IDA'S TOP 25 DOCUMENTARIES

Earlier this year, in commemoration of our 25th Anniversary, we appealed to our

members to weigh in on at documentary.org with their Top 25 documentaries of all
time. Voters selected from a list of over 700 titles, and could add up to five write-ins.
In this section-and on documentary.org -- is the consensus Top 25, representing a
range of styles, sensibilities and eras. While any list is subject to discussion, debate
and dispute, we offer these titles as a jumping off point, an opportunity to revisit,
reassess and reclaim, and a means to remind you of why you're part of this
community in the first place.

#1 Hoop Dreams (1994)

Director: Steve James

Producers: Peter Gilbert, Steve James, Frederick Marx
Executive Producers: Catherine Allan, Gordon Quinn
Cinematographer: Peter Gilbert
Writers: Steve James, Frederick Marx
Editors: William Haugse, Steve James, Frederick Marx
Composer: Ben Sidran
Kartemquin Films, KTCA-TV, Fine Line Features

The film follows William Gates and Arthur Agee, two African-American teenagers who
are recruited by St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominantly
white high school with an outstanding basketball program. Taking 90-minute
commutes to school, enduring long and difficult workouts and practices, and
acclimating to a foreign social environment, Gates and Agee struggle to improve their
athletic skills in a job market with heavy competition. Along the way, their families
celebrate their successes and support each other during times of hardship.
The film raises a number of issues concerning race, class, economic division,
education and values in contemporary America. It also offers one of the most
intimate views of inner-city life to be captured on film. Yet it is also the human story

1
of two young men, their two families and their community, and the joys and
struggles they live through over a period of five years.

#2 The Thin Blue Line (1988)

Director: Errol Morris

Producer: Mark Lipson
Executive Producer: Lindsay Law
Cinematographers: Robert Chappell, Stefan Czapsky
Writer: Errol Morris
Editor: Paul Barnes
Composer: Philip Glass
Third Floor Productions, American Playhouse, Miramax Films, MGM

The film concerns the November 28, 1976 murder of Dallas police officer, Robert W.
Wood, during a traffic stop. The Dallas Police Department was unable to make an
arrest until they learned of information given by a 16-year-old resident of Vidor,
Texas who had told friends that he was responsible for the crime. The juvenile, David
Ray Harris, led police to the car driven from the scene of the crime, as well as a .22
caliber revolver he identified as the murder weapon. He subsequently identified 28-
year-old Ohio resident Randall Dale Adams as the murderer. Adams had been living
in a motel in Dallas with his brother. The film presents a series of interviews about
the investigation and reenactments of the shooting, based on the testimony and
recollections of Adams, Harris, and various witnesses and detectives. Two attorneys
who represented Adams at the trial where he was convicted of capital murder also
appear: they suggest that Adams was charged with the crime despite the better
evidence against Harris because, as Harris was a juvenile, Adams alone of the two
could be sentenced to death under Texas law.
The film's title comes from the prosecutor's comment during his closing argument
that the police are the "thin blue line" separating society from anarchy. This is a re-
working of a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem Tommy in which he describes British
soldiers as the "thin red line", from the color of their uniforms and their formation.

#3 Bowling for Columbine (2002)

2
Director/Producer: Michael Moore
Producers: Charles Bishop, Jim Czarnecki, Michael Donovan, Kathleen Glynn
Executive Producer: Wolfram Tichy
Writer: Michael Moore
Cinematographers: Brian Danitz, Michael McDonough, Ed Kukla
Editor: Kurt Engfehr
Composer: Jeff Gibbs
Dog Eat Dog Films, Alliance Atlantis, Salter Street Films, VIF 2, United Artists, MGM

The film explores what Moore suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School
massacre and other acts of violence with guns. Moore focuses on the background and
environment in which the massacre took place and some common public opinions and
assumptions about related issues. The film looks into the nature of violence in the
United States.
In Moore's discussions with various people – including South Park co-creator Matt
Stone, the National Rifle Association's then-president Charlton Heston, and musician
Marilyn Manson – he seeks to explain why the Columbine massacre occurred and why
the United States has a high violent crime rate (especially crimes involving guns).

