100 best documentary movies

Left brain and right brain duke it out and then belt out a tune in comedian Bo Burnham's quick and clever one-man show. As intelligent as he is lanky, Burnham cynically pokes at pop entertainment while offering unadulterated showmanship of his own.

Revered sushi chef Jiro Ono strives for perfection in his work, while his eldest son, Yoshikazu, has trouble living up to his father's legacy.

In 1971, four college students got together to form a rock band. Since then, that certain band called Queen have released 26 albums and sold over 300 million records worldwide. The popularity of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon is stronger than ever 40 years on. But it was no bed of roses. No pleasure cruise. Queen had their share of kicks in the face, but they came through and this is how they did it, set against the backdrop of brilliant music and stunning live performances from every corner of the globe. In this film, for the first time, it is the band that tells their story. Featuring brand new interviews with the band and unseen archive footage (including their recently unearthed, first ever TV performance), it is a compelling story told with intelligence, wit, plenty of humor and painful honesty.

Performance artist Marina Abramovic prepares for a major retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.

Follows the dramatic journeys of video game developers as they create and release their games to the world. It's about making video games, but at its core, it's about the creative process, and exposing yourself through your work.

Described as being a film about determination, danger and the ocean’s greatest depths, James Cameron's "Deepsea Challenge 3D" tells the story of Cameron’s journey to fulfill his boyhood dream of becoming an explorer. The movie offers a unique insight into Cameron's world as he makes that dream reality – and makes history – by becoming the first person to travel solo to the deepest point on the planet.

Trashed - looks at the risks to the food chain and the environment through pollution of our air, land and sea by waste. The film reveals surprising truths about very immediate and potent dangers to our health. It is a global conversation from Iceland to Indonesia between the film star Jeremy Irons and scientists, politicians and ordinary individuals whose health and livelihoods have been fundamentally affected by waste pollution. Visually and emotionally the film is both horrific and beautiful: an interplay of human interest and political wake-up call. But it ends on a message of hope: showing how the risks to our survival can easily be averted through sustainable approaches that provide far more employment than the current 'waste industry.'

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek and filmmaker Sophie Fiennes reunites for this follow-up to their hit The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, using their interpretation of moving pictures to present a compelling cinematic journey into the heart of ideology – the dreams that shape our collective beliefs and practices.

In a place where killers are celebrated as heroes, these filmmakers challenge unrepentant death-squad leaders to dramatize their role in genocide. The result is a surreal, cinematic journey, not only into the memories and imaginations of mass murderers, but also into a frighteningly banal regime of corruption and impunity.

The «Eye of God» is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Pushkin Museum. It shows how progressive and pro-West Russians can be, when it comes to comprehending the essence of beauty. Ivan Tsvetayev, a village priest's son, the founder of the museum, wanted the new generation of "Ivans" to understand that we are Europe, while Antiquity is our mutual cradle.

How is it possible to feel someone elses pain? The hero of this film is an autistic boy. His life is divided between an apartment with peeling walls on the outskirts of a large city, and a mental hospital. Anton comes into the frame when he is on the point of becoming a patient at a residential neuropsychiatric institution, a place where people with the sort of diagnosis that he has do not live long. The author, the camera, the hero. The distance between them shrinks with every passing minute, and the author has to enter the shot and become a character in the story. However, it is not a story about how one person helped another, but about how one person recognized herself in another. About how there is Another who lives in each of us and must be destroyed every day inside of us in order to survive.

Dive into our planet's greatest mysteries with a team of international underwater cinematographers as they explore the breathtaking bond between humanity and the ocean.

A documentary that follows an Alaskan bear family as its young cubs are taught life's most important lessons.

A 3D feature film about Sir Edmund Hillary's monumental and historical ascent of Mt. Everest in 1953 - an event that stunned the world and defined a nation.

Go behind the scenes during One Directions sell out "Take Me Home" tour and experience life on the road.

Set in the wilderness of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the land of legends and the kingdom of wild brown bears, we follow the daily adventures of five wild brown bears.

With Once Upon a Forest, Luc Jacquet invites the spectator into a never-before-seen world of natural wonder and staggering beauty. “For the first time, we will be able to watch a rain forest growing before our eyes…Only cinema can offer this unique voyage into a completely untamed universe, a world of perfect balance in which each living thing – from the smallest to the largest – plays an essential role. The film will deliver a complete sensory immersion in the primaeval splendor of one of nature’s richest mysteries, inviting the audience to enter, discover and marvel at a universe of untold treasures while joining its voice to the ever-growing awareness of the need to preserve our world.”

Scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss travel the globe promoting a scientific worldview and the rational questioning of religious belief.

