Sunday is a rest day in the Blogging A to Z Challenge, so it’s a good time to relax and reflect on all the documentary films I’ve been watching and reviewing lately. I hope you’ve noticed that I’ve been linking to earlier reviews of documentaries I watched over the years since I started blogging. This is not just a trick to get more page views, but I do like to make my readers aware of these movies and open discussions.
Of course, I haven’t always had a blog, so here are some of my favorite documentaries that I watched before 2006:
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- Genghis Blues (1999)
- Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse(1991)
- Hoop Dreams (1994)
- The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998)
- Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 (1999)
- Lost in La Mancha (2002)
- Monterrey Pop (1968)
- The Mystery of Picasso (1956)
- Roger & Me (1989)
- Spellbound (2002)
- Still, We Believe (2004)
- Unfinished Symphony (2001)
- Up Series (1964-present)
- When We Were Kings (1996)
- Winged Migration (2001)
Documentary TV Series:
In addition to movies, here are some high quality documentary tv shows I’ve loved watching.
- Connections (1978-1997)
- Eyes on the Prize (1987-1990)
- Ken Burns films – probably the premiere historical documentary filmmaker of our times. I’m a big fan yet it seems that I’ve only watched a portion of his output:
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- Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
- The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God (1984)
- The Statue of Liberty (1985)
- The Civil War (1990)
- Baseball (1994)
- Thomas Jefferson (1997)
- Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997)
- Frank Lloyd Wright (1998)
- The War (2007)
- The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009)
- Prohibition (2011)
- The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014)
- National Geographic Specials – These specials were always a highlight of my childhood (more on that when we get to the letter “J” on Wednesday). Here are two of the most memorable episodes:
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- Polar Bear Alert (1982)
- Among the Wild Chimpanzees (1984)
- Nature (1982-present)
- Our World (1986-1987)
- The Zoo (2017-present)
Leave me a comment if you have a favorite documentary film or tv show that you’d recommend!
Panorama of the Mountains 
I’m new to your blog, so maybe you’ve seen these. But anyway…
Escape from Jonestown – CNN / Soledad O’Brien
The Weather Underground
Word Wars – about competitive Scrabble
One Day in September – the Munich Olympics terrorist attack – narrated by Michael Douglas
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Thanks. I’ve only seen Word Wars.
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We are huge Ken Burns fans. It’s an interesting hobby you have there, Liam.
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My friend Paul directed the documentary Without Charity. I enjoyed it, found it to be a great discussion piece. Here’s the IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3500496/
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Thanks. I’ll have to look for that one.
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I really enjoyed the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man.” Thanks for the good list of Ken Burns films. He always does such good work. My favorite of his is “Jazz.”
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I’ll have to look for “Searching for Sugarman.” I’ve heard other positive responses to that movie. And I somehow have yet to watch “Jazz!”
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