Documentaries present a fantastic way for us to learn about our world, a way to raise awareness and sometimes even the ability to expose corruption and atrocity. The power of the documentary should not be overlooked and some documentary-films and TV series provide some of the best film and television making out there. Here we will look at the top 10 documentaries that you must see.
10 Supersize Me
Supersize Me is one of the top 10 documentaries in terms of the impact it had at the time as it tried to draw attention to the unhealthy fast-food industry and particularly McDonlad’s. In the documentary Morgan Spurlock spends 30 days eating only McDonald’s. While the experiment is spurious (that much overeating of any substance would be dangerous), the film started a debate that has undoubtedly changed the industry for the better.
Top 10 Documentaries - Supersize Me
9 An Inconvenient Truth:
At the time of its release, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was considered a highly enlightening call to arms. Subsequently both the politician and the documentary has received flack for some inaccurate science and unfounded claims (and hypocrisy on the part of the creator), but this is nevertheless certainly one of the top 10 documentaries in recent times in terms of its influence alone.
Top 10 Documentaries - An Inconvenient Truth
8 When We Were Kings
When We Were Kings has a fascinating subject – the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman which was perhaps the greatest event in the history of boxing. The documentary follows the build up to the event as well as much of the fight itself and displays the formidable personality of Ali.
Top 10 Documentaries - When We Were Kings
7 A Brief History of Time
This entry to the top 10 documentaries is a documentary about physicist Stephen Hawking featuring biographical interviews with friends and relatives along with an overview of his works. A highly inspiring individual – despite near total paralysis and several other challenges throughout his life Stephen Hawking has contributed hugely to the world of physics and particularly to our understanding of black holes.
Top 10 Documentaries - A Brief History of Time
6 Living With Michael Jackson
One of the must-see documentaries if only for the controversy it caused at the time, but also because of the fascinating time-capsule character study of Michael Jackson. While the documentary has been criticized for lack of objectivity and it is perhaps not an example of great documentary making – its one of the top 10 documentaries in terms of the attention it has had since.
Top 10 Documentaries - Living With Michael Jackson
5 Crumb
Crumb, by Terry Zwigoff, is a documentary that examines the eccentric Robert Crumb – artist, illustrator, musician and founder of the underground comix movement. The documentary shows how his personal life was reflected in his art and is considered a moving film and one of the top 10 documentaries by many sources.
Top 10 Documentaries - Crumb
4 Protagonist
In this unusual 1994 documentary series we follow four different individuals in extraordinary circumstances – a bank robber, a terrorist, a bullied school child and a gay man trying to cure himself through Christianity. The stories themselves are fascinating, but so too is the underlying message – by applying the dramatic structure observed by Euripides in the deconstruction of the stories – director Jessica Yu attempts to illustrate that a narrative dramatic structure underpins human experience.
Top 10 Documentaries - Protagonist
3 March of the Penguins
March of the Penguins is the highly-popular French documentary film which follows emperor penguins of Antartica on their journeys between the ocean and the mainland. The documentary took a year for the two isolated cinematographers to shoot, but that hard work resulted in one of the top 10 documentaries and a slew of awards.
Top 10 Documentaries - March of The Penguins
2 Jesus Camp
Jesus Camp is a 2006 Oscar-nominated documentary that unconvered teens being taught to go into trances, crusade and even die in the name of Jesus. The documentary is so objective in its portrayal that it is praised by some fundamentalists (seeing the children as missionaries) and by those who this this as exposing the dark side of religious fanaticism.
Top 10 Documentaries - Jesus Camp
1 Enemies of the People
Enemies of the People is a fantastic documentary that exposes atrocities and genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. In it, the journalist Thet Sambath gains an interview with Pol Pot’s second in command Nuon Chea after gaining the trust of former Khmer soldiers. Apart from this, what makes Enemies of the People one of the top 10 documentaries is the personal element – with Thet Sambath having witnessed the murder of his Father and the forced marriage of his Mother to a Khmer Rouge Coldier before escaping Cambodia himself in 1979.
Top 10 Documentaries - Enemies of The People
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Wow, dude, great list. Thank you for letting us know about top 10 documentaries. This summer I wanted to see as many documentaries as possible. Your list with top 10 documentaries will help me out until the end of the summer. By the way, Jesus camp is really a great doc. You should watch it!
