Documentaries are the attempts to recreate a real-life incident, person or things through filmmaking.
Here are the 8 best English documentaries which are powerful, intense, shocking and even heartbreaking.
- The Act of Killing (2012)
This is a raw, terrifying and painfully difficult to watch the documentary which offers a horrifying testament to the educating and confrontational power of the documentary movies.
This documentary is a representation of the anti-communist purge which took place in Indonesia between 1965 and 1966. This event had led to a mass killing which the historians estimated a total of 400,000 to 3,000,000 victims.
- The Central Park Five (2013)
This documentary tells the story of a horrific crime wherein the year 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in the New York City’s Central Park.
The rush to the judgment by the investigating police and the media clamouring for sensational stories and an outraged public was so quick that it left the five lives disarranged by this miscarriage of justice.
- Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck (2015)
In this authorized documentary, filmmaker Brett Morgan uses materials from the late musician Kurt Cobain’s personal archives in an in-depth examination of the Nirvana’s frontman’s childhood, music career and his untimely death.
Kurt Cobain in the world of music was the most famous person on earth. It was a status which he would have rather avoided as it led to his mental illness and drug addiction which ended with him committing suicide.
- Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened (2016)
This is an agile documentary made with a personal touch. Lonny Price’s dream came true when he landed one of the lead roles in a whole new Stephen Sondheim musical which is directed by the composer’s frequent collaborator Hal Prince.
In 1991, when Price and his fellow cast members which included many teenage actors making their Broadway debuts alongside future Seinfeld star Jason Alexander opened Merrily We Roll Along. Expecting it to be a huge first success, the show flopped.
Lonny Price’s years later did a get together with all the cast to look back and talk about how life is peaks and valleys.
- I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
This 2016’s Oscar-nominated documentary film directed by Raoul Peck is based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript “Remember This House, I’m Not Your Negro”. James Baldwin was an acclaimed novelist and social critic.
This documentary tells the story of American identity through Baldwin’s point of view, looking back at the lives and deaths of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. alongside Hollywood produced images shown to the American public on screens across the nation.
One of key highlight point of this documentary was that the A-lister Hollywood celebrity Samuel Jackson has narrated the words of Baldwin in the film.
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
This was a documentary made on the 85 years old master chef, Jiro Ono, of Tokyo’s Sukiyabashi Jiro which is a 10 seat sushi restaurant that has earned three Michelin stars and the worldwide acclaim.
The film emphasizes on Ono as he continues to seek perfection in his cuisine. This was a passion which has driven him throughout his career. The documentary also looks forward to Ono’s legacy, as Jiro’s sons, Takashi and Yoshikazu, follows their father’s footprint.
- The Fog Of War: Eleven Lessons To Learn From The Life Of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
Directed by Errol Morris, this is an Oscar-winning documentary depicting the long interview with former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara concerning his reflections on his political career specifically his influence on the United State’s involvement in the Vietnam war.
- Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father (2008)
This was a visual scrapbook directed by filmmaker Kurt Kuenne dedicating it to Andrew Bagby’s son Zachary so that he could remember that his dad was loved by his family and friends. Bagby was murdered by his girlfriend Shirley Jane Turner who later found out that she was pregnant with his child.
A custody battle ensued between Turner and Bagby’s parent revealing a shocking twist to this family saga. This is a staggering and heartbreaking true-crime documentary.
