Playlists > ⭐THE GREAT DOCUMENTARIANS🎦

⭐THE GREAT DOCUMENTARIANS🎦
Description:

Films by (and about) some of the best documentary film makers of our time…
In no particular order, or exclusive to: The Maysles Brothers, Frederick Wiseman, John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, Adam Curtis, Ken Burns, Laura Poitras, Liz Garbus, Werner Herzog, Alex Gibney, Nick Broomfield, Louis Theroux, Errol Morris…

🛠 Still under construction…

Norman Finkelstein @ YT

Noam Chomsky @ YT

John Pilger @ YT


Creator: Merrigan Able
Posted: 3 years ago
 
Favorite

17 favorites

2779 views

info
Movie: Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide ( 2006 )
A never before told history as seen through the eyes of this former minister (Kevin Annett) who blew the whistle on his own church, after he learned of thousands of murders in its Indian Residential Schools.
info
Movie: Grizzly Man ( 2005 )
A 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.
info
Movie: Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson ( 2005 )
The story of Jack Johnson, the first African-American Heavyweight boxing champion.
info
Movie: The White Diamond ( 2005 )
About the daring adventure of exploring rain forest canopy with a novel flying device-the Jungle Airship. Airship engineer Dr. Graham Dorrington embarks on a trip to the giant Kaieteur Falls in the heart of Guyana, hoping to fly his helium-filled invention above the tree-tops. But this logistic effort will not be without risk. Twelve years ago, a similar expedition into the unique habitat of the canopy ended in disaster when Dorrington's friend Dieter Plage fell to his death. With the expedition is Werner Herzog, setting out now with a new prototype of the airship into the Lost World of the pristine rain forest of this little explored area of the world, to record and tell this unique story.
info
Movie: The Garden ( 2005 )
A documentary on Madison Square Garden.
info
TV Show: The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear ( 2004 )
A series of three documentaries about the use of fear for political gain.
info
Movie: Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable ( 2004 )
A documentary about the Indian Point power plant and it's virtual lack of security following the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
info
Movie: Liberty Bound ( 2004 )
Liberty Bound takes an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek look at America's on-going struggle to keep a comfortable balance between democracy, capitalism and fascism. This is a film about courage, fear, ignorance, knowledge, propaganda, rhetoric and the amazing events that have shaped our history.
info
Movie: Stealing a Nation ( 2004 )
This tells a story literally 'hidden from history'. In the 1960s and 70s, British governments, conspiring with American officials, tricked into leaving, then expelled the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean. The aim was to give the principal island of this Crown Colony, Diego Garcia, to the Americans who wanted it as a major military base. Indeed, from Diego Garcia US planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq. The story is told by islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and in the words of the British officials who left a 'paper trail' of what the International Criminal Court now describes as 'a crime against humanity' .
info
Movie: Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train ( 2004 )
The life and times of Howard Zinn: the historian, activist, and author of several classics including "A Peoples History of the United States". Archival footage, and commentary by friend, colleagues and Zinn himself.
info
Movie: Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause ( 2004 )
Linguist, intellectual and activist, Noam Chomsky discusses and reflects on the state of world events including the War in Iraq, September 11th, the War on Terror, Media Manipulation and Control, Social Activism, Fear, and American Foreign Policy in both large forums and in small interactive discussions with other intellectuals, activists, fans, students and critics. Interwoven, is Dr. Carol Chomsky, Noam's wife and manager who reflects on what drives Noam and what life is like with him. Other candid reflections about Noam Chomsky and his thoughts, work and influece are offerred by others throughout the film.
info
Movie: Discordia ( 2004 )
In the fall of 2002, it was announced that Benjamin Netanyahu would deliver a speech at Concordia University in Montreal, and reaction from the student body was swift and sudden.
info
Movie: Girlhood ( 2003 )
Documentary chronicling America's justice system. Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center.
info
Movie: Wheel of Time ( 2003 )
Wheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.
info
Movie: Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip ( 2003 )
The saga of Horatio Nelson Jackson, the first man to cross the United States by automobile--in 1903!
info
Movie: Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror ( 2003 )
A critical documentary about the war on terror since 9-11.
info
Movie: The Nazi Officer's Wife ( 2003 )
Edith Han was an outspoken young woman studying law in Vienna when the Gestapo forced Edith and her mother into a Jewish ghetto. Edith was taken away to a labor camp, and when she returned home months later, she found her mother had been deported. Knowing she would become a hunted woman, Edith went underground, scavenging for food and searching each night for a safe place to sleep. Her boyfriend, Pepi, proved too terrified to help her, but a Christian friend was not. Using the woman's identity papers, Edith fled to Munich. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member who fell in love with her. Despite her protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity a secret.
