Another decade of great documentary movies! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the best documentaries that have been released since 2014.
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00:00 "And they had to provide labor to rebuild the economy of the South after the Civil War."
00:06 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the best documentaries that have been released since 2014.
00:13 "Why haven't you done it yet?"
00:15 "I look at it, I mean, you know, I think about it, it's freaking scary."
00:19 Number 30. Still, a Michael J. Fox movie.
00:24 "That's when I noticed my pinky."
00:26 [film reel]
00:30 "Auto-animated."
00:32 [film reel]
00:34 For many years now, Michael J. Fox has been one of the major public faces of Parkinson's disease.
00:40 He was unfortunate enough to be diagnosed at a young age, and after some years of depression and alcohol misuse,
00:46 he went public with his diagnosis in 1998.
00:49 Still is an intimate glimpse into his life living with the disease for the past three decades, both the negative and the positive.
00:55 Winning the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary, Still is a must-watch for fans of Fox or for anyone wishing to learn more about this terrible disease.
01:03 "And you can do it the way you will. If you pity me, it's never gonna get to me."
01:09 Number 29. No home movie.
01:11 [film reel]
01:17 This is a very personal documentary from Belgian director Chantal Ackerman, whose film Jeanne Dillman 23 Quai de Commerce 1080 Bruxelles
01:26 was named the best movie ever made in the 2022 Sight and Sound poll.
01:30 In No Home Movie, Ackerman talks with her mother Natalia about life and her harrowing experiences at Auschwitz.
01:36 It's a very specific story that is important to Ackerman, but it's also a universal tale about death and the human propensity to overcome.
01:44 Unfortunately, this would be Ackerman's final film, as she would take her own life shortly after its release.
01:50 [film reel]
01:54 Number 28. Faces, Places.
01:57 [film reel]
02:02 A wonderful French documentary, Faces, Places is all about small communities, the types that live both literally and figuratively on the outskirts.
02:10 Filmmaker Agnès Varda travels around France with influential street artist JR, visiting small towns and villages and interacting with the inhabitants.
02:18 After getting to know their personal stories, JR makes them public portraits to celebrate their lives and histories.
02:24 It's a gorgeous documentary, both physically and personally, featuring humane stories, quaint locations, and some eye-popping pieces of art.
02:32 It's also a grounded portrait of France, crafting a more realistic depiction of the country outside the glam and romantic allure of Paris.
02:40 [film reel]
02:43 Number 27. My Octopus Teacher.
02:46 [film reel]
02:49 We gotta say, we never thought we'd grow so attached to an octopus.
02:53 Winner of the Best Documentary Oscar, My Octopus Teacher is a beautiful rumination on life, death, and nature.
03:00 Filmmaker and naturalist Craig Foster travels to South Africa and meets a friendly octopus while free diving in False Bay.
03:06 The documentary chronicles Foster's relationship with the octopus, and watching it develop proves both heartwarming and harrowing.
03:13 Through the lens of their personal relationship, My Octopus Teacher serves as an intimate glimpse into our connection with nature,
03:19 and the shared experiences that all living creatures encounter.
03:22 [film reel]
03:30 Number 26. The Hunting Ground.
03:33 [film reel]
03:38 This documentary from Kirby Dick explores the troubling subject of campus invasive assault,
03:43 using the personal stories of Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino to cast a wider net on the institutional problem.
03:49 Clark and Pino are civil rights activists who fight to expose the issue of campus assault,
03:54 and how it's often covered up by prestigious schools hoping to maintain their reputations.
03:58 This is a highly disturbing piece of work about a major problem affecting post-secondary institutions,
04:03 and one that isn't often discussed in public.
04:06 It's not only a great documentary, but a great piece of social activism.
04:11 I think a lot of parents think, "Well, we'll drop our daughter off, she'll have a great college experience,
04:17 and everything will be fine because the college has a reputation for being a safe place."
04:21 Number 25. Camera Person.
04:23 [film reel]
04:32 Some documentaries cover grand subjects, others serve as visual memoirs.
