10 Documentaries Everyone Should See

Want to instantly be transported to a world—a real world—you may know nothing about? Watch a documentary. Each of these films promises to enlighten and move you. And they all can be found on streaming services, which means that you can start watching them tonight. We turned to someone who has seen and reviewed more documentaries than almost anyone else—Ian Haydn Smith, editor of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die—to ask for 10 of his top picks.

If you’re up for a good cry: Project Nim (2011, directed by James Marsh. Rated PG-13, 93 minutes.) 

Experiment gone awry: In 1973, a baby chimpanzee was taken from his mother and sent to live with a human family in New York City as part of a landmark experiment at Columbia University. Researchers wanted to learn whether the primate—named Nim Chimpsky—could be raised to communicate like a human child. Nim did learn some American Sign Language, but his innate instincts quickly took over and the wild animal in him emerged. He was then sent on a heartbreaking journey from home to home, no one quite sure what to do with him. After landing in a research facility, he was ultimately rescued and sent to an animal sanctuary for his final years. If you’re wondering what everyone was thinking by trying to raise a wild animal as a human, that’s precisely what this documentary explores, as director Marsh manages to get many of the key players to reflect on the controversial experience.

If you want to think deeply: Nostalgia for the Light (2010, directed by Patricio Guzmán. Not rated, 90 minutes.) 

Search for the past: This incredibly powerful film is, at its core, an all-­encompassing look at humanity. Chilean director Guzmán had wanted to be an astronomer before he got sidetracked into filmmaking. In this film, he reflects on his youth and his desire to look at the stars and brings the viewer to Chile’s vast Atacama Desert. It has a gruesome past—it’s where bodies from dictator General Pinochet’s brutal regime are believed to have been buried. Guzmán makes an unexpected connection between his childhood ambitions and the plight of the women wandering this desert looking for the bodies of their loved ones. It sounds bleak, but this beautifully shot film about remembrance is breathtaking and extraordinary and quite possibly unlike anything you’ve seen. 

A foodie’s film: Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011, directed by David Gelb. Rated PG, 81 minutes.) 

Fresh look at the art of sushi: In this film, Jiro Ono is an 85-year-old sushi chef who’s considered to be the world’s best. He has been perfecting his craft in a tiny sushi bar in a Tokyo subway station for decades. His restaurant has 10 seats, three Michelin stars and a legion of devoted fans. This documentary explores the level of preparation that goes into his work and the delicacy of his craft. But it’s also about the complex relationship he has with his son, who struggles to live up to his father’s expectations as heir to the family business. 

For sports fans: When We Were Kings (1996, directed by Leon Gast. Rated PG, 88 minutes.)

Entertaining ’70s retrospective: There’s a reason this won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. It’s a boxing documentary that goes beyond boxing. It chronicles the famed “Rumble in the Jungle” 1974 heavyweight championship match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Africa. There’s a masterful mixture of archived material and commentary from Norman Mailer, Spike Lee and George Plimpton. Above all, you’ll understand how ­dazzling Ali was in and out of the ring. 

If you want a good laugh: American Movie (1999, directed by Chris Smith. Rated R, 107 minutes.)

Behind the scenes of moviemaking: You might say to yourself, Nothing real can be this insane. But you would be wrong. Director Smith documents the shenanigans in the making of Coven, a short horror film. Smith follows the filmmaker Mark Borchardt and his loyal friend Mike Schank, a quintessential pot-smoking slacker, as they try desperately to get the movie made in spite of personal problems and funding issues. But what’s lovely is that as absurd as the film is, the tone isn’t satirical. Instead, you’ll come away with great affection for Borchardt and Schank. 

If you’re a people-watcher: Grey ­Gardens (1975, directed by Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer. Rated PG, 95 minutes.) 

Revealing look at an unusual duo: If you don’t already know the true ­story of eccentric mother and daughter Edith and Edie Bouvier Beale, it’s time you did. These women—distant relatives of Jacqueline Onassis—are misfits who rarely leave their filthy, decrepit mansion in New York’s tony East Hampton (their roommates—cats and raccoons). They’re partly hoarders, partly agoraphobes and fully odd. Not much even happens in this documentary, and yet it’s compelling because the subjects are truly unique—and also wildly amusing, throwing out comic gems without even intending to be funny as they recount their quirky, privileged past. Note: The Broadway musical version, also called Grey Gardens, was based on this film. 

If you want to escape: Encounters at the End of the World (2007, directed by Werner Herzog. Rated G, 99 minutes.) 

Introduction to a strange land: The famed director, who has produced tons of fiction films as well—such as Queen of the Desert starring Nicole Kidman—has made one of his very best documentaries with this film, in which he visits the ­McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica. McMurdo is the largest habitation on the continent and the home of scientists including volcanologists, ice specialists, geologists and polar animal experts. As you meet the individuals working and living there, you explore the continent’s stunning and stark beauty. It’s a look inside a world most of us will never see, and it’s gorgeous. 

For true-crime buffs: The Thin Blue Line (1988, directed by Errol Morris. Not rated, 101 minutes.)

Real-life thriller: In 1977, a Dallas man named ­Randall Dale Adams was convicted of killing a police officer. When director ­Morris stumbled upon the case, he became increasingly convinced that the wrong man had been imprisoned for the crime. He got witnesses to speak on camera, created dramatic reenactments and assembled a persuasive film that called Adams’s conviction into question. The movie’s release led to a public outcry—Give Adams a retrial! As a result, damaging testimony was recanted, the real killer was identified and the charges against Adams were dropped. The reenactments integrated into the narrative sparked arguments about what constitutes a documentary, and the film arguably informed today’s reality television and true-crime shows.

Almost like going to a concert: Don’t Look Back (1967, directed by D.A. Pennebaker. Not rated, 96 minutes.)

In-depth rockumentary: You’ll find this at the top of every list of best music documentaries. The film has a simple ­premise—Pennebaker follows 23-year-old Bob Dylan for three weeks as he tours England in 1965 and features friends and fellow musicians such as Donovan and Joan Baez, among others. Interestingly, the film doesn’t portray Dylan in a good light. He comes across as rude and dismissive to those around him and certainly to the reporters to whom he grants interviews. The movie is almost more of a travelogue through England, in fact, set to Dylan’s singular music. Because of its searingly honest look at its subject and Pennebaker’s fly-on-the-wall shooting style, it’s considered a template for all rockumentaries that followed. 

If you don’t like documentaries: Man on Wire (2008, directed by James Marsh. Rated PG-13, 94 minutes.) 

Stunt that stunned the world: From the director of Project Nim (see “If you’re up for a good cry” above), this documentary is about a Frenchman named Philippe Petit, who in 1974 set a seemingly impossible (and insane) goal for himself—to walk on a high wire suspended more than 1,300 feet in the air, between the two towers of the World Trade Center. And he succeeds. The film highlights his previous daredevil stunts, including a similar stroll across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia…and the preparation for his ultimate feat, all with a heart-stopping sense of urgency and exhilaration.