The 100 Greatest Documentaries

1. Cave of Forgotten Dreams Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a 2010 3D documentary film by Werner Herzog, about the Chauvet Cave, a cavern in southern France that contains the oldest human-painted images yet discovered, some as old as ... More »

2. Searching for Sugar Man SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN tells the incredible true story of Rodriguez, the greatest â€˜70s rock icon who never was. After being discovered in a Detroit bar, Rodriguezâ€™s sound struck 2 renowned producers and they signed a recording deal. But when the album bombed, the singer disappeared into ... More »

3. The People Speak Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off The People Speak is a 2009 American documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans. The film gives voice to those who, by insisting ... More »

4. Planet Earth Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off Planet Earth is a 2006 television series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Five years in the making, it was the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, and also ... More »

5. Inside Job From Academy AwardÂ®-nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson (NO END IN SIGHT), comes INSIDE JOB, the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. ... More »

6. The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Visceral and immersive, this epic documentary series tells the story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history--with lessons for our own fractured times. Ten years in the making, it includes testimony from nearly 80 witnesses from all sides, archival footage, celebrated photographs, ... More »

7. For Sama The astonishing personal story of a young Syrian mothers perseverance through the siege of Aleppo. Told as a love letter from a mother to her daughter, the film explores the agonizing dilemma of whether to abandon Aleppo and the fight for freedom. More »

8. Wonders of the Solar System Experience the extraordinaryâ€¦in our planetâ€™s own backyard. Wonders explores some of the most amazing features of our very own solar system â€“ how the forces of nature carved out beauty and order from the chaos of space; how our home planet doesnâ€™t sit in magnificent isolation but is ... More »

9. The Thin Blue Line Academy AwardÃ‚(r)-winner* Errol Morris broke new ground with the "riveting" (LA Weekly) film that dramatically reenacts the crime scene and investigation of a police officer's murder in Dallas. So powerful and convincing that it helped free an innocent man from prison, The Thin Blue Line is "one of ... More »

10. Hoop Dreams Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off Two ordinary inner-city kids dare to dream the impossible - professional basketball glory - in this epic chronicle of hope and faith. Filmed over a five-year period, Hoop Dreams follows young Arthur Agee and William Gates as they navigate the complex, competitive world of scholastic athletics while striving ... More »

11. The Corporation Used Price: 70% Off Used Price: 70% Off This DVD charts the specatcular rise of the corporation as a dramatic, pervasive presence in our everyday live. With a deft mix of humor, visual panache, and forthright seriousness, filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott and writer Joel Bakan have fa More »

12. White Light / Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an HBO documentary film that was directed and produced by Steven Okazaki and was released on August 6, 2007 on HBO, marking the 62nd anniversary of the first atomic bombing. The film features interviews with fourteen Japanese survivors ... More »

13. Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off The Haitian Revolution represents the only successful slave revolution in history; it created the world's first Black republic --- traumatizing Southern planters, inspiring U.S. Blacks, and invigorating anti-slavery activist world-wide. At the forefront of the rebellion was General Toussaint Louverture, an ex-slave whose genius was admired by allies ... More »

14. Best of Enemies Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions. William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement. A Democrat and cousin ... More »

15. Life Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off Four years in the making, filmed over 3000 days, across every continentand in every habitat, Life is the latest wildlife blockbuster from the BBCâ€™s award-winning Natural History Unit, the producers of Planet Earth and The Blue Planet. Packed with excitement, revelation, entertainment, and stunning screen firsts, this breathtaking ... More »

16. Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media Funny, provocative and surprisingly accessible, MANUFACTURING CONSENT explores the political life and ideas of world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist Noam Chomsky. Through a dynamic collage of biography, archival gems, imaginative graphics and outrageous illustrations, Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick's award-winning documentary highlights Chomsky's probing analysis of mass ... More »

17. Hearts of Darkness Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakerâ€™s Apocalypse is an engrossing, unwavering look back at Francis Ford Coppolaâ€™s chaotic, catastrophe-plagued Vietnam production, Apocalypse Now. Filled with juicy gossip and a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the stressful world of moviemaking, the documentary mixes on-location home movies shot in the Philippines by ... More »

18. Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back BOB DYLAN: DONT LOOK BACK--65 TOUR DELUXE EDITION is the ultimate look at Bob Dylan's concert tour of England in the spring of 1965--one of the most intimate profiles of an artist ever put to film. This definitive set includes the remastered classic film by D.A. Pennebaker, a ... More »

19. Harlan County U.S.A. This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than ... More »

20. The Act of Killing Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off This chilling and inventive documentary, executive-produced by Errol Morris (The Fog of War) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), examines a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, and are challenged to reenact their real-life mass killings in the style of the American movies they love. The ... More »

21. The Trouble With Tolstoy Alan Yentob takes an epic train ride through Leo Tolstoy s Russia, examining how Russia s great novelist became her great troublemaker. Guided by the writer s astonishingly honest and confessional diaries, Yentob travels through Tolstoy s Russia looking at the life, work and legacy of the author ... More »

22. Guns, Germs, and Steel Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book and national best seller, Guns, Germs, and Steel is an epic detective story that offers a gripping expose on why the world is so unequal. Professor Jared Diamond traveled the globe for over 30 years trying to answer the biggest question of ... More »

23. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch A stunning sensory experience and cinematic meditation on humanity's massive reengineering of the planet, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is a years-in-the-making feature documentary from the award-winning team behind Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013). The film, narrated by Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), follows the research of an international ... More »

24. Sicko Rock-bottom Price: $0.01 Rock-bottom Price: $0.01 Following on the heels of his Palm d'Or winning Fahrenheit 9/11 and his Oscar winning film Bowling for Columbine, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Moore's new documentary sets out to investigate the American healthcare system. Sticking to his tried-and-true one-man approach, Moore sheds light on the complicated medical affairs of ... More »

25. Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome - Empire without Limit Travelling from Spain to Israel, Algeria to Britain, Germany to Turkey, historian and classicist Mary Beard answers the big questions that have fascinated people for centuries...How and why did the Roman Empire happen? Why did Rome acquire an empire? And why did it fall? Mary examines its creation, ... More »

26. 49 Up Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off Starting in 1964 with Seven Up, The UP Series has explored this Jesuit maxim. The original concept was to interview 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Every seven years, renowned director Michael Apted, a ... More »

27. Winter Soldier Used Price: 70% Off Used Price: 70% Off January 31, 1971. More than 125 Vietnam veterans, representing every major combat unit to see action, gathered in Detroit to heal a nation...and themselves. They risked everything to talk about the atrocities they had committed or witnessed in the presenc More »

28. Grizzly Man Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off In this mesmerizing new film, acclaimed director Werner Herzog explores the life and death of amateur grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist Timothy Treadwell, who lived unarmed among grizzlies for 13 summers. More »

29. Eyes on the Prize Eyes on the Prize tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today. ... More »

30. History of the World Andrew Marr sets off on an epic journey through the explosive events, changes, conflicts and triumphs that shaped 70,000 years of human history. From our earliest beginnings in Africa, Marr traces the story of our nomadic ancestors as they spread out around the world and settled down to ... More »

31. A Grin Without a Cat A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT (its title refers to Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat) is Marker's magnum opus: a three-hour overview of the worldwide political upheavals during the Sixties and Seventies. Marker interweaves footage from the Vietnam War and the antiwar protests in the U.S., May ... More »

32. End of Suburbia Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream is a 2004 documentary film concerning peak oil and its implications for the suburban lifestyle, written and directed by Toronto-based filmmaker ... More »

33. The Invisible War From OscarÂ® and EmmyÂ®-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated; Twist of Faith) comes THE INVISIBLE WAR, a groundbreaking investigative documentary about one of America's most shameful and best-kept secrets: the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military. The film paints a startling picture of ... More »

34. Wild China Wild China is a six-part nature documentary series on the natural history of China, co-produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and China Central Television (CCTV) and filmed entirely in high-definition (HD). It was screened in the UK ... More »

35. Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema This epic exploration of filmmaking by women offers an essential and celebratory revisionist history of cinema told through the lenses of the world's greatest female directors. Written and directed by Mark Cousins (The Story of Film: An Odyssey), 700 clips from 183 filmmakers both well-known and forgotten-from Agnès ... More »

36. Walking With Dinosaurs Walking with Dinosaurs is a six-part documentary television miniseries that was produced by BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the United Kingdom, in 1999. The series was subsequently aired in North America on the Discovery Channel in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that of ... More »

