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Best Documentary Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of documentary cinema — measured across 22,277 indexed frames from 280 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Documentary films over-index on baseball cap, microphone and glasses — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Paris Is Burning (1990)

    Jennie LivingstonDP Paul GibsonIMDb 8.2TMDB 8.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.

  2. 2

    13th (2016)

    Ava DuVernayDP Kira KellyIMDb 8.2TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    The film begins with the idea that 25 percent of the people in the world who are incarcerated are incarcerated in the U.S. Although the U.S. has just 5% of the world's population. "13th" charts the explosive growth in America's prison population; in 1970, there were about 200,000 prisoners; today, the prison population is more than 2 million. The documentary touches on chattel slavery; D. W. Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation"; Emmett Till; the civil rights movement; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Richard M. Nixon; and Ronald Reagan's declaration of the war on drugs and much more.

  3. 3

    The Imposter (2012)

    Bart LaytonDP Lynda HallIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    In 1994 a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later he is found alive thousands of miles away in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.

  4. 4

    Friends: The Reunion (2021)

    Ben WinstonDP Chloe WeaverIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    For the first time after seventeen years, and their last appearance on The Last One (2004), the final episode of the TV series, Friends (1994), Jennifer Aniston; Courteney Cox; Lisa Kudrow; Matt LeBlanc; Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer, find themselves under the same roof for a reunion special. Hosted by James Corden, and produced by the show's co-creators, Marta Kauffman, David Crane, and Kevin Bright, the show's main cast feels at home in the original sets of Friends (1994), taking a trip down memory lane while sitting on Central Perk's couch. Brimming with emotion, laughter, and tears of joy, "Friends: The Reunion" sheds light on ambivalent endings, the casting process, and many more, as the main cast re-enacts older Friends episodes and meets with a plethora of celebrity guests, including Maggie Wheeler, the show's Janice Litman-Goralnik; Justin Bieber; Cindy Crawford; Cara Delevingne; Lady Gaga; David Beckham; Tom Selleck, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai.

  5. 5

    Koyaanasquatsi (1982)

    Godfrey ReggioDP Ron FrickeIMDb 8.2TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    This experimental film looks at the world and more specifically the effect man has had on the landscape and the environment. Without narration, the film shows the world in a pristine condition and untouched: blue skies, beautiful landscapes and endless vistas. The man-made world is much less appealing. Essentially a montage using a variety of film techniques to provide a visually stunning montage of images.

  6. 6

    Super Size Me (2004)

    Morgan SpurlockDP Scott AmbrozyIMDb 7.2TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Several legal suits have been brought against McDonald's Restaurants that they are knowingly selling food that is unhealthy. Some of the court decisions have stated that the plaintiffs would have a claim if they could prove that eating the food every day for every meal is dangerous. As such, documentarian Morgan Spurlock conducts an unscientific experiment using himself as the guinea pig: eat only McDonald's for thirty days, three meals a day. If he is asked by the clerk if he would like the meal super sized, he has to say yes. And by the end of the thirty days, he will have had to have eaten every single menu item at least once. Before starting the experiment, he is tested by three doctors - a general practitioner, a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist - who pronounce his general health to be outstanding. They will also monitor him over the thirty days to ensure that he is not placing his health into irreparable damage. He also consults with a dietitian/nutritionist and an exercise physiologist, the latter who also deems him to be above average fitness. As it mimics the lifestyle of those who eat fast food, he will also do no exercise for the thirty days, limiting himself to under 5,000 steps per day (the approximate equivalent of 2½ miles). These health and medical experts have some predictions about his general health and wellness by the end of the experiment. His vegan chef girlfriend also has some predictions about how this experiment will affect his mood and therefore their relationship. As he goes through the experiment, he speaks to a number of people - many experts in their respective fields - on the pros and cons of the fast food lifestyle. Just over halfway through the experiment, it is evident that even the experts can be wrong, and not in a good way.

  7. 7

    American Animals (2018)

    Bart LaytonDP Ole Bratt BirkelandIMDb 7.0TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    In this crime drama, four bright and well-off college students in Kentucky plot to steal some rare books from their university's Special Collections Library in a misguided quest for personal glory. Based on the story, the film includes interviews with the foursome who attempted the bizarre heist. Starring Barry Keoghan, Evan Peters, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson and Ann Dowd.

  8. 8

    Baraka (1992)

    Ron FrickeDP Ron FrickeIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    • Patrick Disantoas Journeyman (uncredited)

    Without words, cameras show us the world, with an emphasis not on "where," but on "what's there." It begins with morning, natural landscapes and people at prayer: volcanoes, water falls, veldts, and forests; several hundred Balinese Hindu men perform kecak, the monkey chant. Indigenous peoples apply body paint; whole villages dance. The film moves to destruction of nature via logging, blasting, and strip mining. Images of poverty, rapid urban life, and factories give way to war, concentration camps, and mass graves. Ancient ruins come into view, and then a sacred river where pilgrims bathe and funeral pyres burn. Prayer and nature return. A monk rings a huge bell; stars wheel across the sky.

What documentary films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a documentary frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — baseball cap is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • baseball cap2.8×
  • microphone2.7×
  • glasses1.6×
  • water1.5×

How documentary films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate documentary from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 11%establishingvs 5% baseline
  • 20%low keyvs 39% baseline
  • 13%interior indeterminatevs 7% baseline
  • 23%nightvs 42% baseline
  • 61%naturalvs 44% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Man with a Movie Camera (1929) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 22,277 frames from 280 films carrying the documentary label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/documentary

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used