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Top Documentary Films

“Documentary film” is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to “document” reality. (Wikipedia)

When The Levees Broke

When the Levees Broke (2006)Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke is a television milestone that ranks with Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame as an unflinching document of a national disgrace. Over the course of four hour-long “acts” (plus, for this DVD, a newly filmed fifth act), Lee chronicles the devastation wrought not just by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina but also by ill-prepared, inefficient, and

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Fishing With John - Criterion Collection

Fishing With John - Criterion Collection (1992)The thought of watching somebody fishing is, to me, the height of existential folly. As Estragon says in Becket’s Waiting for Godot, “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.” Thus was my apprehension great when faced with the task of watching 147 minutes of men fishing. However, my delight was substantial when I found myself completely

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Operation Homecoming - Writing the Wartime Experience

Operation Homecoming - Writing the Wartime ExperienceWriting about experience necessarily sanitizes it, theorizes Sangjoon Han, a Korean-American soldier who fought in Iraq and is one of many articulate talking heads in Richard E. Robbins’s documentary “Operation Homecoming.” Built around the firsthand recollections of soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the film is a spinoff from an anthology of essays,

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Step Into Liquid

Step into Liquid (2003)Writer-director Dana Brown — whose dad, Bruce, helmed the classic surfing flick The Endless Summer — follows in his father’s footsteps and takes a 21st-century look at the sport, employing up-to-date cinematographic technology to bring the audience right into those monster waves. The film stars dedicated surfers Ken “Skindog” Collins, Laird Hamilton, Rochelle Ballard, and

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March of the Penguins

March of the Penguins (Widescreen Edition) (2005)One of the year’s most unexpectedly moving films, this French-made documentary about the mating cycle of emperor penguins took moviegoers by surprise and became a box-office blockbuster in the process. Small wonder: March of the Penguins is cinema vérité at its purest, an unsentimental yet intimate depiction of one of nature’s true marvels.

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The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)

The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition) (1974)The second World War had a profound effect on the course of the 20th century, and unfortunately, its horrors, including “ethnic cleansing,” terrorism, despotism, invasions, the curtailment of civil rights, and rampant nationalism, are still concerns of the modern day. The documentary series The World at War is outstanding in its ability to unfold the complex issues

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"Top Documentary Films" is basically "one man show" (driven by one enthusiast) and the content here is created with a passion for documentary films. The site is in open form and it is allowing readers to add comments about documentary films they like or dislike.

In so doing, I hope to provide a valuable resource to those with an interest in documentary films and in future I hope to help independent documentary filmmakers and festival coordinators promote their films and events.

"Top Documentary Films" attempts to provide information on documentaries by quoting reviews from trusted sources and placing links for more info about the documentary films. The site also offers trailers for the documentaries. In case you decide to buy your favorite documentary film, or you want to get some more information there are links to Amazon.com.

The site is running on WordPress platform, therefore it has blog characteristics. Documentaries are classified in categories and you can easily find what you are looking for. If you have any questions you can contact me here.

P.S. On the other hand you can watch free documentaries on-line at FreeDocumentarytFilms.com