The Best Documentaries of All Time That You Should Watch

Many stories would otherwise remain unknown due to the nature of documentaries. Documentaries can cover a range of subjects from a single individual’s life to a larger political event, and their effects vary from uplifting to devastating. Meanwhile, here are our picks for the best documentaries of all time.

We learn more about the world as a result of the best documentary films than just the stories they tell; we learn about beliefs we no longer share, we become more aware of experiences different from our own, we grow angry with stories of injustice, and we uncover untold truths of the world. An excellent documentary can convert audiences into activists; it can alarm, awaken, and amuse simultaneously.

Currently, HBO and Netflix offer a wide variety of documentary films, so options have never been better. You will not want to miss these essential documentaries we compiled for you.

49. Stories We Tell

• Director: Sarah Polley
• Writer: Sarah Polley, Michael Polley
• Cast: Michael Polley, John Buchan, Mark Polley
• IMDb Ratings: 7.5
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

A genre-twisting tale, The Truth Depends on Who Tells It tells the story of writer/director Sarah Polley – and the whole truth depends on who tells it. The story of a family of storytellers is investigated by filmmaker and detective Polley.

She often obtains contradictory but refreshingly candid answers to the same questions by carefully interviewing and interrogating a cast of characters of varying reliability. You might not have seen anything quite like this before. Polley reveals her real father is peel by peel in this highly personal film.

Polley’s journey to find her biological father can sometimes feel intrusive, but it is handled with such light-heartedness, smoothness, and interest that you would want to be a part of.

48. Wasteland

• Director: Lucy Walker
• Writer: Karen Harley
• Cast: Vik Muniz
• IMDb Ratings: 7.9
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Some men and women earn their living sifting garbage at Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. By drawing portraits of the workers, Vik Muniz discovers their lives.

Art transforms people and lives. It is the subject of this film. From the world’s largest landfill to the heights of international stardom, contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey.

Vik works with the brilliant catadores, performers of social anthropology who pick up recyclables in the garbage, showing us how we can upcycle ourselves by quoting Machiavelli.

47. Citizenfour

• Director: Laura Poitras
• Writer: –
• Cast: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, William Binney
• IMDb Ratings: 8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96
• Streaming Platform: HBO Max

Snowden’s leak of documents that showed the NSA spying on citizens without a warrant in 2013 is probably the most impactful leak of government secrets in history.

Citizenfour shows conversations between Snowden and director Laura Poitras about illegal wiretapping. Featuring interviews with Snowden, the film lends credibility to Snowden’s testimony.

By seeing the film, citizens can understand the bravery of the one man who stood up at a great personal cost to expose the difficult truth. In addition to this, the documentary exposes the invisible forces at play that remind the viewer of Orwell’s dystopian society detailed in his well-known novel, 1984.

It’s a difficult film to watch because of its eerie realism, yet it’s a film that all citizens of the 21st century should see. Filmmaker Laura Poitras has indeed done an amazing job.

46. The Cove

• Director: Louie Psihoyos
• Writer: Mark Monroe
• Cast: Richard O’Barry, Louie Psihoyos, Hardy Jones
• IMDb Ratings: 8.4
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

An activist group led by famous dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry infiltrates a cove near Taijii, Japan, with state-of-the-art equipment to expose both a shocking practice of animal abuse and serious health hazards.

The film, directed by O’Barry, follows the filmmaker Louie Psihoyos (I.  as he attempts to expose one of the cruelest acts committed against wild dolphins in Taiji, Japan, where dolphins are routinely corralled either for sale to aquariums and marine parks or slaughter for meat.

An incredibly brave tale of the atrocities committed against dolphins, ‘The Cove’ is thrilling and heartbreaking at the same time – so much so that the filmmakers risked their safety almost an Oscar-winning documentary.

45. Dick Johnson Is Dead

• Director: Kirsten Johnson
• Writer: –
• Cast: Kirsten Johnson, Michael Hilow
• IMDb Ratings: 7.4
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

Despite her father’s impending death from dementia, director Kirsten Johnson faces the issue with a powerful love and dark humor. It is anything but dreadful for her to imagine and stage her father’s death in countless ways.

There is one last play session between father and daughter, one last time they pretend in an endeavor to control the uncontrollable, in an attempt to decide how they will welcome death when the time comes, as it does for all of us.

44. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu

• Director: Andrei Ujică
• Writer: Andrei Ujică
• Cast: Dana Bunescu, Lica Barbulescu, Ion Avram, Eugen Barbu
• IMDb Ratings: 7.6
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

This film captures former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who ruled from 1965 to 1989, using Romanian National Television and National Film Archives. Ceausescu was executed on Christmas Day 1989, and his wife after being overthrown.

Mr. Ujica wrote and directed the documentary, which opens with jerky and smeary images showing the Ceausescus’ hastily convened and administered trial just moments before their execution. The two men sit with their backs against the wall, looking frail and thin.

They make accusations and deny accusations. In addition to being fast-paced and difficult to follow, the film omits voice-overs and other explanations, which may be problematic for the uninitiated.

No matter your knowledge of Romanian history, these crude visuals are hard to reconcile with the pomp and pageantry that follows, which is exactly the point. In 1965, these two Lilliputians – Ceausescu seemed to hover between 5 feet 5 and 6 feet 2 – ruled a country into which they lorded a vision of their self-mythologizing.