I too have to thank you for this list of top 10 documentaries. Like Dew, I have proposed to see as many documentaries I can. Seeing them make you learn a lot of useful and interesting things. Jesus camp was indeed great. It was one of my favorite top 10 documentaries.
This post about top 10 documentaries might be the best here on your blog. It is the most informative. I have watched a few of these and they were great indeed. But I haven’t seen the first 3 in top 10 documentaries. Tomorrow I will be busy watching them. 😀
You should really watch those 3 top 10 documentaries. ‘Enemies of the people’ is a documentary that exposes atrocities in Camdobia. It was touching seeing all that pain. ‘Jesus camp’ is great if you don’t agree with some ideas of the religion. And ‘March of the penguins’… I’m sure you would like it. In my opinion they are the best in this list of top 10 documentaries.
‘Supersize me’ is definitely one of the top 10 documentaries. I am against unhealthy food. I have never eaten from McDonald’s. I don’t even want to try.
his documentary should be the number one in this top 10 documentaries list. It deserves to because it can really influence you to stop eating bad food.
‘Supersize me’ should have been in the first place among these top 10 documentaries. I have to congratulate Morgan. What he has done is amazing. To sacrifice yourself just to demonstrate and convince other people not eating something because it’s bad, is really amazing. ‘Supersize me’ is a great documentary and in my top 10 documentaries it is the number 1!
I think everyone should make a list with top 10 documentaries. I love this type of movies. Every person in the world should watch documentaries. Movies are good indeed, but they cannot be compared to documentaries. I am a huge fan of them. And I thank you for the list of top 10 documentaries!
I agree with Rajesh. Everyone should make a list of top 10 documentaries. Every person should watch this kind of movies. They are a simple way of informing yourself. And I too have to thank you for these great top 10 documentaries.
I donot like docs about movie stars and stuff like that. I find them useless. Why would I want to know about X’s life? Or better yet, why should I know about his life? So that crumb should be off your top 10 documentaries list.
I have never seen any of these. I was going to watch Supersize me because I have heard it was good. I am just not much for documentaries though. Does that make me a bad person?
I guess that documentary about facebook should be part of top 10 documentaries too. I really liked it. So did lots of other people. What I liked most from your list of top 10 documentaries was exactly the first on top, enemies of the people. The creators were extremely well informed.
I haven’t seen any of these top 10 documentaries. Some of them sound interesting.
From these top 10 documentaries I think I would like to see ‘Living with Michael Jackson’. It was one of my favorite singers. Too bad he passed away.
I would too like to see the doc about Michael Jackson. It is probably one of the best from your list of top 10 documentaries. MJ was a great artist. He was very successful and he deserves a documentary about him. I will start to see these top 10 documentaries with this one.
This is a great list of documentaries. I must say I am a fan of Michael Jackson but have yet to see this. It is on my list of to sees though. I have seen Supersize Me and it really does make you think. I could not imagine eating all that food in one months time though!
I would put the ‘Supersize me’ on the first place in this top 10 documentaries. It has a great impact regarding unhealthy food. People must understand that what is good isn’t healthy too. This documentary really draws attention of the people. It definitely must be the number one in the top 10 documentaries.
I haven’t seen all your top 10 documentaries but I’ve seen the ‘An inconvenient truth’. I find it a very good documentary. I was very impressed after I saw it. You should really watch it. It is probably the best from your top 10 documentaries.
‘An inconvenient truth’ is indeed one of the best top 10 documentaries. If there are people who haven’t seen it yet, it is about President Al’Gore which tries to educate citizens about global warming. To me it was very inspiring. I read that this documentary was included in science curricula in schools all around the world. All these being said, it really deserves to be among these top 10 documentaries no?
That supersize me documentary shows the reality nowadays. It should ve been on a better place in top 10 documentaries. But it’s your top, heh.
PS: I also don’t agree with Crumb, as part of top 10 documentaries. Doesn’t fit here.
Everyone stating that he knows a lot should have a personal top 10 documentaries list. I am ashamed that I do not watch that many docs. I hope this thing will change in the near future. Unfortunately, there is not much spare time at the moment.
Next month I will make a top 10 documentaries list myself!