Christine Drews Sieger
A ranking of the 20 most striking documentaries ever committed to cinema.
Ahead of Nathan Fielder’s new Elizabeth Holmes documentary, You Can See Everything, The Guardian has ranked the 20 most striking documentaries ever committed to cinema—featuring what the newspaper calls the most “shocking and affecting true stories” ever filmed.
From cinema pioneers to extreme human feats (20–11)
- 20. The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (1896): The Lumière brothers’ 50-second dispatch that blew the whistle on “the approaching juggernaut of cinema and its unbeatable horsepower of verisimilitude.”
- 19. Tower (2016): Keith Maitland uses rotoscoped animation to reconstruct the 1966 University of Texas mass shooting.
- 18. A Child of My Own (2026): Maite Alberdi investigates a Mexican woman who faked a pregnancy after three miscarriages.
- 17. Dark Days (2000): Marc Singer ventures into a homeless community living in abandoned New York subway tunnels.
- 16. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005): Alex Gibney exposes the corporate fraud behind the US energy giant’s collapse.
- 15. Deep Water (2006): Sailor Donald Crowhurst fakes his positions during a 1968 solo circumnavigation race.
- 14. Restrepo (2010): Filmmakers embed with US soldiers in Afghanistan’s perilous Korangal Valley.
- 13. Koyaanisqatsi (1982): Godfrey Reggio charts the acceleration of human civilization to Philip Glass’s score.
- 12. Leviathan (2012): A narration-free sensory barrage filmed aboard a Massachusetts fishing trawler.
- 11. Free Solo (2018): Alex Honnold climbs Yosemite’s 900-meter El Capitan without ropes.
Obsession, deception, and history’s darkest chapters (10–1)
- 10. Burden of Dreams (1982): Les Blank chronicles Werner Herzog’s chaotic jungle shoot—famous for Herzog’s remark that “the birds are in misery.”
- 9. Man With a Movie Camera (1929): Dziga Vertov’s silent landmark experiments with rhythmical editing across Soviet cities.
- 8. Dear Zachary (2008): Kurt Kuenne’s tribute to his murdered friend evolves into a devastating family tragedy.
- 7. Man on Wire (2008): Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the World Trade Center towers is framed like a heist.
- 6. Touching the Void (2003): A climber in the Andes faces a fateful survival dilemma when forced to cut his partner’s rope.
- 5. Grizzly Man (2005): Herzog examines bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell’s fatal obsession in Alaska.
- 4. Capturing the Friedmans (2003): An investigation into whether a father and son were guilty of child abuse or victims of local hysteria.
- 3. The Imposter (2012): A French conman convinces a Texas family that he is their missing teenage son.
- 2. Night and Fog (1956): Alain Resnais’s 32-minute Holocaust documentary serves as a stark warning on human atrocity.
- 1. The Act of Killing (2012): Joshua Oppenheimer has former Indonesian death-squad leaders re-enact their 1960s mass murders in the style of classic Hollywood genres.
