iCM Forum's Favourite Documentaries - ballot

A documentary on how Los Angeles has been used and depicted in the movies.

A never-before-seen portrait of the artist's life through his entire body of work, from his sketches as a child prodigy until his final paintings.

La missione Apollo 11 e l'atterraggio sulla Luna condotta dal comandante Neil Armstrong e il pilota Buzz Aldrin.

Putting in dialogue photographs and films of the period with the voice of Céleste Albaret and readings of extracts of his work, Thierry Thomas leaves, in the steps of the writer Marcel Proust, who disappeared almost a century ago, in search of this "lost time" that he saved from oblivion. Surveying the Parisian district of the Madeleine, the promenade of Cabourg or even the writer's childhood resort in the vicinity of Chartres, renamed Illiers-Combray in his honor, this documentary plunges into a bygone era to bring to life the monument of literature that has come to embody it all in the imagination.

In just ten films, Maurice Pialat painfully rose to the top of the cinema, draining into his legend a mad demand for truth as much as memorable fury to achieve it. With "L'Enfance nue", his first feature film at the age of 43, the filmmaker immediately made his mark, this "art of making things authentic", according to Chabrol. But throughout an unclassifiable filmography in the form of an autobiography, from a break-up to his fatherhood in wonder, through the agony of his mother, the filmmaker does not get rid of the feeling of being misunderstood, despite international recognition.

An encounter between Marcia Merino -"the Skinny Alejandra"- a former member of leftist movement MIR before the 1973 coup who became an informant for Pinochet's secret police after being tortured, and one of her victims.

Sarajevo, the longest siege in modern history. A surrounded city, a battle, resistance. A vertiginous descent into war.

Un resoconto approfondito di due omicidi avvenuti nella Repubblica Democratica del Congo nel marzo 2017.

"Wild, in the heart of the human zoo" - For more than a century, from 1810 to 1940, men have exhibited other men by presenting them as savages or monsters. More than a billion and a half visitors came to observe 35,000 exhibited around the world. They are called Little Capeline, Patagonian fuégienne, Tambo, aboriginal of Australia, Moliko, Kalina of Guyana, Ota Benga, Pygmy of Congo, Jean Thiam, Wolof of Senegal, Marius Kaloïe, Kanak of New Caledonia.

This long form documentary, an East German equivalent of the British Seven Up series, follows a first grade class in the town of Golzow ,from August 1961 (shortly after the Berlin Wall had gone up) through 2o years later.

The film Lukashenko doesn't want you to see.

A legendary and enigmatic figure of cinema, Michael Cimino reached the Hollywood firmament at the age of 38 with "The Deer Hunter", an Oscar winner, before being relegated to purgatory 2 years later, with the heartbreaking "Heaven's Gate".

Three months before elections the president of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko claimed: "You have no other choice, you will vote for me!" This is exactly how it happened in March 2006.

This film tells the stormy tale of a group of friends from Boulogne-sur-Mer, a French town hit by the financial crisis. A year between dreams and disillusion, imagined by teenagers from a working or middle class background, with songs that regularly add poetry, laughter, and emotion to reality.

Interpretive documentary by Robert Fulton in Peru featuring Machu Pichu.

An experimental documentary comprised of regional vignettes about faith, force, technology and exodus. Eleven parables relay histories of settlement, removal, technological breakthrough, violence, messianism and resistance, all occurring somewhere in the state of Illinois. But the state is a structural ruse, and its histories are allegories that ask what belief might teach us about nationhood. In our desire to understand the inscrutable, whom do we end up blaming or endorsing?

An artist close to the avant-gardes, André Sauvage composed the first great filmed portrait of Paris. Its ambitious symphony of a big city marries, on the music composed by Jeff Mills, the changing rhythm of the Belle Époque.

An impressionistic biographical look at Siddheshwari Devi (19081977), the classical Indian singer whose voice was appreciated by the maharajas and public alike. She was from Varanasi, India, known as Maa (mother). Born in 1907, she lost her parents early and was brought up by her aunt, the noted singer Rajeshwari Devi. She won many accolades during her career, including "Padma Shri" by the Government of India (1966). Despite living in a musical household, Siddheswari came to music by accident. Rajeshwari had arranged musical training for her own daughter, Kamleshwari, while Siddheswari would do small chores around the house. Once, while the noted sarangi player Siyaji Mishra, was teaching Kamleshwari, she was unable to repeat the tappa that she was being taught. Rajeshwari ran out of patience, and started to cane Kamleshwari, who cried out for help. The only person to help her was her close friend Siddheswari, who ran from the kitchen to hug her cousin, and took the thrashing on her own body. At this point, Siddheswari told her weeping cousin, "It's not so difficult to sing what Siyaji Maharaj was telling you." Siddheswari then showed her how to sing it, performing the whole tune perfectly, much to the amazement of everyone. The next day, Siyaji Maharaj came to Rajeshwari, and asked to adopt Siddheswari into his own family (they were childless). So Siddheswari moved in with the couple, eventually becoming a great friend and support for them. This moving incident was very vivid in Siddheswari's mind, and is detailed in the biography Maa, co-authored by her daughter Savita Devi.

Disneyland reviewed by a true poet of cinema, Arnaud des Pallières who narrates a disturbing journey into the simulacrum.

In Rithy Panh's latest exploration of the lasting effects of the Cambodian genocide, a 13-year-old boy who loses most of his family begins a search for their graves.Cambodian-born, France-based filmmaker Rithy Panh has dedicated much of his career to investigating the campaign of genocide undertaken by the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian Civil War and memorializing its victims.

A documentary that explores the life and artistry of one of the virtuoso founding fathers of contemporary cinematography, the Hungarian-born neo-realist Vilmos Zsigmond.

Winner of the Sakharov Prize 2014, Doctor Mukwege is internationally known as the man who mends thousands of women who have been raped during the 20 years of conflicts in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the poorest countries on the planet, despite its extremely rich sub-soil. His endless struggle to put an end to these atrocities and denounce the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators is not welcome. At the end of 2012, the Doctor was the target of another attempt on his life, which he miraculously survived. Threatened with death, this doctor with an exceptional destiny now lives cloistered in his hospital in Bukavu under the protection of the United Nation peacekeepers. But he is no longer alone in his struggle. The women to whom he has restored physical integrity and dignity, stand beside him, true activists for peace, hungry for justice.

A dive into the cinematographic universe of John Carpenter, the director of "Halloween", "The Thing", "Fog" or "Invasion Los Angeles".

The story of the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan, showing how they deal with civil war. Traditionally music has always been part of daily life in these areas, but now, it has a new role in a society challenge by war.