I reeeeeeaaallllly need to get back to this quest. I’m going to start a petition to get 6 more hours added to the day, just so I can do cool stuff like this. Do you want to sign? (Nov. 1, 2009)

Last updated Oct 11. 2008
I have started a little quest to watch as many documentary films to have won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary as I can muster. This is not to say that the Oscars are the best measure of documentary films (they have some weird restrictions on nominations to begin with). But it is merely a catalogue to help me see a wide variety of documentaries – a type of film I’ve been interested in for some time. Also, I would like to hear your thoughts and recommendations on documentaries, whether they be on this list or not. Remember this is a place to help further real life conversation, not a dead end.

Academy Awards Best Feature Documentaries I have seen:

1961 – Le Ciel et la boue (The Sky Above and Mud Below) – European explorers venture into one of the world’s last great unmapped regions, New Guinea. They interacted hunting and gathering cultures unchanged for thousands of years. A must see if you like explorer docs.

1996 – When We Were Kings – fascinating, especially considering the doc was first meant to be about the music. Film-maker did a great job of juxtapositions.

1999 – One Day in September – good job of melding facts with real lives, but overall production was so-so

2001 – Un Coupable Ideal (Murder on a Sunday Morning) – a lower budget documentary that truly excelled in taking an event – wrongful accusal – which may happen all to often. Great job of capturing the prosecutors personality.

2002 – Bowling for Columbine

2003 – Fog of War – one of the best films, documentary or otherwise, that I have ever seen. Fantastic interview, subtle yet gripping production, and a probe into one of the 20th century’s most fascinating and prominent figures. Errol Morris is to be commended for this film and his handling of McNamara. If you have even the faintest, smallest, passing interest in how worldly decisions are made, then watch this film.

2004 – Born into Brothels

2005 – March of the Penguins

2006 – An Inconvenient Truth

Other key documentaries I have seen (a non-inclusive list):

1922 – Nanook of the North - The original documentary serves as a glimpse of a lost world.
2002- The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia – this was a fantastic recommendation LM made in a comment below. (See – I take suggestions and respond to your comments). A great documentary because I felt it remained neutral about a controversial topic, and presented both sides. I watched it with another person and we were totally engaged in conversation and debate as to whether Adams portrayal of the Appalachian people was at all balanced. A great doc: watch it. ask yourself if there is balance, remind yourself that this type of poverty exists everywhere in the world even in the richest countries.

2007 – Autism: The Musical – I wrote a post about it that the director commented on. Click here to read it.

-Pepe Danquart’s 2000 German Ice Hockey doc, Heimspeil, was a great documentary. Ice hockey is a very tough sport to capture for film or docs, and while this was his first time experiencing the sport he did a fantastic job. It is soooo European, and reminds me of some wonderful moments from my past. Not only is the story of a hockey team well told, but Danquart captures the rift that still exists between East and West in Germany.

Your thoughts, recommendations, questions are below.