Documentaries That I Want To See

Submitted by Oedipus on Sat, 12/04/2004 - 11:21
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  1. Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003) Plot Outline: Nick Broomfield's second documentary on Aileen Carol Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was executed in 2002 for killing seven men in the state of Florida. This second installment includes the filmmaker's testimony at Wournous's trial.
  2. Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992) Plot Outline:
  3. Anima Mundi: The Soul of the World (1992)* Plot Outline: Image and music are intertwined in this third collaboration between director Godfrey Reggio and composer Philip Glass. The film was produced to celebrate the World Wildlife Fund's Biological Diversity Campaign. The film combines images of nature with pulsing rhythms in a Microcosmos (1997) meets Koyaanisqatsi (1983) spectacle.
  4. Baraka (1992) Plot Outline: Without words, cameras show us the world, with an emphasis not on "where," but on "what's there." It begins with morning, natural landscapes and people at prayer: volcanoes, water falls, veldts, and forests; several hundred monks do a monkey chant. Indigenous peoples apply body paint; whole villages dance. The film moves to destruction of nature via logging, blasting, and strip mining. Images of poverty, rapid urban life, and factories give way to war, concentration camps, and mass graves. Ancient ruins come into view, and then a sacred river where pilgrims bathe and funeral pyres burn. Prayer and nature return. A monk rings a huge bell; stars wheel across the sky.
  5. The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit (1994) Plot Outline: Maysles brothers documentary covering the first arrival of "Beatlemania" in the U.S., as well at the band's historical appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
  6. Bird On a Wire (1974) Plot Outline: The gravel-voiced songsmith moodily strolls through the byways of various European venues and is seen in concert performing.
  7. A Brief History Of Time (1991) Plot Outline: Unlike the book, this film is really an anecdotal biography of Stephen Hawking. Clips of his lectures, interviews with friends and family and a little physics are thrown together.
  8. Brother's Keeper (1992) Plot Outline: This documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky details the murder trial of Delbert Ward. Delbert was a member of a family of four elderly brothers, working as semi-literate farmers and living together in isolation from the rest of society until William's death. A police investigation and Medical Examiner's autopsy suggested that Bill may not have died from natural causes and Delbert was arrested on charges of Second-Degree Murder. Under questioning by police, Delbert appears to have waived his rights and signed a confession, but this film suggests that he may not have been competent to do so. The film explores possible motives for the crime, from 'mercy-killing' (Bill was ill at the time) to progressively more bizarre hypotheses. It also shows how residents of the rural community of Munnsville, NY rallied to the support of one of their own residents (previously considered a social outcast), against what they felt were intrusive 'big-city' police and District Attorney tactics.
  9. Comandante (2003) Plot Outline: Documentary on the director's meeting with Castro.
  10. The Compleat Beatles (1984) Plot Outline: A documented account of the life and career of the Fab Four, from their early years in Liverpool to their breakup, featuring rare interview and concert footage.
  11. A Conversation With Gregory Peck (1999) Plot Outline:
  12. Document of the Dead (1989) Plot Outline: A documentary about George A. Romero's films, with a behind scenes look at Dawn of the Dead.
  13. Ed Wood: Look Back In Angora (1994) Plot Outline: A thorough biography of Ed Wood, as told by his wife Kathy, ex-girlfriend Dolores Fuller, right hand man Conrad Brooks, among others. Clears up many false-truths that were stated in Burton's "Ed Wood" (1994).
  14. Evidence (1995)* Plot Outline: The film consists of extreme close-ups of children's faces in various states of intense emotion, accompanied by the dramatic music of Philip Glass. Only in the final seconds of the film do we see what the children have been looking at all this time...
  15. Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion (1992) Plot Outline: A documentary detailing the making of the infamous "Plan 9 From Outer Space," and interviews with cast members and prominent filmmakers about the film and its creator, Edward D. Wood Jr.
  16. Gates Of Heaven (1978) Plot Outline: Funny, inspiring, and bizarre, "Gates of Heaven" is the celebrated pet cemeteries documentary that is in reality an unorthodox look at life. Inspired by an article entitled "450 Dead Pets Going to Napa Valley," Errol Morris set out to capture the event which centered around the transport of hundreds of animal remains from one pet cemetery to another. Pet cemetery proprietors, embalmers, pet owners and others speak about life, work, and feelings.
