DOCUMENTARY Cinema
Real Cinema experience trough documentaries in which narratives and storytelling explores new and innovative forms.
NOT in Ranking Order. Just a List
NOT in Ranking Order. Just a List
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- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorKazuo HaraStarsKenzo OkuzakiRiichi AikawaMasaichi HamaguchiA documentary following Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, as he tries to expose the needless executions of two Japanese soldiers during the war.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsAmilcar CabralFlorence DelayArielle DombasleA woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
- DirectorPatricio GuzmánStarsGaspar GalazLautaro NúñezLuís HenríquezA documentary about two different searches conducted in the Chilean Atacama Desert: one by astronomers looking for answers about the history of the cosmos, and one by women looking for the remains of loved ones killed by Pinochet's regime.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
- DirectorClaude LanzmannStarsSimon SrebnikMichael PodchlebnikMotke ZaïdlClaude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
- DirectorPatricio GuzmánStarsAbilio FernándezSalvador AllendeThe chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.
- DirectorEllen HovdeAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesStarsEdith Bouvier BealeEdith 'Little Edie' Bouvier BealeBrooks HyersMeet a mother and daughter, high-society dropouts, reclusive cousins of Jackie O., managing to thrive together amid the decay and disorder of their East Hampton, NY, mansion, making for an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsChishû RyûWerner HerzogYûharu AtsutaMoved by the work of director Yasujirô Ozu, Wim Wenders travels to Japan in search of the Tokyo seen in Ozu's films.
- DirectorRithy PanhStarsKhieu 'Poev' ChesYeay CheuNhem EnA unique documentary on the notorious S-21 prison, today the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with testimony by the only surviving prisoners and former Khmer Rouge guards.
- DirectorAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesCharlotte ZwerinStarsPaul BrennanCharles McDevittJames BakerFour dogged door-to-door Bible salesmen travel from Boston to Florida on a seemingly futile quest to sell luxury editions of the Good Book to working-class Catholics.
- DirectorHarun FarockiAndrei UjicaStarsIon CaramitruElena CeausescuNicolae CeausescuThis documentary uses news footage and amateur video to paint a vivid picture of Romania's 1989 revolution and the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
- DirectorAlan BerlinerStarsAlan BerlinerOscar BerlinerA portrait of the director's father, searching for the extraordinary in the subject's seemingly normal existence.
- DirectorOrson WellesGary GraverOja KodarStarsOrson WellesOja KodarFrançois ReichenbachA documentary about fraud and fakery.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorEmile de AntonioStarsHarry S. AshmoreDaniel BerriganJoseph ButtingerA documentary chronicling the background to, and history of, the Vietnam War.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardAnne-Marie MiévilleStarsJean-Luc GodardThe movie incorporates footage of fedayeens taken for an aborted pro-Palestinian film which had been abandoned when subjects were killed. Here and Elsewhere takes its name from the footage it shows of the fedayeens and of a French family.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsMichael AspelPeter GrahamDave BaldwinA docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain.
- DirectorSantiago ÁlvarezStarsLena HorneA documentary short about racism in the United States.
- DirectorOctavio GetinoFernando E. SolanasStarsMaría de la PazFernando E. SolanasEdgardo SuárezDivided 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 and the revolution of the third world such as the revolt of the students in the United States and Western Europe, Czech citizens protest against the Soviet Union's State bureaucracy and also the revolution that (probably) is unprecedented in Argentina.
- DirectorRaymundo GleyzerStarsLuis EcheverriaPaul LeducA thorough analysis of the social- politics of Mexico, within the historical context of the Mexican Revolution reality. Includes footage of the 1910s, interviews with farmers, politicians, intellectuals, middle class, trade and unionists.
- DirectorAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesCharlotte ZwerinStarsMick JaggerKeith RichardsMick TaylorWhen three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway, the bloody slash that transformed a decade's dreams into disillusionment was immortalized on this film.
