Great Documentaries by Daniel Schindel
Great Documentaries
{by Daniel Schindel of ScreenPicks}
{by Daniel Schindel of ScreenPicks}
When did you realize you wanted to be a movie critic?
I have loved movies for a long time, but for most of that time, I thought I wanted to make them. It wasn't until I set about trying to write a movie that I realized I far preferred to write about movies. And that's how it all started.
All-time favorite movie:
Oh, I loathe this question! Right, now? I suppose I'll pick Once.
Movie you quote a lot:
I generally have a quote from In the Loop ready whenever a politician does anything, well, politician-y.
Movie character that reminds you of yourself:
Oliver Tate from Submarine, a British coming-of-age dramedy released last year. Oliver views his life as though it were a movie, and filters all his efforts through that. He's odd and sensitive and more than a little bit lost. I empathize.
Learn why Daniel curated Great Documentaries: Truth is stranger than fiction. Truth is more involving than fiction. Nonfiction film offers a wide array of stories that rouse anger, break hearts, and raise spirits. The TCM shop has such a fantastic selection of documentaries that my initial shortlist for this section had over a hundred titles. I ended up limiting the list to the best of the movies that I had seen. This means, of course, that an uncomfortable number of bona fide classics got left out. But any one of these films is well worth adding to your collection.
View As: grid 
list 
list
Page: 1View Less »
- Jesus Camp DVD
- The controversial, Academy Award-nominated documentary "Jesus Camp" (2007) follows Evangelical children Levi, Rachael and Tory to North Dakota's "Kids on Fire" summer camp where Pastor Becky Fischer pushes an extreme Christian fundamentalist agenda. Established as a place where Christian… [ read more ]
- $19.98
- Man With The Movie Camera DVD
- Experience a revolutionary look at the day-to-day life of a city through an avant-garde lens in 1929's "Man with a Movie Camera." Groundbreaking director Dziga Vertov showcases the energy and life of Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa through creative editing and innovative film techniques. "Man with… [ read more ]
- $24.99
- 4 Little Girls DVD
- Spike Lee directs this quietly gripping documentary exploring the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in which four African-American girls were murdered. Lee uses the incident to explore race relations and civil rights in the 1960s, and examine how tragic… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- Why We Fight DVD
- Winner of Sundance's Grand Jury Prize, "Why We Fight" (2006) examines the kaleidoscope of reasons behind our country's increasingly aggressive and imperialistic military strategy since the end of WWII. The documentary dissects the consequences of the U.S.'s military-industrial complex and… [ read more ]
- $14.99
- Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father DVD
- A child is born to the woman who killed his father in the heart-wrenching documentary "Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father" (2008). A doctor is murdered by a crazed ex-girlfriend who flees to Newfoundland, where she is freed of all charges and gives birth to his son. The… [ read more ]
- $14.99
- Standard Operating Procedure Blu-ray
- Is it possible for a photograph to change the world? Photographs taken by soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison changed the war in Iraq and changed AmericaGÇÖs image of itself. Yet, a central mystery remains. Did the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs constitute evidence of systematic abuse by the… [ read more ]
- $26.99
- Collapse DVD
- This documentary doesn't come with a warning - it is one. In "Collapse" (2010), independent journalist Michael Ruppert, who predicted the financial meltdown of 2008, now forecasts a dire future for the global economy if we don't find an alternative to fossil fuels and change government… [ read more ]
- $19.98
- The Times Of Harvey Milk: The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray
- The Times Of Harvey Milk Blu-ray Expert Review: Gus van Sant's Milk is great, but I'll take the real deal over that any day of the week. Rob Epstein's chronicle of the career of Harvey Milk, one of America's first openly gay elected officials, shows how individual passion and public… [ read more ]
- $39.95
- For All Mankind: The Criterion Collection Blu-ray
- For All Mankind (Special Edition) Blu-ray Expert Review: If the Mars rover landing and the death of Neil Armstrong has put you in the mood to learn more about space exploration, look no further than this account of NASA's Apollo missions. Culled from untold hours of previously unseen… [ read more ]
- $39.98
- Cave Of Forgotten Dreams (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray)
- CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, a breathtaking new 3D documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog (ENCOUNTER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, GRIZZLY MAN) follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created… [ read more ]
- $34.98
- Deliver Us From Evil DVD
