Â鶹ԭ´´

- Director: Leon Gast
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 88 minutes

The 1974 championship match "The Rumble in the Jungle" is the subject of this Oscar-winning documentary, which pitted underdog Muhammad Ali against champion George Foreman. Foreman and Ali when the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

- Director: D.A. Pennebaker
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 96 minutes

Director D. A. Pennebaker accompanies Bob Dylan on his 1965 tour of England capturing both concert footage and intimate scenes of Dylan's life off the stages and pages of music. he never intended for "Dont Look Back" to be a true documentary, which, by his definition, is a piece of film that dives deeply and educates. His ambition was not to paint a detailed portrait of the life of a music icon, but instead to show the world what it was like to be with him for a moment in time.

- Director: Chris Smith
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 107 minutes

This film documents the journey of filmmaker Mark Borchardt as he attempts to finance and complete a low-budget horror film. Filled with a cast of lovable losers, the documentary features Borchardt's 82-year-old Uncle Bill, his financier and a man who lives in a trailer park though he has over $250,000 stashed away at the bank.

- Director: George Butler
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 97 minutes

This retelling of the Antarctic expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1914 is narrated by Liam Neeson. It includes new footage of the locations involved in the original expedition, as well as interviews with the surviving relatives of the members of the expedition. Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, was crushed by ice, though miraculously the explorer and his expedition mates all lived through the harrowing ordeal.

- Director: Asif Kapadia
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 128 minutes

This documentary tells the story of Amy Winehouse's life, leveraging unseen footage, home videos, and more than 100 interviews to paint the picture of her abundant talent and her tragic, untimely death. Winehouse's father, Mitch Winehouse, was very , claiming it portrayed him in a damaging untrue light.

- Director: Lixin Fan
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 85 minutes

"Last Train Home" shines a light on the toll China's economic boom has taken on families by exploring the lives of factory workers who sacrifice their home lives for their professional ones. The film focuses on Chen and Zhang and their struggles reconnecting with the children they see infrequently due to their work.

- Director: Amir Bar-Lev
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 94 minutes

"The Tillman Story" explores the life of football player-turned-soldier Pat Tillman and his death in Afghanistan. Tillman was reportedly killed in a Taliban attack, but the film reveals that it was a cover-up by the military. Tillman died as a result of "friendly fire." in particular for being a powerful piece of anti-propaganda.

- Directors: James Lebrecht, Nicole Newnham
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 106 minutes

Camp Jened, a summer camp for teenagers with disabilities in the Catskills, helped kickstart a revolution in the 1970s. "Crip Camp" was released in the year that marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and was produced by , Higher Ground.

- Director: Andrei Ujica
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 180 minutes

Using footage from the Romanian National Television and National Film Archives, this film profiles communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who reigned from 1965 to 1989. After being overthrown, Ceausescu was executed alongside his wife on Christmas Day 1989.

- Director: Jesse Moss
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 102 minutes

"The Overnighters" centers on a pastor in North Dakota who becomes controversial in his town for opening his door to homeless people looking for work. Critics have compared it to the great 20th-century migration novel "."

- Director: Kirsten Johnson
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 89 minutes

In this documentary, director Kirsten Johnson faces the impending death of her father due to dementia with powerful love packaged in dark humor. She imagines and stages myriad ways that her father could die, but it is anything but macabre. The final product is one last play session, one last time with father and daughter engaged in make-believe in an attempt to control the uncontrollable, to have a say over how they will greet death when it comes, as it does for us all.

- Director: Kasper Collin
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 87.6
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Runtime: 92 minutes

"I Called Him Morgan" is about the widow of jazz great Lee Morgan, Helen Morgan, who took care of him through his heroin addiction and was later held responsible for his murder. "spellbinding, mercurial, hallucinatory, exuberant, tragic"—adjectives that could just as easily be used to describe jazz at its best.

- Director: Asif Kapadia
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 79
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 106 minutes

Ayrton Senna won the Formula One world championship as a Brazillian Formula One driver a total of three times before his death. The driver, considered one of the best, died at the age of 34 after crashing into a concrete barrier while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. The film won the at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.

- Directors: B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro, Carlos Bolado
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 80
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Runtime: 106 minutes

Chronicling the lives of seven children from Israel and Palestine who lead very different lives, "Promises" follows them for three years from 1995 to 1998. , Julie Salamon called the film "intensely personal and insightful...a humanist's dream."

