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Arts > Movies > Directors > Documentary filmmakers

20th, 21st century

Americas, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, India,

NZ, UK, USA

Restrepo Trailer

Video Trailer DrimsProduction June 13, 2010

The film received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary

at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger

Release Date: 2 July 2010

Genre: Documentary | War

Studio: National Geographic

Plot:

Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's

year dug in with the Second Platoon

in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial valleys

reveals extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of back breaking labor,

deadly firefights, and camaraderie

as the soldiers painfully push back the Taliban.

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh56cCDto08

Shaunak Sen India

All That Breathes

video Official Trailer HBO 25 January 2023

Oscar-nominated film #AllThatBreathes,

an exploration of humankind’s connection to wildlife and climate change,

premieres February 7 on @HBOMax.

HBO is home to the shows and films that everyone is talking about,

from groundbreaking series and documentaries to the biggest blockbuster movies.

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoTlULspDyY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Shaunak_Sen

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/08/27/
1196079582/whatever-happened-to-the-bird-saving-brothers-
of-oscar-nommed-doc-all-that-breat

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/09/
1155099781/all-that-breathes-review-oscar-documentary-india-birds

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/feb/08/
all-that-breathes-review-
every-minute-of-this-oscar-nominated-documentary-is-gold-dust

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/feb/06/
stricken-smog-oscar-tipped-delhis-bird-hospital-all-that-breathes

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/10/27/
1131319953/birds-fall-to-earth-from-delhis-toxic-skies-
these-brothers-are-there-to-save-the

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/11/
all-that-breathes-review-
delhis-birdmen-on-a-mission-to-save-the-black-kite

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/23/
all-that-breathes-delhi-documentary-cannes-black-kites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
All_That_Breathes - 2022

https://www.criterion.com/films/33942-
all-that-breathes

Bing Liu China, USA

Chinese-American director and cinematographer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Bing_Liu_(filmmaker)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minding_the_Gap - 2018

https://www.criterion.com/films/30515-
minding-the-gap

Sarah Polley Canada

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Sarah_Polley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Stories_We_Tell

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/13/
100-best-films-movies-of-the-21st-century

https://www.npr.org/2013/05/15/
180847785/a-polley-family-secret-pieced-deftly-together

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/27/
nick-fraser-storyville-documentaries-film-
when-we-were-kings-stories-we-tell

https://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2013/jun/28/
stories-we-tell-trailer-sarah-polley-film-video

Brett D. Morgen USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Brett_Morgen

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/18/
moonage-daydream-review-david-bowie-documentary-brett-morgen

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/16/
1123559120/moonage-daydream-isnt-the-bowie-biography-
youre-probably-expecting

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/
movies/moonage-daydream-review-david-bowie.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/11/
brett-morgen-david-bowie-film-moonage-daydream-interview

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/
movies/david-bowie-documentary-moonage-daydream.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/24/
moonage-daydream-review-david-bowie-brett-morgen-cannes

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/19/
david-bowie-new-documentary-film-thousands-hours-live-footage

Sam Pollard USA

“MLK/FBI” (...) is the latest chapter

in a quietly monumental filmmaking career.

Pollard’s documentary work alone,

whether as director, editor or producer,

includes “Eyes on the Prize II,”

“4 Little Girls”

(on the 1963 Birmingham bombings),

several “American Masters” entries,

and the symphonic

“When the Levees Broke:

A Requiem in Four Acts.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/
movies/sam-pollard-mlk-fbi.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/
movies/mlk-fbi-review.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/16/
mlkfbi-review-
martin-luther-king-j-edgar-hoover-documentary-sam-pollard

Richard Linklater USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Richard_Linklater

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/01/
magazine/richard-linklater-interview.html

Martha Coolidge USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Martha_Coolidge

https://www.criterion.com/films/
33619-not-a-pretty-picture - August 2024

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/03/07/
martha-coolidge-not-a-pretty-picture-review - March 7, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/
movies/not-a-pretty-picture-anthology-film-archives.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/24/
movies/women-film-directors-make-a-strong-comeback.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/29/
movies/valley-girl-a-coast-comedy.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/06/
movies/at-the-movies-three-women-and-their-road-to-directing.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Not_a_Pretty_Picture - 1976

