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- DirectorJonas MekasStarsPeter BeardEd EmshwillerKen JacobsArtist-writer-poet-filmmaker Jonas Mekas documents his early years building a life and discovering an arts community in New York.
- DirectorTerry ZwigoffStarsHoward ArmstrongTed BoganYank RachellAbout the obscure country-blues musician and idiosyncratic visual artist Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, member of the last known black string band in America.
- DirectorGyula GazdagStarsGregory CorsoIstván EörsiAllen GinsbergTwo writers from the opposite ends of the world share a meeting of the minds. Hungarian poet and translator István Eörsi journeys to New York City to meet literary legend Allen Ginsberg. Shot just two years before Ginsberg's death, the film follows the pair as they revisit some of the beat poet's old haunts and meet his friends Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso and Jonas Mekas.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStory of distant mountainous region in Georgia that depicts folklore, lifestyle and daily routines of Svani people, focuses on the scarcity of salt in Svaneti region. Rich with documentary value, the movie also served for Soviet propaganda.
- DirectorMarvin BreckinridgeStarsMary BreckinridgeA documentary which reenacts the lives and events of the midwives and nurses who setup and ran a clinic to help the people living in the Kentucky Appalachian Mountains.
- 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.
- DirectorRalph SteinerWillard Van DykeStarsMorris CarnovskyA prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsWalter HustonBenjamin SimonA group of mentally traumatized veteran patients is followed as they go through psychiatric treatment.
- DirectorGeorges RouquierOne year in the life of a French peasant family, whose existence is closely tied with the changing of the seasons.
- DirectorLeo HurwitzStarsAlfred DrakeMuriel SmithGary Merrill"Strange Victory" is about racial bias in post World War II America. Folowing "Native Land" in Leo Hurwitz' filmography, it uses some of the same techniques: dramatized scenes interspersed with scenes of compilation news reel footage, and scenes of evocative imagery. An epilogue about the civil rights movement, added in 1964 makes the arc of the film more complete.
- DirectorEdgar MorinJean RouchStarsAngeloNadine BallotCatherineA documentary about the everyday lives of ordinary Parisians, done in the style of cinéma vérité.
- DirectorMadeline AndersonStarsRobert Graham BrownMartin Luther KingBayard RustinDocuments the year of the nation's first sit-ins.
- DirectorFernando LopesStarsBelarmino FragosoJean Pierre GeblerMaria Teresa de NoronhaInterview with a has-been boxing champion «who could have been great», probing, and soul revealing.
- DirectorBarbara ConnellBill JerseyStarsErnie ChambersRay CristensenBill YoungdahlDuring the civil rights movement, a Lutheran minister in Nebraska sets out to integrate his church.
- DirectorShirley ClarkeStarsJason HollidayShirley ClarkeCarl LeeBlack gay prostitute Jason Holliday is rigorously interviewed on his story and character, revealing nuanced truths about life and art.
- DirectorFrank SimonStarsBernard GiquelJack DoroshowJim DineThe behind the scenes of a national drag queen contest in New York City, including the rehearsals leading up to the contest, the conversations in the dressing room and the jealousies that emerge before and after the competition.
- DirectorD.A. PennebakerStarsBarbara BarrieCharles BraswellSusan BrowningStephen Sondheim's musical "Company" opened on Broadway in the Spring of 1970, and tradition dictates that the cast recording is done on the first Sunday after opening night. D.A. Pennebaker, the now-legendary documentarian, filmed the production of the original cast recording, the back and forth between Sondheim and the performers, and the dynamic of trying to record live performance. The film climaxes with Elaine Stritch's performance of "The Ladies Who Lunch". The show won 6 Tony Awards including "Best Musical" and ran for two years on Broadway.
- DirectorJean EustacheStarsBoris EustacheJean EustacheOdette RobertA family portrait in which the director profiles his grandmother.
- DirectorJim KleinJulia ReichertStarsJessica JonesFocuses on the socialization of American females. It tells the story of six women and girls. The first film to emerge from the modern women's movement in the early 1970s.
- DirectorSarah KernochanHoward SmithStarsAgnes BenjaminMarjoe GortnerVernon GortnerThis Oscar-winning documentary explores the life of one-time child evangelist and faith healer Marjoe Gortner. The son of professional evangelists, Gortner was preaching on the Southern tent-revival circuit by the age of 3.
