American Dream is a 1990 British-American cinéma vérité documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple and co-directed by Cathy Caplan, Thomas Haneke, and Lawrence Silk.
Wordplay is a 2006 documentary film directed by Patrick Creadon. It features Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, crossword constructor Merl Reagle, and many other noted crossword solvers and constructors. The second half of the movie is set at the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), where the top solvers compete for a prize of $4000. Wordplay was the best reviewed documentary film of 2006, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
An Unreasonable Man is a 2006 documentary film that traces the life and career of political activist Ralph Nader, the founder of modern consumer protection in America and perennial presidential candidate. The film was created to defend Nader and restore his reputation after his controversial role in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
Chicago 10: Speak Your Peace is a 2007 American animated documentary written and directed by Brett Morgen that tells the story of the Chicago Eight. The film features the voices of Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber, James Urbaniak, and Jeffrey Wright in an animated reenactment of the trial based on transcripts and rediscovered audio recordings. It also contains archival footage of Abbie Hoffman, David Dellinger, William Kunstler, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, Tom Hayden, and Leonard Weinglass, and of the protest and riot itself. The title is drawn from a quote by Rubin, who said, "Anyone who calls us the Chicago Seven is a racist. Because you're discrediting Bobby Seale. You can call us the Chicago Eight, but really we're the Chicago Ten, because our two lawyers went down with us."
King Corn is a documentary film released in October 2007 that follows college friends Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis as they move from Boston to Greene, Iowa to grow and farm an acre of corn. Coincidentally, the trip also takes them back to where both of their families have roots. In the process, Cheney and Ellis examine the trend of increased corn production and its effects on American society, highlighting the role of government subsidies in encouraging the huge amount of corn grown. Furthermore, by studying the food economy through the history of corn in America, the two realize most foods contain corn in some form.
Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea is a documentary film by Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, with narration by John Waters and music by Friends of Dean Martinez.
Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust is 2004 documentary film about Menachem Daum, an Orthodox Jew and son of German Nazi Holocaust survivors who has spent his life interviewing survivors about the impact of the Holocaust on their lives. After hearing a disturbing tape of a rabbi openly preaching "hatred" of non-Jews, Daum attempts to raise an outcry in his Brooklyn Orthodox community. When ignored by the media and community leaders, Daum decides to fly to Israel to discuss the matter with his two sons, concerned with the "ethical legacy" he is responsible for leaving them.
Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner is a 2006 documentary film that follows the personal and political life of Tony Kushner, leading American playwright and author of the epochal Angels in America. The film begins in 2001 and ends in 2004, tracing the production of his play Homebody/Kabul, his marriage to Mark Harris, and his work on John Kerry's presidential campaign.
The Camden 28 is a 2007 documentary film about twenty-eight members of the "Catholic Left" who were arrested in 1971 for attempting to break into and vandalize a draft board in Camden, New Jersey. Because the Camden 28 were not militant and did not plant bombs like the Weathermen, they provided a much greater threat to the U.S. government: the growing religious opposition to the Vietnam war could not be written off as extremist, so they had to be brought down.
The Fall of Fujimori is a 2005 documentary film about Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who fled the country for Japan in 2000 to avoid facing 21 charges of corruption, murder and human rights abuses. Then, five years later, Fujimori flew into Chile and declared his intention of once again running for president in 2006. He was promptly arrested.
Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Academy Award-nominated director Arthur Dong.
Earth Days is a 2009 documentary film about the history of the environmental movement in the United States, directed by Robert Stone and distributed by Zeitgeist Films in theaters. Earth Days premiered at the 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival, and released to theatres on August 14, 2009.
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein is a 2009 documentary film about the life of the American academic Norman Finkelstein, directed and produced by David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier. The documentary features Finkelstein and several of his supporters and opponents, including Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz.
Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey is a 2012 American documentary film of the band Journey and its new lead vocalist Arnel Pineda.
Waste Land is a 2010 British-Brazilian documentary film directed by Lucy Walker. The film chronicles artist Vik Muniz, who travels to the world's largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho outside Rio de Janeiro, to collaborate with a lively group of catadores of recyclable materials, who find a way to the most prestigious auction house in London via the surprising transformation of refuse into contemporary art. The catadores work in a co-operative founded and led by Sebastião Carlos Dos Santos, the ACAMJG, or Association of Pickers of Jardim Gramacho, who dreamed of improving life for his community. The money created by the selling of the artworks was given back to the catadores and the ACAMJG, as well as the prize money from the film awards, to help the catadores and their community.
The Interrupters is a 2011 documentary film, produced by Kartemquin Films, that tells the story of three violence interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. It examines a year in which Chicago drew national headlines for violence and murder that plagued the city.
Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst is a 2004 PBS documentary film about the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army left-wing revolutionary group. It was directed by Robert Stone, and features interviews with Timothy Findley and SLA members Russ Little and Michael Bortin.
Best Kept Secret is a 2013 documentary film that was directed by Samantha Buck and produced by Danielle DiGiacomo. The film aired as part of POV on PBS and focuses on a special education teacher who must find her students a place in the real world as they prepare to leave the public school system.
(T)error is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe. The film follows undercover FBI informant Saeed "Shariff" Torres as he engages in a sting operation targeting a Muslim man named Khalifah Ali Al-Akili. The film won the Special Jury Award for Breakout First Feature at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered.
Iris is a 2014 American documentary film directed by Albert Maysles about the life of fashion icon Iris Apfel. It premiered at the 2014 New York Film Festival and was released theatrically the following year. It was released on PBS's POV after its theatrical run.
