International Documentary Association Top 25 Documentaries
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International Documentary Association Top 25 Documentaries
The International Documentary Association produced in 2007 a list of the top 25 documentary films as voted by members. List # ''Hoop Dreams'' (1994) # '' The Thin Blue Line'' (1988) # ''Bowling for Columbine'' (2002) # '' Spellbound'' (2002) # '' Harlan County, U.S.A.'' (1976) # ''An Inconvenient Truth'' (2006) # '' Crumb'' (1994) # ''Gimme Shelter'' (1970) # ''The Fog of War'' (2003) # ''Roger & Me'' (1989) # ''Super Size Me'' (2004) # ''Dont Look Back'' (1967) # ''Salesman'' (1968) # ''Koyaanisqatsi'' (1983) # '' Sherman's March'' (1986) # ''Grey Gardens'' (1976) # '' Capturing the Friedmans'' (2003) # ''Born into Brothels'' (2004) # ''Titicut Follies'' (1967) # ''Buena Vista Social Club (1999) # ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' (2004) # ''Winged Migration'' (2002) # ''Grizzly Man'' (2005) # ''Night and Fog'' (1955) # ''Woodstock'' (1970) Statistics ''Night and Fog'' is the oldest and shortest entry on the list while ''An Inconvenient Truth'' is the most recent as of 2022. Six Academy Award ...
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International Documentary Association
International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmmaker Services, Education, and Public Programs and Events. Based in Los Angeles, the IDA has approximately 2,000 members in 53 countries, providing a forum for supporters and suppliers of documentary filmmaking. Advocacy The IDA advocates for, protects and advances the legal rights of documentary filmmakers. IDA has a long history of making the case for documentary filmmaking as a vital art form, and seeking ways to ensure that the artists who make documentaries receive appropriate funding. Most recently, IDA has been vocal in confronting the non-fiction film industry, to include promoting net neutrality efforts, lobbying for the development of strong public policies for the arts, lobbying for the appropriation of increased public funding ...
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Grey Gardens
''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a derelict mansion at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival but was not entered into the main competition. Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer also directed, and Susan Froemke was the associate producer. The film's editors are credited as Hovde (who also edited ''Gimme Shelter'' and ''Salesman''), Meyer and Froemke. In 2010, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and in the 2014 ''Sight and Sound'' poll film critics voted ''Grey Gardens'' the tenth-best documentary film of all time. Cast * Edith "Big Edie" Ewing ...
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Albert And David Maysles
Albert Maysles (November 26, 1926 – March 5, 2015) and his brother David Maysles (January 10, 1931 – January 3, 1987; ) were an American documentary filmmaking team known for their work in the Direct Cinema style. Their best-known films include ''Salesman'' (1969), ''Gimme Shelter'' (1970) and ''Grey Gardens'' (1975). Biography Early lives The brothers were born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, living there until the family moved to Brookline, Massachusetts when Albert was 13. Albert and David's parents, both Jewish, were immigrants to the United States; their father, born in Ukraine, was employed as a postal clerk, while their mother, originally from Poland, was a schoolteacher. The family originally settled in Dorchester to be near relatives (the brothers' great-uncle Josef Maysles and his daughter and son-in-law, Becky and Joe Kandib) who had moved there earlier. Albert originally pursued a career as a psychology professor and researcher. After serving in t ...
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Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara'' won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His film '' The Thin Blue Line'' placed fifth on a ''Sight & Sound'' poll of the greatest documentaries ever made. Morris is known for making films about unusual subjects; ''Fast, Cheap & Out of Control'' interweaves the stories of a wild animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot scientist and a naked mole rat specialist. Early life and education Morris was born on February 5, 1948, into a Jewish family in Hewlett, New York. His father died when he was two and he was raised by his mother, a piano teacher. He had one older brother, Noel, who was a computer programmer. After being treated for strabismus in childhood, Morris refused to wear an eye patch. As a consequence, he has limit ...
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Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ''Bowling for Columbine'', which examined the causes of the Columbine High School massacre and the overall gun culture of the United States. He also directed and produced '' Fahrenheit 9/11'', a critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush and the War on Terror, which earned $119,194,771 to become the highest-grossing documentary at the American box office of all time. The film also won the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes film festival, and was subject to intense controversy. His documentary ''Sicko'', which examines health care in the United States, is one of the top ten highest-grossing documentaries . In September 2008, he released his first free movie on the internet, '' Slacker Uprising'', which documented his personal quest to e ...
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Academy Award For Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and Skills, skill, north of Ancient Athens, Athens, Greece. Etymology The word comes from the ''Academy'' in ancient Greece, which derives from the Athenian hero, ''Akademos''. Outside the city walls of Athens, the Gymnasium (ancient Greece), gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning. The sacred space, dedicated to the goddess of wisdom, Athena, had formerly been an olive Grove (nature), grove, hence the expression "the groves of Academe". In these gardens, the philosopher Plato conversed with followers. Plato developed his sessions into a method of teaching philosophy and in 3 ...