- DirectorOrson WellesGary GraverOja KodarStarsOrson WellesOja KodarFrançois ReichenbachA documentary about fraud and fakery.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanWELFARE shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.
- DirectorMartha CoolidgeStarsReed BirneyJames CarringtonJohn FedinatzMixing narrative and documentary filming in a unique way, the story is autobiographical and is about a date rape, dissecting the characters and circumstances around it. By following the effects of the incident on the main character we grow to understand the tremendous impact of what many people don't consider to be rape.
- DirectorNancy AdairAndrew BrownRob EpsteinStarsPat BondJohn BurnsideSally M. Gearhart26 diverse lesbian and gay people are interviewed about their lives and the challenges they experience in a homophobic culture. A groundbreaking documentary is now an artefact of a different time.
- DirectorAlan RaymondSusan RaymondStarsCharles RydellTony BouzaA documentary about a police precinct in the South Bronx.
- DirectorJean-Pierre GorinStarsJean-Pierre GorinIdentical young twin girls in the USA have invented their own shared language. Scientists are wanting to study the language but social workers are trying to get the twins to leave their secret language world and enter the mainstream. This means forcing them to speak normal English and lose their secret language. The filmmaker's own questions about this process run across as text at the bottom of the screen, a first use of that technique in documentary.
- DirectorClaude LanzmannStarsSimon SrebnikMichael PodchlebnikMotke ZaïdlClaude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
- 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.
- DirectorTony BubaStarsTony BubaSal CaruWerner HerzogTony Buba, a film maker from Braddock, Pennsylvania, tells the story of his hometown's decline (along with the rest of the steel mill towns along the Monongahela River) while he dreams of making higher budget films. The picture documents, in a lighthearted way, the community anxiety and activism that accompanied the failure of the steel industry around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Sweet Sal the street hustler tries to make it big in Tony's movies.
- DirectorJan OxenbergStarsJean BartoliniRuth BlochTim BradenDocumentary on family issues of elders, aging, and death.
- StarsJean-Luc GodardAlain CunyJulie DelpyAn 8-part documentary chronicling the history of cinema, examining the history of the concept of cinema and how both relates to the 20th century.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsAgnès VardaAndré LubranoBlaise FournierAgnès Varda explores her memories, mostly chronologically, with photographs, film clips, interviews, reenactments, and droll, playful contemporary scenes of her narrating her story.
- DirectorCindy KleineA journey through a disastrous 59-year marriage. Drawing on a lifetime of her family's home movies and interviews made over 12 years, filmmaker Cindy Kleine mixes reportage, cinema verite, and animation to uncover family secrets and tell a story that could not be shown publicly as long as her father was alive.
- DirectorGerardine WurzburgStarsJudy GwazdauskasPeter GwazdauskasPeter Gwazdauskas, a child with Down Syndrome, attends a normal school with regular students. The documentary follows Peter and how much he has improved throughout the school year.
- DirectorMatthew LevyStarsButch BarbellaRobert CostanzoKeith DavidDocumentary describing various street games played by children in New York.
- StarsLouis ArmstrongEdward R. MurrowLeonard BernsteinIn this 1957 biography film of the jazz-great Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, he and his band tour the world as American good-will ambassadors bring jazz at its best to the people of the world. Within the film, the life of Louis Armstrong is portrayed through the music. One of the outstanding scenes in this "biography/docudrama" shows blind songwriter W. C. Handy, with tears streaming down his face, as Armstrong, backed by Leonard Bernstein leading the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, play Handy's immortal "St. Louis Blues."
- DirectorKristina LindströmKristian PetriStarsKristina LindströmLuchino ViscontiMario TursiIn 1971, due to the world premiere of Death in Venice, Italian director Luchino Visconti proclaimed his Tadzio as the world's most beautiful boy. 50 years later, that shadow still weighs upon Björn Andresen's life.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGiuseppe RinaldiA documentary on China, concentrating mainly on the faces of the people, filmed in the areas they were allowed to visit. The 220-minute version consists of three parts. The first part, taken around Beijing, includes a cotton factory, older sections of the city, and a clinic where a Caesarean operation is performed using acupuncture. The middle part visits the Red Flag canal and a collective farm in Henan, as well as the old city of Suzhou. The final part shows the port and industries of Shanghai and ends with a stage presentation by Chinese acrobats.
