The Greatest Documentary Filmmakers

It’s no secret that documentaries are the least loved of all movie genres, at least in terms of box office, and water cooler chat is reserved for a select few every year that manage to capture a popular subject. Often this spot is filled by a topical, political film, which has its place but is too often guided by filmmaker’s bias instead of the truth. While often entertaining, these directors’ dispassionate view of the genre tend to twist it more like a film, forging a plot from the footage. There is a noticeable difference in the pictures of the brilliant filmmakers listed below who extract real stories from the world around them, displaying the truth, however seemingly mundane, as interesting as any fictional tale. These directors, spread across a wide array of topics and styles, all dedicated much of their careers to the capture of life’s essence through the camera: the most noble goal in all of art.

15. Godfrey Reggio

Greatest Film: Koyaanisqatsi (1980)

The experimental filmmaker hit the scene with the meditative Koyaanisqatsi, a video essay about the relationship between man and nature, and particularly the evolving role of technology. There are no words, just long stylistic shots of landscapes, accompanied by a dreamy score by Phillip Glass. He followed with two films, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi, making a sort of trilogy, and a similarly themed film, Visitors, also scored by Glass. Not the most invigorating fare but thought provoking nonetheless.

14. Terry Zwigoff

Greatest Documentary: Crumb (1994)

Zwigoff had his most success in the comedy genre with the cult classic Bad Santa, but he’s also earned a cult status from documentaries as well. His specialty, in both fiction and documentary, is fleshing out portraits of unique flawed individuals as seen in Louie Bluie and Crumb.

13. Louis Malle

Greatest Documentary: Phantom India (1969)

While primarily known for his intimate feature films like My Dinner with Andre, Louis Malle actually started out his career in documentary film, working as an assistant director with Jacques Cousteau on his breakthrough hit The Silent World. He would go on to make several fascinating studies including God’s Country, a portrait of Midwestern farmers,  Humain trop Humain, a meditative observation of an auto factory and his masterpiece series Phantom India.

12. Agnes Varda

Greatest Documentary: The Gleaners & I (2000)

Like Louis Malle, Agnes Varda made her name in the French New Wave making fiction films, most notable her masterpiece Cleo from 5 to 7. But from the very beginning Varda was active filming the world around her, making several dozen shorts and features over her long career. It wasn’t until the 21st century, however, that she really got noticed. Her breakthrough doc The Gleaners & I, exemplifies her theme of interest in everyday people and travel, also seen in The Beaches of Agnes, Faces Places and many others.

11. Frederick Wiseman

Greatest Documentary: Titicut Follies (1967)

Many documentarians focus on people as the subject of their films but Wiseman famously dedicated his craft to capturing institutions. His method is to immerse himself in a town, or hospital, or police station and film, eventually editing down the footage into a fascinating portrait of the entity. His greatest, most controversial film, was his debut, Titicut Follies, about an institution of the criminally insane.

10. Ken Burns

Greatest Documentary: The Civil War (1990)

Ken Burns is different from most of the directors on this list in everything from scope to filmmaking techniques. While many documentaries focus on small microcosms, pulling intrigue from close analysis, Burns is sweeping, covering entire eras in his TV specials. He doesn’t use intimate interviews or really much camera work at all but his basic approach to storytelling has become iconic. He uses voiceover mixed with extensive stills and archive footage create an experience that seems more like a lecture than a film. Somehow the result is captivating and set the standard for sweeping educational films. He even coined the “Ken Burns Effect” in video production, where one slowly zooms out and pans on a still photo, creating movement.

9. D. A. Pennebaker

Greatest Documentary: The War Room (1993)

Primarily a music documentarian, Pennebaker started in the 1960s famously following artists like Bob Dylan on tour and covering music festivals. He has a great talent of capturing the atmosphere and emotions in a room with a video camera making his concert films electric. Interestingly, his greatest film is one of his few non-musical ventures, The War Room, following James Carville and George Stephanopoulos as they run Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign.

