100 Greatest Movie Documentaries/50 Greatest Documentary Films
This list is a list of best documentaries in modern cinema, (1970s-present,) based on topic, diversity, critical reception, accolades, cultural impact, historical importance, cinematography, direction and popularity. Excluding ones that have been critically panned/negative reviews and entertaining celebrity biographies-(Found in ABC & CBS shows list). @=Academy Award nominated @-=Snubbed
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- 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.@-
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackMarguerite HarrisonThe struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.@-
- DirectorFrances H. FlahertyRobert J. FlahertyStarsTa'avaleFa'amgaseT'ugaitaFilmmaker Robert J. Flaherty presents a docufictional account of a family living in a Samoan village in the early 1920s.@-
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.@-
- 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.@-
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.@-
- DirectorPare LorentzStarsThomas ChalmersThis documentary short film looks at the devastating and costly problems, including seasonal flooding and erosion of precious topsoil, associated with the Mississippi River system and promotes more Federal projects to remedy the situation.@-
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsWalter HustonBenjamin SimonA group of mentally traumatized veteran patients is followed as they go through psychiatric treatment.@-
- DirectorJack ArnoldStarsSam LeveneArlene FrancisJoseph WisemanFilm produced by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union -- featuring several well-known Broadway actors -- recreates Triangle Fire of 1911 and compares working conditions of the 1910's with the 1950's.@
- DirectorNorman FosterStarsFrancis Kee TellerJohn MitchellMrs. Kee TellerA young Navajo Indian boy is caught up in the conflict of cultures when he rejects the white man's school. Told in semi-documentary style.@
- DirectorJames AlgarStarsWinston HiblerAlthough first glance reveals little more than stones and sand, the desert is alive. Witness moving rocks, spitting mud pots, gorgeous flowers and the never-ending battle for survival between creatures of every shape, size and description.@
- DirectorGeorge LoweStarsMeredith EdwardsJohn HuntGeorge BandDocumentary that covers the famous and successful expedition of the Everest conquest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, the first climbers to reach its peak.@
- DirectorIrwin AllenStarsDon ForbesTheodore von EltzOscar-winning documentary based on Rachel L. Carson's pioneering study of ocean life chronicled in her award-winning and best-selling 1951 book of the same name.@
- DirectorLouis Clyde StoumenStarsRaymond MasseyEdward WestonArthur 'Weegee' FelligFollows history of camera and photography development from Da Vinci through Louis-Jacques Daguerre and Matthew Brady, to Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstadt, Weegee and Edward Weston.@
- 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.@-
- DirectorIrwin AllenStarsTheodore von EltzJohn StormA documentary showcasing the world's many different animal species, both past and present.@
- DirectorGeorge LoweAn Oscar-nominated account of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1958 recording the first crossing of Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea.@
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsSoumitra ChatterjeeSharmila TagoreAlok ChakravartyThis final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy follows Apu's life as an orphaned adult aspiring to be a writer.@-
- DirectorLouis Clyde StoumenStarsMarlene DietrichAdolf HitlerThe rise and fall of Nazi Germany in part through the use of classical allegory.@
- DirectorMarshall FlaumStarsRichard BasehartA documentary--nominated for an Academy Award--about the American involvement in World War I.@
- DirectorBruce BrownStarsRobert AugustMichael HynsonLord James BlearsThe crown jewel to ten years of Bruce Brown surfing documentaries. Brown follows two young surfers around the world in search of the perfect wave, and ends up finding quite a few in addition to some colorful local characters.@-
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.@-
- DirectorCarroll BallardStarsJohn CarterThe American farm and farmer at harvest time, beginning in Texas with the first cutting of winter wheat, and following the season north to the Canadian border.@
- DirectorEmile de AntonioStarsHarry S. AshmoreDaniel BerriganJoseph ButtingerA documentary chronicling the background to, and history of, the Vietnam War.@