- Named Best Documentary Feature at the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival, this shocking documentary exposes a 1600-year-old cover-up. Filmmaker Amy Berg begins with the story of a serial child molester who went free for two decades. A priest named Oliver O'Grady was identified by the Catholic… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- Marjoe DVD
- The Oscar-winning documentary "Marjoe" (1972) explores the life of real-life evangelist Marjoe Gortner, who began preaching at the age of three and performing marriages one year later. Using home movies, interviews and footage of Gortner leading revival meetings, the film details how this… [ read more ]
- $19.95
- Confessions Of A Superhero DVD
- Superman comes clean in "Confessions of a Superhero" (2007), a crowd-pleasing documentary that features the men and women who spend their lives working as superheroes on the sidewalks of the legendary Hollywood Boulevard. More than just a primer on how to impersonate Superman, the Hulk,… [ read more ]
- $14.95
- Exit Through The Gift Shop DVD
- Narrated by Rhys Ifans, "Exit Through The Gift Shop" (2010) tells the inside story of street art. An eccentric French-born L.A. thrift-shop owner Thierry Guetta decides to videotape every moment of his life, including the contemporary graffiti art near his store. British stencil artist… [ read more ]
- $29.99
- The Corporation DVD
- It's a global takeover! This acclaimed documentary evaluates the rise of corporations in our modern world, featuring interviews with over 40 corporate insiders and critics. Everyone from Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman weigh in. With… [ read more ]
- $29.99
- Stevie DVD
- Filmmaker Steve James who created "Hoop Dreams" (1993) revisits someone from his past in the documentary "Stevie" (2002). As a college student, James volunteered as a Big Brother to a little boy named Stevie Fielding. James looks up Fielding after ten years to reconnect and finds a deeply… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- American Movie DVD
- This touching yet hilarious Sundance winner launched the career of documentarian Chis Smith (2003's "The Yes Men"). For two years, he followed aspiring director Mark Borchardt as he tried to produce the scariest horror film ever made in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Up to his neck in debt,… [ read more ]
- $19.99
- Baraka: Special Edition DVD
- See your world as never before in "Baraka (2-Disc Specia Edition)" (1992), Ron Fricke's monumental wordless documentary that describes the human condition via stunning photography of 24 countries on six continents. This astonishing visual and musical montage of nature, human culture, and the… [ read more ]
- $29.98
- Darwin's Nightmare DVD
- The documentary “Darwin’s Nightmare” (2004) investigates the poverty of native Tanzanians despite their multi-million dollar fish industry. Nile Perch was introduced into pristine Lake Victoria in the 1960s, quickly destroying all native lake species and sparking an ecological disaster.… [ read more ]
- $26.99
- Dark Days 10Th Anniversary Edition DVD
- Sometimes we forget those living at the core of "the Big Apple." In this revolutionary documentary, filmmaker Marc Singer delves into the underground homeless community of New York City, getting to know the people who scrounge for food and clothes during the day and, by night, return to… [ read more ]
- $14.99
- The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters DVD
- Games were never so serisous as in this hilarious documentary about becoming one with a video game. "The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters" (2007) follows Steve Wiebe as he finds purpose in the video game Donkey Kong after losing his job. Wiebe challenges Billy Mitchell, arguably at the… [ read more ]
- $5.98
- Project Nim DVD
- From the Oscar-winning team behind Man On Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who became the focus of a landmark 1970s experiment to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. But as Nim's natural instincts take over and the… [ read more ]
- $19.98
- When We Were Kings DVD
- Academy Award winner "When We Were Kings" (1997) is a no-holds barred look at Muhammad Ali and George Foreman's 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' heavyweight title bout in Zaire. Foreman was world champion and Ali was supposedly past his prime, but the fight and Ali's frank views on race and the… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- Crumb: The Criterion Collection Blu-ray
- Filmmaker Terry Zwigoff profiles underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, with a look at his dysfunctional family. Expert Review: R. Crumb, celebrated for his artwork on the independent comic book circuit, gets up close and personal with Terry Zwigoff. Crumb exposes the various neuroeses and… [ read more ]
- $39.95
- Brother's Keeper: 10th Anniversary Edition DVD
- Mercy killing - or murder? This acclaimed documentary explores the true story about the events of June 6, 1990, in the small village of Munnsville, NY. Four elderly, illiterate farmers - the Ward brothers - who lived in a dilapidated two-room shack. When one of the brothers dies, another is… [ read more ]
- $24.95
Can't find what you're looking for? Click here »
Page: 1View Less »
