Docs to watch
by steven-r-hughes | created - 09 Jan 2020 | updated - 15 Oct 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Minding the Gap (2018)
Not Rated | 93 min | Documentary, Sport
Filmmaker Bing Liu searches for correlations between his skateboarder friends' turbulent upbringings and the complexities of modern masculinity.
Director: Bing Liu | Stars: Kent Abernathy, Mengyue Bolen, Nina Bowgren, Keire Johnson
Votes: 10,471 | Gross: $0.01M
2. Apollo 11 (I) (2019)
G | 93 min | Documentary, History
A look at the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon led by commander Neil Armstrong and pilots Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins.
Director: Todd Douglas Miller | Stars: Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Deke Slayton
Votes: 27,227 | Gross: $9.04M
3. Citizenfour (2014)
R | 114 min | Documentary, Biography
A documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.
Director: Laura Poitras | Stars: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, William Binney, Jacob Appelbaum
Votes: 57,993 | Gross: $2.80M
4. Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (2015)
Not Rated | 119 min | Documentary
A documentary looking at the inner-workings of the Church of Scientology.
Director: Alex Gibney | Stars: Paul Haggis, Jason Beghe, Spanky Taylor, David Miscavige
Votes: 40,920
5. Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
PG-13 | 86 min | Documentary, Biography, Music
Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n roller, Rodriguez.
Director: Malik Bendjelloul | Stars: Rodriguez, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman, Dennis Coffey, Mike Theodore
Votes: 72,926 | Gross: $3.97M
6. I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
PG-13 | 93 min | Documentary, History
Writer James Baldwin tells the story of race in modern America with his unfinished novel, Remember This House.
Director: Raoul Peck | Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X
Votes: 23,514 | Gross: $7.12M
7. Tickled (2016)
R | 92 min | Documentary, Crime, Mystery
Journalist David Farrier stumbles upon a mysterious tickling competition online. As he delves deeper he comes up against fierce resistance, but that doesn't stop him getting to the bottom of a story stranger than fiction.
Directors: David Farrier, Dylan Reeve | Stars: David Farrier, Dylan Reeve, David Starr, Kevin Clarke
Votes: 20,752 | Gross: $0.61M
8. O.J.: Made in America (2016)
TV-MA | 467 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
Director: Ezra Edelman | Stars: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mike Albanese, Muhammad Ali, Marcus Allen
Votes: 21,946
9. They Shall Not Grow Old (II) (2018)
R | 99 min | Documentary, History, War
A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of the end of the war.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Thomas Adlam, William Argent, John Ashby, Attwood
Votes: 38,476 | Gross: $17.96M
10. The Act of Killing (2012)
Not Rated | 117 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
A 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.
Directors: Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine Cynn | Stars: Anwar Congo, Herman Koto, Syamsul Arifin, Ibrahim Sinik
Votes: 40,824 | Gross: $0.49M
11. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015–2024)
TV-14 | 45 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki examines the complicated life of reclusive real estate icon Robert Durst, the key suspect in a series of unsolved crimes.
Stars: Robert Durst, Andrew Jarecki, J. Patrick Burns, Dick DeGuerin
Votes: 51,759
12. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Not Rated | 107 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
Documentary 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.
Director: Andrew Jarecki | Stars: Arnold Friedman, Jesse Friedman, David Friedman, Elaine Friedman
Votes: 27,145 | Gross: $3.12M
13. Shoah (1985)
Not Rated | 566 min | Documentary, History, War
Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
Director: Claude Lanzmann | Stars: Simon Srebnik, Michael Podchlebnik, Motke Zaïdl, Hanna Zaïdl
Votes: 10,560 | Gross: $0.02M
14. The Phenomenon (2020)
Not Rated | 100 min | Documentary
This documentary examines unidentified aerial phenomenon. With testimony from high-ranking government officials, and NASA Astronauts, Senator Harry Reid says it "makes the incredible credible."
Director: James Fox | Stars: Peter Coyote, Chris Mellon, William T. Coleman, Kim Arnold
Votes: 4,354
15. Capernaum (2018)
R | 126 min | Drama
While serving a five-year sentence for a violent crime, a 12-year-old boy sues his parents for neglect.
Director: Nadine Labaki | Stars: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawsar Al Haddad
Votes: 105,528 | Gross: $1.66M
16. Heat (1995)
R | 170 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a verbal clue at their latest heist.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight
Votes: 719,864 | Gross: $67.44M
17. In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
PG | 100 min | Documentary, History
The crew members of NASA's Apollo missions tell their story in their own words.
Director: David Sington | Stars: Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Eugene Cernan, Mike Collins
Votes: 6,929 | Gross: $1.13M
18. A Film Unfinished (2010)
Unrated | 88 min | Documentary, Drama, History
A film about an unfinished film which portrays the people behind and before the camera in the Warsaw Ghetto, exposing the extent of the cinematic manipulation forever changing the way we look at historic images.
Director: Yael Hersonski | Stars: Alexander Beyer, Rüdiger Vogler, Hanna Avrutzki, Luba Gewisser
Votes: 1,900 | Gross: $0.31M
19. Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
G | 99 min | Documentary
Film-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Scott Rowland, Stefan Pashov, Doug MacAyeal
Votes: 19,260 | Gross: $0.94M
20. Cropsey (2009)
Not Rated | 84 min | Documentary, Crime, Horror
Realizing that the urban legend of their youth has actually come true, two filmmakers delve into the mystery surrounding five missing children and the real-life boogeyman linked to their disappearances.
Directors: Barbara Brancaccio, Joshua Zeman | Stars: Joshua Zeman, Barbara Brancaccio, Bill Ellis, Dorothy D'Eletto
Votes: 9,215 | Gross: $0.05M
21. The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead (2015)
110 min | Documentary, Music
A history of the influential English punk band The Damned from their inception in 1976 through to 2015.
Director: Wes Orshoski | Stars: Gaye Advert, Fred Armisen, Roger Armstrong, Jimmy Ashhurst
Votes: 469
22. Zoo (2007)
Unrated | 75 min | Documentary
A look at the life of an Enumclaw, Washington man who died as a result of an unusual encounter with a horse.
Director: Robinson Devor | Stars: Coyote, Jenny Edwards, John Edwards, John Paulsen
Votes: 2,985 | Gross: $0.07M
23. Magical Egypt (2001– )
Not Rated | 48 min | Documentary
Growing evidence is suggesting a missing chapter in human history. West explores evidence of a sophisticated science behind the unexplainable accomplishments of Ancient Egypt, the inheritor of knowledge from an even earlier civilization?
Stars: Derek Partridge, John Anthony West, Chance Gardner, Lon Milo DuQuette
Votes: 196
24. I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2020–2021)
TV-MA | 50 min | Documentary, Crime, Mystery
Gripping examination of the unsolved crimes of the Golden State Killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s.
Stars: Patton Oswalt, Paul Haynes, Amy Ryan, Lauren Orlando
Votes: 8,862
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