info
Movie: A Boy's Life ( 2003 )
Follows a Mississippi family's attempts to deal with an increasingly violent and erratic child.
info
Movie: La dernière lettre ( 2003 )
Locked away in the Jewish ghetto of an occupied Ukrainian town in 1941, a mother revisits her life in a last letter to her son.
info
Movie: Palestine Is Still the Issue ( 2003 )
In a series of extraordinary interviews with both Palestinians and Israelis, John Pilger weaves together the issue of Palestine. He speaks to the families of suicide bombers and their victims; he sees the humiliation of Palestinians imposed on them at myriad checkpoints and with a permit system not dissimilar to apartheid South Africa's infamous pass laws. He goes into the refugee camps and meets children who, he says, "no longer dream like other children, or if they do, it is about death."
info
Movie: Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times ( 2002 )
Whether Noam Chomsky, the MIT linguist and political philosopher, is the most important intellectual alive, as the New York Times once famously called him, is open for debate. But without a doubt, Chomsky, now 73, is one of the most straight-talking and committed dissidents of our time. A steadfast critic of United States foreign policy for decades, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, his profile took a quantum leap as he provided much-needed analysis and historical perspective to concerned citizens throughout the world. In the months that followed, he gave dozens of talks on four continents, conducted scores of interviews, and wrote a book 9-11 that was published in 22 countries and became a surprise bestseller in many of them, including Japan. Chomsky's voice may be unpopular, but his incisive arguments, based on decades of research and analysis, are heard and considered in this chronicle comprised of interview footage, and various talks he's given. Chomsky places the terrorist attacks in the context of American foreign intervention throughout the postwar decades--in Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Beginning with the fundamental principle that the exercise of violence against civilian populations is terror, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a well-organized band of Muslim extremists, or the most powerful state in the world. Chomsky, in stark and uncompromising terms, challenges the United States to apply to its own actions the moral standards it demands of others.
info
Movie: Lessons of Darkness ( 2002 )
This film shows the disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames, with few interviews and no explanatory narration. Hell itself is presented in such beautiful sights and music that one has to be fascinated by it.
info
Movie: Land of Silence and Darkness ( 2002 )
Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since adolescence, and her work on behalf of other deaf and blind people, this film shows how the deaf and blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.
info
Movie: Domestic Violence 2 ( 2002 )
The opening scene in this film is of an arrest in Hillsborough County Florida where a woman has scratched her husband while he was trying to restrain her from getting back in her car and leaving after an argument. The officers explain that she has committed a battery and thereby earned herself an inescapable arrest and overnight stay in jail because by law they have no discretion. This sets the stage for two hours of court proceedings before three different judges, each trying to apply the Florida domestic violence laws. Though it gets repetitive, it also is fascinating to try to figure out what to do with such issues as restraining orders, parental visits, child support and punishment as each witness testifies, and to see how the judges react.
info
TV Show: The Century of the Self ( 2002 )
A documentary about the rise of psychoanalysis as a powerful means of persuasion for both governments and corporations.
info
Movie: The Execution of Wanda Jean ( 2002 )
The Execution of Wanda Jean chronicles the life-and-death battle of Wanda Jean Allen, the first black woman to be put to death in the United States in the modern era.
info
TV Show: Mark Twain ( 2002 )
In his time, Mark Twain was considered the funniest man on earth. Yet he was also an unflinching critic of human nature, using his humor to attack hypocrisy, greed and racism. In this series, Ken Burns has created an illuminating portrait of the man who is also one of the greatest writers in American history.Mark Twain tells the story of the writer's extraordinary life – full of rollicking adventure, stupendous success and crushing defeat, hilarious comedy and almost unbearable tragedy. By the end, the film helps us to see how Twain could claim with some justification, "I am not an American, I am the American."
info
info
Movie: Domestic Violence ( 2001 )
Renowned documentarian Frederick Wiseman turns his observational camera on The Spring, a Florida shelter for battered women and children. For one-hundred and ninety-six minutes, Wiseman profiles the women and children that have been victim to domestic violence, showing them endure therapeutic, thoughtful lectures and learn from the tireless social workers employed at The Spring that their sanctuary has been found.
info