Stanley Nelson USA

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/
movies/review-
the-black-panthers-captures-a-militant-movements-soul-and-swagger.html

Ross McElwee

Photographic Memory

Video Offical Movie Trailer McElweeEntertainment 25 October 2011

2011 film release by Ross McElwee

Feature length 84 Minutes copyright St. Quay Films / French Connection / Arte

YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcAjO5G3kTc

The Men of Atalissa

produced by The New York Times

video journalist Kassie Bracken

and columnist Dan Barry,

and edited by John Woo.

https://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/povdocs/2014/03/
the-men-of-atalissa-watch-the-documentary-go-behind-the-story-
with-journalists-from-the-new-york-times/

http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/povdocs/2014/03/
the-men-of-atalissa-watch-the-documentary-go-behind-the-story-
with-journalists-from-the-new-york-times/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbz_wFT9foQ

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002757071/
the-men-of-atalissa.html

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/03/09/
us/the-boys-in-the-bunkhouse.html

Danny Glover

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Movie Trailer (2011) HD

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975

mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material

shot by Swedish filmmakers,

after languishing in a basement of a TV station for 30 years,

into an irresistible mosaic of images, music, and narration

chronicling the evolution one of our nation's

most indelible turning points,

the Black Power movement.

Featuring candid interviews with the movement's

most explosive revolutionary minds,

including Angela Davis, Bobby Seale,

Stokely Carmichael, and Kathleen Cleaver,

the film explores the community, people

and radical ideas of the movement.

Music by Questlove and Om'Mas Keith,

and commentary from and modern voices including

Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, and Melvin Van Peebles

give the historical footage a fresh sound and make

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-75

an exhilarating, unprecedented account

of an American revolution.

MOVIECLIPS Trailer

YouTube > MOVIECLIPS Trailers 11 August 2011

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

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/08/
black-power-mixtape-danny-glover

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/08/
usa.gender

Josh Fox USA

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jan/13/
gasland-review

Eugene Jarecki USA

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/22/
the-house-i-live-in-review

http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/movies/
the-house-i-live-in-directed-by-eugene-jarecki.html

Julian Temple UK

https://www.theguardian.com/film/
julien-temple

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/10/detroit-motor-city-urban-decline

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/04/oil-city-confidential-review

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/dec/09/julien-temple-the-kinks

Donal MacIntyre Ireland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Donal_MacIntyre

Michale Boganim Israel

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/
movies/from-ukraine-to-brooklyn-and-still-looking-for-home.html

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade France

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Jean-Xavier_de_Lestrade

Ken Burns USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Ken_Burns

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/
arts/television/ken-burns-american-revolution.html

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/
982706363/filmmakers-call-out-pbs-for-a-lack-of-diversity-
over-reliance-on-ken-burns

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/30/
982637327/ken-burns-hemingway-docuseries-dives-
into-the-writers-complicated-life

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/
958189841/ken-burns-says-
u-s-has-3-viruses-covid-19-white-supremacy-and-misinformation

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/sep/25/
the-vietnam-war-terror-heartbreak-and-helicopters-ablaze-
in-an-epic-documentary

http://www.npr.org/2017/09/21/
552575164/in-vietnam-war-
ken-burns-wrestles-with-the-conflict-s-contradictions

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/
arts/television/
ken-burns-and-lynn-novick-tackle-the-vietnam-war.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/
arts/television/21war.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/23/
movies/tv-view-our-war-the-way-it-was.html

Errol Morris USA

https://www.theguardian.com/film/
errol-morris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Errol_Morris

http://www.errolmorris.com/

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/1097-
gates-of-heaven-vernon-florida

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/06/
charles-manson-documentary-errol-morris

https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/29/
separated-review-quietly-furious-take-down-of-trumps-inhumane-border-policy

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/
arts/television/wilderness-of-error-errol-morris-jeffrey-macdonald.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t3PjviOl_I
- NYT video - 13 February 2014