#4 Spellbound (2002)

Director/Producer: Jeffrey Blitz

Producer: Sean Welch
Cinematographer: Jeffrey Blitz
Editor: Yana Gorskaya
Composer: Daniel Hulsizer
THINKFilm, HBO, Columbia TriStar Home Video

Spellbound is a 2002 documentary that was directed by Jeffrey Blitz. The film follows
eight competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The film was nominated
for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature; Yana Gorskaya's editing won the
ACE Eddie award for best editing of documentary. Spellbound won the Emmy for
Cultural/Artistic Programming and Jeffrey Blitz was nominated for directing. In 2008,

3
it was voted one of the "Top 5" documentaries of all-time by the members of the
International Documentary Association.

#5 Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976)

Director/Producer: Barbara Kopple

Cinematographer: Hart Perry
Editor: Nancy Baker
Composers: Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis
Cabin Creek Films, Cinema 5 Distributing, PBS, The Criterion Collection

Harlan County, USA is a 1976 documentary film covering the efforts of 180 coal
miners on strike against the Duke Power Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in
1973. It was directed by Barbara Kopple, who has long been an advocate of workers'
rights. Harlan County, U.S.A. is less ambivalent in its attitude toward unions than her
later American Dream, the account of the Hormel Foods strike in Austin, Minnesota in
1985-86.

#6 An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Director/Executive Producer/Cinematographer: Davis Guggenheim

Producers: Laurie David, Lawrence Bender, Scott Z. Burns
Executive Producers: Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Ricky Strauss, Jeff Ivers
Cinematographer: Bob Richman
Editor: Jay Cassidy
Composer: Michael Brook
A Lawrence Bender/Laurie David Production, Paramount Classics, Participant
Productions

An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and his travels in support of his efforts to
educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis. Gore says, "I've been
trying to tell this story for a long time and I feel as if I've failed to get the message
across."[4] The film documents a Keynote presentation (dubbed the slide show) that
Gore has presented throughout the world. It intersperses Gore's exploration of data

4
and predictions regarding climate change and its potential for disaster with his own
life story.

#7 Crumb (1994)

Director/Producer: Terry Zwigoff

Producers: David Lynch, Lynn O'Donnell
Executive Producers: Albert Berger, Lianne Halfon, Lawrence Wilkinson
Cinematographer: Maryse Alberti
Editor: Victor Livingston
Composer: David Boeddinghaus
Superior Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Columbia TriStar

Crumb is a 1994 documentary film about the noted underground comic artist Robert
Crumb (R. Crumb) and his family. Crumb is considered a moving film about the
experiences and characters of the Crumb family, particularly Robert Crumb's
brothers, Maxon and Charles, his wife and children (his sisters declined to be
interviewed).
Robert Crumb initially did not want to make the film, but eventually agreed. There
was a rumour, accidentally created by Roger Ebert, that Terry Zwigoff made Crumb
cooperate by threatening to shoot himself. Ebert has clarified this in the commentary
of the film's recent re-release.

#8 Gimme Shelter (1970)

Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin

Cinematographers: Albert Maysles, David Maysles
Editors: Ellen Giffard, Robert Farren, Joanne Burke, Kent McKinney
Maysles Films, Cinema 5 Distributing, The Criterion Collection

Gimme Shelter is a 1970 documentary film chronicling The Rolling Stones' 1969 US
tour, which culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert. The film is named
after "Gimme Shelter", the lead track from The Rolling Stones' 1969 album Let It
Bleed. The film depicts some of the Madison Square Garden concert, later featured on

5
the live album, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert, as well as the
photography session for the cover, featuring Charlie Watts and a donkey. It also
shows the Stones at work in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, recording "Brown Sugar" and
"Wild Horses". The film also includes footage of Ike and Tina Turner opening for the
Stones at their Madison Square Garden concert, to Mick Jagger's comment, "It's nice
to have a chick occasionally".

