Favorite Documentaries

A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century".

Documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.

A collection of expertly photographed scenes of human life and religion.

Meet a mother and daughter, high-society dropouts, reclusive cousins of Jackie O., managing to thrive together amid the decay and disorder of their East Hampton, NY, mansion, making for an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot.

The true story of two climbers and their perilous journey up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

An examination of how a cultured people could have allowed Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

Aging Cuban musicians whose talents had been virtually forgotten following Castro's takeover of Cuba, are brought out of retirement by Ry Cooder, who travelled to Havana in order to bring the musicians together, resulting in triumphant performances of extraordinary music, and resurrecting the musicians' careers.

Through readings of historical account by actors and the testimony of survivors, the events of the Nanjing Massacre are recounted.

The cruel acts of animal poaching and violence, executions, and tribal slaughtering, all taking place on the African continent.

Follows eight teenagers on their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee.

In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today's most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.

In the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family.

A graphic documentary on both sides of the abortion debate.

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.

The story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara.

Documentary about Father Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest who was relocated to various parishes around the United States during the 1970s in an attempt by the Catholic Church to cover up his rape of dozens of children.

A film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.

After General Motors closes its factory in Flint, Michigan, eliminating 35,000 jobs, filmmaker Michael Moore undertakes a quixotic quest to interview General Motors' chairman, Roger B. Smith.

Bill Maher's take on the current state of world religion.

Oscar-winning documentary that documents a murder trial in which a 15-year-old African-American is wrongfully accused of a 2000 murder in Jacksonville, Florida.

A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world.

A filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered friend when his friend's ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son.

The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.

The life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.