Movie: The New Rulers of the World ( 2001 )
The myths of globalisation have been incorporated into much of our everyday language. "Thinking globally" and "the global economy" are part of a jargon that assumes we are all part of one big global village, where national borders and national identities no longer matter. But what is globalisation? And where is this global village? In 2001, John Pilger made 'The New Rulers of the World', a film exploring the impact of globalisation. It took Indonesia as the prime example, a country that the World Bank described as a 'model pupil' until its 'globalised' economy collapsed in 1998. Globalisation has not only made the world smaller. It has also made it interdependent. An investment decision made in London can spell unemployment for thousands in Indonesia, while a business decision taken in Tokyo can create thousands of new jobs for workers in north-east England. This might seem a very natural development if you live in a country like Britain, with its long international history as a trading nation and imperial power. Bringing the world closer together may throw up new opportunities for cultural and economic interaction, but it also exposes us to the negative aspects of life on a shrinking planet, whether it be the threat of global warming, the international traffic in women for sexual exploitation or the spread of AIDS throughout Africa and Asia.
info
Movie: The Mark of Cain ( 2001 )
Sailing ships, stars, angels and executioners, The Mark of Cain chronicles the vanishing practice and language of Russian Criminal Tattoos. Captured in some of Russia's most notorious prisons, including the fabled White Swan, the film traces the animus of the flowers of this carnal art by way of the brutality of it's origins: the penitentiary and the criminal environm...Read all
info
Movie: LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton ( 2001 )
This documentary follows a Mississippi Delta school district and a single Delta family as they struggle against the crippling effects of poverty in the wake of more than one hundred years of slavery.
info
TV Show: Jazz ( 2001 )
This series explores the history of the major American musical form. We track its development in African American culture, its rise to prominence with its golden age of popularity spanning from the 1920's to the mid 1940's both in its original form and in Swing through its popular decline and the rise of vital new sub-genres into the present day. Along the way, we learn of the lives and work of major contributors to the form such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie "Bird" Parker and many others who helped form Jazz into the vibrant musical form it is. Moreover, we see how the music reflected the political and social issues of the African American community over the course of the form's history.
info
Movie: Wings of Hope ( 2000 )
Werner Herzog returns to the South American jungle with Juliane Koepcke, the German woman who was the sole survivor of a plane crash there in 1972. They find the remains of the plane and recreate her journey out of the jungle.
info
Movie: Public Housing ( 1999 )
Renowned documentarian Frederick Wiseman takes an intimate and nuanced look at the Ida B. Wells housing project in the south side of Chicago, Illinois.
info
TV Show: Not for Ourselves Alone ( 1999 )
Two women. One allegiance. Together they fought for women everywhere, and their strong willpower and sheer determination still ripples through contemporary society.Recount the trials, tribulations and triumphs of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as they strive to give birth to the women's movement. Not until their deaths was their shared vision of women's suffrage realized.
info
Movie: My Best Fiend ( 1999 )
In the 1950s, an adolescent Werner Herzog was transfixed by a film performance of the young Klaus Kinski. Years later, they would share an apartment where, in an unabated, forty-eight-hour fit of rage, Kinski completely destroyed the bathroom. From this chaos, a violent, love-hate, profoundly creative partnership was born. In 1972, Herzog cast Kinski in Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972). Four more films would follow. In this personal documentary, Herzog traces the often violent ups and downs of their relationship, revisiting the various locations of their films and talking to the people they worked with.
info
Movie: Belfast, Maine ( 1999 )
info
Movie: Welcome to Australia ( 1999 )
How native Aborigines were and still are excluded in many ways from Australian society.
info
TV Show: The Mayfair Set ( 1999 )
The Mayfair Set is a series of programmes produced by Adam Curtis for the BBC. The program looked at how buccaneer capitalists of hot money were allowed to shape the climate of the Thatcher years, focusing on the rise of Colonel David Stirling, Jim Slater, James Goldsmith, and Tiny Rowland, all members of The Clermont club in the 1960s. It received the BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series or Strand in 2000.
info
Movie: American Hollow ( 1999 )
This film tells the tale of a close-knit Appalachian family that has changed little in the last 100 years.
info
Movie: Little Dieter Needs to Fly ( 1998 )
German-American Dieter Dengler discusses his service as a U.S. naval pilot in the Vietnam War. Dengler also revisits the sites of his capture and eventual escape from the hands of the Viet Cong, recreating many events for the camera.
info
Movie: Frank Lloyd Wright ( 1998 )
