Sugarcane
Dir. Emily Kassie & Julian Brave NoiseCat
Everything about Sugarcane is arresting, whether it’s the epic shots of the sweeping reservation (“Canada is our land,” one native…
Kokomo City
Dir. D. Smith
The idea of representation in movies is often limited to superficial gestures of putting on screen people who look a…
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Dir. Davis Guggenheim
There’s a scene early in the documentary when present-day Michael J. Fox, who famously suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, swaggers along…
All That Breathes
Dir. Shaunak Sen
Though it doesn’t proceed like most animal/nature-centered documentaries that you’ve seen, the Oscar-nominated All That Breathes is instantly memorable in…
Welcome to Chechnya
Dir. David France
Featuring real, in-the-moment footage of operations to rescue young queer individuals from the continuing anti-gay purges in the Chechen Republic,…
The Painter and the Thief
Dir. Benjamin Ree
The Painter and the Thief opens with a great hook: an artist tracks down and confronts the man who stole…
Control Room
Dir. Jehane Noujaim
For the longest time, American media coverage was skewed to justify the presence of US forces in Arab states. Control…
Weiner
Dir. Elyse Steinberg & Josh Kriegman
Former Congressman Anthony Weiner just doesn’t give up. After a 2011 scandal that had him resign from office, Weiner tries…
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Dir. Alison Klayman
An inspiring documentary about famed artist Ai Weiwei who has been the source of arguably the biggest public confrontation with…
Man on Wire
Dir. James Marsh
Man on Wire is a true technical masterpiece. You can almost feel the director telling the cameraman what angle to…
The Vietnam War
An immersive 360-degree narrative telling the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on…
The Fog of War
Dir. Errol Morris
Using archival footage, cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old Robert McNamara, The Fog of War depicts his…
Taxi to the Dark Side
Dir. Alex Gibney
An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an…
Bill Cunningham New York
Dir. Richard Press
Doubling as a cartography of the ever-changing city, Bill Cunningham New York portrays the secluded pioneer of street fashion with…
The Overnighters
Dir. Jesse Moss
On one side, this is a look at the real-life efforts of local North Dakota Pastor Jay Reinke to provide…
The Interrupters
Dir. Steve James
This documentary is about a unique program in Chicago called CeaseFire whose sole aim is to stop violent deaths in…