The Best Political Documentaries
My favourite political documentaries, from the end of the 19th century to the present. Some of these films - starting with Méliés' 'L'Affaire Dreyfus' - push the boundaries of the genre, but always in fascinating ways.
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- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsDramatized re-enactments of the events of the Dreyfus-affair from 1894 to 1899.
- DirectorMurray Rosenberg
- DirectorDziga Vertov"Sixth Part of the World" was the size of Soviet Union of the time. Many peoples of many customs composed it. Ice and desert, forest and ocean. Bread, furs, machines. All and every is a part of great unity.
- DirectorEsfir ShubStarsMikhail AlekseyevAlexei BrusilovNikolai ChkheidzeIn May 1913 the Romanov Dynasty celebrates its 300th anniversary at the Russian throne. The last emperor in the long line is Tsar Nicholas II. He rules over a country with huge social and economic differences. Russia is for the most part still an agrarian society, but capitalism and its industries are growing. In 1914 Russia gets involved in the First World War. Tsar Nicholas II declares a general mobilization. A vast number of peasants and workers have to go to the front as soldiers. After three years the country is ruined by the war, and there is a shortage of provisions. In February 1917 workers begin striking in the capital, Petrograd. Their protests are soon joined by soldiers. A complete anarchy is threatening the country, when the parliament, called the duma, reorganizes the power structure by forming a new Provisional Government. At the same time the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies forms another ruling body at the City Hall of Petrograd. In this situation Tsar Nicholas II sees no other possibility than to resign from his government. On the 4th of March 1917 he declares his abdication from the throne. The new Provisional Government and its war minister Kerensky continue the war. This presents an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to organize demonstrations and to persuade the workers and soldiers to overthrow the Provisional Government and seize power themselves.
- DirectorDziga VertovHow the miners of the Don coal basin (one of the industrial regions of Ukraine) were striving to fulfill in four years their part of the Five Year Plan.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsDonald CalthropA quick look at the different industries of Britain circa 1931.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAbel JacquinAlexandre O'NeillA surrealist film, a pseudo-documentary portrait of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills.
- DirectorArtkinoA self proclaimed saga of oil, celebrating the speed and power of plane, trains, and automobiles. It starts with a look at a farm, beneath which is oil. Soon, farmland is dotted with derricks. It's on to a refinery. Then, shots of oil derricks, their pumps and pistons moving, are interspersed with images of men at work and machines in motion powered by oil. Horse-drawn carts are discarded. Modern wheels turn. The narration consists of title cards written in a grandiose and rhetorical style - the bones of yesterday become the blood of today.
- An unemployed man lives with a family in a London slum area during the great depression. He applies for means-tested benefits and is refused. He steals a loaf of bread, is chased and arrested. In court the magistrate first hears the case of a group of middle class youths who have upturned a trader's cart - the case is discharged. The unemployed bread thief is convicted. The film ends urging mass civil protest.
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiStarsW.H. AudenMontagu SlaterDocumentary showing the dangerous working conditions of coal mining across England, Scotland and Wales.
- DirectorEdgar AnsteyArthur EltonStarsMr. NorwoodMrs. HillMrs. GravesSlum conditions, slum clearance, bright new public housing.
- DirectorHumphrey JenningsStewart McAllisterStarsLeonard BrockingtonJoseph MacleodBud FlanaganA depiction of life in wartime England during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.
- DirectorGustav GavrinKosta HlavatyA documentary about the horrors of the largest concentration camp in Croatia.
- DirectorRobert HessensAlain ResnaisStarsMaría CasaresJacques PruvostOn April 26 1937 the small Basque town of Guernica was bombed without warning by the German aviation. Two thousand people, all civilians, got killed. Like millions all over the world, Pablo Picasso was shocked and he translated his emotion into a magnificent but terrifying picture bearing the name of the martyred city. This film does not only comment on the painting, it also gives it a new life through frantic camera and sound effects.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
- DirectorGuy DebordStarsGuy DebordCaroline RittenerA theory of Situationism is proposed through shots of Paris, a young woman, newsreel clips, extracts from classic films, photographs and newspaper images
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsTony CosgroveOlivier Espitalier-NoelDon FairserviceThe 1746 Battle of Culloden, the last land battle fought in the British Isles and the battle that ensured that Scotland was controlled by England.
- DirectorJean-Denis BonanGérard FromangerPhilippe GarrelA series of 41 documentary shorts, directed (without credit) by several famous French filmmakers and each running between two and four minutes. Each "tract" espouses a leftist political viewpoint through the filmed depiction of real-life events, including workers' strikes and the events of Paris in May '68.
- DirectorChris MarkerFrançois ReichenbachStarsWilliam Sloane CoffinN. Paul StookeyMary Allin TraversOn October 21, 1967, over 100,000 protestors gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. It was the largest protest gathering yet, and it brought together a wide cross-section of liberals, radicals, hippies, and Yippies. Che Guevara had been killed in Bolivia only two weeks previously, and, for many, it was the transition from simply marching against the war, to taking direct action to try to stop the 'American war machine.' Norman Mailer wrote about the events in Armies of the Night. French filmmaker Chris Marker, leading a team of filmmakers, was also there, and made THE SIXTH SIDE OF THE PENTAGON.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyA somewhat-humorous look at the city of Dakar, its people, architecture, politics, social behavior, and even the white French tourists, and especially the influence of France's culture and its contrast with the indigenous culture of Senegal pre-colonization but still present in Dakar.
- DirectorGuy DebordStarsGuy DebordLeonid BrezhnevFidel CastroGuy Debord's cinematic analysis of consumer society based on his influential book "La société du spectacle" (1967).
- DirectorPeter DavisStarsTin ChanChau DiemNgo Dinh DiemA startling and courageous landmark documentary that unflinchingly confronted the United States' involvement in Vietnam at the height of the controversy that surrounded it.
- DirectorBarbet SchroederStarsIdi AminFidel CastroGolda MeirA documentary on the military dictator of Africa's Uganda.
- DirectorMarc KarlinMary KellyJames ScottStarsSally AlexanderAnn BurnettMay Hobbs"Night Cleaners" is set in the context of the campaign (1970-1972) to unionize the women who cleaned office blocks at night and were being victimized and underpaid. Intending at the outset to make a campaign film, the Collective was forced to turn to new forms in order to represent the forces at work between the cleaners, the Cleaner's Action Group and the Unions - and the complex nature of the campaign itself.