Documentary
see all genres ›Truth is rarely stranger than fiction. Cinematic storytelling centered on actuality, facts and unrehearsed life events has offered a century’s worth of strange and illuminating fascination. Spanning newsreel, performance, travelogue, diary, propaganda, investigation and ethnography, documentaries are centered on that slippery state of "reality."
Watch Documentary Films
Genres / Documentary
SUB-GENRES · Art · Biography · Conspiracy · Political · Religion · Science · Propaganda · Social Issues · Sport · Travelogue · War · Literature · History · Mythology · Philosophy · Commerce · Design · Transportation · Espionage · Pseudoscience · Crime · Cuisine · Health · Disaster · Media · Environment · Process · Education
-
Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Hailed by Cameron Crowe as "one of the greatest rock movies ever made," HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT documents the parking lot tailgating at Capital Centre in Largo, Maryland, in the hours before (and the moments after) a Judas Priest concert in May 31, 1986 (the "JUN 23 1995"...Watch Movie
-
The Cult of JT LeRoy
Ethically charged, controversial and confusing, JT's life and death sprang open a Pandora's box of powerful questions about literature and culture, identity and celebrity and the reality of the society we live in. Fraud? Art? Sociopathy? Complicity? THE CULT OF JT LEROY is a...Watch Movie
-
Madonna: Truth or Dare
Madonna: Like you've never seen her before. This documentary reveals her as she really is, on stage and off - den mother to her family of dancers, sex goddess to her millions of fans, businesswoman, singer, dancer, and the biggest star in the world. Join her and experience an...Watch Movie
-
The Pain of Others
THE PAIN OF OTHERS is a found footage documentary about Morgellons, a mysterious illness whose sufferers say they have parasites under the skin, long colored fibers emerging from lesions, and a host of other bizarre symptoms which could be borrowed from a horror film. Tens of...Watch Movie
-
Debra Paget, For Example
Debra Paget was a contract player for 20th-Century Fox, whom they groomed and coached for stardom. But she never quite caught on. Maybe the movies weren't interesting enough. Or maybe she didn’t stand out from the rest of the pack. Or the studio didn’t take enough care in...Watch Movie
-
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
The compelling and provocative documentary of John Lennon's evolution from beloved Beatle to outspoken artist and activist. An iconic inspiration for peace during one of the most tumultuous times in American history, Lennon stood his ground, refused to be silenced and...Watch Movie
-
A Film Unfinished
At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply "Ghetto," this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw...Watch Movie
-
Be Here to Love Me
As a musician, Townes Van Zandt was legendary, perhaps one of the greatest who ever lived, inspiring a range of artists from Bob Dylan to Norah Jones to Steve Earle. As a man, a husband and a father his life was as tragic as the songs he wrote. Van Zandt was an enigma to his...Watch Movie
-
The Woodmans
The tragic story of Francesca Woodman, a young photographer renowned for her extraordinary self-portraits, is also the story of her brilliantly artistic family. With THE WOODMANS, director C. Scott Willis shows how the struggle for fame in the high-stakes world of art resulted in tragedy and then...Watch Movie
-
Korla
KORLA is the amazing story of John Roland Redd, an African-American from Columbia, Missouri who migrated to Hollywood in 1939 and reinvented himself as a musician from India. He played the piano and organ, wore a jeweled turban, had a hypnotic gaze and never spoke a word while performing on his...Watch Movie
-
Don't Blink - Robert Frank
One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, DON'T BLINK is a documentary about Robert Frank, the legendary photographer and filmmaker behind the seminal book "The Americans" and landmark films like "Pull My Daisy" and "C***sucker Blues". Directed by his longtime...Watch Movie
-
Becoming Anita Ekberg
BECOMING ANITA EKBERG is an exploration of how the construct of "Anita Ekberg" became an internationally famous sex goddess as a result of the careful cultivation of her image in various movies, both in Hollywood, by Frank Tashlin, and in Europe, by Federico Fellini. It's an...Watch Movie
-
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
In his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a phenomenon. He became notorious for his graffiti art under the moniker Samo in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side scene, sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for two hundred dollars and became best friends with Andy...Watch Movie
-
A Band Called Death
Punk before punk existed, three teenage brothers in the early '70s formed a band in their spare bedroom, began playing a few local gigs and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed. But this was the era of Motown and emerging disco. Record companies found Death's...Watch Movie
-
Brian Eno: The Man Who Fell to Earth
Brian Eno: musician, composer, producer, music theorist, singer and visual artist. Probably best known for his early work with Roxy Music, his production duties for U2 and Coldplay and as one of the principal innovators of ambient music. This first-ever documentary film about...Watch Movie
-
Sex and Broadcasting
SEX AND BROADCASTING is a human and humorous look at New Jersey's WFMU, a radio station that refuses any programming boundaries. Most of its disc jockeys are unpaid volunteers, working for their love of surprising, spontaneous radio. They play everything from flat-out...Watch Movie
-
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Rock legend David Bowie performs as his androgynous alter-ego in this concert film, directed by D. A. Pennebaker. The movie of the concert of the album that changed your life... Bowie propelled rock 'n' roll spectacle into the 21st century with his knockout portrayal of the...Watch Movie