- DirectorRoss McElweeStarsRoss McElweeDede McElweeRoss McElwee Jr.Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee sets out to make a movie about Union General Sherman's March to the Sea towards the end of the American Civil War, but keeps getting sidetracked by his own love life.
- DirectorVictor KossakovskyThe director films the street where he lives in St. Petersburg, for a whole year, documenting the changes caused by the celebration of its 300th anniversary.
- DirectorJosé PadilhaFelipe LacerdaStarsSandro do NascimentoRodrigo PimentelLuiz Eduardo SoaresOn June 12, 2000, a young man with a gun took the passengers aboard Bus 174 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil hostage. This documentary examines the event itself, the resulting media frenzy, the police response, and the perpetrator's background.
- DirectorJorge FurtadoStarsPaulo JoséCiça ReckziegelDouglas TraininiThe ironic, heartbreaking and acid "saga" of a spoiled tomato: from the plantation of a "Nisei" (Brazilian with Japanese origins); to a supermarket; to a consumer's kitchen to become sauce of a pork meat; to the garbage can since it is spoiled for the consumption; to a garbage truck to be dumped in a garbage dump in "Ilha das Flores"; to the selection of nutriment for pigs by the employees of a pigs breeder; to become food for poor Brazilian people.
- DirectorGlauber RochaIn 1966, José Sarney was elected governor of Maranhão for the first time. To register his inauguration speech and his political pledge to the population of the state, the politician invited the main figure of the Cinema Novo, the great filmmaker Glauber Rocha, to capture everything and turn into a great event. However, Rocha's nervous camera and combative spirit end up capturing a lot more than what Sarney had expected, by showing the contrast between the eloquent words spoken about progress and the harsh reality faced by the poor people.
- DirectorMichel KhleifiEyal SivanStarsMichel KhleifiEyal SivanSummer 2002, the Palestinian filmmaker Michel Khleifi and the Israeli filmmaker Eyal Sivan set off on a cinematographic journey in their country, Palestine-Israel.
- DirectorHarun Farocki
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsFrançois WertheimerAgnès VardaJean La PlancheVarda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerStarsAdi RukunM.Y. BasrunVolker HanischA family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerAnonymousChristine CynnStarsAnwar CongoHerman KotoSyamsul ArifinA 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.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsColman 'Tiger' KingMaggie DirraneMichael DirraneIn this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
- DirectorPeter MettlerStarsGavin ConnorBrian LadoonDon LindA documentary of an expedition to Churchill, Manitoba to film the Northern Lights.
- DirectorEmad BurnatGuy DavidiStarsEmad BurnatSoraya BurnatMohammed BurnatA documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
- DirectorJoão Moreira SallesStarsSantiago Badariotti MerloDocumentary about Santiago, a peculiar man who used to work for the director and his parents as a butler. The material was filmed in 1992 but, for some strange reason, the director felt he couldn't edit it and put it aside. In 2005 he remembers the unfinished film and starts its edition.
- DirectorDziga VertovHow the miners of the Don coal basin (one of the industrial regions of Ukraine) were striving to fulfill in four years their part of the Five Year Plan.
- DirectorSergey LoznitsaA look at the 2013 and 2014 civil unrest in the Ukrainian capital's central square.
- DirectorCarlos MayoloLuis OspinaStarsLuis Alfonso LondoñoCarlos MayoloRamiro ArbeláezFictional film that simulates being a documentary about filmmakers who exploit the misery with mercantilist purposes. It is a scathing criticism "porno-misery" and the opportunism of the dishonest documentary making "socio-political documentaries" in the third world to sell them in Europe and win prizes.
- DirectorDennis O'RourkeWhen tourists journey to the furthermost reaches of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, is it the indigenous tribespeople or the white visitors who are the cultural oddity? This film explores the difference (and the surprising similarities) that emerge when "civilized" and "primitive" people meet. With dry humor and acute observation CANNIBAL TOURS explodes cultural assumptions as it provides a pointed look at a fabulous phenomenon.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRandall AdamsDavid HarrisGus RoseA film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.