43. Crip Camp

• Director: James Lebrecht, Nicole Newnham
• Writer: James Lebrecht, Nicole Newnham, David Radcliff
• Cast: Judith Heumann, James Lebrecht
• IMDb Ratings: 7.7
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

During the 1970s, Camp Jened, located in the Catskill Mountains, led a revolution in educating teenagers with disabilities. Michelle and Barack Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, produced “Crip Camp” in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The film focuses on the struggles of those campers who became activists for the disability rights movement and their fight for accessibility legislation. The film stars Larry Allison, Judith Heumann, James LeBrecht, Denise Sherer Jacobson, and Stephen Hofmann.

42. American Movie (1999) 

• Director: Chris Smith
• Writer: Chris Smith
• Cast: Mark Borchardt, Mike Schank, Tom Schimmels
• IMDb Ratings: 7.8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94
• Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime, Vudu

Filmmaker Mark Borchardt chronicles his efforts to finance and finish a low-budget horror film in this film. The film features Borchardt’s 82-year-old Uncle Bill, his financier, and a man who lives in a trailer park despite having a savings account of over $250,000. It is a Sony Pictures Classics.

“American Movie” is a funny documentary, with a few sad moments, filmed by Chris Smith and created by Sarah Price, dedicated to Mark and the people who were important to him. According to Mark, he’s a loser, a filmmaker who’s spent his life working on films that have never been released.

With the help of his friends and hapless amateur actors as his cast, he plunders Uncle Bill’s bank account for funding, and he features Mike Schank, his best friend, and composer who, after too many drugs, reminds me of Silent Bob from Kevin Smith’s movies.

Last but not least, Mark Borchardt dreams of one-day achieving such success. Although he may not succeed, he will not stop trying.

41. When We Were Kings (1996)

• Director: Leon Gast
• Writer: Leon Gast
• Cast: Muhammad Ali, George Foreman
• IMDb Ratings: 8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

Underdogs facing off against Goliaths is one of fiction’s most common story devices. A similar theme is evident in documentaries, as well. This brilliant documentary justifies Muhammed Ali as an inferior despite being one of the most celebrated boxers in history.

Muhammad Ali became famous in 1974 when he was 32 years old, and many believed he had reached the end of his career. In the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” match, he faced off against a much younger heavyweight champion, George Foreman.

An event of a lifetime, a musical festival, and some of the best African American artists performed in this festival thought up by Don King. Zaire’s brutal dictatorship was a point of cultural contact between Americans and their counterparts in America.

When the documentary won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Foreman and Ali were on stage with the filmmakers.

40. Exit Through the Gift Shop

• Director: Banksy
• Writer: –
• Cast: Banksy, Mr. Brainwash, Space Invader
• IMDb Ratings: 8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

A French shop owner and amateur filmmaker, eccentrically searching for Banksy and trying to befriend him, has his camera turned back on him by the artist. Among the graffiti artists filmed are Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader, and many others. Banksy’s first film is a little puzzle-box of a documentary about the reclusive street artist.

In addition to being an entertaining, informative mini-history of “street art” and a light-hearted but fascinating look at street-artist idiosyncrasies, it has multiple levels of enjoyment. Banksy’s documentary is beautifully filmed and boasts some extraordinary street art scenes and a sense of mystery due to his lingering presence.

39. Man on Wire

• Director: James Marsh
• Writer: Philippe Petit
• Cast: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau
• IMDb Ratings: 7.7
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

Several days before his 25th birthday, Philippe Petit, a French wire walker, juggler, and street performer, danced, laid on, and walked on a wire strung between the Twin Towers with friends.

Throughout the documentary, you are in for a thrilling ride. From getting the cable to the towers, hiding from guards to mounting the cable, to the actual walk between the towers, you will be engrossed from start to finish. ‘The Walk,’ starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was recently released based on the same story – though it does not hold up to ‘Man on Wire.’ Nevertheless, it is one of the best documentaries.

The footprint of one of the Twin Towers is being reconstructed between the World Trade Center by construction workers and huge trucks and cranes. It seems like it took place after 9/11. In the course of the scene, you will think that you are witnessing the construction of the towers at an early stage.

As the towers grow, huge steel beams are lifted, and the puzzle is put together the film shows. The movie doesn’t mention 9/11, and we think this was a wise choice. ” the towers were conquered by courage and joy, not by terrorism, in “Man on Wire.”

38. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

• Director: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
• Writer: 
• Cast: Tony Brooks, Diana Davis, Terry Wood
• IMDb Ratings: 8.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: HBO Max

Three teenagers, known as the “West Memphis Three,” are portrayed in Paradise Lost. As part of a Satanic ritual, three boys were allegedly murdered and mutilated. This documentary was made by Bernlinger and Sinofsky in 1996 and featured interviewees except for the trial’s subjects.

The investigation has been very up-and-down, making the case intriguing even though the victim’s parents and the police were convinced the three were responsible. It is the first documentary filmmaking to follow the trials and shows the coexistence of occult and evangelical beliefs.

37. Searching For Sugar Man

• Director: Malik Bendjelloul
• Writer: Malik Bendjelloul
• Cast: Rodriguez, Stephen’ Sugar’ Segerman, Dennis Coffey
• IMDb Ratings: 8.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95
• Streaming Platform: Disney+

Rodriguez, the greatest rock icon of the 1970s who never was, is the subject of Searching for Sugar Man. In the late 1960s, two celebrated producers encountered him in a Detroit bar and were struck by the emotional power of his melodies and prophetic lyrics; they immediately recorded an album that they thought would cement his reputation as the greatest recording artist of his time.