- Directors: Kim Bartley, Donnacha O'Briain
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 81
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 74 minutes

Just as an Irish film crew began making this documentary about Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, dissidents attempted a coup d'état. The 2002 two-day coup failed to remove Chavez from power, but became the subject of this award-winning documentary.

- Director: Jennie Livingston
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 71 minutes

"Paris Is Burning," tells the story of the drag balls that took place in New York circa the 1980s. The documentary won a 1992 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film (Documentary).

- Director: Mila Turajlic
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Filmmaker Mila Turajlic exposes her family's past, which has remained hidden behind a locked door in her mother's apartment in Belgrade for seven decades. The New Yorker's Richard Brody chose "The Other Side of Everything" as .

- Director: Tony Kaye
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 152 minutes

This graphic documentary depicts both sides of the abortion debate in stark black and white. British filmmaker Tony Kaye filmed "Lake of Fire" on and off for 17 years.

- Director: Seth Gordon
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 79 minutes

The world of competitive arcade gaming is the subject of this entertaining documentary. Filmmaker Seth Gordon follows Steve Wiebe as he tries to snag the high score record for Donkey Kong, the 1981 arcade game, from Billy Mitchell.

- Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 83 minutes

"Blackfish" focuses on the issues that arise when killer whales are kept in captivity by telling the story of Tilikum, an orca whale who was responsible for the deaths of several people, including a SeaWorld trainer. SeaWorld called the film "shamefully dishonest, deliberately misleading and scientifically inaccurate."

- Director: David Sington
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 100 minutes

NASA's is remembered by the crew who lived through it in this documentary that also features archival footage of the memorable space mission. The film includes interviews with the surviving astronauts.

- Director: Josh Aronson
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 80 minutes

Technological advancements like cochlear implants to cure deafness are seen largely, almost exclusively, as a good thing. Many—especially those who are not deaf or do not have deaf individuals in their familial and social circles—might question why anyone would choose not to hear if they could. But for many families, like the Artinians featured in "Sound and Fury," deafness has become a way of life and an identity. This documentary explores how a seemingly obvious choice like getting cochlear implants is more difficult than many know.

- Director: Bruce Weber
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 120 minutes

Jazz trumpeter Chet Baker's life is examined in this documentary featuring interviews with his children, friends, and lovers. The film also tackles his drug addiction. Four months before its release, Baker died .

- Director: Marshall Curry
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 83 minutes

Covering the 2002 mayoral race in Newark, New Jersey, filmmaker Marshall Curry uncovered corruption in the camp of Mayor Sharpe James, who had been in office for 16 years. James ran against attorney Cory Booker, who was backed by filmmaker Spike Lee, appearing in the film on Booker's behalf.

- Director: James Moll
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 87 minutes

In this film, five Hungarian Holocaust survivors share their harrowing experiences of being imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps in 1944. All five, who are now U.S. residents, return to their places of imprisonment. Against the backdrop of one of the darkest moments in human history, these survivors serve as beacons of light and the embodiment of hope and courage.

- Director: Jason Osder
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 88 minutes

Composed of archival footage and interviews, "Let the Fire Burn" tells the story of how on May 13, 1985, the between radical group MOVE and the city of Philadelphia came to a terrifying and deadly head. The film won Best Local Feature at the 2013 Philadelphia Film Festival.

- Directors: Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 88 minutes

"Murderball" is a documentary about athletes with disabilities who play wheelchair rugby. The film was deemed significant enough to be .

- Directors: Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Jafar Panahi
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.2
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 75 minutes

Filmmaker Jafar Panahi made this documentary with his phone as a response to threats from the Iranian government. The film of Iran to the Cannes Film Festival in a flash drive baked in a birthday cake.

- Director: Frank Oz
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 90 minutes

Stephen Colbert and his wife, Evelyn, served as executive producers on this film that sees magician Derek DelGaudio examining the illusions of one's individual identity. Several celebrities can be , including Bill Gates.

- Director: Jon Alpert
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 113 minutes

This documentary follows life in Cuba over four decades as the Cuban people experience milestone moments in the country's rich and diverse history, including the 2016 death of Fidel Castro. This Netflix original debuted at the Venice International Film Festival.

- Director: Ava DuVernay
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 100 minutes

"13th" focuses on the mass incarceration in the United States, and its disproportionate impact on Black Americans. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay , through Reconstruction era chain gangs, the war on drugs, and "tough on crime" policies. Critics praised the film for simultaneously being provocative and measured.

- Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Alex Honnold, an American rock climber, free solo climbs Yosemite National Park's El Capitan in this National Geographic film. It is believed that Honnold has a decreased response to fearful stimuli based on the results of a functional MRI (fMRI), which was discussed in the film.

- Director: Jehane Noujaim
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 95 minutes

"The Square" tells the story of the Egyptian Revolution through the eyes of various protestors. It became the first Oscar-nominated Netflix film in 2014 when it became a contender for Best Documentary Feature.

- Director: André Singer
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 75 minutes

World War II footage found by researchers revealed a surprise: a documentary about German concentration camps made by Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein in 1945. Director André Singer explores the making of this lost film, with Helena Bonham Carter serving as the narrator. The documentary consists of interviews with both survivors and liberators and short newsreel films woven with raw footage from the original 1945 film.

- Director: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 80 minutes

"Bridegroom" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. The film is about the relationship between two gay men, Shane and Tom. Just as they plan to marry, Tom dies in a tragic accident and his family refuses to let Shane attend his funeral.

- Director: Banksy
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 87 minutes

Graffiti artist Banksy explores underground art in this amusing and entertaining documentary. Writing for the Arizona Republic, Richard Nilsen said of the film, "The plain fact is that, on some level, it doesn't matter whether the film is true or not. Either way, it's fascinating. Either way, we learn a lot. Either way, it's a great film."

- Director: Thom Andersen
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 169 minutes

This film documents the ways the City of Angels has been used and depicted in films. Filmmaker Thom Andersen focuses on the misrepresentations of the city, as well as its cultural significance to the film industry.

- Director: David France
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 107 minutes

This film follows activists as they fight for LGBTQ+ rights in Chechnya. , David Fear called the film "a collective profile in courage ... on the people who are the last thing standing between survival and a purge."

- Director: Amy Berg
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 101 minutes

"Deliver Us from Evil" blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction, traveling between police precincts in the Bronx and military battles in the Middle East. Critics were divided, with some calling the genre mashup of fiction and nonfiction .

- Director: Brett Morgen
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 90 minutes

"Jane" is a biographical documentary about primatologist Jane Goodall. The film draws from over that had been in the National Geographic archives for over 50 years.

- Director: Nicolas Philibert
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 104 minutes

"To Be and to Have" is a French documentary about a small rural school. Critics have praised the film for its close, quiet, sensitive look at the on the life of their students.

- Director: Steve James
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 121 minutes

"Life Itself" is another biographical documentary, this one focusing on the life of film critic Roger Ebert. The film was based on Ebert's autobiography of the same name and was finished and released after his death, in part thanks to an Indiegogo campaign that raised the final funds .

- Directors: Orson Welles, Gary Graver, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 89 minutes

This documentary about fraud was narrated by directing legend Orson Welles, who, after his involvement in , was no stranger to fakery. "F is for Fake" focuses , art forger Elmyr de Hory and Elmyr's biographer, Clifford Irving. Irving also wrote a fraudulent Howard Hughes autobiography.

- Director: Werner Herzog
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 103 minutes

"Grizzly Man" is a retrospective of the life of grizzly bear lover Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell was killed by a grizzly bear attack, and although , it has never been released, not even for the documentary.

- Director: Frederick Wiseman
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 88.7
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 197 minutes

"Ex Libris: New York Public Library" takes a deep dive into the world of the New York Public Library and all its branches. The film is unique because it has no central characters beyond that of the library itself, which the film promotes .

- Directors: Catherine Owens, Mark Pellington
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.2
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 85 minutes

This 3D concert film gives viewers an immersive perspective on U2's 2006 "Vertigo" tour. "U2 3D" was pitched and created primarily as a vehicle to experiment with new 3D technology. The production was complex, requiring 18 3D cameras capturing footage at each show. The documentary was lauded for its technological innovation.

- Directors: Michael Apted, Paul Almond
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.2
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 180 minutes

In 1964, filmmaker Michael Apted began visiting and following the lives of several 7-year-old children. He continued to visit them every seven years in the "Up" . When they turned 49, Apted visited them again and examined their lives while interspersing film from previous entries in the series.

- Directors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.2
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 121 minutes

This film is a continuation of the examination of and how new DNA evidence helped with their exoneration. The film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

- Director: Agnès Varda
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.2
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 112 minutes

"The Beaches of Agnès" is an autobiographical documentary of the life of filmmaker Agnès Varda. Varda said that it would likely be her last film, but ended up releasing another called "Faces Places" .

