Documentaries

Documentaries can be a hard sell, but it’s one that’s getting easier all the time. Once viewed as something stiff and obligatory, documentaries on films has, in recent years, risen to the top of the heap—thanks in no small part to some of the earth-shaking, needle-pushing, and ultimately world-changing films that are listed here, which find their focus in war, love, sex, death, and everything in between. And as for this list—its only qualifier is that these are the critically acclaimed, historically important, and pivotal films that a person who cares about film (and in doing so, often cares about humanity, in general) should really get to know.

Below, in alphabetical order, the 61 best documentaries of all time.

Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (of the Paradise Lost documentaries, which chronicle the lives of the wrongfully convicted West Memphis Three as they fight to be released from prison) had used Metallica music in their films. A friendship was born, and in 2001, the band agreed to let the directors document their attempt to make a new album, surviving the fallout from bassist Jason Newsted quitting and James Hetfield’s alcoholism. Marina Zenovich (whose prior directorial credits include documentaries about Richard Pryor and Roman Polanski) began working on a documentary about Robin Williams about a year after his death, and soon joined forces with Alex Gibney, who came on board as a co-producer.