50 Documentaries You Need To See (listed chronologically)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I sorted the Guardian’s list for them:

  1. Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov, 1929

  2. Le Sang des Bêtes, Georges Franju, 1949

  3. Night and Fog, Alain Resnais, 1955

  4. Le Joli Mai, Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme, 1963

  5. Up series, Michael Apted, 1964

  6. The War Game, Peter Watkins, 1965

  7. The Hour of the Furnaces, Octavia Getino and Fernando e Solanas, 1968

  8. Gimme Shelter, Albert and David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin 1970

  9. Primate, Frederick Wiseman, 1974

  10. The Battle of Chile, Patricio Guzmán, 1975, 1976, 1979

  11. Gates of Heaven, Errol Morris, 1978

  12. Global Report, Peter Armstrong, 1981

  13. Streetwise, Martin Bell, 1984

  14. Shoah, Claude Lanzmann, 1985

  15. Sherman’s March, Ross McElwee, 1986

  16. The Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris, 1988

  17. Close Up, Abbas Kiarostami, 1990

  18. Loss Is to Be Expected, Ulrich Seidl, 1992

  19. Pandora’s Box, Adam Curtis, 1992

  20. Hoop Dreams, Steve James, 1994

  21. China: Beyond the Clouds, Phil Agland, 1994

  22. Salaam Cinema, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1995

  23. Lessons of Darkness, Werner Herzog, 1995

  24. When We Were Kings , Leon Gast, 1996

  25. Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Werner Herzog, 1998

  26. Buena Vista Social Club, Wim Wenders, 1999

  27. The Gleaners and I, Agnès Varda, 2000

  28. Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore, 2002

  29. The Five Obstructions, Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth, 2003

  30. Capturing the Friedmans, Andrew Jarecki, 2003

  31. Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Nick Broomfield And Joan Churchill, 2003

  32. Some Kind of Monster, Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky, 2004

  33. The 3 Rooms of Melancholia, Pirjo Honkasalo, 2004

  34. The Power of Nightmares, Adam Curtis, 2004

  35. Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog, 2005

  36. Iraq in Fragments, James Longley, 2006

  37. When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee, 2006

  38. Sisters in Law, Kim Longinotto, 2006

  39. Waltz With Bashir , Ari Folman, 2008

  40. Man on Wire, James Marsh, 2008

  41. Into Eternity, Michael Madsen, 2010

  42. Five Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi, 2011

  43. Pina, Wim Wenders, 2011

  44. Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley, 2012

  45. Solar Mamas, Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief, 2012

  46. The Queen of Versailles, Lauren Greenfield, 2012

  47. Blackfish, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, 2013

  48. Tales of the Grim Sleeper, Nick Broomfield, 2014

  49. Virunga, Orlando von Einsiedel, 2014

  50. Amy, Asif Kapadia, 2015