Top Documentaries

2008 National Board of Review - Top Documentaries WinnerAmerican TeenA documentary on seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town and their various cliques.AmazonDear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His FatherA filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered friend when his friend's ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son.AmazonEncounters at the End of the WorldFilm-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there.AmazonMan on WireA look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century".AmazonRoman Polanski: Wanted and Des...

2007 National Board of Review - Top Documentaries WinnerBody of WarThe story of an injured American veteran returning home from the war Iraq is set against the backdrop of a critical indictment of the government's handling of the U.S.-led invasion.AmazonDarfur NowAn examination of the genocide in Sudan's western region of Darfur.AmazonIn the Shadow of the MoonThe crew members of NASA's Apollo missions tell their story in their own words.AmazonNankingThrough readings of historical account by actors and the testimony of survivors, the events of the Nanjing Massacre are recounted.AmazonTaxi to the Dark SideAlex Gibney exposes the haunting details of the USA's torture and interrogation practices during the War in Afghanistan.AmazonTootsThe '40s and '50s were a classic period in New York City n...

2006 National Board of Review - Top Documentaries Winner51 Birch StreetDocumentary filmmaker Doug Block had every reason to believe his parents' 54-year marriage was a good one. But when his mother dies unexpectedly and his father swiftly marries his former ...AmazonAn Inconvenient TruthFilmmaker Davis Guggenheim follows Al Gore on the lecture circuit, as the former presidential candidate campaigns to raise public awareness of the dangers of global warming and calls for immediate action to curb its destructive effects on the environment.AmazonAn Inconvenient TruthFilmmaker Davis Guggenheim follows Al Gore on the lecture circuit, as the former presidential candidate campaigns to raise public awareness of the dangers of global warming and calls for immediate action to curb its destructive ef...

2005 National Board of Review - Top Documentaries WinnerBallets RussesBallets Russes is an intimate portrait of a group of pioneering artists -- now in their 70s, 80s and 90s -- who gave birth to modern ballet.AmazonGrizzly ManA devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.AmazonMad Hot BallroomThe students of several New York City elementary schools learn ballroom dancing and compete in a city wide dance competition.AmazonMarch of the PenguinsIn the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family.AmazonMarch of the PenguinsIn the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begi...

2004 National Board of Review - Top Documentaries WinnerBorn Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light KidsTwo documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagchi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district.AmazonBorn Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light KidsTwo documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagchi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district.AmazonPaper ClipsJoe FabAs a part of their study of the Holocaust, the children of the Whitwell, TN Middle School try to collect 6 million paper clips representing the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis, and grows to include millions of others killed.AmazonSuper Size MeWhile ex...

2003 National Board of Review - Top Documentaries WinnerCapturing the FriedmansDocumentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.AmazonMy ArchitectDirector Nathaniel Kahn searches to understand his father, noted architect Louis Kahn, who died bankrupt and alone in 1974.AmazonSpellboundSpellbound follows eight teenagers on their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee.AmazonThe Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamaraThe story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Robert McNamara.AmazonThe Fog of War:...

2002 National Board of Review - Top Documentaries WinnerBowling for ColumbineFilmmaker Michael Moore explores the roots of America's predilection for gun violence.Amazon