#9 The Fog of War (2003)

Director/Producer: Errol Morris

Producers: Julie Ahlberg, Michael Williams
Executive Producers: Jon Kamen, Jack Lechner, Robert May, Frank Scherma, John
Sloss
Cinematographers: Robert Chappell, Peter Donahue
Editors: Doug Abel, Chyld King, Karen Schmeer
Composer: Philip Glass
The Globe Department Store, Radical Media, SenArt Films, Sony Pictures Classics,
Columbia TriStar Home Video

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003),
directed by Errol Morris, is an American documentary film about the life and times of
former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. Using archival footage, United
States Cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the eighty-five-year-old
Robert McNamara, The Fog of War depicts his life, from his birth during the First
World War remembering the time American troops returned from Europe, to working
as a WWII Whiz Kid military officer, to being the Ford Motor Company's president, to
his being employed as Secretary of Defense and the Cuban Missile Crisis, to
managing the American Vietnam War, as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy
and Johnson — emphasizing the war's brutality under their regimes, and how he was
hired as secretary of defense, despite limited military experience.

#10 Roger & Me (1989)

Director/Producer: Michael Moore

6
Cinematographers: Chris Beaver, John Prusak, Kevin Rafferty, Bruce Schermer
Writer: Michael Moore
Editors: Jennifer Berman, Wendey Stanzler
Dog Eat Dog Films, Warner Bros. Pictures

Roger & Me is a 1989 American documentary film. With sarcasm and irony, Moore
portrays the regional negative economic impact of the late General Motors CEO Roger
Smith's summary action of closing several auto plants in Flint, Michigan, costing
30,000 people their jobs (eventually 80,000 to date) and economically devastating
the city.

#11 Super Size Me (2004)

Director/Writer/Producer: Morgan Spurlock

Executive Producers: J.R. Morley, Heather Winters
Cinematographer: Scott Ambrozy
Editors: Stela Gueorguieva, Julie "Bob" Lombardi
Composers: Steve Horowitz, Michael Parrish, Doug Ray
Samuel Goldwyn Films, Roadside Attractions, Showtime Networks, Arts Alliance
America

Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan
Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day time
period (February to beginning of March 2003) during which he eats only McDonald's
food. The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and
psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence,
including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. Spurlock dined at
McDonald's restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the chain's menu.
He also always "super-sized" his meal if given the option—but only if it was offered.
Spurlock consumed an average of 20.92 megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of
9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment. As a result, the then-32-year-old
Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol level of
230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation to his

7
liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his
experiment.

#12 Dont Look Back (1967)

Director: DA Pennebaker
Producers: John Court, Albert Grossman
Cinematographers: DA Pennebaker, Howard Alk
Writer/Editor: DA Pennebaker
Leacock-Pennebaker, Inc., Docurama

Dont Look Back is a 1967 documentary film by that covers Bob Dylan's1965 concert
tour of the United Kingdom. The film features Joan Baez, Donovan and Alan
Price(who had just left The Animals), Dylan's manager Albert Grossman and his road
manager Bob Neuwirth; Marianne Faithfull, John Mayall, Ginger Baker, and Allen
Ginsberg may also be glimpsed in the background. The film shows a young Dylan:
confident if not arrogant, confrontational and contrary, but also charismatic and
charming.

#13 Salesman (1968)

Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin

Producers: Albert Maysles, David Maysles
Cinematographer: Albert Maysles
Editors: David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
A Maysles Films Inc. Production, The Criterion Collection

The documentary follows four salesmen as they travel across New England and
Florida trying to sell expensive Bibles door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods. The
film focuses in particular on the struggles of salesman Paul Brennan, an old Irish
Catholic from Boston who struggles to keep up his sales.

#14 Koyaanisqatsi (1983)

8
Director /Producer/Writer: Godfrey Reggio
Executive Producer: Francis Ford Coppola
Cinematographer: Ron Fricke
Editors: Ron Fricke, Alton Walpole
Writers: Ron Fricke, Michael Hoenig, Godfrey Reggio, Alton Walpole
Composer: Philip Glass
An IRE Production; New Cinema, Island Alive, MGM

The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and
many natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains
neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of
images and music. In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means "crazy life,
life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for
another way of living“. The film is the first in the Qatsi trilogy of films: it is followed
by Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). The trilogy depicts different aspects of
the relationship between humans, nature, and technology. Koyaanisqatsi is the best
known of thetrilogy and is considered a cult film. However, because of copyright
issues, the film was out of print for most of the 1990s.

