Sight & Sound's The Greatest Documentaries of All Time
In 2014, Sight & Sound polled 340 documentary critics, curators, academics and filmmakers asking for top 10 documentary lists. Over 1000 films got votes, from years as early as 1892 to as recent as 2013. This list is the combined critics and filmmakers list of all films that received 3 or more votes.
You can find the films receiving just one or two votes: here
You can find the films receiving just one or two votes: here
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- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorClaude LanzmannStarsSimon SrebnikMichael PodchlebnikMotke ZaïdlClaude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsAmilcar CabralFlorence DelayArielle DombasleA woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRandall AdamsDavid HarrisGus RoseA film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorsEdgar MorinJean RouchStarsMarceline Loridan IvensMarilù ParoliniAngeloA documentary about the everyday lives of ordinary Parisians, done in the style of cinéma vérité.
- DirectorD.A. PennebakerStarsBob DylanAlbert GrossmanBob NeuwirthDocumentary covering Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England, which includes appearances by Joan Baez and Donovan.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsFrançois WertheimerAgnès VardaJean La PlancheVarda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris.
- DirectorsEllen HovdeAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesStarsEdith Bouvier BealeEdith 'Little Edie' Bouvier BealeBrooks HyersMeet 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.
- DirectorMarcel OphülsStarsHelmut TausendMarcel VerdierAlexis GraveAn in-depth exploration of the various reactions by the French people to the Vichy government's acceptance of the German invasion.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsTimothy TreadwellAmie HuguenardWerner HerzogA 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.
- DirectorsAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesCharlotte ZwerinStarsPaul BrennanCharles McDevittJames BakerFour dogged door-to-door Bible salesmen travel from Boston to Florida on a seemingly futile quest to sell luxury editions of the Good Book to working-class Catholics.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAbel JacquinAlexandre O'NeillA surrealist film, a pseudo-documentary portrait of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater, where people stay trapped in their madness.
- DirectorSteve JamesStarsWilliam GatesArthur AgeeEmma GatesA film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.
- DirectorPaul AlmondStarsDouglas KeayBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSeven year old children from various backgrounds are interviewed on their hopes and aspirations for the future. It is hoped to follow them up in the year 2000 and see how things turned out.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted interviews the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldThis eye-opening episode uncovers human nature and the desire to survive and succeed in all its heart-breaking glory.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted interviews the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
- DirectorsMichael AptedPaul AlmondStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
- DirectorsMichael AptedPaul AlmondStarsMichael AptedBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettDirector Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
- DirectorPatricio GuzmánStarsAbilio FernándezSalvador AllendeThe chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.
