Classic Documentary
see all genres ›There's no truth like old truth. These globe-trotting slices of verite cinematic life offer windows onto the past more piercingly insightful and real than fictional narrative could ever afford.
Watch Classic Documentary Films
Genres / Classic / Classic Documentary
-
Daguerréotypes
A classic documentary from Agnes Varda, DAGUERREOTYPES is a wonderfully intimate portrait of the small shops and shopkeepers on a short stretch of the Rue Daguerre, a picturesque street that has been the filmmaker's home for more than 50 years. As in her films THE BEACHES OF AGNES and THE...Watch Movie
-
Salut les Cubains
The final film in the CINEVARDAPHOTO triptych is the oldest, SALUT LES CUBAINS. In 1963, Varda thoughtfully gave order to 1,800 photos that she had recently taken on a trip to Cuba. In just 30 minutes, the photographer/filmmaker achieves a sprawling depiction of the country,...Watch Movie
-
Double-Headed Eagle
THE DOUBLE HEADED EAGLE Hitler's Rise to Power 1918-1933, the classic documentary by Lutz Becker. A fascinating experiment in documentary filmmaking, THE DOUBLE HEADED EAGLE charts the stealthy rise of the Nazi party in the wake of World War I, as witnessed from the...Watch Movie
-
The Sacred Art of Tibet
The making of THE SACRED ART OF TIBET was a long and arduous process. And, it made a deep impression in my life. The film culminated a long period of research into Northern Buddhist philosophy. I met an extraordinary lama from a land that has caused Westerners so much romantic...Watch Movie
-
Bakhtiari Migration
BAKHTIARI MIGRATION documents (in visually splendid detail) the semi-annual journey, taking roughy five weeks and covering two-hundred torturous miles. Half a million people and millions of sheep and goats cross the rugged Zagros mountains in southern Iran twice yearly to move...Watch Movie
-
The Angry Brigade
This documentary, produced by Gordon Carr for the BBC (and first broadcast in January 1973, shortly after the trial), covers the roots of the "Angry Brigade" in the revolutionary ferment of the 1960s and follows their campaign and the police investigation to its culmination in...Watch Movie
-
On Any Sunday
Writer, producer and director Bruce Brown explores this dizzying and intoxicating world of rugged road riders where cycles hit incredible speeds. Segueing into the grueling excitement of a muddy and murderous motocross race, we then move on to the tortuous mayhem of the Mexican 1000 off-track...Watch Movie
-
City of Wax
The Woodard brothers won an Academy Award® for this documentary short illustrating the complex world of bees who've found "a hollow tree in which to build a city," as Gayne Whitman's narration puts it. The siblings' microscopic camera captures the society of male drones, sterile female workers...Watch Movie
-
Calgary Cowboy Stampede
This rare "Sports Parade" newsreel observes Calgary's Annual Cowboy Stampede, a major event whose participants hailed everywhere "from Alaska to the Rio Grande." Among the competitive heats are roping and milking undomesticated cows; wild steer riding for both teens and...Watch Movie
-
Beneath Our Feet
"Literal forests" of life in the grass beneath us are explored via a microscopic camera in this instructive short. We see how an ant drinks from a dewdrop without bursting it and how crickets court (hint: it's noisy). It is an eat-or-be-eaten world as we watch aphids consumed...Watch Movie
-
Battle of the Centuries
This "Pictoreel" studies a "fantastical world of romance in which tragedy reigns supreme." Or so says the narrator of our setting, a mere "old tree stump" that hides a termite city. Their insect society is divided between workers and soldiers, the latter seen fiercely...Watch Movie
-
Adventures of Chico
Billed as "A Tale of the Strangest Friendship Ever Known!" this was the sole long-form work created by brothers Horace and Stacy Woodard, who'd already won two Academy Awards® for their short nature documentaries. The narrative/nonfiction hybrid lets us spend time with Chico,...Watch Movie