04:37 Camera Person is the latter, following the life and career of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson.
04:42 Johnson has much experience in the documentary genre,
04:45 having shot movies like The Oath and Citizenfour.
04:48 In Camera Person, Johnson chronicles what it's like to shoot everyday people,
04:52 often with deep personal access into their lives and homes.
04:56 She also explores the moral dilemma of documentary filmmaking,
04:59 often needing to shoot sensitive subject material with objectivity and emotional detachment.
05:04 And naturally, the film is stunningly beautiful.
05:07 For anyone with even the slightest interest in documentary filmmaking,
05:11 Camera Person is a must-watch.
05:13 "She sees everything around you, she's totally blind."
05:16 Number 24. Tower.
05:18 "I just felt this...
05:20 [dramatic music]
05:23 this huge jolt."
05:25 We love it when a documentary takes creative risks,
05:28 eschewing the traditional talking heads to try something more experimental.
05:32 In that regard, Tower is a resounding success.
05:35 The film explores the University of Texas shooting of 1966,
05:39 when a sniper entered the main building and took shots on the crowd below.
05:43 The tragic day is recounted by various survivors and eyewitnesses,
05:47 and their personal stories are reenacted by actors.
05:50 These reenactments were then animated via rotoscoping,
05:53 giving the documentary a very unique visual style.
05:56 Tower blends fantastic production with absorbing storytelling
06:00 to craft a masterpiece of a documentary.
06:02 "We did all we could for him.
06:04 Whether or not he was still conscious when they carried him off in the ambulance,
06:07 we don't know. Maybe he could be a superficial one."
06:09 Number 23. Navalny.
06:11 [speaking in Russian]
06:14 [speaking in Russian]
06:19 Winning many prestigious awards, including the Oscar for Best Documentary,
06:24 Navalny is a real-life political thriller.
06:26 And just like many real-life stories,
06:29 it often proves more exciting than even the best fictional tales.
06:33 It explores the life of Alexei Navalny,
06:35 a Russian political activist who openly opposed the corrupt government of Vladimir Putin.
06:40 While heading the opposition party Russia of the Future,
06:43 Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent and evacuated to Berlin,
06:46 where he blamed Putin for the assassination attempt.
06:49 Sadly, Navalny eventually died after the film was completed.
06:53 Navalny goes into great detail about the eponymous hero's work
06:56 and explores the dangerous repercussions of corrupt and authoritarian regimes.
07:01 [speaking in Russian]
07:06 "Are you not scared, Alexei?"
07:08 [speaking in Russian]
07:12 Number 22. Collective.
07:14 [speaking in Russian]
07:22 Continuing the theme of government corruption is Collective,
07:25 the first Romanian film to be nominated for an Oscar.
07:28 On October 30, 2015, 64 people died following a devastating fire
07:34 at the Collective nightclub in Bucharest.
07:36 Over half of the victims died in the hospital from bacterial infections.
07:40 This resulted in the exposure of a massive health crisis,
07:43 as investigative journalists found that the country's hospitals
07:46 were using diluted disinfectants in an effort to save money.
07:50 These disinfectants were unable to treat the fire's victims,
07:53 resulting in their deaths.
07:55 Collective is a fascinating story about journalistic integrity,
07:58 and we watch in complete amazement as they uncover deep corruption
08:02 within the country's health care system.
08:04 [speaking in Russian]
08:08 Number 21. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.
08:11 And we knew that the Guggenheim had the Sackler Education Center,
08:16 so they were like a big target for us.
08:19 Made by acclaimed documentarian Laura Poitras,
08:22 All the Beauty and the Bloodshed covers the life of prominent activist Nan Golden.
08:26 Golden has been paramount in exposing intimate and often difficult details
08:30 about various subjects, including both the AIDS and opioid epidemics.
08:34 This documentary is the best of both worlds,
08:37 blending the impeccable work of Golden's activism with Poitras' expert filmmaking.