37. Taxi to the Dark Side Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off Taxi to the Dark Side is a 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney, and produced by Eva Orner and Susannah Shipman, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best ... More »

38. Dark Days Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off For years, a homeless community took root in a train tunnel beneath New York City, braving dangerous conditions and perpetual night. Dark Days explores this surprisingly domestic subterranean world, unearthing a way of life unimaginable to those above. Through stories simultaneously heartbreaking, hilarious, intimate, and off the ... More »

39. 5 Broken Cameras An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to ... More »

40. Frozen Planet Used Price: 70% Off Used Price: 70% Off From the Emmy-winning team behind Planet Earth and The Blue Planet comes Frozen Planet, the epic tale of two disappearing wildernesses. The Arctic and Antarctic remain the greatest wildernesses on Earth. The scale and beauty of the scenery and the sheer power of the elements are unmatched ... More »

41. The Story of Science Used Price: 70% Off Used Price: 70% Off The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion is a 2010 BBC documentary on the history of science presented by Michael J. Mosley. More »

42. Dirty Wars Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off It s the dirty little secret of the War on Terror: all bets are off, and almost anything goes. We have fundamentally changed the rules of the game and the rules of engagement. Today drone strikes, night raids, and U.S. government condoned torture occur in corners across the ... More »

43. The Sorrow and the Pity The Sorrow and the Pity (French: Le chagrin et la pitiÃ©) is a two-part 1969 documentary film by Marcel OphÃ¼ls about the French Resistance and collaboration between the Vichy government and Nazi ... More »

44. Life and Debt Set to a beguiling reggae beat, Life and Debt takes as its subject Jamaica's economic decline in the 20th century. The story has reverberations in the plight of other third-world nations blindsided by globalization, like Ghana and Haiti. After England granted Jamaica independence in 1962, the ... More »

45. Lord of the Ants Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off Every so often a giant emerges on the stage of science, someone who transcends the narrow boundaries of a particular line of research and alters our perspective on the world. E.O. Wilson is such a man. NOVA's Lord of the Ants profiles this soft-spoken Southerner renowned for his ... More »

46. The Civil War Ken Burns' Emmy Award-winning documentary brings to life America's most destructive - and defining - conflict. The Civil War is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one. ... More »

47. Sans Soleil One of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made and a mind-bending free-form travelogue, La jetÃ©e (The Jetty) and Sans soleil (Sunless) couldnâ€™t seem more differentâ€”yet theyâ€™re the twin pillars of one of the most daring and uncompromising careers in cinema history. Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, ... More »

48. Grey Gardens Meet Big and Little Edie Beale-high society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.-thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. Five years after Gimme Shelter, the Maysles unveiled this impossibly intimate portrait of the unexpected, an eerie echo of the ... More »

49. War Made Easy Used Price: 70% Off Used Price: 70% Off Narrated by Sean Penn and based on the work of media critic and best-selling author Norman Solomon, who traveled with Penn to Baghdad just before the war to call attention to the dangers of a U.S. invasion, WAR MADE EASY reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose ... More »

50. When the Moors Ruled in Europe How Islamic civilization tamed Western Europe "Inspiring" --The Observer (U.K.) Join British historian Bettany Hughes as she examines a long-buried chapter of European history--the rise and fall of Islamic culture in what is now Spain and Portugal. Although generations of Spanish rulers have tried to expunge this era ... More »

51. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Under $1.00 Under $1.00 Narrated by Peter Coyote. How can America's 7th largest corporation crumble into dust? This shameful expos+Âª rips open the nation's darkest corporate scandal, one that left thousands of investors and dedicated employess with virtually nothing as a tiny handful of top execs walked away with billions. This inside ... More »

52. Last Men in Aleppo Academy Awards nominee for Best Documentary Feature and winner of the Grand Jury documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad s breathtaking work a searing example of boots-on-the-ground reportage follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets, an organization consisting of ordinary citizens ... More »

53. Black Gold Black Gold is a 2006 documentary film. The story follows the efforts of an Ethiopian Coffee Union manager as he travels the world to obtain a better price for his workers' coffee beans. The film ... More »