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/14/
jeffrey-macdonald-murder-errol-morris

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896866/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yznRGS9f-jI
- NYT video - 21 November 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ICxqP-t1Ms
- NYT video - 21 November 2013

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jul/18/documentary

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/movies/26morris.html

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/movies/25stan.html

Jack Hazan

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/05/
movies/bigger-splash-fiction-about-david-hockney.html

Charles Burnett USA

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jun/06/
filmandmusic1.filmandmusic5

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/jun/22/
film.review3

Frederick Wiseman USA

Nick Broomfield UK

https://www.theguardian.com/film/
nick-broomfield

Alex Gibney USA

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/movies/18taxi.html

Carol Morley UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/09/
joyce-vincent-death-mystery-documentary

Robert P. Epstein / Rob Epstein USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Rob_Epstein

https://www.criterion.com/films/27549-
the-times-of-harvey-milk - 1984

Michael Moore USA

https://www.theguardian.com/film/
michaelmoore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Michael_Moore

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/
movies/fahrenheit-9-11-anniversary.html

https://www.nytimes.com/video/theater/
100000005342372/michael-moore-terms-surrender-broadway.html - Aug. 10, 2017

https://www.npr.org/2017/03/06/
518743034/filmmaker-michael-moores-guide-to-challenging-trumps-presidency

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/11/
where-to-invade-next-film-review-michael-moore-happy-toronto-tiff

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/11/
michael-moore-where-to-invade-next-toronto-tiff-jake-gyllenhaal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/28/michael-moore-memoir-georgia

https://www.npr.org/2011/09/14/
140471057/michael-moore-on-his-penchant-for-trouble

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/11/michael-moore-catholic-capitalism

https://www.npr.org/2007/06/20/
11208212/michael-moores-sicko-flogs-u-s-health-care

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/20/
uk.vanessathorpe

https://www.npr.org/2004/10/18/
4114227/director-michael-moore-on-politics-and-film

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/nov/11/
usforeignpolicy.guardianinterviewsatbfisouthbank

https://www.npr.org/2002/11/02/
829697/moore-film-targets-gun-violence-american-media

https://www.npr.org/2002/10/12/
1151576/bowling-for-columbine

https://www.criterion.com/films/28785-
bowling-for-columbine

Joel DeMott USA 1947-2025

Her “Seventeen,”

a study of teenagers later recognized

as a major work of cinéma vérité,

was pulled from a public TV series in 1982

under pressure from its sponsor.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/
arts/joel-demott-dead.html

Ofra Bikel Israel, USA 1929-2024

filmmaker with a focus on criminal justice

Her award-winning documentaries

for PBS’s “Frontline” series

shed light on serious flaws

in several cases and helped lead

to the release of 13 prisoners.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/
business/media/ofra-bikel-dead.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Ofra_Bikel

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/29/
nx-s1-5092122/ofra-bikel-documentarian-who-exposed-injustice-dies-at-94

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/
remembering-ofra-bikel-frontline-producer/ - August 29, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/
business/media/ofra-bikel-dead.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/08/27/
ofra-bikel-dead-pbs-frontline/

https://www.npr.org/2008/11/24/
97396759/documenting-chavezs-rise-to-the-top

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/04/
movies/television-review-
a-growth-industry-helping-recall-sexual-abuse.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/01/
weekinreview/conversations-ofra-bikel-
the-patience-and-passion-of-a-documentary-film-maker.html

Allan King Canada 1930-2009

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Allan_King

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/752-
eclipse-series-24-the-actuality-dramas-of-allan-king

Sam Hanna UK 1903-1996

pioneering film-maker

from Burnley, Lancashire,

was once called the ‘Lowry of film-making’.