8. Leni Riefenstahl

Greatest Documentary: Olympia (1935)

Certainly the most controversial filmmaker on this list, Riefenstahl was a propaganda director for the Nazi regime. While her most studied film is Triumph of the Will, it can hardly be described as an objective documentary. Her most beautiful work is Olympia, the greatest of many documentaries about the Olympic games (honorable mention is Tokyo Olympiad by Kon Ichikawa).

7. Jean Painleve

Greatest Documentary: The Seahorse (1934)

Jean Painleve was a French filmmaker with roots in medicine and biology who socialized with surrealists. The resulting filmography is comprised of shorts on educational topics with poetic, Dada-ist aesthetics. His most famous are the films on sea life, the greatest being a dreamy study of seahorses, soundtrack by Darius Milhaud.

6. David Attenborough

Greatest Documentary: The Life of Birds (1998)

One of the most recognizable narrators behind Morgan Freeman, Attenborough is a lot more than just a voice. Since the 1980s he’s made a name for himself as the leading force behind much of the BBC’s dazzling nature documentaries including Planet Earth, The Living Planet, The Blue Planet and many more of various topics. My personal favorite is his ten part series on The Life of Birds.

5. Errol Morris

Greatest Documentary: Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. (1999)

Errol Morris is one of the most high profile documentarians of his era, known mostly for his impactful crime picture The Thin Blue Line, which actually led to the freeing of a wrongfully convicted man. Not only was the film hugely influential to the modern true-crime craze but is a expertly constructed persuasive essay. Many of his other masterworks are equally intriguing including The Fog of War, A Brief History of Time and the thought provoking Mr. Death about a Holocaust denier and electric chair designer.

4. Les Blank

Greatest Documentary: Burden of Dreams (1982)

One of the few filmmakers on this list who has dedicated their entire career to the art of documentaries. His genius lies in his ability to find the interesting in the mundane. From garlic lovers to polka music, Blank has covered all ranges of cultures, bringing out captivating stories for over fifty years. Of course his greatest films are when he documents the exceptional, like in Burden of Dreams which follows Werner Herzog’s insane production of Fitzcarraldo.

3. Albert & David Maysles

Greatest Documentary: Grey Gardens (1975)

In less than a decade the Maysles Brothers created three of the most famous documentaries of all time: Salesman, following door to door bible sellers, Gimme Shelter, about an incident at a Rolling Stones concert, and most famously Grey Gardens, about two aging women living in an dilapidated house and wallowing in their past.

2. Werner Herzog

Greatest Documentary: Grizzly Man (2005)

Werner Herzog is probably a more interesting subject than most of those in his films. The radical German filmmaker made his mark early with unique, ambitious fiction films made with his similarly unstable star Klaus Kinski like Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre: Wrath of God. Later in life he made the switch to documentaries, mostly about the intriguing relationship between man and nature. His greatest achievement in this field is the disturbing picture Grizzly Man, about an animal activist who gets too comfortable in his surroundings.

1. Jacques Cousteau

Greatest Documentary: The Silent World (1956)

While there is no shortage of nature documentaries today, Cousteau’s body of work offer the viewer much more than just an insight in sea creatures. While series like Planet Earth pride themselves on being unobtrusive to nature, Cousteau shows the practical side of scientific exploration. We see the details of the expeditions: the danger and complications of diving in different hazardous environments, the unique (although dated) technology of the profession and the ingenious research techniques. These films lack the wide sweeping 4K shots of today, instead offering grainy, intimate portraits of ecosystems with a cinematic, often fantastical eye. His greatest picture is his debut The Silent World, an lush overview into his work and a taste of what was to come. It was also the first documentary to win the Palm d’Or.

Honorable Mention: Allan King, David Gelb, Joshua Oppenheimer, Andrew Jarecki, Penelope Spheeris, James Algar, Jean Pierre Gorin, Ron Fricke

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