54. We Shall Remain: America Through Native Eyes They were charismatic and forward thinking, imaginative and courageous, compassionate and resolute, and, at times, arrogant, vengeful, and reckless. For hundreds of years, Native American leaders from Massasoit, Tecumseh, and Tenskwatawa, to Major Ridge, Geronimo,and Fools Crow, valiantly resisted expulsion from their lands and fought the extinction of ... More »

55. The Gleaners and I Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off AgnÃ¨s Varda, Grande Dame of the French New Wave, has made 2001's most acclaimed non-fiction film-a self-described "wandering-road documentary." Beginning with the famous Jean-FranÃ§ois Millet painting of women gathering wheat left over from a harvest, she focuses her ever-seeking eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for ... More »

56. The Story of Maths How numbers explain our universe and reveal unseen worlds Math made accessible, engaging, and relevant Mathematics forms the foundation for nearly everything we do--from finance to physics, and architecture to astronomy. Math not only describes our world, but also reveals its beauty and mystery. Join Marcus du Sautoy ... More »

57. Berkeley in the Sixties Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off Berkeley in the Sixties is a 1990 documentary film by Mark Kitchell. The film highlights the origins of the Free Speech Movement beginning with the May 1960 House Un-American Activities Committee hearings at San ... More »

58. Baghdad ER Produced and directed by 11-time Emmy Award-winner Jon Alpert, this 64-minute verite documentary takes an unforgettable look inside the 86th Combat Support Hospital (CSH), the U.S. Army's premier medical facility in Iraq and former site of one of Saddam Hussein's elite medical facilities. Shot over two months in ... More »

59. The Take Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off {WINNER! Best Documentary, 2005 Cleveland International Film Festival}{WINNER! Grand Jury Prize, 2004 AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival}{WINNER! Best Justice and Human Rights Film, 2004 Vermont International Film Festival}In the wake of Argentina's spectacular economic collapse, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town ... More »

60. I Am Not Your Negro Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin's original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects ... More »

61. Afghanistan: The Great Game Afghanistan: The Great Game - A Personal View by Rory Stewart is a 2012 documentary in two parts written and presented by Rory Stewart that tells the story of foreign intervention by Britain, Russia, and the United States in Afghanistan from the 19th century to the present day. ... More »

62. Ancient Worlds Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off Ancient Worlds is a six-part odyssey from the first cities of Mesopotamia to the Christianisation of the Roman Empire with archaeologist and historian Richard Miles at the helm. The series tells the story of what Richard argues is mankind's greatest achievement - civilisation. The series offers an epic ... More »

63. Meeting Resistance Used Price: 90% Off Used Price: 90% Off {WINNER! Best documentary, 2008 MVV Festival}{WINNER! Golden Award, 2007 Al Jazeera Int'l Documentary Film Festival}{WINNER! Best of the West, 2007 Hawaii Int'l Film Festival}{WINNER! Best Documentary: Courage in Filmmaking award, Women Film Critics Circle Awards 2007}Meeting Resistance is a daring, eye-opening film that raises the veil of anonymity ... More »

64. Spillover - Zika Ebola & Beyond Zika and Ebola like rabies, dengue, and other killer viruses reside in animals and spill over into humans. Today, spillover diseases are more common, and we are more vulnerable. Now, scientists are on the hunt for deadly diseases, hoping to stop them before they spill over and spread ... More »

65. Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off This six-part series tells the story of the Auschwitz Death Camp, site of the largest mass murder in the history of the world. Writer Laurence Rees and his team interviewed over 100 eyewitnesses, including former Nazi perpetrators who speak on the record for the first time. Their story ... More »

66. Defamation Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off Defamation (Hebrew: ×”×©×Å¾×¦×”â€Å½; translit.Â Hashmatsa) is a 2009 documentary film by award-winning filmmaker Yoav Shamir. The film examines antisemitism, and in particular the way perceptions of antisemitism affect Israeli and U.S. politics. The film won Best Documentary Feature Film ... More »

67. The Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World Seven Wonders of the Industrial World is a 7-part British documentary/docudrama television miniseries that originally aired from 4Â SeptemberÂ 2003Â (2003-09-04) to 16Â OctoberÂ 2003Â (2003-10-16) on BBC. The programme examines seven engineering feats that occurred ... More »

