25 Best Documentaries – American View

It is old news, but still interesting to look at, as it lists the 25 films that the 3000 members of the IDA (International Documentary Association) announced as the best documentaries ever in connection with the celebration of the association’s 25 years in 2007. Here it goes, they are all good films, you should definitely watch them if you have not done so already, but where are the European films – apart from a few – where is “Shoah”, where is a film by Sokurov, Herz Frank, Dvortsevoy, Kossakovsky, Patricio Guzman, Pierre Perrault, Jean Rouch and so on, so forth. The members of IDA chose the 25 from a list of 700.

1. “Hoop Dreams,” (photo) directed by Steve James, Peter Gilbert and Frederick Marx 
2. “The Thin Blue Line,” directed by Errol Morris
 3. “Bowling for Columbine,” directed by Michael Moore
 4. “Spellbound,” directed by Jeffery Blitz
 5. “Harlan County USA,” directed by Barbara Kopple
 6. “An Inconvenient Truth,” directed by Davis Guggenheim
 7. “Crumb,” directed by Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb 
8. “Gimme Shelter,” directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin
 9. “The Fog of War,” directed by Errol Morris
 10. “Roger and Me,” directed by Michael Moore
11. “Super Size Me,” directed by Morgan Spurlock 
12. “Don’t Look Back,” directed by DA Pennebaker
 13. “Salesman,” directed by Albert and David Maysles 
14. “Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance,” directed by Godfrey Reggio 
15. “Sherman’s March,” directed by Ross McElwee 
16. “Grey Gardens,” directed by Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer 
17. “Capturing the Friedmans,” directed by Andrew Jarecki
 18. “Born into Brothels,” directed by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski
19. “Titticut Follies,” directed by Frederick Wiseman 
20. “Buena Vista Social Club,” directed by Wim Wenders 
21. “Fahrenheit 9/11,” directed by Michael Moore 
22. “Winged Migration,” directed by Jacques Perrin 
23. “Grizzly Man,” directed by Werner Herzog
 24. “Night and Fog,” directed by Alain Resnais
 25. “Woodstock,” directed by Michael Wadleigh.

http://www.documentary.org/

link to www.indiewire.com

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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