08:41 It not only goes into great detail about Golden and her activism,
08:45 but it also serves as a stark glimpse into Purdue pharma
08:49 and the social hazards that their greed has accumulated.
08:52 This is masterful filmmaking, conducted by a virtuoso of the medium.
08:56 Many people have started to refuse donations from the Sacklers,
09:00 including the Guggenheim Museum, the Met Museum,
09:04 the Tate, and the National Portrait Gallery.
09:07 Number 20. Three Identical Strangers.
09:09 Eddie! How are you? Eddie! Hi!
09:11 I'm like, "My name's not Eddie. I don't know what you're talking about."
09:14 Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
09:17 If a movie were made featuring the exact same story as Three Identical Strangers,
09:21 people would criticize it for being too unbelievable.
09:24 So, these two guys meet at college and realize they look a lot alike.
09:28 They discover that they're actually long-lost twins. Crazy!
09:31 But then a third man hears about this story on the news and realizes,
09:34 with total bewilderment, that he is the third brother.
09:38 The triplets not only met each other through random circumstances,
09:41 they also learned that they were separated at birth
09:44 as part of a study into socioeconomic upbringings.
09:47 Three Identical Strangers is a mind-blowing story
09:50 and a documentary unlike any other.
09:53 He had the same grin, the same hair, the same expressions.
09:59 It was his double.
10:01 Number 19. Boys State.
10:03 Who's your role model?
10:05 Honestly, I would say Christ is my role model.
10:09 There's no shortage of political documentaries,
10:11 but none quite like Boys State.
10:13 The movie is titled after the American Legion Boys State of Austin, Texas,
10:17 a summer program meant to explore the origins and operations of government.
10:21 Young teenagers with different sociopolitical backgrounds
10:24 and political leanings attend Boys State
10:26 and attempt to work together to create functional government.
10:29 Progressives, moderates, and conservatives join together,
10:32 and cinematic magic follows.
10:34 Boys State explores political divisions through the lens of young teens
10:38 and raises some tantalizing points about the human condition
10:41 and the nature of working together despite some ingrained differences.
10:44 I'm not going to vote for someone who doesn't have the morals behind it
10:47 that's going to go up there and not going to follow their morals.
10:49 So what are your morals on some of the main topics like abortion
10:52 or gay rights or veterans and things like that?
10:55 Number 18. The Rescue.
10:57 Few events dominated 2018 news quite like the Tam Luang Cave Rescue.
11:09 For those living, well, in a cave, this occurred throughout 18 days in the summer
11:14 with workers rescuing a football team who had become trapped by flooding.
11:17 The Rescue chronicles this story in fascinating detail,
11:20 exploring the complex process behind the operation
11:23 and the divers' dangerous experiences in the cave.
11:26 Everyone loves a good rescue story, and this is one of the best in recent memory.
11:30 And here, thanks to National Geographic and a team of expert filmmakers,
11:35 it's captured in all its wonderful, distressing, and uplifting glory.
11:39 The seals immediately relayed the news to the outside.
11:43 Shortly after we exited, the footage was released all over the world.
11:49 Number 17. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
11:51 Honest and unassuming, Fred Rogers was nevertheless a beacon of hope
11:56 and an endless source of entertainment to the millions of children
11:59 who tuned into his weekly television program, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
12:03 I end the program by saying you've made this day a special day
12:08 by just your being you.
12:10 The 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? peels back the curtain on Rogers,
12:14 a man who was never afraid to broach difficult topics
12:17 such as death and divorce with his young audience,
12:20 and who ultimately embodied all that's good and kind about humanity.
12:24 Every part of you, your skin, your eyes, your feelings.
12:33 A beautiful portrait of one man's enduring legacy,
12:36 the film would be named by Time magazine as the second best of 2018,
12:40 and would later take home an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature.
12:44 I watched your show as a youngster.
12:47 I wasn't allowed to go to preschool because I had a disability,
12:50 and my mom made me watch your show every day.
12:53 Bless your heart and hear you out.