- Directors: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.2
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 89 minutes

When threatened by a group of nomad beekeepers, the last female bee-hunter in Europe must take action to save the bees and restore natural harmony. Filmed in Macedonia, "Honeyland" represented the country's first Oscar nomination since 1995.

- Directors: Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.2
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 80 minutes

If you're a bug lover, "Microcosmos" is the documentary for you. This documentary film shines a light on a little-understood—and probably rarely thought-about—world of invertebrates and how they communicate. Unlike the nature documentaries we've grown accustomed to, with melodious narration by the likes of Sir David Attenborough or Sigourney Weaver, "Microcosmos" has almost no narration, and is instead a showcase of nature in its purest form.

- Director: Spike Lee
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.2
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 102 minutes

"4 Little Girls" is about the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama that killed four Black children. The for preservation in its archive due to its historical and cultural significance.

- Director: James Marsh
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.2
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 94 minutes

"Man on Wire" looks at the famous 1974 feat of tightrope artist Philippe Petit, who walked on a high wire between the Twin Towers. The documentary was later fictionalized into a feature film, "The Walk."

- Director: Kurt Kuenne
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.8
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 95 minutes

Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne pays tribute to his murdered childhood friend, Dr. Andrew Bagby, and attempts to create a portrait for Bagby's unborn son, Zachary. Ultimately, Zachary's mother and Bagby's ex, Shirley Turner, was accused of murdering the physician. In a , Turner took her own life and that of her infant son.

- Director: Jeff Orlowski
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.8
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 93 minutes

"Chasing Coral" taps on the expertise of divers and scientists the world over to explore why coral reefs are disappearing at such an astonishing rate. One surprising addition to the film? A soundtrack with an original song .

- Director: Sasha Joseph Neulinger
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.8
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 86 minutes

Generations of abuse are uncovered when filmmaker Sasha Joseph Neulinger discovers his father's home video collection and begins to put the pieces of his childhood together. The film won a Critics' Choice Documentary Award for Best First Documentary Feature in 2020.

- Director: Susan Lacy
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.8
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 133 minutes

"Jane Fonda in Five Acts" follows the many lives that its titular subject has lived over decades in the public eye, from her time as an anti-war activist to her marriage to a billionaire. The film was praised for diving deep into her political work, and her candid admissions of regret over how she was .

- Director: Andrew Jarecki
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.8
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 107 minutes

"Capturing the Friedmans" follows the trial of two related men for sexual abuse and child molestation. The film was nominated for an Academy Award, but ; some of the family members wrote to the Academy, protesting the nomination.

- Director: Patricio Guzmán
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.8
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 90 minutes

"Nostalgia for the Light" follows a team of archaeologists digging for ancient civilizations in Chile. The film tells two stories—one about astronomers, and the other about archeologists. Both stories are set in the Chilean Atacama Desert.

- Director: Dror Moreh
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.8
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 101 minutes

"The Gatekeepers" uses the experiences of six members of Israel's intelligence agency Shin Bet to talk about their organization's successes and failures in the Six Days War. Some in Israel critiqued the film for of Shin Bet.

- Director: Sarah Polley
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 89.8
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 108 minutes

Sarah Polley's "Stories We Tell" takes a close look at her family's personal history, including an incident that relates deeply to her own identity. Critics praised the film for showing that things are not always what they first appear to be—.

- Director: David Leland
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 146 minutes

On the one-year anniversary of George Harrison's death, his friends, family, and bandmates came together for a tribute concert. Filmed at Royal Albert Hall, the singer's son Dhani and Harrison's widow, Olivia, organized the event, while Eric Clapton provided musical direction.

- Directors: Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 110 minutes

Photographer Sebastião Salgado spent 40 years capturing the beautiful-if-often devastating wonders of the world; this documentary captures his life and work. Filmmaker Juliano Ribeiro Salgado documents his father's work along with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Wim Wenders in a touching and honest portrayal.

- Director: Louie Psihoyos
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Runtime: 92 minutes

Activists, including renowned dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry, expose animal abuse at a cove near Taiji, Japan in this shocking documentary. "The Cove'' won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2010.

- Director: Edet Belzberg
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 104 minutes

The subjects of this documentary are the children who moved from state orphanages into the streets after communism fell in Romania. The filmmakers follow the lives of five of these children. , Stephen Holden called the film "a raw cinema verite portrait."