- DirectorSteven OkazakiStarsWataru AkashiKyôko KagawaTakeshi KatôA feature-length documentary about the life and films of legendary actor Toshiro Mifune, weaving together film clips, archival stills, and interviews with such luminaries as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. Narrated by Keanu Reeves.
- DirectorLeon GastStarsMuhammad AliGeorge ForemanDon KingBoxing documentary on the 1974 world heavyweight championship bout between defending champion, George Foreman, and the underdog challenger, Muhammad Ali.
- DirectorChantal AkermanStarsChantal AkermanImpersonal and beautiful images of Akerman's life in New York are combined with letters from her loving but manipulative mother, read by Akerman herself.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsAmilcar CabralFlorence DelayArielle DombasleA woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsEnnio MorriconeSilvano AgostiAlessandro AlessandroniA documentary on the legendary film composer Ennio Morricone.
- DirectorBruce WeberStarsChet BakerCarol BakerVera BakerDocumentary on the life of jazz trumpeter and drug addict Chet Baker. Fascinating series of interviews with friends, family, associates and lovers, interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life and some modern-day performances.
- DirectorWilliam GreavesG. William JonesStarsBillie AllenAlbert AmmonsLouis ArmstrongThis documentary presents clips from black films from 1929 through 1957. Musical performers include Paul Robeson (in Song of Freedom), Bessie Smith (St. Louis Blues), Eubie Blake and the Nicholas Brothers (Pie-Pie Blackbird), Lena Horne (Boogie Woogie Dream), Nat 'King' Cole (Killer Diller), Sammy Davis Jr. (Rufus Jones for President), Cab Calloway (Jitterbug Party), and Ethel Waters (Carib Gold). Dramatic excerpts include Murder in Harlem (1935), Juke Joint (1947), and Souls of Sin (1949). Also included are clips from white films stereotyping blacks, including Griffith's Birth of a Nation, and a blackfaced Bing Crosby in Crooner's Holiday (1934).
- DirectorEddie MartinStarsJon AbrahamsPeter BiciTom Brokaw26 years after indie cult classic Kids was released to an unsuspecting nation, this documentary explores the divergent paths of the original cast, delivering an unflinching look back at one of the most iconic films of the 1990's.
- DirectorCalum WaddellStarsMatt CimberJoe DanteRoy FrumkesThe story behind the rise and fall of New York's 42nd Street. The cinemas, the films, the people, the crime and the rebirth of the block as "New 42nd Street" - this is the document of the world's most notorious movie strip.
- DirectorStevan RileyStarsMarlon BrandoStella AdlerBernardo BertolucciA documentary that utilizes hundreds of hours of audio that Marlon Brando recorded over the course of his life to tell the screen legend's story.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsBob DylanAllen GinsbergPatti SmithIn an alchemic mix of fact and fantasy, Martin Scorsese looks back at Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour and a country ripe for reinvention.
- DirectorJuliano Ribeiro SalgadoWim WendersStarsSebastião SalgadoWim WendersLélia Wanick SalgadoThe life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanStarsEugene FriedmanStanley FriedmanRobert SchwartzAn intimate look at the daily activities of medical staff and patients in New York's Metropolitan Hospital.
- 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.
- DirectorNick EbelingStarsJulie AdamsDamon AlbarnFred C. CarusoA documentary about Dennis Hopper.
- DirectorDavid MarkeyStarsSonic YouthKim GordonLee RanaldoDavid Markey's documentary of life on the road with Sonic Youth and Nirvana during their tour of Europe in late 1991. Also featuring live performances by Dinosaur Jr, Babes In Toyland, The Ramones and Gumball.
- DirectorLisa HurwitzStarsMel BrooksJohn W. RomasCarl ReinerDocumentary centers on the vending machine popularized in the 20th century that offered fresh cooked meals in a commissary-style eatery.
- DirectorJonah HillStarsSharon FeldsteinJonah HillPhil StutzFollow Hill and his therapist as he has candid discussions of mental health and the progressively worsening anxiety attacks related to movie promotion that have turned his dream job into a nightmare.