  17. Gimme Shelter (1970) Plot Outline: In December of 1969, four months after Woodstock, the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane gave a free concert in Northern California, east of Oakland at Altamont Speedway. About 300,000 people came, and the organizers put Hell's Angels in charge of security around the stage. Armed with pool cues and knifes, Angels spent the concert beating up spectators, killing at least one. The film intercuts performances, violence, Grace Slick and Mick Jagger's attempts to cool things down, close-ups of young listeners (dancing, drugged, or suffering Angel shock), and a look at the Stones later as they watch concert footage and reflect on what happened.
  18. Grizzly Man (2005) Plot Outline: A devastating and heartrending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzlies in Alaska. A docudrama that centers on amateur grizzly bear expert Timothy Treadwell. He periodically journeyed to Alaska to study and live with the bears. He was killed, along with his his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, by a rogue bear in October 2003. The films explores their compassionate lives as they found solace among these endangered animals.
  19. The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr. (1996) Plot Outline: How was it possible, that a movie like "Plan 9 from Outerspace" could be made. This documentary about Ed Wood Jr.'s masterpiece gives the answer.
  20. Hearts And Minds (1974)Plot Outlines: This film recounts the history and attitudes of the opposing sides of the Vietnam War using archival news footage as well as their own film and interviews. A key theme is how attitudes of American racism and self-righteousness militarism helped create and prolong this bloody conflict. The film also endeaveors to give voice to the Vietnamese people themselves as to how the war has affected them and their reasons why they fight the United States and other western powers while showing the basic humanity of the people that US propaganda tried to dismiss.
  21. Jimi Plays Monterey (1986)
  22. Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance (1983) Plot Outlines: Koyaanisqatsi is a documentary (of sorts). It is also a visual concert of images set to the haunting music of 'Phillip Glass' . While there is no plot in the traditional sense, there is a definate scenario. The film opens on ancient native American cave drawings, while the soundtrack chants "Koyaanisqatsi" which is a Hopi indian term for "life out of balance". The film uses extensive time lapse photography (which speeds images up) and slow motion photography to make comparisons between different types of physical motion. In one of the first examples, we see cloud formations moving (sped up) intercut with a montage of ocean waves (slowed down) and in such a way we are able to see the similarities of movement between these natural forces. This technique of comparison exists throughout the film, and through it we learn more about the world around us. The film progresses from purely natural environments to nature as affected by man, and finally to man's own manmade environment, devoid of nature yet still following the patterns of natural flow as depicted in the beginning of the film, yet in chaos and disarray. Through this the film conveys its key message, which is Koyaanisqatsi: life out of balance; crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; a state of life that calls for another way of living.
  23. Kurt & Courtney (1998) Plot Outlines: After rocker Kurt Cobain's death, ruled a suicide, a film crew arrives in Seattle to make a documentary. Director Nick Broomfield talks to lots of people: Cobain's aunt who provides home movies and recordings, the estranged father of Cobain's widow Courtney Love, an L.A. private investigator who worked for Love, a nanny for Kurt and Courtney's child, friends and lovers of both, and others. Although Love won't talk to him and his inquiries lose him financial backing, he comes to believe the coroner's verdict. Portraits emerge: a shy, slight Kurt, weary of touring, embarrassed by fame, hooked on heroin; an out-going Courtney, dramatic, controlling, moving from groupie to star.
  24. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen (1965) Plot Outline: Documentary about Leonard Cohen as a young poet.
  25. (2005) Plot Outline: A documentary on the legendary singer-songwriter, with performances by those musicians he has influenced.
  26. Looking for Fidel (2004) Plot Outline: Oliver Stone's second documentary on/interview with Fidel Castro specifically addresses his country's recent crackdown on Cuban dissidents; namely, the execution of three men who hijacked a ferry to the United States.
  27. Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997) Plot Outline: Bela Lugosi and Dracula are inseparable images from the heyday of Hollywood. More than any other actor in film history, Lugosi is the master of the macabre, the king of the vampires, and the cult hero of horror movies. And yet he was also a man who fought in wars and revolutions, who married five times, and who mastered stagecraft and film arts in Hungary, Germany, and the United States. He remained an enigma in Hollywood even as his career dwindled into the weird worlds of drug abuse and filmmaker Ed Wood. Lugosi's fusion with the famed vampire became more permanent than ever when he was buried in his Dracula cape in 1956. LUGOSI: HOLLYWOOD'S DRACULA unravels the truth behind the legendary star by interweaving rare film footage from 1918-1956, home movies, and previously-unseen photographs with narration by Lugosi costar Robert Clarke and Lugosi fan Rue McClanahan. Numerous on-camera interviews span family members like his son and widow, Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise, legendary film producer Howard W. Koch, and a host of Lugosi's costars and personal friends. The film has won awards and accolades at film festivals and theatrical screenings across the globe. Film historian Michael H. Price, author of FORGOTTEN HORRORS, has proclaimed that "Gary Rhodes's LUGOSI: HOLLYWOOD'S DRACULA is the first life-story to give Lugosi his generous due, to treat Lugosi as something greater than a martyr, and to mingle an academic thoroughness with an unabashed enthusiasm towards its troubled and majestic subject."