12:55 By examining the lives of three friends united by their love of skateboarding,
13:02 Minding the Gap shines a light on some of the darkest aspects of our society,
13:06 including racism, domestic abuse, and poverty.
13:10 She works and I watch him, or I work and she watches him.
13:14 I don't know. And other than that, we're both pretty much around.
13:17 Directed by Bing Liu, who also serves as one of the film's primary subjects,
13:21 the doc was shot over a 12-year period,
13:23 and captured the struggles faced by the three young men as they came of age in Rockford, Illinois.
13:28 I have my registration, my insurance, and my license.
13:31 So you don't have to reach for anything in your pocket.
13:33 Dude, the cop was like, "License and registration?" And I was like, "Sure."
13:36 Dubbed "a rich, devastating essay on race, class, and manhood in 21st century America"
13:42 by New York Times writer A.O. Scott,
13:44 Minding the Gap was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards,
13:49 and holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
13:52 I've never been able to deal with myself, because I'm so busy.
13:58 I'm not even convincing other people, I'm convincing myself that I'm a good person.
14:03 Number 15. Flea.
14:05 Like Tower, Flea experiments with the documentary genre through its use of animation.
14:15 It tells the personal story of Amin Nawabi, an Afghan man who fled his country in the midst of the Soviet-Afghan War.
14:22 His story stretches from the past to the present,
14:24 with Amin living in Denmark with his boyfriend Casper, and considering a move to the United States.
14:29 This humane and often difficult story is told with the help of beautiful animation,
14:34 lending the documentary a unique edge and eye-popping visual palette.
14:37 It's in equal parts devastating and touching rumination on the refugee process,
14:42 exploring how the traumatic experience can have long-lasting consequences.
14:46 It's really a disturbing grotto that continues and continues. I can't get out.
14:52 Number 14. Apollo 11.
14:54 Apollo 11 is proof that you can make an engaging and thought-provoking documentary
14:58 without the use of narration or interviews.
15:01 38-year-old civilian Neil Alden Armstrong is to become the first human being to touch the moon.
15:08 The film, which focuses on NASA's successful 1969 attempt to land men on the lunar surface,
15:13 consists entirely of archival footage, some of which had never before been seen by the public.
15:19 Eagle Houston, everything's looking good here, over.
15:21 By depicting this triumph of human achievement in a manner that's devoid of frills,
15:25 the film manages to create a truly visceral experience for the viewer,
15:28 one that grabs hold and doesn't let go.
15:31 A masterwork in film restoration and editing,
15:34 Apollo 11 won over critics at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival,
15:38 where it was nominated for the Documentary Grand Jury Prize.
15:41 There you are!
15:42 Woo!
15:43 [applause]
15:49 Number 13. Citizen Four.
15:52 To say that Citizen Four was the documentary of 2014 would be a gross understatement.
15:57 It pretty much swept the Best Documentary category at award ceremonies the world over,
16:02 including the Oscars.
16:04 I feel the modern media has a big focus on personalities.
16:08 Totally.
16:09 And I'm a little concerned the more we focus on that,
16:13 the more they're going to use that as a distraction.
16:15 It's about Edward Snowden, the former CIA employee and computer contractor,
16:19 who in 2013 leaked classified NSA documents
16:23 that exposed global surveillance programs run by the United States and its allies.
16:27 And the government is becoming that of the ruling and the ruled,
16:32 as opposed to actually, you know, the elected and the elector.
16:35 The documentary takes place primarily inside Snowden's Hong Kong hotel room,
16:39 as director Laura Poitras and journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewan McCaskill interview him.
16:44 A thrilling and thoughtful film about a subject that should concern us all,
16:48 Citizen Four is an absolute must-see.
16:50 I knew what the risks were.
16:53 If I get arrested, I get arrested.
16:55 Number 12, Going Clear, Scientology and the Prison of Belief.
17:00 This documentary is a poignant look at one of the most controversial religions in the world today, Scientology.
17:06 He asked me, "What's ruining your life?"