Shot in France, England, Switzerland and the United States, this documentary covers director Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre) and his 1974 Quixotic attempt to adapt the seminal sci-fi novel Dune into a feature film. After spending 2 years and millions of dollars, the massive undertaking eventually fell apart, but the artists Jodorowsky assembled for the legendary project continued to work together. This group of artists, or his “warriors” as Jodorowsky named them, went on to define modern sci-fi cinema with such films as Alien, Blade Runner, Star Wars and Total Recall.

Generation Iron - examines the professional sport of bodybuilding today and gives the audience front row access to the lives of the top 7 bodybuilders in the sport as they train to compete in the world's most premiere bodybuilding stage - Mr. Olympia.

A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.

A semi-fictionalized documentary about a day in the life of Australian musician Nick Cave's persona.

Vivian Maier's photos were seemingly destined for obscurity, lost among the clutter of the countless objects she'd collected throughout her life. Instead these images have shaken the world of street photography and irrevocably changed the life of the man who brought them to the public eye. This film brings to life the interesting turns and travails of the improbable saga of John Maloof's discovery of Vivian Maier, unravelling this mysterious tale through her documentary films, photographs, odd collections and personal accounts from the people that knew her. What started as a blog to show her work quickly became a viral sensation in the photography world. Photos destined for the trash heap now line gallery exhibitions, a forthcoming book and this documentary film.

Set in the golden era of Grand Prix Racing '1' tells the story of a generation of charismatic drivers who raced on the edge, risking their lives during Formula 1's deadliest period, and the men who stood up and changed the sport forever.

The authorized documentary on late Guitar/lead singer Kurt Cobain from his early days in Aberdeen Washington to his success and downfall with Grunge band Nirvana.

The decisive years of Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimović, told through rare archive footage in which a young Zlatan speaks openly about his life and challenges. The film closely follows him, from his debut with the Malmö FF team in 1999 through his conflict-ridden years with Ajax Amsterdam, and up to his final breakthrough with Juventus in 2005.

A surrealist biographical documentary about trailblazing electronic musician and animal rights activist Moby.

Journey into the history and along the arctic latitudes of our country. Leonid Kruglov, documentary filmmaker, photographer, ethnographer, member of the Russian Geographical Society, took the legendary route of Semen Dezhnev through the most difficult regions of the Russian Arctic and made a documentary about it.

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

Academy Award-winning director Michael Moore returns with what may be his most provocative and hilarious film yet: Moore tells the Pentagon to "stand down" — he will do the invading for America from now on.

One man's journey to discover the bitter truth about sugar. Damon Gameau embarks on a unique experiment to document the effects of a high sugar diet on a healthy body, consuming only foods that are commonly perceived as 'healthy'. Through this entertaining and informative journey, Damon highlights some of the issues that plague the sugar industry, and where sugar lurks on supermarket shelves.

The film tells about the Russian North - the territory of unique wooden architecture and one of the few places in the country where a Russian person can realize the origins of his culture and spiritual development. It was here that people were found who were ready to revive the traditional rural way of life in spite of globalization and the state policy of urbanization.

Filmmakers discuss the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock and the book "Hitchcock" by François Truffaut.

Free to Run tells the amazing story of the running movement over the past five decades, the struggle for the right to run - especially for women – against conservative Federations, the explosion of grass roots road races and marathons, until the boom of running as a vast business enterprise.

The Man Who Saved the World is feature documentary film about Stanislav Petrov, a former lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces.

Going Clear intimately profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light on how they attract true believers and the things they do in the name of religion.

The aim: to select the ideal mode of transport for each leg of a pilgrimage from Venice, Italy to Pau in France – home to a legendary street circuit and the origins of Grand Prix racing. On the way we prepare by taking to the track at Monza – the home of Italian Formula One. We try to get noticed on the road course in Monaco in a Bugatti, a Lamborghini and a Model T Ford. After cruising the canals in Venice we take to the tarmac and things look good - thanks to the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta and Mercedes SLS Black. Throw in a Pagani Huayra, Porsche Cayman S and a GT3 as well as the Aston Martin Vanquish centenary edition, Bentley V8 convertible, Rolls Royce Phantom coupe and the face-bending BAC Mono all seems pretty perfect to us.

From Oscar and Emmy award winning filmmakers, Red Army highlights the Soviet Union's legendary and enigmatic hockey training culture and world-dominating team through the eyes of the team's Captain Slava Fetisov, following his shift from hockey star and celebrated national hero to political enemy. The film turns a unique lens on the social and cultural transformation of the Soviet Union leading up to the fall of Communism, mirroring the rise and fall of the Red Army team. A film by Gabe Polsky and Executive Producers Werner Herzog and Jerry Weintraub.

A look at the story behind Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from all of the Marvel films, the Marvel One-Shots and "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."