On the Bowery (1956), The Lions Are Free (1969), Burden of Dreams (1982), Salesman (1969), The Endless Summer (1966), Grey Gardens (1975), Man of Aran (1934), The Silent World (1956) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Classic Documentary movies.
Storyline: Filmmaker Lionel Rogosin turns his camera on the homeless "bums" who frequent New York City's Bowery area.
Plot Keywords: documentary, new york, alcoholism, social realism, black and white, independent film, street life ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The true life sequel to the movie classic "Born Free". The actors from the film, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, with the help of their friend, legendary conservationist George Adamson, reveal what became of the lions used in the filming of "Born Free". While Virginia McKenna visits a zoo in Great Britian, her husband Bill Travers travels to a remote area of East Africa to visit George Adamson and to reunite with the lions he starred with in the movie and who are living free thanks to George Adamson. A remarkable reunion is filmed just as it happens.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: documentary, wildlife, africa, nature, animal behavior, freedom, conservation ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A documentary on the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's epic Fitzcarraldo (1982), showing how the film managed to get made despite problems that would have floored a less obsessively driven director. Not only does he have major casting problems, losing both Jason Robards (health) and Mick Jagger (other commitments) halfway through shooting, but the crew gets caught up in a war between Peru and Ecuador, there are problems with the weather and the morale of cast and crew is falling rapidly.—Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>
Plot Keywords: documentary, film production, behind the scenes, director's perspective, cultural clash, adventure, obsession ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Filmmakers (and brothers) Albert and David Maysles follow four employees of a company that makes expensive, ornate, illustrated bibles as they attempt to sell the items door-to-door to less-than-interested customers, who are mainly poor or lower-middle-class Catholics with little money to spend on pretty Bibles.—Gary Dickerson <slug@mail.utexas.edu>
Plot Keywords: documentary, american film, 1960s, real life, social observation, working class, american dream ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: They call it The Endless Summer the ultimate surfing adventure, crossing the globe in search of the perfect wave. From the uncharted waters of West Africa, to the shark-filled seas of Australia, to the tropical paradise of Tahiti and beyond, these California surfers accomplish in a few months what most people never do in a lifetime...They live their dream. Director Bruce Brown creates a film so powerful it has become a timeless masterpiece that continues to capture the imagination of every new generation. When it first played in theaters, audiences lined up to see it again and again, spellbound by its thrilling excitement and awesome photography. But in fact, what's most compelling about the film is the sport of surfing itself, and once you've seen it, you'll never forget why.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: surfing, documentary, adventure, travel, beach, summer, freedom ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The Maysles brothers pay visits to Edith Bouvier Beale, nearing 80, and her daughter Edie. Reclusive, the pair live with cats and raccoons in Grey Gardens, a crumbling mansion in East Hampton. Edith is dry and quick-witted - a singer, married but later separated, a member of high society. Edie is voluble, dresses - as she puts it - for combat in tight ensembles that include scarves wrapped around her head. There are hints that Edie came home 24 years before to be cared for rather than to care for her mother. The women address the camera, talking over each other, moving from the present to events years before. They're odd, with flinty affection for each other.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: documentary, biography, true story, mother-daughter relationship, social outcasts, american culture, high society ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
Plot Keywords: documentary, ireland, 1930s, black and white, survival, nature, silent film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Jocko De Paris, cadet leader in a Southern military academy, so manipulates events that George Avery, Jr., son of the school's executive officer, is found drunk and expelled. Through various pressures, Jocko silences such involuntary accomplices as his roommate Harold Koble, football star Roger Gatt and freshmen Robert Marquales and Maynard Simmons, a girl-fearing cadet whom Jocko terrorizes into dating Rosebud, a town girl.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: documentary, ocean, underwater, marine life, exploration, nature, adventure ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A young Cajun boy named Alexander Napolean Ulysses Latour spends his time on a Louisiana bayou. There he plays, fishes and hunts, worrying only about the alligators which infest its waters. The boy's innocent routine changes forever when his father signs a lease agreement with an oil company which brings a derrick into their corner of the bayou.—Shannon Patrick Sullivan <shannon@mun.ca>
Plot Keywords: documentary, american film, black and white, 1940s, louisiana, child's perspective, rural life ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The Archive of World War Two is a series of original archive documentaries filmed under actual battle conditions by service and newsreel cameramen attached to American, British, French, Russian and enemy forces. NTSC - Black & White - 74 minutes—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: war, world war ii, documentary, history, military, british, american ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A new man joins the civilian firefighters at a London unit during the Second World War. He meets his fellow firemen and firewomen, manages to enjoy some leisure time with them, and then goes on his first mission with the crew as it attempts to save an explosives warehouse on Trinidad Street near the London docks.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
Plot Keywords: war film, documentary, world war ii, british film, realism, black and white, 1940s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: "Search for the Great Sharks" takes viewers on a round-the-globe expedition to encounter the most notorious creature of the sea. From the coast of California to the remote reefs off Western Australia, the film pursues blue sharks, whale sharks, and the most-well-known of all, the white shark.
Plot Keywords: documentary, ocean, nature, wildlife, exploration, environmental conservation, science ...
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