Recently, I was asked to make a list of documentary films for the Kilimanjaro Film Institute (KFI) in Tanzania, where I’ll be speaking and teaching workshops to students and staff about the genre I love. Here’s a not too comprehensive film list of classic documentaries as well as some of my contemporary favourites:

Nanook of the North – Robert Flaherty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZLROkFqG-k

Man with a movie camera – Dziga Vertov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iey9YIbra2U

A Saint-Henri le cinq septembre – Hubert Aquin

Pour la suite du monde – Michel Brault & Pierre Perrault

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYIK_-g3rBo

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Chronique d’un été – Jean Rouch

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Titicut Follies – Frederick Wiseman

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Monterey Pop + Dont Look Back – D.A. Pennebaker

Primary + Crisis  – Robert Drew & Richard Leacock

The Thin Blue Line + The Fog of War – Errol Morris

Roger & Me + Bowling for Columbine – Michael Moore

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media – Peter Wintonick

Capturing the Friedmans – Andrew Jarecki

Grizzly Man – Werner Herzog

Hoop Dreams – Steve James

When We Were Kings – Leon Gast

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills  – Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky

Super Size me + The Greatest Movie ever sold – Morgan Spurlock

The War Room – Chris Hegedus