- Director: Michael Apted
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 139 minutes

"42 Up" is a documentary series that follows a group of British children starting in 1964. There are nine films, one every seven years, that chronicle how lives from a variety of backgrounds and personalities take shape. Critic Roger Ebert that elevates the entire genre of film.

- Director: Emer Reynolds
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 121 minutes

"The Farthest" looks at the famous Voyager mission to outer space. The film not relying too much on its intrinsically interesting subject material and having a skillful soundtrack and cinematographer to bring its material to artistic life.

- Director: Errol Morris
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 107 minutes

"The Fog of War" looks at the life of former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and inspects his observations about modern warfare. The film features an original soundtrack by Robert Glass and takes its title from the military concept of "," which refers to making difficult decisions in the theater of combat.

- Director: Laura Poitras
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 114 minutes

"Citizenfour" takes an up-close look at the whistleblower scandal surrounding Edward Snowden's release of classified documents. Critics for blending a serious look at civil liberties with the plot and pacing of a thriller.

- Directors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.3
- Metascore: 93
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 104 minutes

"Brother's Keeper" follows the death of one brother in an upstate New York family that is later pinned on his older brother. The film is widely hailed as a compassionate, incisive, and non-judgemental look into the culture of the rural area and the harrowing events.

- Director: Morgan Neville
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.9
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Runtime: 95 minutes

An exploration into the life of children's television pioneer Fred Rogers, the film won the 2019 Independent Spirit Award. The film's trailer debuted on what would have been Fred Rogers' 90th birthday.

- Director: Stevan Riley
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.9
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 103 minutes

"Listen to Me Marlon" is about the life of famous actor Marlon Brando. Vulture critic David Edelstein called the film one of the best and "most searching" documentaries ever made about an actor, using hundreds of hours of audio recordings to have .

- Director: Penelope Spheeris
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.9
- Metascore: 93
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 100 minutes

"The Decline of Western Civilization" looks at the punk rock scene in Los Angeles in the late 1970s. While the film received rave reviews, not everyone was a fan: in Los Angeles wrote a letter after the film's release demanding it not be shown again in the city.

- Director: Jennifer Peedom
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.9
- Metascore: 93
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 96 minutes

"Sherpa" tells the story of a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest through the perspectives of sherpas who were on the mountain that day. The was one of the deadliest Everest disasters.

- Directors: Alan Elliott, Sydney Pollack
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 90.9
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 89 minutes

"Amazing Grace" is a concert documentary of Aretha Franklin performing in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. The film was originally conceived in the 1970s, until decades later due to difficulties syncing the audio with the visuals.

- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 91.4
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 117 minutes

"The Last Waltz" looks at the legendary rock group The Band and their farewell concert. The film has been called one of the greatest concert films ever made, but others have critiqued it for largely giving the short shrift to .

- Director: Todd Douglas Miller
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 91.4
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 93 minutes

"Apollo 11" takes documentary footage—much of it previously unreleased—from the famous space mission to tell its story. However, not all critics were impressed, with Richard Brody from The New Yorker marveling at how the film given its exciting subject material.

- Director: Charles Ferguson
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 91.4
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 109 minutes

"Inside Job" looks at the factors that contributed to the financial meltdown of 2008 that catalyzed the Great Recession. The for having "the scourging moral force of a pulpit-shaking sermon" delivered with "rigor, restraint and good humor."

- Director: Charles Ferguson
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 91.9
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 102 minutes

"No End in Sight" looks at the two years following the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. The New York Times' A.O. Scott praised the film at what it calls the incompetence of the Bush administration in running and perpetuating the war.

- Director: Bing Liu
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 91.9
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 93 minutes

"Minding the Gap" focuses on three young men who escape the harsh realities of their lives in a declining Rust Belt town through skateboarding. The film received rave reviews for commentary on race, class, and politics with a narrative on skate culture.

- Director: Ari Folman
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 91.9
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 90 minutes

This animated Israeli war documentary features interviews with fellow veterans as filmmaker Ari Folman tries to recall memories of his time in service during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. "Waltz with Bashir" was the first animated film nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

- Director: Keith Maitland
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 91.9
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 82 minutes

"Tower" is about a sniper that held the University of Texas hostage from a clock tower in 1966. The documentary can be seen as a that happened 50 years before its release and featured interviews with survivors.

- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 92.5
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 246 minutes

"My Voyage to Italy" is a heavily autobiographical documentary about filmmaker Martin Scorsese's childhood on the Lower East Side and his major cinematic influences. The loom particularly large.

