IDA Staff Picks: Documentaries of the Decade
This decade has given us some of the boldest, most informative and timeliest documentaries in film history, and with it coming to an end, many of us here in the IDA staff are looking back on the films that had a special or significant impact on us, not just as documentary professionals, but as documentary lovers. Check out these IDA staff picks and find links to watch some of the best nonfiction storytelling on major streaming platforms, all the way from 2010 to the current moment. And make sure you use a legitimate streaming service to directly support the filmmakers and filmmaking team behind each film!
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- DirectorAva DuVernayStarsMelina AbdullahMichelle AlexanderCory BookerAn in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
- DirectorEmad BurnatGuy DavidiStarsEmad BurnatSoraya BurnatMohammed BurnatA documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
- DirectorJoe BiniSam GreenFilmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground), in collaboration with writer and editor Joe Bini (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Grizzly Man), takes the stage with the legendary classical-music group Kronos Quartet to create a "live documentary" that chronologically unfolds the quartet's groundbreaking, continent-spanning, multi-decade career. Wildly creative and experimental in form, A Thousand Thoughts is a meditation on music itself-the act of listening closely to music, the experience of feeling music deeply, and the power that music has to change the world. Green narrates the piece live onstage while the Kronos Quartet performs the score, and a rich blend of archival footage, photos, and interviews with members of the Kronos Quartet--as well as longtime collaborators like Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Terry Riley, Tanya Tagaq, and Steve Reich--unspools on screen. The magic of cinema combines with the energy and urgency of live performance to create incredibly rich moments that remind us of the value in the unique, the handcrafted, the ephemeral, and something that is never experienced the same way twice.
- DirectorAsif KapadiaStarsAmy WinehouseMitch WinehouseMark RonsonArchival footage and personal testimonials present an intimate portrait of the life and career of British singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse.
- DirectorStanley NelsonStarsBlair AndersonOmar BarbourJulian BondThis documentary tells the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party, one of the 20th century's most alluring and controversial organizations that captivated the world's attention for nearly 50 years.
- DirectorKirsten JohnsonStarsKirsten JohnsonAisha BukarEric W. DavisExposing her role behind the camera, Kirsten Johnson reaches into the vast trove of footage she has shot over decades around the world. What emerges is a visually bold memoir and a revelatory interrogation of the power of the camera.
- DirectorTravis WilkersonStarsTravis WilkersonEd VaughnEd VaughnA documentary murder mystery about the filmmaker's family, set in lower Alabama.
- DirectorJRAgnès VardaStarsAgnès VardaJRJeannine CarpentierDirector Agnes Varda and photographer/muralist J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
- DirectorGianfranco RosiStarsSamuele PucilloMattias CucinaSamuele CaruanaCapturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.
- DirectorWaad Al-KateabEdward WattsStarsWaad Al-KateabSama Al-KhateabHamza Al-KhateabFOR SAMA is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war.
- DirectorRaMell RossStarsLatrenda 'Boosie' AshKarmyn BryantKorbyn BryantA kaleidoscopic and humanistic view of the Black community in Hale County, Alabama.
- StarsJonathan GoldsteinJoin Jonathan Goldstein for road trips, thorny reunions, and difficult conversations as he backpedals his way into the past like a therapist with a time machine.
- DirectorTamara KotevskaLjubomir StefanovStarsHatidze MuratovaNazife MuratovaHussein SamThe last female bee-hunter in Europe must save the bees and return the natural balance in Honeyland, when a family of nomadic beekeepers invade her land and threaten her livelihood.
- DirectorRaoul PeckStarsSamuel L. JacksonJames BaldwinMartin Luther KingWriter James Baldwin tells the story of race in modern America with his unfinished novel, Remember This House.
- DirectorDaniel LindsayT.J. MartinStarsHenry AlfaroDanny BakewellJohn D. BarnettTwenty-five years after the verdict in the Rodney King trial sparked several days of protests, violence and looting in Los Angeles, filmmakers examine that tumultuous period through rarely seen archival footage.
- DirectorBing LiuStarsKent AbernathyMengyue BolenNina BowgrenFilmmaker Bing Liu searches for correlations between his skateboarder friends' turbulent upbringings and the complexities of modern masculinity.
- DirectorPatricio GuzmánStarsGaspar GalazLautaro NúñezLuís HenríquezA documentary about two different searches conducted in the Chilean Atacama Desert: one by astronomers looking for answers about the history of the cosmos, and one by women looking for the remains of loved ones killed by Pinochet's regime.
- DirectorEzra EdelmanStarsKareem Abdul-JabbarMike AlbaneseMuhammad AliA chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
- DirectorS. Leo ChiangYang SunStarsMa DuoTianyi HuangMa KeWhen influential Chinese artist Ma Liang (a.k.a. Maleonn) realizes that his father Ma Ke, an accomplished Peking Opera director, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, he invites his father to collaborate on his most ambitious project to date - a haunting, magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets called "Papa's Time Machine". Through the creation of this play, the two men confront their mortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever.
- DirectorBenjamin ReeStarsKarl Bertil-NordlandBarbora KysilkovaØystein SteneAn artist befriends the thief who stole her paintings. She becomes his closest ally when he is severely hurt in a car crash and needs full time care, even if her paintings are not found. But then the tables turn.
- DirectorSandi TanStarsJasmine Kin Kia NgPhilip CheahSophia Siddique HarveyA woman explores the events surrounding a film she and her friends began making with a mysterious stranger decades ago.
- DirectorSami KhanSmriti MundhraStarsKing Bruce Franks IIIBruce Franks Jr.Bruce Franks Jr. is a 34-year-old battle rapper, Ferguson activist and state representative from St. Louis, Missouri. Known as Superman to his constituents, he is a political figure the likes of which you've never seen - full of contradictions and deep insights, who has overcome unspeakable loss to become one of the most exciting and unapologetic young leaders in the country. This short verité documentary follows Bruce at a critical juncture in his life, when he is forced to deal with the mental trauma he's been carrying for the nearly 30 years since his 9-year-old brother was shot and killed in front of him, in order to find peace and truly fulfill his destiny as a leader for his community.
- DirectorSarah PolleyStarsMichael PolleyJohn BuchanMark PolleyA film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers.
- DirectorYance FordStarsYance FordHarvey WalkerKevin MyersWhen filmmaker Yance Ford investigates the 1992 murder of a young Black man, it becomes an achingly personal journey, since the victim, 24-year-old William Ford Jr., was the filmmaker's brother.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerAnonymousChristine CynnStarsAnwar CongoHerman KotoSyamsul ArifinA documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.