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Woodstock (film)
''Woodstock'' is a 1970 American documentary film of the watershed counterculture Woodstock Festival which took place in August 1969 near Bethel, New York. The film was directed by Michael Wadleigh. Seven editors are credited, including Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese, and Wadleigh. ''Woodstock'' was a great commercial and critical success. It received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Schoonmaker was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, a rare distinction for a documentary. Dan Wallin and L. A. Johnson were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound. The film was screened at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition. The 1970 theatrical release of the film ran 185 minutes. A director's cut spanning 224 minutes was released in 1994. Both cuts take liberties with the timeline of the festival. However, the opening and closing acts are the same in the film as they appeared on stage; Richie Havens opens t ...
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Night And Fog (1955 Film)
''Night and Fog'' (french: Nuit et brouillard) is a 1956 French documentary short film. Directed by Alain Resnais, it was made ten years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The title is taken from the ''Nacht und Nebel'' (German for "Night and Fog") program of abductions and disappearances decreed by Nazi Germany. The documentary features the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek established in occupied Poland while describing the lives of prisoners in the camps. ''Night and Fog'' was made in collaboration with scriptwriter Jean Cayrol, a survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. The music of the soundtrack was composed by Hanns Eisler. Resnais was originally hesitant about making the film and refused the offer to make it until Cayrol was contracted to write the script. The film was shot entirely in the year 1955 and is composed of contemporary shots of the camps plus stock footage. Resnais and Cayrol found the film very difficult to make due to its ...
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Grizzly Man
''Grizzly Man'' (2005) is an American documentary film by German director Werner Herzog. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell and the death of his girlfriend Amie Huguenard at Katmai National Park, Alaska. The film includes some of Treadwell's own footage of his interactions with brown bears before 2003, and of interviews with people who knew or were involved with Treadwell, in addition to those of professionals who deal with wild bears. Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard were both from New York (state), New York. He had been studying bears for several summers at the park. They were attacked and killed by a bear there on October 5, 2003. Treadwell's footage was found after his death. The couple's remains were discovered by a pilot. The bear that killed Treadwell and Huguenard was later encountered and killed by the group who retrieved the pair’s partially consumed remains. An audio recording of the attack was captured by Treadwell's ca ...
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Winged Migration
''Winged Migration'' (french: Le Peuple Migrateur, also known as ''The Travelling Birds'' in some UK releases, or ''The Travelling Birds: An Adventure in Flight'' in Australia) is a 2001 documentary film directed by Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats and Jacques Perrin, who was also one of the writers and narrators, showcasing the immense journeys routinely made by birds during their migrations. The film is dedicated to the French ornithologist Jean Dorst. Production The movie was shot over the course of three years on all seven continents. Filming began in July 1998 and ended in spring 2001. It was shot using in-flight cameras, most of the footage is aerial, and the viewer appears to be flying alongside birds of successive species, especially Canada geese. They traverse every kind of weather and landscape, covering vast distances in a flight for survival. The filmmakers exposed over 590 miles of film to create an 89-minute piece. In one case, two months of filming in one locati ...
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Fahrenheit 9/11
''Fahrenheit 9/11'' is a 2004 American documentary film directed, written by, and starring filmmaker, director, political commentator and activist Michael Moore. The film takes a liberal, critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the war in Iraq, and its coverage in the media. In the film, Moore contends that American corporate media were "cheerleaders" for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and did not provide an accurate or objective analysis of the rationale for the war and the resulting casualties there. The title of the film alludes to Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel ''Fahrenheit 451'', a dystopian view of the future United States, drawing an analogy between the autoignition temperature of paper and the date of the September 11 attacks; one of the film's taglines was "The Temperature at Which Freedom Burns". The film debuted at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the Palme d'Or, the festival's highest award. It received generally positive reviews from critics, ...
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Buena Vista Social Club (film)
''Buena Vista Social Club'' is a 1999 documentary film directed by Wim Wenders about the music of Cuba. It is named for a danzón that became the title piece of the album ''Buena Vista Social Club''. The film is an international co-production of Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Cuba. In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. Content The film documents how Ry Cooder, long-time friend of Wenders, brought together the ensemble of legendary Cuban musicians to record an album (also called ''Buena Vista Social Club'') and to perform two times with a full line-up: in April 1998 in Amsterdam (two nights) and the 1st of July 1998 in the United States (at the Carnegie Hall, New York City). Although they are geographically close, travel between Cuba and the United States is restricted due to the political tension between t ...
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