68. Our Brand Is Crisis A Film by Rachel BoyntonFor decades, U.S. strategists-for-hire have been quietly molding the opinions of voters and the messages of candidates in elections from the Middle East to the South American jungle. Our Brand is Crisis follows James Carville, Jeremy Rosner and a team of political consultants as ... More »

69. Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority MOVIE SYNOPSIS: A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and US political involvement. Unlike any other film produced on the conflict, 'Occupation 101' explains the complicated reality with precision storytelling through a series of highly stylized visual edits, ... More »

70. The World At War Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off More than 30 years after its initial broadcast, THE WORLD AT WAR remains the definitive visual history of World War II. Narrated by Academy Award winner Laurence Olivier and digitally re-mastered for DVD, this is epic history at its absolute best. Unsurpassed in depth and scope, its 26 ... More »

71. The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cubaâ€™s economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half and food imports cut by 80 percent, people were desperate. This fascinating and empowering film shows how communities pulled together, created solutions, and ultimately thrived in ... More »

72. Civilisation Civilisationâ€”in full, Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clarkâ€”is a television documentary series outlining the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages. The series was produced by the BBC and aired in ... More »

73. Waste Land Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of ... More »

74. The Battle of Chile On September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende's democratically elected Chilean government was overthrown in a bloody coup by General Augusto Pinochet's army. Patricio GuzmÃ¡n and five colleagues had been filming the political developments in Chile throughout the nine months leading up to that day. The bombing of ... More »

75. Salesman Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off A landmark documentary, "Salesman" captures in vivid detail the bygone era of the door-to-door salesman. While laboring to sell a gold-embossed version of the Holy Word, Paul Brennan and his colleagues target the beleaguered masses--then face the demand More »

76. Iraq in Fragments Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off An opus in three parts, Iraq In Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; ... More »

77. Vita Activa: The Spirit Of Hannah Arendt The German-Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt caused an uproar in the 1960s by coining the subversive concept of the "Banality of Evil" when referring to the trial of Adolph Eichmann, which she covered for the New Yorker magazine. Her private life was no less controversial thanks to her early ... More »

78. Global Warming: The Signs and the Science Used Price: 90% Off Used Price: 90% Off This documentary profiles people who are living with the grave consequences of a changing climate, as well as the individuals, communities and scientists inventing new approaches to safeguard our children's future. Filmed across the U.S., Asia and South America, this program brings the reality of climate change to ... More »

79. Food, Inc. Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off Food, Inc. lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing how our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, thelivelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Food, Inc. reveals ... More »

80. Stephen Hawking's Universe Used Price: 50% Off Used Price: 50% Off Scientist Stephen Hawking's book, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, was an instant best-seller. Hawking's genius fills this six-part series, treating viewers to the latest advances in cosmological thought in down-to-earth Hawking fashion. The series presents an intergalactic detective story, rich with mystery, unexpected twists, and astonishing revelations. ... More »

81. Trials Henry Kissinger Used Price: 90% Off Used Price: 90% Off Did Henry Kissinger sabotage the 1968 Vietnam peace talks for his own political gain? Did he orchestrate the secret bombing of Cambodia without approval from the U.S. Congress? Did he authorize covert operations - involving kidnapping and assassination - More »

82. The Panama Deception A riveting Academy Award-winning documentary, made all the more timely by recent U.S. invasions and the current war on terror, THE PANAMA DECEPTION documents the untold story of the December 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, the events which led to it, the excessive force used, the ... More »

83. War Dance Used Price: 90% Off Used Price: 90% Off Set in war-raved Northern Uganda, the award-winning WAR DANCE will touch your heart with a real-life story about a group of children whose love of music brings joy, excitement and hope back into their poverty-stricken lives. Three children who have suffered horrific brutalities momentarily forget their struggles as ... More »

84. Hotel Terminus: The Life & Times of Klaus Barbie From Marcel Ophuls comes this brilliant examination of the Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, tracing his life from his time as Gestape chief during World War II to his trial for crimes against humanity. More »

85. The Fourth World War Used Price: 70% Off Used Price: 70% Off What this documentary calls "the Fourth World War" is the struggle of poor and working-class people all over the globe who must battle both large corporations and oppressive governments in order to survive and win basic human rights. Filmed in the streets of Mexico, Korea, Argentina, Palestine, Quebec ... More »