17:08 I said, "I'm in love. I'm in love with this woman. It's impossible.
17:12 I don't know what to do. I need some help."
17:14 And he said, "We can help you with that."
17:16 The film provides viewers with a history of both Scientology and its founder,
17:20 the infamous L. Ron Hubbard,
17:22 as well as interviews with former members who are more than willing to divulge information
17:27 about the abuse they faced during their time as members of the church.
17:30 I know this because I used to do it when I was the head of the Office of Special Affairs.
17:36 Director Alex Gibney, who also produced the documentary The Armstrong Lie in 2013,
17:41 does an excellent job of crafting a film that holds nothing back in its pursuit of the truth.
17:46 I studied geography in school.
17:48 Those volcanoes didn't exist 75 million years ago.
17:51 Number 11, Tickled.
17:53 Tickled may very well be the most bizarre documentary of the past decade.
17:57 It follows David Ferrier, a New Zealand journalist,
18:00 who discovers an odd video for Competitive Endurance Tickling.
18:04 We're with CET, Competitive Endurance Tickling Group, we got here.
18:08 First of all, I'd like to give a shout out to you, Jane O'Brien Media, for making this happen.
18:12 Despite the inherently humorous nature of the subject matter,
18:15 the truth at the heart of this documentary is anything but fun.
18:19 Rebuffed at every turn and facing legal action from the producers of the videos,
18:23 Ferrier presses on and discovers something so sinister it needs to be seen to be believed.
18:29 Then, to top it all off, Jane O'Brien Media told us they were flying three people
18:34 across the world from New York to New Zealand to see us.
18:38 They're clearly serious about stopping this documentary.
18:42 Critics called the documentary, quote, "a stranger than fiction voyage" and, quote,
18:46 "not a film you'll soon forget."
18:49 Yeah, we can vouch for that.
18:51 Produced by ESPN Films, this documentary tackles one of the most infamous
19:03 and divisive figures in American history,
19:06 former football player, celebrity and murder suspect OJ Simpson.
19:10 He would, like, glide. He never really picked his feet more than a couple of inches off the ground,
19:14 so he was, like, slithering through a hole.
19:16 OJ Made in America is the documentary everybody and their grandmother was talking about in 2016.
19:21 Incidentally, that's not the OJ that there was behind closed doors,
19:25 and certainly not with her, and she told me that.
19:27 Through a combination of news footage and interviews,
19:30 director Ezra Edelman crafts a compelling film series that uses Simpson's rise and fall
19:34 as a microcosm for the bigger issues that plagued America in the '80s and '90s.
19:38 Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature,
19:41 OJ Made in America is a rollercoaster of a film
19:44 that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
19:47 He said, "I heard it over and over."
19:50 That was payback for Rodney King.
19:52 One of the most talked-about documentaries of 2019,
19:57 "Fire" was on everybody's radar when it premiered on Netflix.
20:01 Ezra, like, about to take off, he's like, "Yeah, I bought this plane, like, six months ago.
20:04 I just got my license."
20:05 "I ended up teaching myself, and you can use Microsoft Flight Simulator."
20:08 It details the infamous story of Fire Festival,
20:11 a failed business venture in the Bahamas
20:13 spearheaded by the now-notorious fraudster Billy McFarland.
20:17 "Is this guy a genius, or is he a madman?"
20:20 Through candid interviews with the people McFarland enlisted
20:23 to help him pull off his insane scheme,
20:25 "Fire" slowly reveals how one man with a vision for the greatest party ever
20:29 can ruin countless lives with a mix of hubris and ineptitude.
20:33 A cautionary tale of epic proportions,
20:35 "Fire" is a must-watch.
20:37 "I thought something was wrong after they held us on the beach for six hours,
20:42 kind of funneling tequila down our throats."
20:44 "We loved the culture, the people, the parties, the food, the nightclubs.
20:51 It was just so rich."
20:53 So many documentaries are serious by nature,
20:57 often exploring complex themes and dark stories.