This film illustrates the life and work of the American architect. We follow the development of his work and his turbulent family life amidst scandal and tragedy. Despite all the difficulties of his personal life, Wright rises above all and beats all the odds to design some of the most famous buildings using brilliant and distinctively innovative designs that only his genius could create.
info
Movie: The Farm: Angola, USA ( 1998 )
Documentary depicting day to day life in Angola Prison mostly from an inmate's perspective. Interviews are with several inmates including one with a life sentence who is about to die.
info
Movie: Apartheid Did Not Die ( 1998 )
info
TV Show: Storyville ( 1997 )
Series showcasing the best of international documentary filmmakers works.
info
Movie: Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery ( 1997 )
The story of the most important American exploration expedition in American history and the participants in it.
info
TV Show: Thomas Jefferson ( 1997 )
A two-part examination of the life of Thomas Jefferson, whose career as statesman and founding father, including authoring the Declaration of Independence and becoming the third President, places him in the pantheon of historic figures. With Sam Waterston as Jefferson. Narrated by Ossie Davis.
info
TV Show: The West ( 1996 )
The West is a series that includes stories of the Native American experience, from the era before Europeans appeared on the landscape to the tragic days of Sand Creek, Washita and Wounded Knee; stories of the Spanish West, from the times of the conquistadors' expeditions to the emergence of the barrio as an enclave of cultural traditions; pioneer stories from the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Exodus; war stories from San Jacinto and Lawrence, Kansas; stories of miners and missionaries, ranchers and railroaders, educators and industrialists. It is a chronicle that captures all the grandeur of the West and all the energy of its people, and one that probes the conflicting visions and competing values that made an American nation on this vast land.
info
info
Movie: The Transformation of the World Into Music ( 1996 )
This film was prepared as a introduction to a series of opera broadcasts on German television. It depicts the behind-the-scenes maneuverings in preparation for the annual opera festival in Bayreuth.
info
TV Show: The Living Dead ( 1995 )
British filmmaker Adam Curtis examines the different ways that history and memory (both national and individual) have been used and manipulated by politicians and others.
info
TV Show: 500 Nations ( 1995 )
500 Nations is an eight part documentary which explores the history of the indigenous peoples of North and Central America and their fall to the European conquerors.  
info
Movie: Ballet ( 1995 )
info
Movie: Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices ( 1995 )
Works, legend and murders of Carlo Gesualdo, a notorious Italian composer and murderer from the 16th century.
info
Movie: Zoo ( 1994 )
info
Movie: High School II ( 1994 )
info
Movie: Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy ( 1994 )
Documentary of the events that occurred in the East Timor genocide during 1990-91.
info
Movie: Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media ( 1992 )
This film showcases Noam Chomsky, one of America's leading linguists and political dissidents. It also illustrates his message of how government and big media businesses cooperate to produce an effective propaganda machine in order to manipulate the opinions of their populations. The key examples featured for this analysis are the simultaneous events of the massive coverage of the communist atrocities of Khmer Rouge regime of Cambodia and the suppression of news of the US supported Indonesian invasion and subjugation of East Timor.
info
TV Show: The Passionate Eye ( 1992 )
The Passionate Eye is Canada's longest-running national showcase for independent documentaries. For 23 years, it's provided Canadians with a critical window on the world, exploring international events and people through timely and provocative award-winning documentaries. Passionate Eye documentaries have won every major award including Emmy's, Oscars, Peabodys and Geminis, but they've also made news... films like Hunted in Russia, Holy Money, Invisible War, and Putin's Games, to name just a few from last season. Today The Passionate Eye remains one of the only documentary strands in Canada where viewers can still see a selection of the world's best and most newsworthy political and social issue documentaries.
info
Movie: Titicut Follies ( 1992 )
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.
info
TV Show: Pandora's Box ( 1992 )
Pandora's Box was a six part 1992 BBC documentary television series written and produced by Adam Curtis, which examines the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism. Curtis' later The Century of the Self had a similar theme. The title sequence made extensive use of clips from the short film Design for Dreaming, as well as other similar archive footage.
info
Movie: Hobo ( 1992 )
Part-time hobos and full time philosophers, who narrates their way through the incredible scenery of the Northwest and gives us his views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
info
Movie: Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio ( 1991 )
For 50 years, radio dominated the airwaves as the first mass medium. Ken Burns examines the lives of three men who shared the responsibility for its invention and early success.
info
Movie: The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit ( 1991 )
