Over the last 5 years, I watched quite a lot of documentaries. In 2015, I've been catching up on documentaries I missed. You may have noticed the marathon I've been doing on the blog over the last few months.
This list is a collection of my personal favorites from the decade so far. I'm probably overlooking some good ones, you can't watch everything.
The ranking is based on how impactful and memorable they were. Many of them were nominated for awards, others are lesser known yet of value to me. Of course, what is deemed "best" is different for everyone, depending on what moves you, what you are interested in, and what you find important.
1.) The Story of Film: An Odyssey (Documentary TV Series) (Mark Cousins) (review)
2.) Dreams of a Life (Carol Morley) (review)
3.) The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer) (review)
4.) Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy) (review)
5.) The Imposter (Bart Layton) (review)
6.) Armadillo (Janus Metz Pedersen) (review)
7.) Into the Abyss (Werner Herzog) (review) (review)
8.) Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 (Stevan Riley) (review)
9.) Senna (Asif Kapadia) (review)
10.) Amy (Asif Kapadia) (review)
11.) Drone (Tonje Hessen Schei) (review)
12.) Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite) (review)
13.) Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (Alex Gibney)
14.) Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney) (review)
15.) Metal Evolution (Documentary TV Series) (Sam Dunn) (review)
16.) Inside Job (Charles Ferguson)
17.) Searching for Sugar Man (Malik Bendjelloul) (review)
18.) Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape (Jake West) (review)
19.) Marley (Kevin Macdonald) (review)
20.) The People vs. George Lucas (Alexandre O. Philippe) (review) (this 10 min clip is hilarious)
Honorable mentions:
Finding Vivian Maier (multiple directors) (review)
Woody Allen: A Documentary (Robert B. Weide) (review)
Reagan (Eugene Jarecki) (review)
Maidentrip (Jillian Schlesinger)
Miss Representation (Jennifer Siebel Newsom) (review)
Bobby Fischer Against the World (Liz Garbus) (review)
Undefeated (multiple directors) (review)
Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (Alex Gibney) (review)
TT3D: Closer to the Edge (Richard De Aragues) (review)
A Story of Children and Film (Mark Cousins) (review)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer) (review)
Kraftwerk - Pop Art (multiple directors) (review)
20,000 Days on Earth (multiple directors) (review)
Bully (Lee Hirsch) (review)
56 Up (Michael Apted) (review)
The Swell Season (multiple directors) (review)
Mistaken for Strangers (Tom Berninger) (review)
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley) (review)
Life in a Day (Kevin Macdonald) (review)
Marwencol (Jeff Malmberg)
Patience After Sebald (Grant Gee) (review)
Sound City (Dave Grohl) (review)
Life Itself (Steve James) (review)
The Other Dream Team (Marius Markevicius)
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen) (review)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras) (review)
Palme (multiple directors) (review)
Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich) (review)
Rewind This! (Josh Johnson) (review)
Michael H – Profession: Director (Yves Montmayeur) (review)
Video Nasties: Draconian Days (Jake West) (review)
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky) (review)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Martin Scorsese)
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould (multiple directors)
Hawking (Stephen Finnigan) (review)
Salinger (Shane Salerno) (review)
New additions:
The Wolfpack (2015) (Crystal Moselle) (review)
Listen to Me Marlon (2015) (Stevan Riley) (review)
De Palma (2015) (Noah Baumbach) (review)
50 Years of Star Trek (2016) (Ian Roumain) (review)
From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years (2016) (Caulfield's) (review)
Yet to watch list