His work depicts people of all ages

as they lived and worked in a region

that was rapidly losing

its economic role and industrial identity

in postwar Britain.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/jun/12/
the-work-of-sam-hanna-the-lowry-of-film-making-
in-pictures

Morgan Valentine Spurlock USA 1970-2024

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Morgan_Spurlock

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/24/
nx-s1-4978739/morgan-spurlock-dead-super-size-me

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/14/
570717348/filmmaker-morgan-spurlock-posts-online-confessional-of-sexual-misconduct

https://www.npr.org/2014/05/09/
308752288/a-movie-about-product-placement-paid-for-by-product-placement

Ellen Margerethe Hovde USA 1925-2023

documentarian who was one of the directors

of “Grey Gardens,”

the groundbreaking 1975 movie

that examined the lives of two reclusive women

living in a deteriorating mansion on Long Island

and inspired both a Broadway musical

and an HBO film

(...)

Ms. Hovde worked on several films

with the Maysles brothers, Albert and David,

in the late 1960s and ’70s,

when they were expanding the documentary form

with cinéma vérité techniques,

eschewing sit-in-a-chair interviews

in favor of recording life and events

as they happened.

In 1969

she was a contributing editor on “Salesman,”

a documentary by the Maysleses

and Charlotte Zwerin

that followed four salesmen

as they peddled $49.95 Bibles door to door

in New England and Florida.

The next year

she was an editor on “Gimme Shelter,”

the documentary

by the Maysleses and Ms. Zwerin

that captured a Rolling Stones tour,

including the concert

at Altamont Speedway

in Northern California in late 1969

at which a concertgoer was killed

by a Hells Angel.

In 1974

she was credited as a director,

along with the Maysleses,

on “Christo’s Valley Curtain,”

which was about an environmental art project

the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude erected

in Colorado in 1972.

That film was nominated

for an Academy Award

for best documentary short.

The next year came “Grey Gardens.”

That film, which garnered

considerable attention at the time

and in 2010 was named

to the National Film Registry

of culturally significant movies,

took a close-up,

often uncomfortable look

at the lives of Edie Beale

and her mother, Edith Beale,

relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

who had dropped out of high society

and were living in East Hampton, N.Y.,

in a crumbling mansion along

with assorted cats and raccoons.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/
movies/ellen-hovde-dead.html

Leon Jacques Gast USA 1936-2021

filmmaker whose 22-year quest

to make “When We Were Kings,”

a documentary about Muhammad Ali

and George Foreman’s

epic 1974 boxing match,

involved a Liberian shell company,

the Hells Angels,

a drug deal gone bad,

the singer Wyclef Jean

and ultimately an Academy Award

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/
movies/leon-gast-dead.html

Michael David Apted UK 1941-2021

Peter Lorrimer Whitehead UK 1937-2019

Donn Alan Pennebaker USA 1925-2019

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
D._A._Pennebaker

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/aug/04/
da-pennebaker-obituary

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/
movies/d-a-pennebaker-dead.html

https://www.criterion.com/films/30213-
town-bloody-hall - filmed in 1971, released in 1979

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Town_Bloody_Hall

https://www.criterion.com/films/30212-
original-cast-album-company - 1970

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Monterey_Pop - 1968

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/326-
the-complete-monterey-pop-festival

Murray Lerner USA 1927-2017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Murray_Lerner

https://www.criterion.com/films/
28889-festival - 1967

Harold Monroe Tulchin USA 1926-2017

In August 1969,

Nina Simone took the stage

at Mount Morris Park in Harlem

for a remarkable performance

in which she sang

“To Be Young, Gifted and Black”

and recited a poem that asked, provocatively,

if her audience was ready to “kill if necessary,”

“smash white things”

and “give yourself, your love, your soul,

your heart, to create life.”

Ms. Simone was one of many artists,

mostly African-American,

who appeared that summer

at the Harlem Cultural Festival,

a series of six free Sunday concerts.

Stevie Wonder was there,

as were other popular music acts,

each of which could have attracted

a big crowd on its own:

the 5th Dimension,

Abbey Lincoln, B. B. King,

Sly & the Family Stone,

Herbie Mann, Hugh Masekela,

Gladys Knight & the Pips,

David Ruffin, Mahalia Jackson

and the Staple Singers.

The series,

partly overlapping with another music festival

being held in upstate New York that summer,

became known as “the Black Woodstock.”