Maysles brothers documentary covering the first arrival of "Beatlemania" in the U.S., as well at the band's historical appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
info
Movie: Aspen ( 1991 )
info
Movie: Echoes From a Somber Empire ( 1990 )
Documentary examining Bokassa's rule in the Central African Republic using the testimony of witnesses and visits to key sites.
info
TV Show: The Civil War ( 1990 )
Between 1861 and 1865, Americans made war on each other and killed each other in great numbers - if only to become the kind of country that could no longer conceive of how that was possible. What began as a bitter dispute over Union and States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America.
info
Movie: Central Park ( 1990 )
info
Movie: Near Death ( 1989 )
Renowned documentarian Frederick Wiseman profiles the doctors, nurses, physicians, and patients at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, as he watches medical staff work around the clock trying to provide care and comfort for patients possibly experiencing the last moments of their lives and console family members of the patients in addition.
info
Movie: Herdsmen of the Sun ( 1989 )
Herzog's documentary of the Wodaabe people of the Sahara/Sahel region. Particular attention is given to the tribe's spectacular courtship rituals and 'beauty pageants', where eligible young men strive to outshine each other and attract mates by means of lavish makeup, posturing and facial movements.
info
Movie: Giovanna d'Arco ( 1989 )
info
TV Show: American Experience ( 1988 )
American Experience is TV's most-watched history series and brings to life incredible characters and compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today. Acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, American Experience documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including 30 Emmy Awards, 4 duPont-Columbia Awards, and 18 George Foster Peabody Awards.
info
Movie: The Congress ( 1988 )
The U. S. Congress is one of the country's most important and misunderstood institutions. Ken Burns tells the story behind this branch of government.
info
Movie: Missile ( 1988 )
info
Movie: Thomas Hart Benton ( 1988 )
Thomas Hart Benton's paintings were energetic and uncompromising. Today his works are in museums, but Benton hung them in saloons for ordinary people to appreciate.
info
Movie: Blind ( 1987 )
Shows the educational programs and daily life of students in kindergarten through the 12th grade at the Alabama School for the Blind. The School is organized around the effort to educate blind and visually impaired students to be in charge of their own lives. Sequences in the film include mobility training, braille instruction and orientation as well as traditional classroom subjects such as English, history, science and music. Other sequences show psychological counseling sessions; vocational training; staff dealing with student disciplinary problems; and the wide variety of recreational and athletic programs.
info
info
Movie: Deaf ( 1986 )
info
Movie: Multi-Handicapped ( 1986 )
info
Movie: Adjustment and Work ( 1986 )
info
info
Movie: Portrait Werner Herzog ( 1986 )
A self portrait documentary by Werner Herzog.
info
Movie: Huey Long ( 1985 )
Ken Burns' portrait of Louisiana governor/U.S. senator Huey Long.
info
Movie: The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God ( 1985 )
Ken Burns examines the American utopian 19th century religious sect known as the Shakers.
info
Movie: The Dark Glow of the Mountains ( 1985 )
Werner Herzog follows mountaineers Hans Kammerlander and Reinhold Messner during their expedition into climbing the Gasherbrum mountains, which has some of the most difficult peaks to be conquered, and they'll do it without the use of oxygen tanks. Herzog also takes some time to hear about their past experiences with other mountains, their personal tragedies and the reasons why they are so involved with such activity.
info
Movie: Ballad of the Little Soldier ( 1985 )
The film focuses on a group of Miskito Indians in Nicaragua who used children soldiers in their resistance against the Sandinistas.
info
Movie: Racetrack ( 1985 )
info
Movie: The Statue of Liberty ( 1985 )
Documentary showing the history of the world-famous Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.
info
Movie: The Store ( 1984 )
A look at the employees and shoppers at the Neiman-Marcus department in Dallas, Texas during the holiday season.
info
Movie: The Great British Housing Disaster ( 1984 )
Documentary about the system built housing of the 1960's.
info
info
Movie: The Last Day ( 1983 )
Dramatized documentary about the end of the Vietnam War.
info
TV Show: Frontline ( 1983 )
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 documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change..
info
Movie: The Truth Game ( 1983 )
John Pilger's penetrating film which show the world-wide propaganda surrounding the nuclear arms race. When the two American atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, ...
info
info
Movie: Welfare ( 1982 )
WELFARE 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.
info
Movie: Brooklyn Bridge ( 1981 )
This documentary chronicles the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The difficult construction process is described in interesting detail; later parts of the film interview current notables who describe the effects that the Brooklyn Bridge has had upon New York society and beyond.
info
Movie: Model ( 1981 )
info
Movie: Huie's Sermon ( 1981 )
The reverend Huie L. Rogers delivers an intense and impassioned sermon at his church in Brooklyn.