My Favourite Documentaries (Ranked)

An intimate portrait of controversial cartoonist Robert Crumb and his traumatized family.

A film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.

Following the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.

A documentary about fraud and fakery.

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.

Using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists, led by renowned dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry, infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.

Michael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after 9/11 and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Since 1978, Anvil has become one of heavy metal's most influential yet commercially unsuccessful acts. In 2006, after a fledging European tour Anvil sets out to record their thirteenth album and continue to follow their dreams.

Philosopher Slavoj Zizek examines the hidden themes and existential questions asked by world renowned films.

A documentary about a pet cemetery in California, and the people who have pets buried there.

Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.

About the obscure country-blues musician and idiosyncratic visual artist Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, member of the last known black string band in America.

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

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.

It's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.

A documentary about the undersea explorers and how they penetrate into the underwater world.

Conversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people - and the state - kill.

Filmmaker Michael Moore explores the roots of America's predilection for gun violence.

A documentary that shows the production of Ran and discusses the film techniques of Kurosawa himself.

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.

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.

A film account and presentation of the final concert of The Band.

Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n roller, Rodriguez.

Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim follows Al Gore on the lecture circuit, as the former presidential candidate campaigns to raise public awareness of the dangers of global warming and calls for immediate action to curb its destructive effects on the environment.

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.