All six concerts

— at what is now called Marcus Garvey Park —

were videotaped under the direction of Hal Tulchin,

a television veteran.

He compiled an estimated 40 hours of music,

dance and comedy

(by Moms Mabley and George Kirby).

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/
arts/television/hal-tulchin-90-dies-documented-a-little-seen-black-woodstock.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Harlem_Cultural_Festival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Summer_of_Soul

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/
arts/television/
hal-tulchin-90-dies-
documented-a-little-seen-black-woodstock.html

Murray Lerner USA 1927-2017

Murray Lerner ('s) documentaries

captured some of the world’s

greatest folk and rock musicians

in era-defining performances

(...)

Mr. Lerner filmed the Newport Folk Festival

for four years in the early and middle 1960s,

including the much-referenced moment

when Bob Dylan plugged in an electric guitar.

He also filmed

the volatile 1970 Isle of Wight Festival,

where commercial and communal

sensibilities collided.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/
movies/murray-lerner-who-filmed-musics-biggest-stars-dies-at-90.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/
movies/murray-lerner-who-filmed-musics-biggest-stars-
dies-at-90.html

Gary Joe Keys USA 1934-2015

Gary Keys in 1992.

Photograph: John D. Kisch

Separate Cinema Archive, via Getty Images

Gary Keys,

Filmmaker Who Documented Duke Ellington,

Dies at 81

NYT

AUG. 30, 2015

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/
movies/gary-keys-filmmaker-who-documented-duke-ellington-dies-at-81.html

filmmaker whose documentaries captured

some of the most important figures in jazz

from the 1960s through the 1980s

— notably Duke Ellington,

the subject of three of his films —

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/
movies/gary-keys-filmmaker-who-documented-duke-ellington-dies-at-81.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/
movies/gary-keys-filmmaker-who-documented-duke-ellington-
dies-at-81.html

Albert H. Maysles USA 1926-2015

Bruce Jeffrey Sinofsky USA 1956-2015

Bruce Sinofsky, right,

with his collaborator Joe Berlinger in 1996.

Photograph: Jonathan Wiggs

The Boston Globe, via Getty Images

Bruce Sinofsky, Lauded Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 58

NYT

FEB. 24, 2015

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/
movies/bruce-sinofsky-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-58.html

filmmaker whose critically lauded documentaries

tracked a notorious East Arkansas murder case

and portrayed the heavy metal band Metallica

as a dysfunctional family

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/
movies/bruce-sinofsky-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-58.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/
movies/bruce-sinofsky-documentary-filmmaker-
dies-at-58.html

Paul Almond Canada 1931-2015

Canadian director

whose television film “Seven Up!”

examined the lives of a group

of midcentury British children

and became the basis of the documentary series

that has followed them into middle age

(...)

One of the most highly regarded

documentaries of all time, the “Up” series,

as it is collectively known,

is most closely associated with Michael Apted,

who directed all but the inaugural installment.

But it was Mr. Almond

who helped conceive that film,

first shown on British television in 1964.

Forty minutes long

and shot in black and white,

“Seven Up!”

examined the enduring British class system

through the lives of 14 7-year-olds

from across the socioeconomic spectrum.

He can be heard asking the children

— 10 boys and four girls —

questions about family, love

and adult aspirations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/
arts/television/paul-almond-the-director-of-seven-up-dies-at-83.html

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/apr/15/
paul-almond-director-seven-up-dies-aged-83

Robert Drew USA 1924-2014

pioneer of the modern documentary

who in "Primary" and other movies

mastered the intimate, spontaneous style

known as cinema verite

and schooled a generation

of influential directors that included

D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles

(...)

Mr. Drew's dozens of films included "The Chair,"

a 1963 documentary about a death penalty case

in Illinois, and "784 Days That Changed America:

From Watergate to Resignation,"

winner in 1982 of a Peabody award.

Many of his movies were edited

and co-produced by his wife, Anne Drew,

who died in 2012.

While a photographer and editor with Life,

Mr. Drew formed Drew Associates in 1960

with the goal of applying

his magazine experience to films.