#15 Sherman's March (1986)

Director/Writer/Cinematographer/Editor: Ross McElwee

First Run Features

McElwee initially planned to make a film about the effects of General William
Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas (commonly called the
"March to the Sea") during the American Civil War. A traumatic breakup McElwee
experienced prior to filming made it difficult for him to separate personal from
professional concerns, shifting the focus of the film to create a more personal story
about the women in his life, love, romance, and religion. Other themes include the
specter of nuclear holocaust in the context of the Cold War and the legacy and
complexity of General Sherman's own life.

#16 Grey Gardens (1976)

9
Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer
Producers: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Susan Froemke
Cinematographer: Albert Maysles
Editors: Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer
A Maysles Films Inc. Production, The Criterion Collection

The film depicts the everyday lives of the two Edith Beales, a reclusive socialite
mother and daughter of the same name who lived at Grey Gardens, a decrepit
mansion at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood of East
Hampton, New York. Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale
lived there for decades more, over 50 years in total for each woman. The house was
called Grey Gardens because of the color of the dunes, the cement garden walls, and
the sea mist.

#17 Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

Director: Andrew Jarecki

Producers: Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling
Cinematographer: Adolfo Doring
Editor: Richard Hankin
Composers: Bill Harrington, Andrea Morricone
Magnolia Pictures, HBO Documentary Films, HBO Video

It focuses on the 1980s investigation of Arnold and Jesse Friedman for child
molestation. The investigation into Arnold Friedman's life started after a federal sting
operation when he received a magazine of child pornography from the Netherlands by
mail. In searching his Great Neck, New York home, investigators found a large
collection of child pornography. After learning that Friedman taught children
computer classes from his home, local police began to suspect him of abusing his
students.

#18 Born into Brothels (2004)

10
Directors/Producers/Cinematographers: Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman
Editors: Nancy Baker, Ross Kauffman
Writers: Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman
Composer: John McDowell
Executive Producer: Geralyn White Dreyfous
Co-Executive Producer: Pamela Boll
THINKFilm, HBO Cinemax Documentary Films, HBO Video

Briski, a documentary photographer, went to Kolkata (Calcutta) to photograph

prostitutes. While there, she befriended their children and offered to teach the
children photography to reciprocate being allowed to photograph their mothers. The
children were given cameras so they could learn photography and possibly improve
their lives. Much of their work was used in the film, and the filmmakers recorded the
classes as well as daily life in the red light district. The children's work was exhibited,
and one boy was even sent to a photography conference in Amsterdam. Briski also
recorded her efforts to place the children in boarding schools.

#19 Titicut Follies (1967)

Director/Producer: Frederick Wiseman

Cinematographer: John Marshall
Editors: Alyne Model, Frederick Wiseman
Zipporah Films, Inc.

Titicut Follies is a black and white 1967 documentary film about the treatment of
inmates / patients at Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane, a
Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Titicut Follies
portrays the existence of occupants of Bridgewater, some of them catatonic, holed up
in unlit cells, and only periodically washed. It also depicts inmates / patients required
to strip naked publicly, force feeding, and indifference and bullying on the part of
many of the institution's staff.

#20 Buena Vista Social Club (1999)

11
Director: Wim Wenders
Producers: Ry Cooder, Jerry Boys, Ulrich Felsberg, Deepak Nayar
Executive Producers: Nick Gold, Ulrich Felsberg
Cinematographers: Jörg Widmer, Robby Müller, Lisa Rinzler
Editor: Brian Johnson
Road Movies Filmproduktion, Kintop Pictures, ARTE, ICAIC, Artisan Entertainment,
Lionsgate

The film documents how Ry Cooder, long-time friend of Wenders, brought together
legendary Cuban musicians to record an album (also called Buena Vista Social Club),
and to perform a concert in the United States. Although they are geographically
close, travel between Cuba and the United States is restricted due to the political
tension between the two countries, so many of the artists were traveling there for the
first time. The film shows their reactions to this experience, as well as including
footage of the resultant sell-out concert. It also includes interviews with each of the
main performers.