21:00 "Summer of Soul" is the opposite of that.
21:02 It's a celebration of life, full of color and character.
21:05 The film is directed by Questlove,
21:07 who chronicles the oft-forgotten Harlem cultural festival of the late 1960s.
21:12 The documentary blends the serious with the fun,
21:14 exploring why such an important cultural event was ignored by the media and lost to time.
21:19 "Summer of Soul" is an engrossing cultural artifact,
21:22 quite literally bringing the ignored past back to life with exceptional color photography.
21:27 It's a celebration of music, of culture, and of Black pride,
21:30 while also proving to be a deep examination of race relations in the late '60s.
21:35 What a film.
21:36 "It was a crazy, crazy, crazy period.
21:39 We needed something to really reach out and touch us.
21:43 We needed that music."
21:45 Loaded with previously unseen World War I footage,
21:51 Peter Jackson's seminal documentary transformed century-old footage
21:55 through the use of voiceover and modern colorizing techniques.
21:58 "Your day would start before dawn,
22:01 when them soldiers would go around this 100 yards
22:04 and make sure everybody was alive."
22:06 The result was a stunning and immensely visceral cinematic experience
22:10 that garnered rave reviews from critics,
22:12 leading, at the time of its release, to a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
22:16 "Well, we were always told that you never heard the shell that hit you
22:20 because most of them traveled faster than sound."
22:23 When asked why he chose to modernize the footage of British soldiers fighting on the Western Front,
22:27 Jackson succinctly replied,
22:29 "The men saw a war in color.
22:31 They certainly didn't see it in black and white.
22:34 I wanted to reach through the fog of time and pull these men into the modern world
22:38 so they can regain their humanity once more."
22:41 If that doesn't convince you to see this film, nothing will.
22:44 "They were decent sort of family people
22:47 and taught a great deal of their children."
22:50 Just as Citizenfour was the documentary of 2014,
22:55 Amy was the documentary of 2015.
22:58 "Me and Amy were quite similar."
23:00 The film is about the tumultuous life of British singer Amy Winehouse,
23:03 who, at 27, died from alcohol poisoning.
23:06 An incredible talent with a personality to match,
23:09 this documentary did an excellent job of presenting viewers
23:12 with an unfiltered look at both Winehouse's musical ability
23:15 as well as her self-destructive nature.
23:18 "Blakes managed to get to Hook, get into her bedroom,
23:22 and the next check-up, the doctors found out she's got heroin in her blood again."
23:26 The success of Amy likely came as little surprise to director Asif Kapadia,
23:30 seeing as how his 2010 documentary Senna,
23:33 about former Brazilian Formula One champion Ayrton Senna,
23:36 was met with similar acclaim.
23:38 "Even at racing speed, Tamburello is not a corner that you would make a mistake on.
23:42 Something on the car would have to go wrong."
23:45 This documentary was inspired by the unfinished memoir
23:51 Remember This House, written by the late outspoken social critic James Baldwin.
23:55 "I missed Harlem Sunday mornings and fried chicken and biscuits.
23:59 I missed the music. I missed the style.
24:02 That style possessed by no other people in the world."
24:06 The original manuscript focused on notes and letters written by Baldwin
24:09 that discussed the lives of his friends and civil rights leaders
24:12 Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
24:14 "Martin Luther King is just a 20th century or modern Uncle Tom,
24:17 or a religious Uncle Tom, who is doing the same thing today
24:20 to keep Negroes defenseless in the face of attack
24:23 that Uncle Tom did on the plantation to keep those Negroes defenseless
24:26 in the face of the attack of the Klan in that day."
24:29 I Am Not Your Negro expands upon Baldwin's work in order to examine racism in America,
24:34 both today and in the past.
24:36 Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson,
24:38 the film is a stark and honest look at a societal blemish
24:41 that continues to permeate the country.
24:43 The film was highly acclaimed,
24:45 and in 2016 scored a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.
24:50 "A brutal and humiliating fact
24:53 would sterilely destroy whatever relationship this girl and I might have been able to achieve."