According to rumors, the singer committed a gruesome suicide while on stage. As a result, the album failed to make the charts, and the singer disappeared into obscurity. However, in apartheid, South Africa, a bootleg recording became a phenomenon over the following two decades. It is about two South African fans who attempt to discover what truly happened to their hero.

The story of Sugar Man, a man of forgotten genius who captured the heart of many with his unforgettable music, is told stunningly and unbelievably in Searching for Sugar Man. But, of course, seeing an icon receive recognition is also uplifting and rewarding, and it’s not surprising if you find yourself wiping away a tear or two.

36. Hoop Dreams

• Director: Steve James
• Writer: Steve James, Frederick Marx
• Cast: William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates
• IMDb Ratings: 8.3
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Real-life superheroes often appear in sports to embody our dreams of achieving impossible feats. In my opinion, “Hoop Dreams” is the definitive sports documentary of all time. The director Steve James shows the struggles of two young children as they strive to become professional basketball players while most others focus on a particular match or showdown.

It took the filmmakers 250 hours to film the documentary, which ultimately resulted in a 3-hour length. Unfortunately, the movie was not nominated for the Academy Awards despite its brilliance. As a result, critics called for a change in the nomination process to ensure greater films weren’t overlooked.

A story about William and Arthur, two high school students who dream of becoming NBA players and getting sports scholarships, can be found in the documentary. Even though their performance slumps, injuries, and typical teenage troubles, these diamonds in the rough never give up on their dream.

35. Inside Job

• Director: Charles Ferguson
• Writer: Charles Ferguson, Chad Beck, Adam Bolt
• Cast: Matt Damon, Gylfi Zoega, Andri Snær Magnason
• IMDb Ratings: 8.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

With a cost of more than $20 trillion, ‘Inside Job’ explores the 2008 global financial crisis, which cost millions of jobs and homes while causing the worst recession since the Great Depression and almost led to the end of the world.

The film tracks the rise of a corrupt industry that has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia using rigorous research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics.

A must-see documentary that will educate and enlighten you. Using outsiders’ perspective, the film reveals an outsider’s view of the morality of the financial industry or the lack of it. There is never a dull moment in the film.

34. The Act of Killing

• Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
• Writer: Christine Cynn
• Cast: Anwar Congo, Herman Koto, Syamsul Arifin
• IMDb Ratings: 8.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

The Act of Killing is a documentary presented by director Joshua Oppenheimer that aims to reenact the mass murders committed by ex-Indonesian death squad leaders using any cinematic genre they choose, including classic Hollywood crime stories and lavish musicals. 

In ‘The Act of Killing,’ we discover how violence we have long hoped would be unimaginable is not only imaginable but also carried out regularly. An attempt is made to understand the moral vacuum that lets perpetrators of genocide be praised and praised on public television. You will not want to miss this documentary, The Act of Killing.

33. The Thin Blue Line

• Director: Ben Elton
• Writer: Ben Elton
• Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Mina Anwar, James Dreyfus
• IMDb Ratings: 7.5
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Runaway David Harris becomes a 16-year-old drifter after he runs out of gas. They went to the movies in the evening after drinking some beer and smoking marijuana. However, their stories diverged from there. Adams claimed he went to sleep in his motel room with his brother after leaving his house.

Adams shot the officer approaching their car after they were stopped late that night by police. Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris dramatizes a crime scene and the investigation of the murder of a Dallas, Texas, police officer. Police officers, under intense pressure to clear their cases, gather evidence by watching films.

The summary emphasizes the flimsiness of circumstantial evidence. Approximately a year after the movie came out, Adams’ case was reviewed, leading to his release from prison. One of the greatest documentaries of all time, ‘The Thin Blue Line’ is tense, hard-hitting, and fully justified as one of the greatest documentaries in history.

32. Shoah

• Director: Claude Lanzmann
• Writer: Claude Lanzmann
• Cast: Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova
• IMDb Ratings: 8.7
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Shoah is a nonfiction film that lasts 9 hours 26 minutes. The movie Shoah, by French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, is as outstanding as anything else it has seen concerning Nazi misrule in Poland.

With several interviews of survivors, perpetrators, and witnesses, the movie depicted the horrors of the Holocaust. Secret cameras were also used in certain parts of the movie. You won’t forget to watch this film once you’ve seen it. You won’t forget to watch this film once you’ve seen it.

Lanzmann would focus only on the present. Holocaust survivors, bystanders, and, most uneasily, perpetrators recount their experiences in Shoah. As a result, the memory becomes living flesh, and a crucial element of documentary filmmaking achieves apotheosis: testimony and human nature.

31. 13th

• Director: Ava DuVernay
• Writer: –
• Cast: Henry Louis Gates Jr., Angela Davis, Newt Gingrich
• IMDb Ratings: 7.6
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

’13th’ reveals the history of racial inequality in the USA by looking at the prison system.

The documentary explores slavery, the civil rights movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Nixon and Reagan’s declaration of the war on drugs, etc.The documentary offers a superb overview of American history along with a tremendous amount of facts and statistics, but it never comes across as lecturing.

This is a documentary that is both informative and inspiring. It is a documentary everyone should watch, no matter their political views.

