Documentary
All Tomorrow's Parties
(2009)
N/A
1 nomination.
A kaleidoscopic journey into the parallel musical universe of cult music festival All Tomorrow's Parties.
Bowling for Columbine
(2002)
Michael Moore
Won 1 Oscar. Another 35 wins & 10 nominations.
The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humor, activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed. In doing so, he learns that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history, violent entertainment and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Michael Moore takes on a deeper examination of America's culture of fear, bigotry and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Furthermore, he seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain.
Bus 174
(2002)
Bráulio Mantovani, José Padilha
12 wins & 6 nominations.
Documentary depicts what happened in Rio de Janeiro on June 12th 2000, when bus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to shoot all the passengers. Transmitted live on all Brazilian TV networks, this shocking and tragic-ending event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the scariest examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
(2005)
Alex Gibney, Bethany McLean (book), Peter Elkind (book)
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 10 nominations.
A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.
Exit Through the Gift Shop
(2010)
N/A
Nominated for 1 Oscar. 24 wins & 31 nominations total
The story of how an eccentric French shop-keeper and amateur film-maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work.
Fahrenheit 9/11
(2004)
Michael Moore
29 wins & 13 nominations.
Michael 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.
Fastest
(2011)
Mark Neale
N/A
Shot around the world in 2010 and 2011 and narrated by Ewan McGregor, 'Fastest' captures the intense and thrilling reality of the MotoGP World Championship, documenting a pivotal moment in the sport. With Valentino Rossi chasing his tenth World Championship title the Italian ran into one of the toughest challenges of his career: a crop of exceptionally fast young competitors, a horrific leg break at his home race, and an amazing comeback little over 40 days later. Confronting such a monumental task and with rival Jorge Lorenzo taking the 2010 title, Rossi faced up to one of the most testing years in his illustrious career and along with his fellow competitors was left asking: Who is the fastest rider now?
Kurt & Courtney
(1998)
N/A
1 win & 2 nominations.
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.
Man On Wire
(2008)
Philippe Petit (based on the book "To Reach the Clouds" by)
Won 1 Oscar. Another 45 wins & 11 nominations.
On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit, a French wire walker, juggler, and street performer days shy of his 25th birthday, spent 45 minutes walking, dancing, kneeling, and lying on a wire he and friends strung between the rooftops of the Twin Towers. Uses contemporary interviews, archival footage, and recreations to tell the story of his previous walks between towers of Notre Dame and of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, his passions and friendships, and the details of the night before the walk: getting cable into the towers, hiding from guards, and mounting the wire. It ends with observations of the profound changes the walk's success brought to Philippe and those closest to him.
Religulous
(2008)
N/A
2 wins & 1 nomination.
Bill Maher interviews some of religion's oddest adherents. Muslims, Jews and Christians of many kinds pass before his jaundiced eye. Maher goes to a Creationist Museum in Kentucky, which shows that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time 5000 years ago. He talks to truckers at a Truckers' Chapel. (Sign outside: "Jesus love you.") He goes to a theme park called Holy Land in Florida. He speaks to a rabbi in league with Holocaust deniers. He talks to a Muslim musician who preaches hatred of Jews. Maher finds the unlikeliest of believers and, in a certain Vatican priest, he even finds an unlikely skeptic.
Room 237
(2012)
Rodney Ascher
2 wins & 16 nominations
A subjective documentary that explores the numerous theories about the hidden meanings within Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining (1980). The film may be over 30 years old but it continues to inspire debate, speculation, and mystery. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments. Together they'll draw the audience into a new maze, one with endless detours and dead ends, many ways in, but no way out.
Searching for Sugar Man
(2012)
Malik Bendjelloul, Stephen Segerman, Craig Bartholomew Strydom
Won 1 Oscar. 44 wins & 33 nominations total
In the early 1970s, Sixto Rodriguez was a Detroit folksinger who had a short-lived recording career with only two well received but non-selling albums. Unknown to Rodriguez, his musical story continued in South Africa where he became a pop music icon and inspiration for generations. Long rumored there to be dead by suicide, a few fans in the 1990s decided to seek out the truth of their hero's fate. What follows is a bizarrely heartening story in which they found far more in their quest than they ever hoped, while a Detroit construction laborer discovered that his lost artistic dreams came true after all.