86. Citizenfour Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off 2014’s Academy Award winning documentary CITIZENFOUR is a real life international thriller that unfolds by the minute. With unprecedented access, this gripping behind-the-scenes chronicle follows award winning director Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country) and journalist Glenn Greenwald’s remarkable encounters with whistle-blower Edward Snowden in a hotel room ... More »

87. The War at Home Used Price: 70% Off Used Price: 70% Off Nominated for an Academy Award and cited by film critic Roger Ebert as one of the twenty greatest political films of all time, THE WAR AT HOME vividly chronicles the anti-war protest movement of the 1960's and 70's. The film provides an illuminating look at the home front ... More »

88. Dirt! The Movie DIRT! THE MOVIE is an astonishing, humorous and substantial look at the glorious and unappreciated ground beneath our feet. Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth s climate. Why do we ... More »

89. The Weather Underground Used Price: 90% Off Used Price: 90% Off Hello. I m going to read a declaration of a state of war...Within the next 14 days we will attack a symbol or institution of American injustice --Bernardine Dohrn Thirty years ago, with these words, a group of young American radicals called The Weathermen announced ... More »

90. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community On June 27, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. In a spontaneous show of support and frustration, the city's gay community rioted for three nights in the streets, an event that is considered the birth of the modern Gay ... More »

91. F for Fake Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson Welles' free-form documentary, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his career-the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, ... More »

92. War Photographer {OSCAR NOMINATION, Best Documentary Feature 2002}{PEABODY AWARD, Georg Foster Peabody Award 2003}{EMMY AWARD NOMINATION, Cinematography 2004}{WINNER of 16 International Awards and Nominations 2002-2004} Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, WAR PHOTOGRAPHER is the compelling portrait of the man considered the bravest and most important war photographer ... More »

93. China: A Century of Revolution China: A Century of Revolution is a six-hour tour de force journey through the country's most tumultuous period. First televised on PBS, this award-winning documentary series presents an astonishingly candid view of a once-secret nation with rare archival footage, insightful historical commentary and stunning eyewitness accounts from citizens ... More »

94. Sir! No Sir! Used Price: 90% Off Used Price: 90% Off Easily the most timely and resonant film about the soldiers on the front lines of antiwar resistance, the award-winning breakout theatrical hit SIR! NO SIR! Tells an almost entirely forgotten story of the military men and women who helped force the U.S. government to end the Vietnam War. ... More »

95. This Is Not a Film Used Price: 80% Off Used Price: 80% Off This clandestine documentary, shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, depicts the day-to-day life of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi (Offside, The Circle) during his house arrest in his Tehran apartment. While appealing his sentence - six ... More »

96. Cosmos Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It was executive-produced by Adrian Malone, produced by David Kennard, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles ... More »

97. Plan Colombia: Cashing in on the Drug War Failure Used Price: 60% Off Used Price: 60% Off A 20-year "war on drugs" in Colombia has been paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. Still more and more drugs and narco-dollars are entering the U.S. every year. Is it a mere failure by Washington? Or is it a smokescreen to secure Colombia's oil & natural resources?System Requirements: ... More »

98. Edward Said: The Last Interview Born in Jerusalem in 1935 and educated in Egypt and the United States, Edward W. Said was one of the most important literary critics of the late 20th century, and the most prominent spokesperson for the Palestinian cause in the U.S. Borrowing its title from the author's memoir, ... More »

99. Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life A personal insight, from the world's favourite naturalist, into Darwin's theory of evolution, exploring why it is more important now than ever before. Beautifully shot, this is the start of a series of celebrations of the man behind the theory that changed the world's thinking. But more than ... More »

100. An Inconvenient Truth Rock-bottom Price: $0.01 Rock-bottom Price: $0.01 Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most talked-about documentary of the year. An audience and critical favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that ... More »

What makes a good documentary film? Here at List Muse we value the element of discovery, the aesthetic, the story, and the theme. The following films have each been chosen for their mixture of these qualities. The top documentaries are those that not only teach us the most about the world we share, but that do so in a compelling fashion: they educate and evoke.The 100 Greatest Documentaries list contains a mixture of natural world, science, history, politics, environmental, current affairs, biography, and artistic films.