Subject Guide
Documentaries
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.”-- Mark Twain
Originally called "actuality" films, the term documentary was not coined until 1926. Early travel documentaries, or travelogues, documented the lives of non-Western people and were mostly associated with anthropologic studies. In the 1960s, the Cinéma vérité or "truthful cinema" style of documentary filmmaking laid the foundation for the modern documentary: include following a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions. Today documentary filmmakers are increasingly utilizing social impact campaigns with their films. Social impact campaigns seek to leverage media projects by converting public awareness of social issues and causes into engagement and action, largely by offering the audience a way to get involved.
Scroll down to look at Academy Award winners for Documentary Feature and Current TV's Top 50 Documentaries.
The site will be updated as titles are added to the collection.
Feel free to click on listed call numbers for additional information from DELCAT Discovery.
Academy Award Winning Documentary Feature Films
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2022- Winner & Nominees Navalny All that Breathes All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Fire of Love A House Made of Splinters 2021- Summer of Soul, DVD 22155 2020- My Octopus Teacher 2019-American Factory 2018-Free Solo, DVD 20852 2017-Icarus 2016-O.J.: Made in America, DVD 17963 2015-Amy, eVideo; DVD 16901 2014-Citizenfour, eVideo; DVD 16559; HDDVD 421 2013-20 Feet from Stardom, eVideo; DVD 14141 2012-Searching for Sugar Man, eVideo; DVD 12658 2010-Inside Job, DVD 9329; HDDVD 88 2009-The Cove, DVD 7042 2008-Man on Wire, eVideo; DVD 5796 2007-Taxi to the Dark Side, DVD 5543 2006-An Inconvenient Truth, eVideo; DVD 3014 2005-March of the Penguins, eVideo; DVD 2246 2004-Born into Brothels, DVD 2078 2002-Bowling for Columbine, eVideo; DVD 1628; 2001-Murder on a Sunday Morning, DVD 4118 2000-Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the 1999-One Day in September, DVD 446 1997-The Long Way Home, DVD 13918 disc 6 1996-When We Were Kings, DVD 13680; HDDVD 854 1995-Anne Frank Remembered, eVideo; DVD 1138
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1994-Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, eVideo; DVD 13948 1993-I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton 1992-The Panama Deception, DVD 4791 1991-In the Shadow of the Stars, DVD 14037 1990-American Dream, eVideo; DVD 833 1989-Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, 1988-Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of 1987-The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table 1986-(tie) Artie Shaw: Time is All You’ve Got (tie) Down and Out in America, VHS 2342 1985-Broken Rainbow, DVD 14036 1984-The Times of Harvey Milk, DVD 2731 1983- He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' 1982-Just Another Missing Kid 1981-Genocide: The Story of Man’s Inhumanity to Man, 1980-From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China, 1979-Best Boy, DVD 11159 1978-Scared Straight!, DVD 14195 1977-Who Are The DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? 1976-Harlan County, USA, DVD 2639 1975-The Man Who Skied Down Everest 1974-Hearts and Minds, eVideo; DVD 1597 1973-The Great American Cowboy 1972-Marjoe |
1971-The Hellstrom Chronicle 1970-Woodstock, DVD 26; HDDVD 59 1969-Arthur Rubinstein-The Love of Life= L'Amour de la vie – Artur Rubinstein 1968-Journey into Self 1967-The Anderson Platoon, VHS 925 1965-The Eleanor Roosevelt Story 1964-World Without Sun= Le Monde sans soleil 1963-Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel with the 1962-Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler 1961-The Sky Above-The Mud Below, DVD 20836 1960-The Horse with the Flying Tail 1959-Serengeti Shall Not Die 1958-White Wilderness 1957-Albert Schweitzer 1956-The Silent World= Le Monde du silence 1955-Helen Keller in Her Story 1954-The Vanishing Prairie 1953-The Living Desert 1952-The Sea Around Us 1951-Kon-Tiki, eVideo; DVD 13400 1950-The Titan: Story of Michelangelo 1949-Daybreak in Udi 1948-The Secret Land 1947-Design for Death 1946-no award given 1945-The True Glory, DVD 4762 disc 2 |
Current TV's Top 50 Documentaries
Feel free to scroll over the titles for additional information from DELCAT Discovery.
Academy Award Nominated
Academy Award Winner
Compiled by editors from the Current TV television network, this list features 50 of the most influential and/or important documentary films from the past 25 years.