Among those joining him

were such future directors as Mr. Pennebaker

("Don't Look Back," ''The War Room"),

Mr. Maysles (who with brother David

made "Gimme Shelter" and "Grey Gardens")

and Mr. Leacock ("Happy Mother's Day").

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/07/30/us/ap-us-obit-robert-drew.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Robert_Drew

https://www.criterion.com/films/28907-
the-kennedy-films-of-robert-drew-associates

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/07/
robert-drew

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/
movies/
the-kennedy-films-of-robert-drew-associates-reissued-on-dvd.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/07/
robert-drew

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/
movies/robert-l-drew-pioneer-in-filmmaking-dies-at-90.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/31/
robert-drew-pioneer-of-documentary-film-making-dies-at-90

https://www.npr.org/2013/11/16/
245550528/jfk-wrote-the-book-on-modern-presidential-campaigns

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/19/
arts/the-tv-watch-
how-the-death-of-a-president-led-to-the-birth-of-a-medium.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/13/
movies/film-albert-maysles-camera-sees-and-says-it-all.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/20/
movies/why-are-documentaries-so-dull.html

Robert Grosvenor Gardner USA 1925-2014

Robert Gardner

on the banks of the Ganges in the mid-1980s.

Photograph: Ned Johnston

Robert Gardner Dies at 88; Filmed Cultural Practices

NYT

JUNE 27, 2014

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/
arts/robert-gardner-dies-at-88-filmed-cultural-practices.html

intrepid filmmaker who specialized

in anthropological documentaries,

examining lives in remote societies

around the globe

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/
arts/robert-gardner-dies-at-88-filmed-cultural-practices.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/arts/
robert-gardner-dies-at-88-filmed-cultural-practices.html

Malik Bendjelloul Sweden 1977-2014

Swedish filmmaker

who won the 2013 Academy Award

for best documentary with his debut feature,

“Searching for Sugar Man,”

about a forgotten American balladeer

who, unwittingly,

had achieved fame halfway around the world

(...)

The film tells the story of Sixto Rodriguez,

a singer, songwriter and guitarist from Detroit

who recorded two blues-tinged folk-rock albums

under the single name Rodriguez

in the early 1970s

and then vanished from the music scene,

a casualty of poor publicity and meager sales.

(...)

For decades he supported himself

and three daughters doing manual labor,

unaware that his music

— songs of protest and hardscrabble life

rendered in a heartfelt tenor —

had resonated in South Africa,

where opponents of apartheid

especially admired his anthems of struggle.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/
movies/malik-bendjelloul-36-dies-directed-sugar-man-movie.html

Robert Maurice Fresco USA 1930-2014

Robert M. Fresco in Atlantic City

at the 1964 Democratic National Convention,

where he was filming a documentary.

Photograph: unknown

Robert M. Fresco, Oscar-Winning Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 83

NYT

FEB. 20, 2014

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/
movies/robert-m-fresco-a-filmmaker-and-writer-dies-at-83.html

Academy Award-winning

documentary filmmaker

who began his career

as a writer of horror pictures

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/movies/robert-m-fresco-a-filmmaker-and-writer-dies-at-83.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/
movies/robert-m-fresco-a-filmmaker-and-writer-dies-at-83.html

Saul Irwin Landau USA 1936-2013

a determinedly leftist documentary filmmaker

and writer whose passion

for asking what he called

“the most intrusive questions”

yielded penetrating cinematic profiles

of leaders like Fidel Castro

and Salvador Allende

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/
arts/saul-landau-maker-of-films-with-leftist-edge-dies-at-77.html

Les Blank USA 1935-2013

Les Blank ('s) sly, sensuous

and lyrical documentaries about regional music

and a host of other idiosyncratic subjects,

including Mardi Gras, gaptoothed women, garlic

and the filmmaker Werner Herzog,

were widely admired by critics and other filmmakers

if not widely known by moviegoers

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/
movies/les-blank-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-77.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Les_Blank

https://www.criterion.com/films/28658-
les-blank-always-for-pleasure - 1968

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/21/
burden-of-dreams-review-
on-location-account-of-werner-herzogs-fitzcarraldo-is-a-gruelling-delight