- DirectorSteve JamesStarsWilliam GatesArthur AgeeEmma GatesA film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.
- DirectorCarlos SorinStarsSalo PasikCarlos GarricCristina Czetto
- DirectorGöran Hugo OlssonStarsAngela DavisStokely CarmichaelBobby SealeFootage shot by a group of Swedish journalists documenting the Black Power Movement in the United States is edited together by a contemporary Swedish filmmaker.
- DirectorKurt KuenneStarsKurt KuenneAndrew BagbyDavid BagbyA filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered friend when his friend's ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son.
- DirectorRobert FrankStarsTruman CapoteDick CavettMarshall ChessFollow the Rolling Stones on their 1972 North American Tour and their first return to the States since the tragedy at Altamont.
- DirectorMojtaba MirtahmasbJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiIgiMrs. GheiratIt's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
- DirectorEduardo CoutinhoStarsEduardo CoutinhoThe late director Eduardo Coutinho sits down and talks with young Brazilian students in his last documentary.
- DirectorNestor FrenkelStarsOfelia Graziano de MarioJorge MarioDiego TrerotolaThe diffusion of the Super 8 format, several decades ago, multiplied the filmmakers through "genres": the film of marriage, the one of the boys singing and jumping, that of the vacations on the beach. Family cinema, memory movies, amateur cinema. For some, the Super 8 was only the possibility of obtaining photographs in movement. For others, the possibility of making movies.
- DirectorAlbertina CarriStarsAnalía CouceyroAlbertina CarriSantiago GiraltLos rubios focuses on the directors search for her dissappeared parents. Is it possible to get to the truth or they are only fictions, imaginary characters from everyone who rememebers them?
- DirectorPenelope SpheerisStarsEugene TatuAlice Bag BandBlack FlagA look into the Los Angeles punk rock scene, that was largely ignored by the rock music press of the time.
- DirectorEduardo CoutinhoStarsEduardo CoutinhoElizabeth TeixeiraFerreira GullarA filmmaker returns to Northeast Brazil after twenty years to resume his film (a profile of assassinated peasant leader João Pedro Teixeira) which was shut down by a right-wing military coup in 1964.
- DirectorRuth BeckermannA controversial photography exhibit about atrocities committed by the German army on the Eastern Front during World War II inspired Ruth Beckermann to interview soldiers about their experiences beyond the bounds of "normal" warfare.
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsNikita MikhalkovAnna MikhalkovaNadezhda MikhalkovaDirector Nikita Mikhalkov documents the history of Russia from 1980 to 1991 by annually asking his daughter Anna questions.
- DirectorKazuhiro SôdaStarsKazuhiko YamauchiSayuriYuki YamauchiIn response to the Fukushima disaster, Yama-san is running an election campaign with an anti-nuclear message. But unlike last time, he has no money, no machine, no nothing. Does he even stand a chance? On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced one of the most calamitous nuclear disasters in history. But in two national elections following the accident, the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) achieved landslide victories, gaining control of the two parliaments. Why? 'Campaign 2' by Kazuhiro Soda observes a small local election right after the disaster and gives insight into this difficult question, presenting a microcosm of Japan's political-psychological landscape.
- DirectorAlan RaymondSusan RaymondStarsCharles RydellTony BouzaA documentary about a police precinct in the South Bronx.
- DirectorChico PereiraStarsPaca Molera PereiraMamen Gómez HerediaManuel Molera AparicioManolo and his donkey Gorrión plan a journey to the West.
- DirectorSergey LoznitsaStarsTamara YatsenkoIrina ZayarmiukGrigory MasliukIn eastern Ukraine, society begins to degrade as the effects of propaganda and manipulation begin to surface in this post-truth era.
- DirectorKazuhiro SôdaStarsSeiko HashimotoNobuteru IshiharaYoriko KawaguchiCan a candidate with no political experience and no charisma win an election if he is backed by the political giant Prime Minister Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party? This cinema-verite documentary closely follows a heated election campaign in Kawasaki, Japan, revealing the true nature of "democracy."