24:59 #4 Free Solo
25:01 A documentary that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up,
25:04 Free Solo is the story of rock climber Alex Honnold.
25:07 "I got quite scared in some places,
25:09 and then you start to panic a little bit,
25:11 and then you have to reel it all back in."
25:13 A daredevil of the highest order,
25:15 Honnold has made a name for himself as one of the world's preeminent free soloists.
25:19 That is to say, for climbing some of the biggest rock walls on Earth
25:23 without the use of ropes, harnesses, or protective gear of any kind.
25:28 "I try to expand my comfort zone by practicing the moves over and over again."
25:32 Free Solo is about Honnold's quest to conquer El Capitan,
25:35 an imposing rock formation in Yosemite National Park that stands 3,000 feet tall.
25:40 The doc delves into Honnold's motivations
25:42 as well as the challenges faced by the film crew attempting to capture his record-breaking climb.
25:47 Trust us, this Oscar winner is worth your time.
25:51 "He just sent the vaulted problem."
25:53 "He must be so stoked."
25:56 #3 Life Itself
25:58 Film critic Roger Ebert was a legend in his lifetime,
26:01 so it's only fitting that this biographical documentary about his life was a cinematic masterpiece.
26:06 "Thriller week on Siskel and Ebert in the movies, and we've got three new ones."
26:10 "Sound a little excited, James."
26:12 "Sound less excited, Roger."
26:14 Begun before his passing in 2013,
26:16 Life Itself takes its name from Ebert's memoir and looks back at a career that spanned over four decades.
26:22 Featuring footage filmed during his final months, as well as interviews with his peers and loved ones,
26:27 it's a tribute to an influential cultural voice that manages to be celebratory, poignant, and humorous all at once.
26:33 It is a crime that Life Itself was not nominated for an Oscar.
26:37 "It lets you understand hopes, aspirations, dreams, and fears."
26:41 "It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us."
26:45 #2 Icarus
26:47 An investigation into the world of illegal doping wound up uncovering one of the largest sports scandals of all time.
26:54 "If I could do that, and I could get away with it, that would mean that pretty much any athlete could do that, and any athlete could get away with it."
27:03 From the very beginning, filmmaker Brian Fogel was there to document it all.
27:08 It all started when Fogel connected with the director of Russia's National Anti-Doping Laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov,
27:14 who revealed to him that Russian athletes had long been participating in a state-sponsored doping program.
27:19 "Russia won a total of 73 medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How many of those athletes were dirty?"
27:26 "30."
27:30 Twists come hard and fast in this documentary, which wound up taking home the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
27:37 Many a documentary has started with the goal of uncovering some hidden truth, but few have managed to succeed quite like Icarus.
27:44 "What is a conspiracy? It was a conspiracy since 1980. Let's reconsider Moscow Olympic Games and then reconsider the situation in the United States in 1984."
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28:03 If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
28:07 In 13th, director Ava DuVernay tackles one of America's worst dilemmas, mass incarceration.
28:17 Named for the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited slavery but failed to prevent the government from using it as a form of punishment.
28:25 13th claims that since its inception, this oversight has been exploited to lock up a disproportionate number of African Americans.
28:32 "So when you get 20 years or 30 years, that's what you got."
28:35 "We had parole in this country as a mechanism for getting people out of jails and prisons when it was clear that they were no longer a threat to public safety."
28:43 An examination of the cruel distortion of the law and a passionate call to end its negative effect on black America.
28:49 13th isn't just one of the best documentaries of this decade, but of all time.
28:54 "It's always been Idaho potatoes. They're planted, grown, harvested, packed, and shipped by inmates."
29:01 Variety described the film as having a quote, "piercing relevance to our current social, economic, and political climate."
29:07 And we are inclined to agree.
29:09 What did you learn from these documentaries? Let us know in the comments below.
29:14 "We've got six consecutive weekends of major artists."
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29:27 [MUSIC]
29:37 (upbeat music)