- DirectorWill LovelaceDylan SouthernAndrew CrossStarsRyan AdamsJulian CasablancasBrian ChaseAn immersive journey through the New York music scene of the early 2000s. A new generation kick-started a musical rebirth for New York City that reverberated around the world.
- DirectorChuck WorkmanStarsJohnny DeppJohn TurturroDennis HopperTraces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S.
- DirectorJonas MekasStarsJonas MekasStan BrakhageRobert BreerDirector Jonas Mekas provides an intimate glimpse of his personal life by constructing a feature length narrative from over 30 years of private home movie footage.
- DirectorGuy MaddinStarsDarcy FehrAnn SavageLouis NeginFact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this portrait of film-maker Guy Maddin's home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
- DirectorAdam YauchStarsMike DAdam HorovitzAdam YauchA live performance shot by audience members at a 2004 Beastie Boys concert at Madison Square Garden.
- DirectorBenjamin ChristensenStarsBenjamin ChristensenElisabeth ChristensenMaren PedersenFictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in Eastern Europe.
- DirectorAmy Bandlien StorkelBryan StorkelStarsSteve GlewKathy GlewJosh GlewSteve Glew spent the 1990s smuggling rare pez dispensers into the USA from Eastern Europe, making millions of dollars. It was all magical until his arch-nemesis, The Pezident decided to destroy him.
- CreatorPaul NewmanStewart SternStarsGeorge ClooneyZoe KazanLaura LinneyIn this intimate six-part docuseries, actor/director Ethan Hawke explores the love story and enduring legacy of Hollywood legends Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman.
- DirectorAlexander NanauStarsDan Alexandru CondreaLiviu IoluRazvan LutacDirector Alexander Nanau follows a crack team of investigators at the Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor as they try to uncover a vast health-care fraud that enriched moguls and politicians and led to the deaths of innocent citizens.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsMartin ScorseseWorld-renowned director Martin Scorsese narrates this journey through his favorites in Italian cinema.
- DirectorDick ProennekeStarsDick ProennekeBob Swerer Jr.Wendy IshiiIn 1968, one man films his attempt to build a cabin and live in the Alaskan wilderness. He goes weeks or months at a time without human contact.
- DirectorChris SmithStarsMark BorchardtMike SchankTom SchimmelsDocumentary about an aspiring filmmaker's attempts to finance his dream project by finally completing the low-budget horror film he abandoned years before.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsTimothy TreadwellAmie HuguenardWerner HerzogA devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsMirhadi TayebiMohsen MakhmalbafAli BakhsiA semi-autobiographical account of Makmahlbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
- DirectorMartin BellStarsAnnieEddieAntoineGritty documentary that looks at the lives of teenagers living on the streets of Seattle.
- DirectorJim FieldsMichael GramagliaStarsRick RubinTommy RamoneDee Dee RamoneThe story of the punk rock band The Ramones.
- 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.
- DirectorKirsten JohnsonStarsKirsten JohnsonAisha BukarEric W. DavisExposing her role behind the camera, Kirsten Johnson reaches into the vast trove of footage she has shot over decades around the world. What emerges is a visually bold memoir and a revelatory interrogation of the power of the camera.
- DirectorAnthony Banua-SimonStarsJohn AllenBam BamAnthony Banua-SimonCane Fire examines the past and present of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, interweaving four generations of family history, numerous Hollywood productions, and troves of found footage to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of the economic and cultural forces that have cast Indigenous and working-class residents as "extras" in their own story.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsWilliam FriedkinFritz LangAmerican director William Friedkin interviewed Austrian director Fritz Lang on February 21st and 24th, 1975.
- DirectorAbel FerraraStarsIra CohenGerald BusbyStanley BardChelsea on the Rocks celebrates the personalities and artistic voices that have emerged from the legendary residence, the Chelsea Hotel, in the heart of New York. Once considered an untouchable, impenetrable tower for writers, artists, musicians and mavericks, it has recently been claimed as a boutique hotel venture for a management company that shows blatant disregard for its formidable history.
- 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.
- DirectorLizzie BordenStarsHoneyAdele BerteiJean SatterfieldSet ten years after the most peaceful revolution in United States history, it presents a dystopia in which the issues of many groups - minorities, liberals, gay rights organizations, feminists - are dealt with by the government.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogKlaus KinskiClaudia CardinaleThe love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the deep trust between the director and the actor, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.