Why Frederick Wiseman Was the Greatest Documentary Filmmaker Ever
His work depended on access. He filmed in hospital rooms where patients and families faced incommensurable agonies with the aid of the medical staff (“Near Death”); he filmed in…
Tag
documentaries
28 Incredible Documentaries With The Most Shocking Endings
A while back, we asked the documentary film fans of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about the most shocking ending or twist they've ever seen in a doc. People in the comments had…
What a “Melania” Cinematographer Hoped to Accomplish
What did you make of the President and Melania? And what’s different about filming a movie in the White House or on Air Force One? Well, the film we were doing was actually a documentary.…
The Best Documentaries of 2025
The way we see it, there’s a yin and yang to documentaries. They’ve always had the potential to be deadly serious — now maybe more than ever, as a world awash in chaos spotlights such…
Two New Movies Revivify the Portrait-Film Genre
Documentaries about individuals are ubiquitous, but “Suburban Fury” and “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” explore the filmmaker-subject relationship in ways that recall classics of the…
New IDFA Bertha Fund Head Selin Murat Talks Supporting Documentaries That ‘Defy Easy Consumption’ Like Those Coming From Ukraine and Palestine
At the beginning of the year, Selin Murat left her role as markets manager at IDFA to take on the position of executive director of the IDFA Bertha Fund. She stepped into big shoes, taking…
Oscar Documentary Hopefuls Examine America’s Corrupt Prison System, the Israel-Hamas War, the Importance of Investigative Reporting in a Democracy and More
The race for the documentary feature Academy Award spotlights quality filmmaking, but also requires a whole lot of money and the support of international doc branch voters. This year’s…
A Musical Indictment of the Harris County Jail in “Criminal”
From the outside, the Harris County Jail might be mistaken for a high-end condo, with walls of windows that overlook the bayou in downtown Houston. But the windows are fake, and the…
“Once Upon a Time in Harlem” Is a Film for the Ages
The Harlem Renaissance—the subject that everyone had gathered to discuss—is described in the film by Major as the first time that Black people were recognized as creative people; by…
‘The Last Dive’ Director Talks Manta Rays, Writing Documentaries and Camden International Film Festival
In “The Last Dive,” director Cody Sheehy follows Terry Kennedy, an ex-Hell’s Angel-turned manta ray conservationist, on a personal journey to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. After a stint in jail,…
“My Undesirable Friends: Part I” Is a Staggering Portrait of Russian Journalists in Dissent
Because the Russian alphabet has no direct equivalent of the letter “H,” speakers often substitute a “G” sound; “Harry Potter” thus becomes “Garry Potter.” We’re reminded of this funny…
Singapore Film Festival Awards Southeast Asian Documentaries and Shorts
The Singapore International Film Festival has unveiled the recipients of its 2025 Film Fund, distributing S$125,000 ($97,966) across seven projects spanning feature documentaries and short…
Glory and Gore in “Afternoons of Solitude”
You don’t have to like bullfighting to watch “Afternoons of Solitude” with fascination, any more than you have to like crime to enjoy a film noir. Full disclosure: I squeamishly watch…
The 10 Best Netflix Original Nature Documentaries, Ranked
Back in the day, nature documentaries used to feel like classroom field trips: voiceover, facts, rinse, repeat. But something shifted. Now, Netflix and other companies are building them…
“Drop Dead City” Spotlights a Lost Era of Liberal Government
At a time when the very function of government is being destroyed from within, an extraordinary historical documentary, “Drop Dead City,” puts the workings and responsibilities of…
Oscar-Nominated Doc Features Shine a Light on Dark Topics, International Stories and Global Politics
Based on the feature documentaries nominated for an Academy Award over the last two years, it’s clear that if streaming services like Amazon, Apple and Netflix want to be real competitors…