30. Harlan County, USA

• Director: Barbara Kopple
• Writer: 
• Cast: John L. Lewis, Carl Horn, Norman Yarborough
• IMDb Ratings: 8.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

The world runs on coal, according to legend. Yet, even though policymakers emphasize the importance of coal, they haven’t helped the miners. There was a coal miner strike in Harlan County, Pennsylvania, at the end of this documentary that illustrates the plight of the miners.

The miners demanded better wages for their hazardous work, but their more pressing issue was preventing and treating health problems such as black lung disease. The strike becomes more violent as guns are produced on both sides due to more restrictive clauses in the mining company’s revised contract and more restrictive clauses in the miners’ contract.

There is a lot of gritty information in the documentary about how big coal companies treat their workers. However, in the documentary film, their issue was brought out of the darkness and into the light by ‘Harlan County, USA.’

29. A Man With a Movie Camera

• Director: Dziga Vertov
• Writer: Dziga Vertov
• Cast: Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova
• IMDb Ratings: 8.4
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Filmmaking in 1929 was an extremely static art form. However, the Soviet documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov has shown that it can be very dynamic and stylistic by using the right techniques.

In Kiev, Odessa, and Moscow, he displayed the fairly routine life in cities such as a proof of concept. There were several cinematic techniques used. It had no identifiable central character, which was a very experimental piece. There was rather an examination of universal characters that emerged in crowded streets.

Several subliminal film techniques have become respected storytelling methods decades after they were invented or introduced in this great film, including double exposure, reversed movement, fast motion, tracking shots, extreme close-ups, jump cuts, and split screens. As a result, critics awarded it the 8th greatest film award in 2012, even though critics criticized it for its story style.

28. Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back (1967)

• Director: D. A. Pennebaker
• Writer: D. A. Pennebaker
• Cast: Bob Dylan, Donovan
• IMDb Ratings: 7.9
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime

In 1965, director D. A. Pennebaker accompanied Bob Dylan on a tour of England, capturing concerts and intimate glimpses into Dylan’s life off the stage and music pages.

Pennebaker told CNN he never intended “Don’t Look Back” to be a documentary. Instead, he defined a documentary as something that digs deep and educates.

As opposed to presenting a detailed portrait of the life of a music icon, he wanted to depict the experience of being with him for a short time.

27. I Am Not Your Negro

• Director: Raoul Peck
• Writer: –
• Cast: Anthony Weiner, Sydney Leathers, Stephen Colbert
• IMDb Ratings: 7.9
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

Many things had happened in James Baldwin’s time. Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King II were three of his closest friends involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

He wrote a book called ‘Remember This House’ before he died in 1987. In his book, he describes everything he saw during those turbulent times while interacting with activists. But, sadly, the book was never completed.

The song is based on an unfinished manuscript by the artist. A portion of the book would have been made up of Baldwin’s notes and letters, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

To illustrate how things have changed and how much reform is needed to improve things, the film draws a parallel between the events which occurred then and what is happening now.

 26. Paris Is Burning

• Director: Jennie Livingston
• Writer: –
• Cast: Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija
• IMDb Ratings: 8.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

There is a sense of community and support for the often flamboyant and socially shunned performers found within the “house” culture of drag queens. There are elaborate balls at which groups from each house compete.

The documentary “Paris is Burning” is composed of footage from multiple balls and interviews with some participants. As we watch the competitions, we see weird things mixed with the mundane, such as when there are dress categories such as “the gay-basher who beat you up on the way here tonight,” and the performers are judged by a panel of judges who hold up cardboard cards with point scores – just like the Olympic diving competitions.

According to the interviews, some of the contestants – dressed in expensive outfits and looking so affluent – were hustling and stealing to survive. We learn that many of the costumes were stolen, so most of the balls were held secretly. So there may be a prostitution element to some costumes.

25. Capturing the Friedmans

• Director: Andrew Jarecki
• Cast: Arnold Friedman, Jesse Friedman, David Friedman
• IMDb Ratings: 7.7
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97
• Streaming Platform: Amazon Video

A documentary about birthday party clowns was the goal of Andrew Jarecki with archival footage. However, when he began researching one of his subjects, David Friedman, he discovered a more interesting—and disturbing—story: In their hometown of Long Island, David Friedman’s father and brother, Arnold, and Jesse, both served jail time for child abuse.

A thrilling look at a family shattered when secrets and lies broke out-and combining interviews with the police investigating the Friedmans and the victims-Capturing the Friedmans offers a vivid portrait of a family ravaged by secrets and betrayal.

After they revealed that parents used questionable means like hypnosis to force their child to confess, the plot gets murkier. Students even complain that the police heavy-handed them. Yet, even before the trial started, Judge Abbey Boklan, who presided over the trial, told the media that she believed the defendants were guilty in Capturing the Friedmans.

24. The Imposter

• Director: Bart Layton
• Writer: Bart Layton
• Cast: Adam O’Brian, Nicholas Barclay
• IMDb Ratings: 7.5
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

San Antonio, Texas, is the scene of a bizarre disappearance in 1994 involving a 13-year-old boy. Three and a half years later, when he is found alive, thousands of miles away from where he was kidnapped, he has a story of torture and abuse. Yet, he is welcomed home with much joy by his family.

Things are not as they seem, though. Many of the characteristics he possessed before have remained the same, but why does he now possess a strange accent? How has his appearance changed? Where do these obvious inconsistencies go unnoticed by the family? Why don’t they notice the obvious inconsistencies?

Critics rate The Imposter as one of my favorite documentaries, as it plays more like an atmospheric thriller than a conventional subject-driven narrative. The director of the film, Bart Layton, cleverly juxtaposes recreations and interviews so that you’re never bored in the film. Rather you’ll be anxiously anticipating what happens next.

23. The Endurance (2000)

• Director: George Butler
• Writer: Caroline Alexander
• Cast: Julian Ayer, John Blackborow, Liam Neeson,
• IMDb Ratings: 7.8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95
• Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime

This documentary is about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 expedition to the Antarctic and is narrated by the talented Liam Neeson. Interviews with the surviving relatives of the members of the expedition, as well as footage of the original expedition locations, are included in the film.

Despite being crushed by ice, Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, managed to survive in a harrowing ordeal along with his fellow expedition members. Shackleton set out to become the first to cross the Antarctic continent via the pole after failing to reach the South Pole in 1909 by only 97 miles. However, the expedition met a disastrous end when the ship was trapped in the ice pack.

He and his 28-man crew survived the long polar winter before eventually finding rescue after sailing on an open boat for 800 miles across the Weddell Sea. Endurance’s entire crew survived against all odds. Shackleton’s expedition was told with the help of Frank Hurley’s original film footage and interviews with surviving relatives.

22. Amy

• Director: Asif Kapadia
• Writer: Asif Kapadia
• Cast: Mitch Winehouse, Mark Ronson
• IMDb Ratings: 7.8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

With unseen footage, home movies, and more than 100 interviews, this documentary provides an intimate portrait of Amy Winehouse as she is the center stage of this documentary, and we get to know about her talents and her tragic, darkest moments, and untimely death.

Mitchell Winehouse, Winehouse’s father, has been extremely critical of the documentary, believing it portrays him in an untrue light that damages his reputation.

Most people have heard of Winehouse, a reincarnation of jazz singers of yore whose sounds were also influenced by hip-hop, reggae, girl groups, and soul, North London’s chanteuse exploded onto the scene with her 2006 debut album, “Back to Black,” which has sold more than 20 million copies and won five Grammys. For a time, her all-too-appropriate signature song, “Rehab,” became an inescapable part of her coquettish bad-girl image.

In 2011, she was fatally poisoned by alcohol in the ultimate showbiz cliché. Thus, Winehouse became the first member of the “27 Club,” a category of music legends who reached their early expiration dates when they were young.

The film is an Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature.

21. Last Train Home

• Director: Lixin Fan
• Writer: Lixin Fan
• Cast: Zhang Yang, Changhua Zhan, Suqin Chen, Qin Zhang, Tingsui Tang
• IMDb Ratings: 7.6
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

With its focus on factory workers who sacrifice their families for their careers, “Last Train Home” illuminates the toll China’s economic boom has taken on its families.As a result of their work, Chen and Zhang see children infrequently, complicating reconnecting with them.

We see a large crowd being directed by police as it grinds forward in the film’s opening scenes, which are very much like a big-picture documentary. These Chinese citizens are among 130 million Chinese citizens who travel by train annually between urban centers and villages in the countryside.

Chen Suqin and Zhang Changhua, a married couple, gradually take center stage. Several years ago, they left Szechuan to work in Guangzhou, a large industrial city adjacent to Hong Kong, for lower-paying jobs in a textile factory.

They bend over our jeans in the rows of sewing machines as they are assembled. Despite being married adults, they live in dormitories with little privacy.

After 15 years of hard work, they hope to provide a better life for their children. But unfortunately, their dream has forced them to sacrifice their lives as parents, and as a result, they are like strangers to their children who only know them as telephone voices and their visits every year.

20. The Tillman Story

• Director: Amir Bar-Lev
• Writer: Amir Bar-Lev, Mark Monroe
• Cast: Pat Tillman, Richard Tillman, Josh Brolin
• IMDb Ratings: 7.8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93
• Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime

Pat Tillman’s life and death in Afghanistan are explored in “The Tillman Story.” The film covers up the claims that the Taliban killed Tillman. In particular, critics praised it as an anti-propaganda piece that resulted in Tillman’s death through “friendly fire.” As a result, the film’s release was overturned.

According to at least one of his fellow soldiers, Tillman died due to friendly fire. A week after Tillman’s death, his family says they learned that he had passed on the fabrication to the military, based on reports the government knew to be false.

As seen in the film, a paper trail shows that knowledge of falsehood ran deep into the Bush administration, including a leaked top-secret memo from Gen. Stanley McChrystal to the White House.

19. The Overnighters

• Director: Jesse Moss
• Writer: –
• Cast: Alan Mezo, Keegan Edwards, Jay Reinke
• IMDb Ratings: 7.4
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

An Outback pastor seeks to provide for the homeless in his town by opening his door to them. However, his decision to open his home to them becomes controversial in “The Overnighters.”.

The novel is often compared to “The Grapes of Wrath,” one of the best novels about migration in the 20th century.

Williston, North Dakota, the documentary’s setting, is a typical small town in America that has undergone a lot of change due to the oil boom bringing hopeful workers from across the country. But unfortunately, many of those who arrive are desperate, can’t find work right away (or at all. , and have nowhere to sleep.

Money can be made here, yes, but many are on the edge of desperation. Pastor Jay Reinke found that to be the trigger for persuading his congregation at Concordia Lutheran Church to open their parking lot and parish house to many unfortunate people seeking shelter.

Why Is It Called Overnighters?

The “overnighters” usually sleep in their cars and the hallways. But, with his ever-buoyant passion, Reinke wakes them up with hymns in the morning and does his best to meet as many of their needs as he can, especially when it comes to finding work that pays for their lodging.

Besides featuring Reinke’s ministry in the church, the documentary also presents touching, poignant footage of individuals who come to Williston to better their lives. One can almost feel their desire to gain employment.

Despite the tough times some seem to have suffered, there’s one 18-year-old named Keegan who recently turned 18 and has scored a good job that will allow him to bring out his girlfriend and infant son. It still isn’t enough, though.

He complains to his father that they have few opportunities for young people in their small town because his girlfriend doesn’t like living in a small apartment.

17. I Called Him Morgan

• Director: Kasper Collin
• Writer: –
• Cast: Wayne Shorter, Jymie Merritt
• IMDb Ratings: 7.3
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

‘I Called Him Morgan’ is the story of Helen Morgan, the wife of jazz great Lee Morgan, who cared for her husband during his heroin addiction and was subsequently found guilty of his murder.

It was described as “exuberant, mercurial, hallucinatory, spellbinding” by a known media platform, adjectives that are equally applicable to jazz’s best performances.

Morgan is not the main character in this film, nor is Helen More, the woman who shot Morgan on that snowy night in February 1972 at the now-legendary jazz saloon Slugs. Instead, the tape is the audio recording of an interview conducted by Larry Reni Thomas, an adult educator who met More in North Carolina, raised during the early 1990s, and helped More earn a high school diploma.

He received an offer from More to tell Thomas her side of the story because she was the lone survivor. As a result, there is only narration in the movie on More’s cassette, a tape filled with feedback, revealing his voice as slurred, sharp, sometimes regretful, sometimes fond, and more.

Archived footage and interviews make up the remainder of the film.

Morgan’s game

Morgan played with a clean tone and quicksilver energy, evident from the archival clips and great music snippets in the film. He was warm and funny in his playing. By the age of 18, he was playing the bandstand.

Albert Heath recalls driving in cars through Central Park’s streets at the wee hours of the morning, succumbing to substances and sensations of all kinds-and he became addicted to heroin.

Morgan’s senior, Helen More, came across him when he was at his most down and out, picked him up, formed a partnership with him, and helped him recover his health and productivity.

16. Senna

• Director: Asif Kapadia
• Writer: –
• Cast: Josh Bisignano, Neide Senna
• IMDb Ratings: 8.5
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

As a Brazilian Formula One driver, Ayrton Senna won three Formula One world championships. A 34-year-old driver was killed at the helm of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix when he crashed into a concrete barrier.

In 2011, the film won the Sundance Audience Award for Documentary, presented by World Cinema. Throughout this film, he is implied to be consumed, inflamed, devoured by his desire to win. Senna, perhaps himself, cannot understand why he is so consumed.

When he scores a surprise victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, he is a good-looking, nice boy. His wealthy family sent the boy to Europe for a world competition after he excelled on a top-level Go Kart circuit.

15. Promises

• Director: B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro, Carlos Bolado
• Writer: –
• Cast: BZ. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro
• IMDb Ratings: 8.4
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

“Promises” follows the lives of seven Israeli and Palestinian children for three years, from 1995 to 1998. There is a great deal of contrast between their lives. In an article for The New York Times, Julie Salamon called the film “an extraordinarily insightful and personal piece…a true humanist’s dream.”

14. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

• Director: Kim Bartley, Donnacha O’Briain
• Writer: –
• Cast: Pedro Carmona, George Tenet, Hugo Chávez
• IMDb Ratings: 8.3
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

A coup d’état attempt took place during the production of this documentary about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Clémence Collombet’s performance in “Promises” isn’t instantly apparent as a match for the film’s lead actress. Her own words: “She is a decent, conscientious woman who has done a respectable job in an office but does not seem blessed with great ambition or imagination.”. She is a former doctor turned mayor of an impoverished town outside Paris.

However, just because of the actor who plays her, we anticipate that some additional layer of humanity will emerge in this merely respectable woman, and we (and she.  are rewarded for our patience. Clémence’s selfless principles are shed when she’s offered an out-of-the-blue job as a government minister. Yet, at the same time, her conscience pricks faster.

Even though it kicks into straight-up thriller mode – with a race-the-clock element – late in the game, “Promises” does feel like a corrective to its more fanciful excesses.

The Interesting Plot

Its most important subplot involves the renovation of a social housing estate in a state of barely habitable disrepair and involves millions of Euros. After serving as mayor for seven years, Clémence wishes to leave a lasting legacy that invests in the futures of the poorest.

As she nears the finish line, she encounters a few unexpected obstacles that threaten to ruin everything – and just as she prepares to deal with them, an offer for a major promotion distracts her.

When a higher-up in government tells her that she can be a minister, she immediately begins to pursue a level of political power-mongering that she never has before, at the expense of the people who put her there. She must first learn that she must unlearn all the socially conscious priorities she has taken up as a mayor, reporting first to the prime minister and second to her voters.

This award-winning documentary examines Chavez’s 2002 two-day coup attempt, which didn’t remove him from power.

13. The Other Side of Everything

• Director: Mila Turajlić
• Writer: –
• Cast: Mila Turajlić, Mira Boskic, Mladen Kostic, Mirjana Karanović
• IMDb Ratings: 8.1
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

Her mother’s apartment in Belgrade has been locked for seven decades, so her mother’s past is hidden behind a locked door.

One family has been sealed away from their past by a locked door in their Belgrade apartment for over 70 years. A political fault line running through their home is revealed as the filmmaker begins an intimate conversation with her mother. This family saga turns into a searing portrait of an activist amidst great turmoil, questioning the responsibilities that come with fighting for the future of the next generation.

One of the top films of 2018, according to Richard Brody of The New Yorker, is “The Other Side of Everything.”

12. We Steal Secrets

• Director: Alex Gibney
• Writer: –
• Cast: Julian Assange, Alex Gibney, Adrian Lamo
• IMDb Ratings: 6.9
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

Documentary describing Julian Assange’s creation of a controversial website that allowed US security breaches of unprecedented proportions, as its name suggests.

The film portrays the 1989 WANK worm attack on NASA computers as the work of Australian hackers, including Julian Assange. It was originally thought to threaten the Galileo spacecraft.

As Wikileaks’ coverage of several key events follows its founding in 2006, we see its leaks about the Icelandic financial collapse, tax evasion by Swiss banks, government corruption in Kenya, toxic waste disposal, Chelsea Manning’s communications with Adrian Lamo, Wikileaks’ release of the Collateral Murder video, the Iraq War Department documents, the Afghanistan War Department documents, the US diplomatic cables, Lamo’s exposure of Manning to the FBI, as well as accusations of sexual assault made against Assange.

Documentaries should be fascinating, engaging, and revelatory – We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks exceeds all those expectations.

Just over two hours in a comprehensive and incredibly informative way can summarize the history of a global phenomenon and also explore the many facets of its founder Julian Assange’s life.

11. The World Before Her

• Director: Nisha Pahuja
• Writer: –
• Cast: Pooja Chopra, Ruhi Singh, Marc Robinson
• IMDb Ratings: 7.6
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

It is impossible to imagine a better way to explore the dichotomy between two women’s lives in India – one grounded in traditional Hindu principles, the other basking in the glory of westernization.

It is equally fascinating and thought-provoking to watch the conflicting ideals of modernists and Hindu extremists. Moreover, it is one of the fans’ best documentaries focusing on women.

10. The Invisible War

• Director: Kirby Dick
• Writer: –
• Cast: Kirby Dick, Jessica Hinves, Amy Ziering
• IMDb Ratings: 7.6
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99
• Streaming Platform: HBO Max

In today’s tumultuous world, the military plays a crucial role in maintaining peace. As a result of atrocities occurring in these parts of the world, they are the ones who bring peace and save people.

However, there is a problem when a group of people suffers in the Forces, and instead of being treated fairly, they are silenced and even reprimanded. For example, a picture of sexual assault victims in the US military is featured in The Invisible War.

In the piece, it was noted how often such things remain in the shadows, how they perpetuate a cycle, and how they cause physical and mental trauma on the victims and rob them of justice as a result of the system they chose to serve under.

9. 4 Little Girls

• Director: Spike Lee
• Writer: Spike Lee
• Cast: Spike Lee, Helen Pegues, Janie Gaines
• IMDb Ratings: 7.8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99
• Streaming Platform: HBO Max

Those opposed to it committed horrendous acts against the activists to undermine their willpower during the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil rights act was passed the following summer due to a similar incident in 1963.

However, what was the severity of this incident? The incident occurred on September 15, 1963. Ku Klux Klan members planted a bomb in the church, resulting in the deaths of four young girls.

Spike Lee’s documentary focuses on the events leading up to and following the coup. It includes interviews of the four girls’ friends and families and those of the activists and coverage of key events and demonstrations of the movement.

The film shows both the psychological and historical effects of the incident while addressing how life has changed or not in the years since.

8. Cutie and the Boxer

• Director: Zachary Heinzerling
• Writer: Zachary Heinzerling
• Cast: Ushio Shinohara, Noriko Shinohara
• IMDb Ratings: 7.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95
• Streaming Platform: HBO Max

A New York City-based artist with a wildly esoteric style, Ushio Shinohara has been under-appreciated for years. The documentary traces the tumultuous 40 years of his marriage with Noriko, his wife of forty years.

Noriko is eager to shed her role as her husband’s assistant. Hence, she pursues semi-autobiographical line drawings that reveal a great deal about her ambitions and talent. The story of an exceptionally creative artist couple is touching, beautiful, and moving in Cutie And The Boxer.

The story is about art. As well as a woman’s endurance, it’s about the male ego. Above all else, though, it’s about a love that lasts forever. It was fans’ favorite film in 2013.

7. Dirty Wars

• Director: Richard Rowley
• Writer: Richard Rowley
• Cast: Jeremy Scahill, Abdul Rahman Barman
• IMDb Ratings: 7.4
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83
• Streaming Platform: Hulu

A covert war is the subject of this documentary about investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill. In the beginning, this is a report on an American night raid in a remote corner of Afghanistan. Still, it soon expands into examining the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)

Scahill is pulled into a world of clandestine operations that are secret to the public and carried out by men who aren’t on paper as he investigates the activities of JSOC. I was unaware that JSOC existed until I watched ‘Dirty Wars’.

It seems that the film makes no exceptions when it comes to criticizing the US government’s covert operations. At times, it is touching as well as eye-opening. Jeremy Scahill’s bravado in carrying out his investigation will also impress you.

6. Weiner

• Director: Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman
• Writer: –
• Cast: Anthony Weiner, Sydney Leathers, Stephen Colbert
• IMDb Ratings: 7.6
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

During his tenure as a congressman, Anthony Weiner was respected and well-respected. The Clintons were his close friends, and he had many political allies.As a result of a sexting scandal in 2011, he had to resign after accusing women of sending sexually explicit images to him. Anthony, who had denied the claims for three years, now admits to having done so to at least six other women during that period.

As a result, he resigned under protest. Unfortunately, a similar scandal again arose during his comeback campaign two years later.

The documentary was filmed when he was filming his comeback. Poor guy! This became a documentary about the disgrace of a politician rather than a documentary about his comeback. Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman co-directed this film.

5. How to Survive a Plague

• Director: David France
• Writer: –
• Cast: Anthony Fauci, Mark Harrington, Peter Staley
• IMDb Ratings: 7.6
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

As this documentary illustrates, religion and politics can be used to hurt certain groups of people and what bias and ignorance can do to our society in the past. Even though AIDS is still an incurable disease, preventions are being taken so that people do not contract it.

This was not the case during the early years, and people in the LGBT communities were believed to be the only ones affected by the disease. Then, however, the disease was brought to the attention of politicians by activist groups like ACT UP and TAG.

Numerous problems arose for them, such as religious troubles and political indifference. However, they’ve also made AIDS a manageable problem and advanced the LGBT community’s rights through hard work and determination.

4. Who Took Johnny

• Director: David Beilinson, Suki Hawley, Michael Galinsky
• Writer: –
• Cast: John Walsh, Sally Jessy Raphael
• IMDb Ratings: 7.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: –
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

Those interested in missing children cases or simply in an important part of history will find Johnny Gosh’s disappearance in the early 1980s a fascinating and disturbing mystery.

There have been many twists and turns of this story, conspiracy theories, and unsolved responses since this 12-year-old boy vanished while delivering morning newspapers thirty years ago.

This compelling documentary features the mother of this young man who fought against child abuse, kidnapping, and the quality of law enforcement. There is still hope for this family.

3. Virunga

• Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
• Writer: –
• Cast: André Bauma, Rodrigue Mugaruka Katembo, Mélanie Gouby
• IMDb Ratings: 8.2
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Netflix

UNESCO world heritage site Virunga National Park in eastern Congo is guarded by a team of dedicated rangers against the armed militia, poachers, and dark forces trying to control the region’s richest natural resources.

One of the rangers is an ex-child soldier turned ranger, another cares for orphan gorillas, and a Belgian conservationist works to help the park. But unfortunately, a new conflict threatens all they’ve been working so hard to protect when the newly formed M23 rebel group declared war in May 2012.

Filmed over more than five years, ‘Virunga’ is a stunning example of investigative journalism and bold visual storytelling. Virunga is also undoubtedly an emotional film.

2. 5 Broken Cameras

• Director: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi
• Writer: –
• Cast: Emad Burnat, Soraya Burnat, Mohammed Burnat
• IMDb Ratings: 7.9
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96
• Streaming Platform: Prime Video

The documentary 5 Broken Cameras is a work of cinematic art and a powerful documentary on nonviolent protest in Bil’in, a West Bank village under threat from Israeli settlements.

Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat almost entirely captured the birth of his youngest son in 2005 with his first camera. Following a family over five years of instability, the filmmakers’ collaboration is shaped by the destruction of each camera owned by Burnat.

As powerful as any documentary, 5 Broken Cameras is a raw and daring piece of filmmaking. Despite its shoddy production value, the film intrigues fans because it depicts a life we are not even remotely familiar with so much honesty and authenticity.

A documentary should be informative and engaging, but this one is also surprisingly moving and poignant.

1. Minding the Gap

• Director: Bing Liu
• Writer: –
• Cast: Keire Johnson, Bing Liu, Zack Mulligan
• IMDb Ratings: 8
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100
• Streaming Platform: Hulu

Some audience members may overlook this documentary due to its appearance as one on the skateboarding community because many did also. Kind of. And indeed, in the beginning, it may seem so.

A film’s emotional core will be revealed by the end of the first twenty minutes. A twenty-something (and their parents.  who struggle to make their way through life (and their parents.  must-watch ‘Minding the Gap.’

This emotionally charged film portrays three young people with varying backgrounds and lifestyles. They all have a troubled past by being from a town notorious for domestic abuse, unemployment, and brutal, misguided father figures.

They are united by a love of skateboarding that provides a way to escape and liberate themselves. In their friendship, an unexpected, tender bond is formed. One that cannot be missed! It got an Oscar nomination in 2018 as well!

Read More: The Best Documentaries on Hulu To Watch

Conclusion

These were just some of the best documentaries; however, the list just does not end here. This is because so many are not mentioned above, like Waltz with Bashir, an animated documentary, or The internet’s boy, a biographical documentary.

The Fog of War, a Sony Pictures Classic, is another, which focuses on the Vietnam War or A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.

Undoubtedly, no other film genre is as engaging and can get you into a deep dive like this one.