iCM Favorite Documentaries (2015)
List activity
452 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
41 titles
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerAnonymousChristine CynnStarsAnwar CongoHerman KotoSyamsul ArifinA documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorPedro González-RubioStarsJorge MachadoRoberta PalombiniNatan Machado PalombiniBefore their inevitable farewell, Jorge, a young man of Mayan roots, and Natan, his half-Italian son, spend time together living off the Banco Chinchorro coral reef.
- DirectorLucien Castaing-TaylorVerena ParavelStarsBrian JannelleAdrian GuilletteArthur SmithA documentary shot in the North Atlantic and focused on the commercial fishing industry.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsAmilcar CabralFlorence DelayArielle DombasleA woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRandall AdamsDavid HarrisGus RoseA film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.
- DirectorIlisa BarbashLucien Castaing-TaylorIn the summer of 2003, a group of shepherds took a herd of sheep one final time through the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, in the extreme north-west of the United States. It was a journey of almost three hundred kilometres through expansive green valleys, by fields of snow, and across hazardous, narrow ridges - a journey brimming with challenges. The aging shepherds do their very best to keep the hundreds of sheep together; the panoramic high mountains are teeming with hungry wolves and grizzly bears.
- DirectorAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesCharlotte ZwerinStarsMick JaggerKeith RichardsMick TaylorWhen three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway, the bloody slash that transformed a decade's dreams into disillusionment was immortalized on this film.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorWiam BedirxanOssama MohammedStarsTia AlkerdiYara IbrahimA look at first-hand video accounts of violence in modern-day Syria as filmed by activists in the besieged city of Homs.
- DirectorAdirley QueirósStarsMarquim do TropaDilmar DurãesGleide FirminoShots at a black music party in the outskirts of Brasilia injure two men that get scarred for life. A third man comes from the future to investigate what happened and to prove that it is all the society's fault.
- DirectorStephanie SprayPacho VelezStarsChabbi Lal GandharbaAnish GandharbaBindu GayekA documentary about a group of pilgrims who travel to Nepal to worship at the legendary Manakamana temple.
- DirectorSergey LoznitsaA look at the 2013 and 2014 civil unrest in the Ukrainian capital's central square.
- DirectorBen RiversBen RussellStarsRobert Aiki Aubrey LoweHunter Hunt-HendrixNick McMasterA man in search for the creation of utopia in the present. First, as a member of a commune on an Estonian island, then alone in the majestic wilderness of Northern Finland and later as the singer of a neo-pagan, black metal band in Norway.
- DirectorBen RiversHerzog-influenced imagining of ecological possibilities for four locations, anticipating Earth's impending post-societal collapse.
- DirectorMati DiopStarsMagaye NiangWasis DiopBen D. BeyeMagaye Niang, the main actor of Senegalese film classic Touki Bouki (1973), is an average farmer today. After a screening of the film he recalls his first love, who left the country years ago.
- DirectorMojtaba MirtahmasbJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiIgiMrs. GheiratIt's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
- DirectorApichatpong WeerasethakulStarsDuangjai HiransriKome Kongkiat KomesiriSaisiri XoomsaiA film crew documents a folk story-exquisite corpse combination by random Thai people; the story is reenacted.
- DirectorHarun FarockiAndrei UjicaStarsIon CaramitruElena CeausescuNicolae CeausescuThis documentary uses news footage and amateur video to paint a vivid picture of Romania's 1989 revolution and the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
- DirectorJeffrey BlitzStarsAngela ArenivarUbaldo ArenivarJorge ArenivarSpellbound follows eight teenagers on their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee.
- DirectorLaura PoitrasStarsEdward SnowdenGlenn GreenwaldWilliam BinneyA documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.
- DirectorLuo LiStarsLi WenAn investigation of the construction and commercial developments which are literally devouring the largest urban lake in China takes an intriguing turn when the cynical investigator Li Wen, who has a passion for old photos of the Cultural Revolution, has to investigate a lunatic who is sowing fear with his sudden raids on the shores of the lake. Li Wen at East Lake plunges us into China's political and social landscape, drawing a gloomy but also funny, unexpected and surprising portrait.
- DirectorRobb MossFrom peyote to prozac, a sensitive portrait of five former hippies now approaching middle age.
- DirectorJohan GrimonprezAn experimental documentary detailing the history of plane hijackings.
- DirectorDaniel HuiStarsNooraisha Abu BakarMun Cheok HeyMaxIt is the year 2066, and the sole survivor of an enigmatic cult recounts his country's traumatic history and the events that led to the rise and collapse of this cult. As he reminiscences, ghosts from 2014 and the years before appear as witnesses. Part dream documentary, part city symphony, this hybrid film traces the lineage of oppression as inscribed both in Singapore's physical landscape, as well as its collective unconscious. The narrative voice-over reflects on that which is forgotten, subjective, and polymorphic in history. This unusual film is a thoughtful look at the legacy and future of this strange Southeast Asian island.