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/apr/12/
les-blank-dies-documentary-music

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/apr/12/
les-blank-werner-herzog

https://www.npr.org/2013/04/08/
176597457/filmmaker-les-blank-made-cinematic-art-out-of-interests

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/
movies/les-blank-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-77.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/jan/13/
derekmalcolmscenturyoffilm

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/05/
arts/home-video-garlic-good-ten-mothers-directed-les-blank-
1981-flower-films-51.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/26/movies/
film-view-portrait-of-a-tortured-director-flirting-with-death.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/11/
movies/a-les-blank-trio-from-garlic-to-tattoos.html

Robert Kee UK 1919-2013

Robert Kee (...) belonged to a vanishing tradition

of great TV documentary makers and presenters

with roots in print journalism and books.

He might be presenting

the BBC's Panorama or ITN's lunchtime

news programme of the early 1970s,

First Report,

but his roots and style were always back

in the puritanical tell-it-as-it-is ethic

of Picture Post magazine.

Thus, of the Famous Five

who in 1983 founded the commercial

breakfast television station TV-am,

he was the least glitzy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/jan/11/robert-kee-obituary

Timothy Alistair Hetherington UK 1970-2011

The photographer and film-maker

Tim Hetherington was killed

at the age of 40 while covering

the escalating violence in Misrata, Libya

(...).

The canon of work he bequeaths

defines a generation of reportage.

His eye and ability for capturing on film

some of the most disturbing events

of the past decade was as relentless

as it was unsurpassed.

With a great sense of self-deprecation and humanity,

Hetherington was driven repeatedly to explore

the ragged, violent margins of society

to bring back portraits of people

profoundly affected by conflict.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/21/tim-hetherington-obituary

https://www.theguardian.com/media/
tim-hetherington

https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/
a-show-of-respect-for-a-fallen-friend/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2011/sep/17/sebastian-junger-war-film-afghanistan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/21/tim-hetherington-remembered

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/apr/21/tim-hetherington-in-pictures

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/21/tim-hetherington-obituary

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/07/
restrepo-film-review

Richard Leacock UK 1921-2011

filmmaker who helped create the documentary style

known as direct camera or cinéma vérité,

and who played a pivotal role

in making some of the most innovative

documentaries of the 1960s

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/
arts/richard-leacock-innovative-documentary-maker-dies-at-89.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/arts/
richard-leacock-innovative-documentary-maker-dies-at-89.htm

Arthur Everett Holch Jr. USA 1924-2010

Emmy Award-winning television documentarian

whose work at midcentury and afterward

tackled charged subjects

like race relations, Nazism and Communism

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/arts/02holch.html

Geoffrey Jones UK 1931-2005

Maker of tiny documentary gems

in the 1960s and 70s

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/aug/17/
guardianobituaries.film

Charlotte Zwerin USA 1931-2004

born Charlotte Mitchell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Charlotte_Zwerin

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/01/27/
charlottes-place-living-with-the-ghost-of-a-verite-pioneer

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/
arts/salesman-documentary-maysles.html

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2011/oct/27/
hail-hail-rock-n-roll-gimme-shelter

https://www.npr.org/2010/08/20/
129277106/the-summer-of-music-documentaries-gimme-shelter

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/02/
IHT-correction.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/27/
arts/charlotte-zwerin-72-maker-of-documentaries-on-artists.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/30/
nyregion/public-lives-a-verite-veteran-reflects-on-life-behind-the-camera.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/28/
movies/critic-s-choice-
film-where-desperation-must-look-itself-in-the-face.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/30/
movies/tracking-the-life-and-art-of-thelonious-monk.html

https://www.criterion.com/films/33809-
thelonious-monk-straight-no-chaser - 1988

https://www.criterion.com/films/637-
gimme-shelter - 1970

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Salesman_(1969_film)

https://www.criterion.com/films/663-
salesman - 1969

Louis Malle USA 1932-1995

Over the course of a nearly forty-year career,

Louis Malle forged a reputation

as one of the world’s

most versatile cinematic storytellers,

with such widely acclaimed,

and wide-ranging, masterpieces

as Elevator to the Gallows, My Dinner with Andre,

and Au revoir les enfants.