  28. March of the Penguins (2005) Plot Outline: A look at the annual journey of Emperor penguins as they march -- single file -- to their traditional breeding ground. Each winter, alone in the pitiless ice deserts of Antarctica, deep in the most inhospitable terrain on Earth, a truly remarkable journey takes place as it has done for millennia. Emperor penguins in their thousands abandon the deep blue security of their ocean home and clamber onto the frozen ice to begin their long journey into a region so bleak, so extreme, it supports no other wildlife at this time of year. In single file, the penguins march blinded by blizzards, buffeted by gale force winds. Guided by instinct, by the otherworldly radiance of the Southern Cross, they head unerringly for their traditional breeding ground where--after a ritual courtship of intricate dances and delicate maneuvering, accompanied by a cacophony of ecstatic song--they will pair off into monogamous couples and mate. The females remain long enough only to lay a single egg. Once this is accomplished, exhausted by weeks without nourishment, they begin their return journey across the ice-field to the fish-filled seas. The male emperors are left behind to guard and hatch the precious eggs, which they cradle at all times on top of their feet. After two long months during which the males eat nothing, the eggs begin to hatch. Once they have emerged into their ghostly white new world, the chicks can not survive for long on their fathers' limited food reserves. If their mothers are late returning from the ocean with food, the newly-hatched young will die. Once the families are reunited, the roles reverse, the mothers remaining with their new young while their mates head, exhausted and starved, for the sea, and food. While the adults fish, the chicks face the ever-present threat of attack by prowling giant petrels. As the weather grows warmer and the ice floes finally begin to crack and melt, the adults will repeat their arduous journey countless times, marching many hundreds of miles over some of the most treacherous territory on Earth, until the chicks are ready to take their first faltering dive into the deep blue waters of the Antarctic.
  29. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004) Plot Outline: Some Kind of Monster is a music documentary about Metallica's making of their album St. Anger and the difficulties they had to go through in the process. The directors (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky) shot over 1200 hours and followed the band around night and day for over a year to create this documentary.
  30. Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe (1996) Plot Outline: A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching. Microcosmos offers passionate kisses and kinky sex, swashbuckling duels and mass suicide, water bomb attacks and genocide, undercover operations and natural cooling systems. Nonetheless it's suitable for children, complete with an amazing candy factory and a black Sisyphus.
  31. Nanook Of The North (1922) Plot Outline: Documents one year in the life of Nanook, an Eskimo (Inuit) and his family. Describes the trading, hunting, fishing and migrations of a group barely touched by industrial technology. Nanook of the North was widely shown and praised as the first full-length, anthropological documentary in cinematographic history.
  32. Naqoyqatsi (2002) Plot Outline: In this cinematic concert, mesmerizing images are plucked from everyday reality, then visually altered with state-of-the-art digital techniques. The result is a chronicle of the shift from a world organized by the principles of nature to one dominated by technology, the synthetic and the virtual. Extremes of intimacy and spectacle, tragedy and hope fuse in a tidal wave of visuals and music, giving rise to a unique, artistic experience that reflects the vision of a brave new globalized world.
  33. On Common Ground (2001) Plot Outline:
  34. One Day In September (2000) Plot Outline: The 1972 Munich Olympics were interrupted by Palestinian terrorists taking Israeli athletes hostage. Besides footage taken at the time, we see interviews with the surviving terrorist, Jamal Al Gashey, and various officials detailing exactly how the police, lacking an anti-terrorist squad and turning down help from the Israelis, botched the operation.
  35. Ônibus 174 (2002) Plot Outline: On June 12th, 2000, a bus full of passengers was kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro in broad daylight. The kidnapper, Sandro do Nascimento, terrorized his victims and when he finally agreed to surrender and the episode was close to an end, a policeman tried to shoot him, killing one of the hostages instead, a young woman. The whole episode was broadcast live, causing revolt among the population. The documentary is about the incident, with interviews, focusing on Sandro do Nascimento, his childhood, and how unavoidably he was doomed to become a bandit.
  36. On the Trail of Ed Wood (1990) Plot Outline: A documentary on the life and career of filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr., with clips from his films and interviews with the cast and crews of some of his films.