- DirectorAndrei UjicaStarsAnatoli ArzebarskiSergei KrikalevHelen SharmanCosmonaut Sergei Krikalev is the focus of this chronicle of life on the Russian space station Mir, showing what outer space is really like. In addition to the routine day-to-day activities of eating, exercising, and conducting experiments in weightlessness, Krikalev is a bystander to the collapse of the Soviet Union during his 10-month stay onboard Mir in 1991-92.
- DirectorJim FinnStarsMagali ArreolaYazmin ChavezIsela CruzA recreation of one day at the Canto Grande prison in Peru, following women guerrillas from the Maoist Shining Path movement in their morning marches to their bedtime chants. Kept isolated in their own cellblocks, the guerrillas refused to acknowledge that were imprisoned. Their cellblocks were another front in the People's War: "shining trenches of combat". This film shows the intense indoctrination and belief system of the brutal Latin American insurgency.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsFrançois WertheimerAgnès VardaJean La PlancheVarda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris.
- DirectorAdam CurtisStarsGeorge BushGeorge W. BushJoanne HerringAn experimental documentary that explores Saudi Arabia's relationship with the U.S. and the role this has played in the war in Afghanistan.
- DirectorJim FinnStarsJung Yoon LeeDaniela KostovaSung KimReady for a Marxist-Leninist-musical documentary? The Busby Berkeley of propaganda, Jim Finn, follows a South Korean video artist in North Korea who hopes to revitalize Juche cinema, somewhat inspired by a true story of a South Korean filmmaker kidnapped in the 70s to make the North Korean film industry better. In the mod 60s, film-fanatic Kim Jong Il adapted his father's Juche (pronounced choo-CHAY) philosophy to propaganda, film and art. Translated as self-reliance, Juche is a hybrid of Confucian and authoritarian Stalinist pseudo-socialism. Finn is the undisputed champion of propaganda as pure art, and this is his best yet. He uses the tools of traditional documentary, formal avant-garde, language lesson videos, and some sci-fi recreations to dig down to the souls of governments, leaders and media manipulation. No kitsch mockumentary, just careful analysis of the love of cinema that is as surreally funny as it is truth. Isn't art revolutionary? Is there humanism within all those faces?
- DirectorJean-Paul Kelly
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerStarsAdi RukunM.Y. BasrunVolker HanischA family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.
- DirectorDavid GelbStarsJiro OnoYoshikazu OnoMasuhiro YamamotoA documentary on 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono, his renowned Tokyo restaurant, and his relationship with his son and eventual heir, Yoshikazu.
- DirectorMati DiopStarsHenriette NhungGhe BüiMike N'GuyenA movie set in a forest near Marseille. Henriette, French-Vietnamese director, turns Dangerous Liaisons by Laclos, assisted by her son Mike. But the main actor disappears and everything must stop already. The film loses Valmont and in turn, the director deserts the set. She leaves behind her entire crew aboard a ghost ship whose young Mike becomes a captain. During her wanderings in the port city, Henriette discovers a world that reminds her of what she left, Vietnam. She meets a man haunted by a long journey without return.
- DirectorTerence DaviesStarsTerence DaviesGeorge HarrisonJack HawkinsA filmmaker looks at the history and transformation of his birthplace, Liverpool, England.
- DirectorJoão Pedro RodriguesStarsMartin Andres TorresCarlos Blanco SanjurjoXelo CagiaoHow would it look like, the body of Dom Afonso Henriques, first king of Portugal, tutelary figure, subject to successive mythifications throughout Portuguese history?
- DirectorMichael MooreStarsMichael MooreGeorge W. BushBen AffleckMichael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after September 11 and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- DirectorJoshua WaletzkyStarsPhilip BoscoElmer BernsteinClaudine BouchéA documentary that explores the work of a composer who created music for over 50 films, collaborating with such diverse directors as Orson Welles, Nicholas Ray, and Martin Scorsese.
- DirectorCharles SheelerPaul StrandThis groundbreaking silent documentary captures the beauty and majesty of the New York City in its streets, skyscrapers, bridges, rail yards and harbors.
- DirectorMorgan SpurlockStarsMorgan SpurlockDaryl IsaacsChemeeka WalkerWhile examining the influence of the fast food industry, Morgan Spurlock personally explores the consequences on his health of a diet of solely McDonald's food for one month.
- DirectorKevin B. LeeStarsKevin B. Lee355 YouTube videos are transformed into a critical investigation of the global big budget film industry, amateur video making, and the political economy of images.