- Directors: Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine Cynn
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 93
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 117 minutes

"The Act of Killing" sees director Joshua Oppenheimer asking the men who committed atrocities of mass executions in Indonesia to reenact their actions on camera, which they do. Befitting its subversive nature, one of the co-directors .

- Director: Terry Zwigoff
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 93
- Metascore: 93
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 119 minutes

"Crumb" is a portrayal of the famous cartoonist Robert Crumb by one of his long-time best friends; director Terry Zwigoff reportedly spent nine years creating the documentary. Critic Roger Ebert "unusual in having access to the key players and biographical artifacts of Crumb's entire life."

- Directors: David Weissman, Bill Weber
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 93
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 90 minutes

"We Were Here" memorializes the gay men and women who lost their lives in the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. The , having first moved to the city in the 1970s when Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (making him the first openly gay elected official in California history).

- Directors: JR, Agnès Varda
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 93
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 94 minutes

"Faces Places" is a collaboration by directors JR and Agnès Varda as they travel through rural France and explore their unlikely friendship. The film was beloved by critics, including Amy Taubin, who called it "an exploration of the arts ." It was Varda's last film.

- Directors: Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 93.5
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 100 minutes

"For Sama" is a look at the experience of war through female eyes, with a focus on the Syrian Civil War. The film made history when it was nominated for four BAFTAs—.

- Director: Peter Jackson
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 93.5
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 99 minutes

Using state-of-the-art technology, "They Shall Not Grow Old" tells the story of World War I through the men who fought in it. The documentary uses archival footage from the Imperial War Museum's archives, which was old upon the film's release.

- Director: Raoul Peck
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 93.5
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 93 minutes

"I Am Not Your Negro" is an imagined version of a book never finished. It was combined with Baldwin's voice recordings and notes on his unfinished work.

- Director: Jonathan Demme
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 94.1
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 88 minutes

"Stop Making Sense" is a concert documentary about the Talking Heads. The film received a very positive critical reception, with from its focus on frontman David Byrne, who provides much of the film's energy.

- Director: Andrew Dominik
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 94.1
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 113 minutes

"One More Time with Feeling" chronicles Nick Cave's recording of an album following the death of his 15-year-old son. As befits the raw, urgent nature of the material, the entire film was shot over seven days with a crew of only seven people.

- Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 94.1
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 103 minutes

"The Look of Silence" focuses on the intersection of an optometrist's life and the Indonesian mass killings of the 1960s. It is a companion film to the earlier documentary, "The Act of Killing," which also focuses on the executions.

- Director: Spike Lee
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 94.1
- Metascore: 93
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 105 minutes

Based on Talking Heads frontman David Byrne's 2019 Broadway show, "American Utopia" started out as a solo album by Byrne and grew.  

- Director: Alexander Nanau
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 95.2
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 109 minutes

The film follows investigative journalists as they expose the political corruption and scandal behind seemingly unrelated events around a nightclub fire in Bucharest. It made the 2021 for Best Documentary Feature.

- Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 95.2
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 100 minutes

"Virunga" is about a team of people working to protect endangered gorillas in a Congolese national park. Two days before the film's release, unidentified gunmen shot . He survived and championed the film and its release.

- Director: Michael Wadleigh
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 95.2
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 184 minutes

This portrait of the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s has reached cult classic status. It captured the epic three-day rock and roll concert that featured including folk singing legend Joan Baez, British rock band The Who, and guitar god Jimi Hendrix.

- Director: Questlove
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 95.7
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 118 minutes

This 2021 documentary takes a deeper look at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. It features cuts of over 40 hours of restored, original footage from the festival, shot by Hal Tulchin, which sat untouched, and unseen by many, for decades. The film explores why the Harlem Cultural Festival, which took place in the same year as Woodstock and featured major talents such Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder, is a cultural touchstone that .

- Director: Steve James
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 97.3
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 170 minutes

"Hoop Dreams" was shot over five years and showcased two inner-city boys who bused into a predominantly white high school that excelled in basketball. This acclaimed documentary was originally only intended to be a 30-minute television series.

- Director: Claude Lanzmann
- Â鶹ԭ´´ score: 100
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Runtime: 566 minutes

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years making "Shoah," using his own interviews and refusing to use any archival material. Lanzmann has said his filmmaking is motivated by an effort to prove and record the history of the Holocaust against any denials it happened.