At the same time, however, with less fanfare,

Malle was creating a parallel,

even more personal body of work

as a documentary filmmaker.

With the discerning eye of a true artist

and the investigatory skills of a great journalist,

Malle takes us from a street corner in Paris

to America’s heartland to the expanses of India

in his astonishing epic Phantom India.

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/275-
eclipse-series-2-the-documentaries-of-louis-malle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Louis_Malle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Louis_Malle#Documentary_film

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/275-
eclipse-series-2-the-documentaries-of-louis-malle

John Grierson UK 1898-1972

More feared and respected than liked,

John Grierson had a sharp mind

and an uncompromising sense of values

- a strong brew of socialism and Calvinism.

(He has often been compared

to his fellow Scot John Reith,

whose faith in the BBC's

mission to educate and instruct

had much in common

with Grierson's view of documentary film.)

Didacticism

was the essence of his personality.

After a period on minesweepers

during the first world war,

Grierson did a degree in moral philosophy

at the University of Glasgow

- it was the time of "Red Clyde" -

and then went to the US,

studying the sociology

of mass communications and public opinion.

Routine stuff now,

but unusual in its day.

He also studied the techniques of cinema.

Two things above all impressed him:

the unprecedented achievements

of Robert Flaherty, world-famous

for his hugely successful (if fanciful)

1922 portrait of Inuit life,

Nanook of the North;

and the innovative editing techniques

of early Soviet cinema,

particularly those of Eisenstein

in Battleship Potemkin.

By the time Grierson came back

to Britain in 1926,

he was a man with a mission:

to create a national documentary movement,

more or less from scratch.

But he had no production company,

no equipment, no workers,

no patrons and no money.

What he did have

was a highly persuasive manner

and an unusual secret weapon: herrings.

(...)

The resulting film, Drifters,

cost only £2,948,

and it expanded the possibilities of cinema

for ever.

It had its first public screening

on November 10 1929 at the Tivoli Theatre,

home of the Film Society,

at an event that also saw

the UK premiere of Battleship Potemkin,

previously banned in England

as enemy propaganda.

Drifters opened the bill;

it thrilled the audience with its daring

and - as far as they knew -

fresh editing style.

Potemkin made far less impact:

it looked like watered-down Grierson.

Drifters became

the hit film of the season,

and soon went into handsome profit.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/01/
film

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/nov/10/
gpo-films-pioneers-study

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/01/
film

The FSA photographs,

along with Pare Lorentz's

government-sponsored documentaries

The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936)

and The River (1937),

with their images of drought, flood,

and other rural calamities,

helped Gregg Toland (the cinematographer)

and John Ford (the director)

give authenticity to their 1940 screen adaptation

of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

(Indeed, the poetic narration

and visual beauty of the Lorentz films

actually influenced Steinbeck

as he was writing the original novel.)

The Ford film, in turn,

fixed the iconography of the thirties

for future generations.

We can see its long afterlife

in films like Hal Ashby's

1976 biography of Woody Guthrie,

Bound for Glory.

https://www.npr.org/templates/
story/story.php?storyId=113057611 - September 22, 2009

https://www.npr.org/2009/09/22/
113057611/a-waltz-through-depression-era-art-and-culture

Related > Anglonautes > Arts > Movies > Directors > Documentaries

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pictures / films / movies / cinema

Related > The Guardian > In the director's chair UK

Jason Solomons interviews film-makers on video,

discussing their latest work, career to date and their visions

https://www.theguardian.com/film/series/
inthedirectorschair

The Guardian > Documentaries films UK

https://www.theguardian.com/film/documentary

https://www.theguardian.com/documentaries

PBS > Documentaries with a point of view USA

https://www.pbs.org/pov/

Related > Anglonautes > History > Documentaries > UK, USA

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