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Murderball (2005)
For a documentary film with a narrative to be ok, you need an interesting idea at its centre. For it to be good, you can do with a classic underdog story, or a triumph of will against something. For it...
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Paris is Burning (1990)
This is a particularly striking documentary. At its core is the "ball" scene which is a New York, predominately black, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender cultural phenomenon from the 1980s in which...
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Room 237 (2012)
How do intelligent people become this obsessive? In my explanation for my interest in running this blog, I explained how futile I found scrutinising fictional movies due to their lack of substance....
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Little Dieter Needs To Fly (1998)
This is a journey with two of the most open minded people that you could meet. People who are highly receptive to their environments and highly engaged with the possibilities that they present. One is...
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