  37. Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy (2001) Plot Outline Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy offers audiences a penetrating look inside the world of Ron Jeremy, America's most unlikely sex star and hero to millions. With nearly 25 years in the adult film industry and over 1,600 films to his credit, Ron Jeremy is huge. In his world, Ron reigns supreme-he's made millions of dollars and slept with thousands of beautiful women, and is indisputably the industry's biggest star. And everyone who's anyone knows Ron-a pop icon to millions, he is a beacon of hope for many American male, since he stands as living proof that pretty much anyone can get some. So how did such a classically unhandsome, big and hairy guy ever get to be suchia super stud? In one of the most fascinating and entertaining comedies of the last year, audiences finally get a chance to get inside the life and times of Ron Jeremy, and find out what's really behind the hardest working man in show business.
  38. Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation (1988) Plot Outline: An exploration of the efforts of developing nations and the effect the transition to moderernization has had on them.
  39. Promises (2001) Plot Outline: Several Jewish and Palestinian children are followed for three years and put in touch with each other, in this alternative look at the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. The three filmmakers followed a group of seven local children between 1995 and 1998. They all have a totally different background. These seven children tell their own story about growing up in Jerusalem. Through this portrait of their generation, we see how deep rooted and almost insoluble the problems of the Middle East have become. When the protagonists speak out in an epilogue a couple of years later, it becomes apparent that all have lost their childlike innocence.
  40. Scared Straight! (1978) Plot Outline: The filmed depiction of a program where convicts tell troubled kids about the horrors of prison life. This film shows the Scared Straight program that has hardened convicts from maximum security prisons tell their stories about the truth about prison life in order to convince kids that no crime is worth the risk of being incarcerated.
  41. The Song of Leonard Cohen (1980) Plot Outline:
  42. The Spanish Earth (1937) Plot Outline: A documentary showing the struggle of the Spanish Republican government against a rebellion by ultra-right-wing forces led by Gen. Francisco Franco and backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
  43. Spellbound (2002) Plot Outline: Every spring since 1925, Scripps Howard newspapers sponsor spelling bees at grade schools across the U.S. Ten million kids competed in 1999. This documentary follows eight of them as they win regional bees and prepare for the national contest in D.C. They're from big cities, suburbs, and small towns. We watch them practice, we hear their views on study, competition, victory and defeat. We meet their families: two have single parents, three are children of immigrants. Once in D.C., we watch them compete and listen to their parents between rounds. Each is engaging, all are talented, and one might win it all. In America, says one immigrant dad, hard work brings success.
  44. Sympathy for the Devil (1968) Plot Outline: Godard's documentation of late 1960's western counter-culture, examining the Black Panthers, referring to works by LeRoi Jones and Eldridge Cleaver. Other notable subjects are the role of the media, the mediated image, A growing technocratic society, Womens Liberation, the May revolt in France and the power of language. Cutting between 3 major scenes, including the Rolling Stones in the studio, the film is visually intercut with Eve Democracy (Wiazemsky) using graffiti which amalgamates organisations, corporations and ideologies. Godard also examines the role of the revolutionary within western culture. Although he believes western culture needs to be destroyed, it can only be done so by the rejection of intellectualisation. "There is only one way to be an intellectual revolutionary, and that is to give up being an intellectual"
  45. The Thin Blue Line (1988) Plot Outline: Errol Morris's unique documentary dramatically re-enacts the crime scene and investigation of a police officer's murder in Dallas. Briefly, a drifter (Randall Adams) ran out of gas in Texas and was picked up by a 16-year-old runaway (David Harris). Later that night, they drank some beer, smoked some marijuana, and went to the movies. Then, their stories diverge. Adams claims that he left for his motel, where he was staying with his brother, and went to sleep. Harris, however, says that they were stopped by police late that night and Adams suddenly shot the officer approaching their car. The film shows the audience the evidence gathered by the police, who were under extreme pressure to clear the case. It strongly makes a point that the circumstantial evidence was very flimsy. In fact, it becomes apparent that Harris was a much more likely suspect and was in the middle of a 'crime spree,' eventually ending up on Death Row himself for the later commission of other crimes. Morris implies that the D.A.'s and judge's desire for the death penalty in this case (which Harris would have been inelegible for, due to his youth), made Adams a scapegoat on which to pin this heinous crime.
  46. Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes (1998) Plot Outline: Documentary about the life and career of John Holmes. Features interviews with people who knew and worked with John Holmes.
  47. Wild Man Blues (1997) Plot Outline:
  48. Yanki No! (1960) Plot Outline: A close look at anti-American sentiments in Cuba and Latin America.
Author Comments: 

Plot Outlines were taken from IMDB. The ones in red are the ones that I've seen.

* = short

More will be added.