#21 Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Director/Producer/Writer: Michael Moore

Producers: Kathleen Glynn, Jim Czarnecki
Cinematographer: Mike Desjarlais
Editors: Kurt Engfehr, Christopher Seward, T. Woody Richman
Composer: Jeff Gibbs
Dog Eat Dog Films, Lionsgate Films, IFC Films, The Fellowship Adventure Group,
Sony/Columbia TriStar, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The film takes a critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the War on
Terrorism, and its coverage in the news media. The film holds the record for highest
box office receipts by a general release political film. It is the highest grossing
documentary of all time. In the film, Moore contends that American corporate media
were "cheerleaders" for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and did not provide an accurate or
objective analysis of the rationale for the war or the resulting casualties there. The

12
film's attack on the Bush administration generated some controversy at the time of
the film's release, including some disputes over its accuracy. Moore has responded by
documenting his sources.

#22 Winged Migration (2002)

Director/Producer/Writer: Jacques Perrin

Co-Directors: Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats
Writer: Stéphane Durand
Producer: Christophe Barratier
Executive Producer: Jean De Trégomain
Cinematographers: Michael Benjamin, Sylvie Carcedo-Dreujou, Laurent Charbonnier,
Luc Drion, Laurent Fleutot, Philippe Garguil, Dominique Gentil, Bernard Lutic, Thierry
Machado, Stéphane Martin, Fabrice Moindrot, Ernst Sasse, Michael Terrasse, Thierry
Thomas
Composer: Bruno Coulais
Editor: Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
Sony Pictures Classics

Winged Migration (French: Le Peuple Migrateur, also known as The Travelling Birds in
some UK releases, or The Travelling Birds: An adventure in flight in Australia), is a
2001documentary film showcasing the immense journeys routinely made by birds
during their migrations. The movie was shot over the course of four years on all
seven continents. Shot using in-flight cameras, most of the footage is aerial, and the
viewer appears to be flying alongside birds of successive species, especially Canada
geese. They traverse every kind of weather and landscape, covering vast distances in
a flight for survival.

#23 Grizzly Man (2005)

Director: Werner Herzog

Producers: Erik Nelson
Executive Producers: Erik Nelson, Billy Campbell, Tom Ortenberg, Kevin Beggs, Phil
Fairclough, Andrea Meditch

13
Cinematographers: Timothy Treadwell, Peter Zeilinger
Editor: Joe Bini
Composer: Richard Thompson
Lionsgate, Discovery Docs

Grizzly Man is a 2005 American that chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast
Timothy Treadwell. The film consists of Treadwell's own footage of his interactions
with grizzly bears before he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a bear in
2003, and of interviews with people who knew or were involved with Treadwell.

#24 Night and Fog (1955)

Director: Alain Resnais

Producers: Anatole Dauman, Samy Halfon, Philippe Lifchitz
Writer: Jean Cayrol
Cinematographer: Ghislain Cloquet, Sacha Vierny
Editors: Jasmine Chasney, Henri Colpi
Composer: Hanns Eisler
The Criterion Collection

Night and Fog (French: Nuit et brouillard) is a 1955 French documentary short film,
and it was made ten years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The
documentary features the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek while
describing the lives of prisoners in the camps. Night and Fog was made in
collaboration by two survivors of theHolocaust, including writer Jean Cayrol and
composer Hanns Eisler.

#25 Woodstock (1970)

Director: Michael Wadleigh

Producer: Bob Maurice
Cinematographers: Malcolm Hart, Don Lenzer, Michael Margetts, David Myers,
Richard Pearce, Michael Wadleigh, Al Wertheimer

14
Editors: Michael Wadleigh, Martin Scorsese, Stan Warnow, Yeu-Bun Yee, Jere
Huggins, Thelma Schoonmaker
Warner Bros., Warner Home Video

Woodstock is a 1970 documentary on the Woodstock Festival that took place in

August 1969 at Bethel in New York.

15