Documentary Movies

It’s 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the ”Rumble in the Jungle” is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America’s top black performers, like James Brown and B.B….

Al Pacino’s deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare’s significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of ”Richard III.”

The film documents, in an often dramatic and humorous fashion, Gray’s investigations into alternative medicine for an eye condition (Macular pucker) he had developed.

Australian Story is a national weekly documentary series, produced and broadcast on ABC Television. Since 1996 Australian Story has featured many Australians from diverse backgrounds and reputations. Examples include Hazel…

This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals have occupied in cinema history, and shows the evolution of the entertainment industry’s role in shaping perceptions of LGBT figures. The issues addressed include secrecy – which initially defined homosexuality – as well as the demonization of the homosexual community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era.

”Trinity and Beyond” is an unsettling yet visually fascinating documentary presenting the history of nuclear weapons development and testing between 1945-1963. Narrated by William Shatner and featuring an original score…

Isaac Mizrahi, one of the most successful designers in high fashion, plans his fall 1994 collection.

It is the demand of every skeptic: prove to me that God exists. Of course making a decision to accept the Gospel of Christ is a matter of faith.

This documentary follows two inner-city Chicago residents, Arthur Agee and William Gates, as they follow their dreams of becoming basketball superstars. Beginning at the start of their high school years,…

This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin’, Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in…

Stand up comedy by Martin Lawrence, filmed in the Majestic Theater in New York City. Martin Lawrence talks about everything from racism, to relationships, to his childhood.

Africa the Serengeti takes you on an extraordinary journey to view a spectacle few humans have ever witnessed: The Great Migration. Journey with more than two million wildebeests, zebras and…

Ancient Mysteries is a television series that was produced by FilmRoos and originally broadcast on A&E between 7 January 1994 and 3 May 1998 with reruns airing until 2000. Reruns…

A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.

Originally conceived by Kurt Cobain, Live ! Tonight ! Sold Out !! is a video document of Nirvana’s rise from scruffy trio out of the Pacific Northwest into one of…

On October 16, 1992, an impressive and eclectic group of artists gathered at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the purpose of celebrating the music of Bob Dylan…

August 25, 1991, AC/DC at England’s famous Mosters of Rock festival at Castle Donington. This was the band’s first major live release with lead singer Brian Johnson. Special bonus features…

Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the ”DP” (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a…

This is a paralyzingly beautiful documentary with a global vision: an odyssey through landscape and time, that is an attempt to capture the essence of life.

American Justice is an American criminal justice television program that aired on the A&E Network, hosted by Bill Kurtis. The show features interesting or notable cases, such as the Selena…

This documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky details the murder trial of Delbert Ward. Delbert was a member of a family of four elderly brothers, working as semi-literate farmers…

A documentary film based on the life of scientist Steven Hawking. The film explores the intimate life of Steven Hawking through him, his friends and his family, as he goes…

Atlantis is more visual art than nature film and a ’must see’ for any Luc Besson fan. The film captures the feel of what it’s actually like to swim underwater…

From the rain of Japan, through threats of arrest for ’public indecency’ in Canada, and a birthday tribute to her father in Detroit, this documentary follows Madonna on her 1990…

Directed by Al Reinert and with music scored by Brian Eno, ”For All Mankind” provides a testament to NASA’s Apollo program of the 1960s and ’70s. Composed of actual NASA…

A documentary about the closure of General Motors’ plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an…

A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. Ends? No. Isle of Flowers follows it up until its real…

Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting…

Media Watch is an Australian media analysis television program presented by Paul Barry for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In recent years the program has focused on critiquing the Australian media….

TV’s most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Errol Morris’s unique documentary dramatically re-enacts the crime scene and investigation of a police officer’s murder in Dallas.

The people, places and stories making news in the British countryside.

An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands…

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

Renowned documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker captures Otis Redding in his ascendancy, singing at the historic Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967. Comedian Tom Smothers introduces Redding to a crowd…

Led by the success of the B-52’s and R.E.M., Athens, Georgia was the most happening music scene in the country by the mid 80’s. Following several different bands from different…

Documentary of the making of Michael Jackson’s Captain EO film for the Disney theme parks.

Queen’s performance at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985 is often regarded as Rock’s greatest live performance of all time. Their set lasted 21 minutes and consisted of ”Bohemian…

A documentary about George A. Romero’s films, with a behind scenes look at Dawn of the Dead.

Carefully picked scenes of nature and civilization are viewed at high speed using time-lapse cinematography in an effort to demonstrate the history of various regions.

A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album ”Speaking in Tongues.” The band takes the stage one by one and…

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to…

Part live stand-up performance, part documentary, this film is one of comedian Richard Pryor’s later stand-up performances. As foul-mouthed as ever, Pryor touches on most of the same topics as…

An exploration of Burroughs’ life story, as told by Burroughs himself along with many of his contemporaries, including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, Terry Southern,…

Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline’s goal is to extend the impact of the…

Consistently stunning documentaries transport viewers to far-flung locations ranging from the torrid African plains to the chilly splendours of icy Antarctica. The show’s primary focus is on animals and ecosystems…

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither…

The third and most successful of four stand-up act movies release by Richard Pryor on film. The stand-up act includes Pryor’s frank discussion about his freebasing addiction, as well as…

The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.

Having lost a bet with documentarian Errol Morris, Werner Herzog eats his shoe.

Robert Mugge filmed jazz great Sun Ra on location in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. between 1978 and 1980. The resulting 60-minute film includes multiple public and private performances, poetry…

Martin Scorsese’s documentary intertwines footage from ”The Band’s” incredible farewell tour with probing backstage interviews and featured performances by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, and other rock…

A scientific film essay, narrated by Phil Morrison. A set of pictures of two picnickers in a park, with the area of each frame one-tenth the size of the one…

This film documents the coal miners’ strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when…

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the “hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese people….

This documentary by Theo Kamecke from 1970 gives an indepth and profound look at the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. NASA footage is interspersed with reactions to the mission…

Stylish film of the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd in 1971 performing a concert with no audience, in the ancient Roman Amphitheatre in the ruins of Pompeii, Italy. Songs…

From 1940 to 1944, France’s Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany. Marcel Ophüls mixes archival footage with 1969 interviews of a German officer and of collaborators and resistance fighters from…

Romm’s “Ordinary Fascism” pulls out all the stops in its selection of documentary material to draw the viewer not only into absolute horror about fascism and nazism in the 1920s-1940s…

Hailed by one music reviewer as “the grooviest, wildest, slickest hit ever to pound the screen,” “The T.A.M.I. Show” is an unrelenting rock spectacular starring some of the greatest pop…

At the instigation of the filmmakers, the young men of the Ile-aux-Coudres in the middle of the St-Lawrence River try as a memorial to their ancestors to revive the fishing…

The Silent World (French: Le Monde du silence) is a 1956 French documentary film co-directed by the famed French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and a young Louis Malle. The Silent World is noted as one of the first films to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color. Its title derives from Cousteau’s 1953 book The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure. The film was shot aboard the ship Calypso. Cousteau and his team of divers shot 25 kilometers of film over two years in the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the…

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler’s concentration camps.

A cameraman wanders around Moscow, Kharkov, Kiev and Odessa with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle…