Top Documentary Movies


The Top Documentary Movies List is calculated by overall movie ratings and members' "Top Documentary List". Lists are calculated daily.

51. Koyaanisqatsi

Year of Release: 1983
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Godfrey Reggio
Actors: Ted Koppel
Plot: With a score by Philip Glass, Koyaanisqatsi (Hopi for "Life Out of Balance") is a journey through time and history. No dialogue, just images, sped up, slowed down showing nature and man's influence on it.

52. Night and Fog ( Nuit et brouillard )

Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Alain Resnais
Actors: Michel Bouquet, Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Julius Streicher
Plot: Alain Resnais presents a chilling history lesson - the horrors of Nazi Concentration Camps. With color footage and vintage news reel, and allies' footage as well - it's not just about the camps, but a reminder of how inhumane humanity can be.

53. 4 Little Girls

Year of Release: 1997
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Spike Lee
Actors: Maxine McNair, Chris McNair, Helen Pegues, Queen Nunn
Plot: This is about the fatal bombing of a Birmingham church on a Sunday morning in September, 1963 that killed four innocent little girls, ages 11 to 14.

54. Encounters at the End of the World

Year of Release: 2007
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: G
Director: Werner Herzog
Actors: Werner Herzog, Ryan Andrew Evans

55. Michael Jackson's This is It

Year of Release: 2009
Overall Rating: 2.8 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Kenny Ortega
Actors: Michael Jackson, Orianthi, Dorian Holley, Darryl Phinnessee
Plot: Comprised of interviews, rehearsals and backstage footage as the late singer prepares for his London concert tour.

56. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice

Year of Release: 2019
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Actors: Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris
Plot: With a voice unrivaled, Linda Ronstadt was the first, and one of the greatest, female rock stars. Rocketing to fame in the late 1960s, she started as a folk artist but transitioned to rock goddess through the 70s and 80s, becoming a world-wide sensation and never shying away from her beliefs.

57. Dark Days

Year of Release: 2000
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Marc Singer
Actors: Marc Singer
Plot: A documentary crew enters the dark, underground world of vagrants. In an East Coast subway tunnel, hundreds of would-be homeless have set up their own community using whatever scraps of construction material they can find. Community dwellers have provided for themselves electricity, tvs, stoves, even running water. This documentary makes for a surprising look at homeless people taking pride in a community they have helped to develop.

58. Citizenfour

Year of Release: 2014
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Laura Poitras
Actors: Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Jeremy Scahill, Ewen MacAskill

59. Jesus Camp

Year of Release: 2006
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Actors: Becky Fischer, Ted Haggard, Mike Papantonio, Lou Engle
Plot: A documentary about children being raised in evangelical, fundamentalist Christianity.

60. For the Love of Spock

Year of Release: 2016
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Biography
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Adam Nimoy
Actors: Leonard Nimoy, Zachary Quinto, William Shatner, J.J. Abrams

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