Harvard University's Suggested Film Viewing List: Non-Fiction Films (2011)
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- DirectorCharles SheelerPaul StrandThis groundbreaking silent documentary captures the beauty and majesty of the New York City in its streets, skyscrapers, bridges, rail yards and harbors.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsPaul von HindenburgThis movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsKruChantuiNahA snapshot of life in the jungles of Northern Siam.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorVictor A. TurinResisting the character-driven narrative adhered to by the rest of the world's filmmakers, Victor Turin formulated a grand, elemental drama centered around the struggle for survival in Asia, from the arid plains of Turkestan to the icy Siberian mountains. This unique film tells the story of the creation of a monumental Soviet construction project - a railway that connected Central Asia and Siberia.
- DirectorMannus FrankenJoris IvensRegen is an experimental documentary film directed by Joris Ivens in 1929. It can be defined as a cinematic-poem. In 2021 Breve Storia Del Cinema restored the film with a new score composed by Nikolas Labrinakos.
- DirectorLéon PoirierAndré SauvageStarsGeorges-Marie HaardtLouis Audoin DubreuilAndré CitroënThe film tells the expedition, led by Georges Marie Haardt and Louis Audouin-Dubreuil and sponsored by André Citoën, leaving Beirut in Lebanon to rally China through the ancient Silk Road with half-tracks vehicles, between 1931 and 1932.
- 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.
- DirectorBasil WrightStarsLionel WendtA short film which documents the lives of the Sinhalese people.
- DirectorJoris IvensStarsJoris IvensThe film is a documentary portraying a struggle as man tries to subdue nature. To prevent flooding and for purposes of land reclamation, the people of the Netherlands struggle and succeed in building a breaker, thereby eliminating the wild inland body of water once known as the Zuider Zee (now called Ijsselmeer).
- DirectorEdgar AnsteyJohn GriersonDocumentary about the fishing trawler, "Isabella Grieg". We follow her from her base in Granton Harbour, in Edinburgh, right up the east coast of Edinburgh, up to the fishing grounds between Shetland and Norway.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
- DirectorEdgar AnsteyArthur EltonStarsMr. NorwoodMrs. HillMrs. GravesSlum conditions, slum clearance, bright new public housing.
- DirectorHarry WattBasil WrightStarsArthur ClarkJohn GriersonStuart LeggShows the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland overnight.
- DirectorPare LorentzStarsThomas ChalmersThis documentary short film looks at the devastating and costly problems, including seasonal flooding and erosion of precious topsoil, associated with the Mississippi River system and promotes more Federal projects to remedy the situation.
- DirectorJoris IvensStarsEnrique ListerCarlos Romero GiménezJosé DíazA documentary showing the struggle of the Spanish Republican government against a rebellion by ultra-right-wing forces led by Gen. Francisco Franco and backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsDavid AlbrittonArvo AskolaJack BeresfordThe document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsSheigo AraiJack BeresfordRalf BerzsenyiThe document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin, orchestrated as Nazi propaganda.
- DirectorRalph SteinerWillard Van DykeStarsMorris CarnovskyA prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
- DirectorFritz HipplerStarsCurt BoisCharles ChaplinAlbert EinsteinUnder the guise of a brutally honest documentary, this malevolent propaganda film aims to be an "indispensable tool in the hands of the Aryan race", designed to depict the "true" Jew when the masks of western civilisation fall off.
- 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.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsWalter HustonVictor Bulwer-LyttonKai-Shek ChiangThe official World War II US Government film statement defining the various enemies of the Allies and why they must be fought.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsEduard BenesNeville ChamberlainClementine ChurchillThe official World War II US government account of Nazi international aggression leading up to the British and French declarations of war.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsGeneral BergeretKarl BrandtWinston ChurchillThe World War II US Government account of the European theatre of the war from after the English and French entry to the fall of France.