Senna
(2010)
Manish Pandey
Won 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 14 wins & 17 nominations.
The story of the monumental life and tragic death of legendary Brazilian motor-racing Champion, Ayrton Senna. Spanning the decade from his arrival in Formula One in the mid 80's, the film follows Senna's struggles both on track against his nemesis, French World Champion Alain Prost, and off it, against the politics which infest the sport. Sublime, spiritual yet, on occasion, ruthless - Senna conquers and transcends Formula One to become a global superstar. Privately, he is humble, almost shy, and fiercely patriotic, donating millions to his native Brasil and contemplating a life beyond motor-racing. Yet he is struck down in his prime on the blackest weekend in the history of the sport, watched live on television by 300 million people. Years on he is revered in Formula One as the greatest motor racing driver of all time - and in Brasil as a Saint.
Sicko
(2007)
Michael Moore
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 14 wins & 14 nominations.
Documentary look at health care in the United States as provided by profit-oriented health maintenance organizations (HMOs) compared to free, universal care in Canada, the U.K., and France. Moore contrasts U.S. media reports on Canadian care with the experiences of Canadians in hospitals and clinics there. He interviews patients and doctors in the U.K. about cost, quality, and salaries. He examines why Nixon promoted HMOs in 1971, and why the Clintons' reform effort failed in the 1990s. He talks to U.S. ex-pats in Paris about French services, and he takes three 9/11 clean-up volunteers, who developed respiratory problems, to Cuba for care. He asks of Americans, "Who are we?"
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine
(2015)
Alex Gibney
N/A
In his signature black turtleneck and blue jeans, shrouded in shadows below a milky apple, Steve Jobs' image was ubiquitous. But who was the man on the stage? What accounted for the grief of so many across the world when he died? From Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney, 'Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine' is a critical examination of Jobs who was at once revered as an iconoclastic genius and a barbed-tongued tyrant. A candid look at Jobs' legacy featuring interviews with a handful of those close to him at different stages in his life, the film is evocative and nuanced in capturing the essence of the Apple legend and his values which shape the culture of Silicon Valley to this day.
Taxi to the Dark Side
(2007)
Alex Gibney
Won 1 Oscar. 11 wins & 5 nominations total
Using the torture and death in 2002 of an innocent Afghan taxi driver as the touchstone, this film examines changes after 9/11 in U.S. policy toward suspects in the war on terror. Soldiers, their attorneys, one released detainee, U.S. Attorney John Yoo, news footage and photos tell a story of abuse at Bagram Air Base, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay. From Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Gonzalez came unwritten orders to use any means necessary. The CIA and soldiers with little training used sleep deprivation, sexual assault, stress positions, waterboarding, dogs and other terror tactics to seek information from detainees. Many speakers lament the loss of American ideals in pursuit of security.
The Corporation
(2003)
Joel Bakan, Joel Bakan (book), Harold Crooks (narration written by), Joel Bakan (narration written by), Mark Achbar (narration written by), Mark Achbar (developer), Joel Bakan (developer), Thomas Shandel (developer), Mark Achbar (creator), Joel Bakan (creator)
11 wins & 1 nomination.
Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance.
The Matrix Revisited
(2001)
N/A
N/A
An "extras-only" DVD, packed with documentaries and behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of the ground-breaking 1999 movie "The Matrix". Includes a rare interview with the elusive ...
TT3D: Closer to the Edge
(2011)
N/A
1 nomination.
By vividly recounting the TT's legendary rivalries and the Isle of Man's unique road racing history, this 3D feature documentary will discover why modern TT riders still risk their lives to...
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
(2006)
N/A
1 win & 1 nomination.
Football match Real Madrid vs. Villareal, April 23, 2005, from the perspective of soccer superstar Zinedine Zidane.