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The 100 Greatest Documentaries, ranked as objectively as possible

Following the approach and the formula of my 1001 Greatest Films list, I've compiled and ranked the 100 greatest documentaries. I've decided to separate the documentaries from the narrative feature films because of their obvious differences and the different experiences that each provides.

As stated earlier, this list follows the same formula and approach used in my other list. The base data again was TSPDT, along with some trusted high quality lists specialized in documentaries. Letterboxd was used to weight them aswell.

As with my other list, I have to say here that I'm not claiming that this is the definitive authority on documentaries, or that these are objectively THE greatest 100 documentaries of all time. This is just an…

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  • Shoah

    1

  • Close-Up

    2

  • Man with a Movie Camera

    3

  • Night and Fog

    4

  • Sans Soleil

    5

  • Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks

    6

  • Histoire(s) du cinéma

    7

  • F for Fake

    8

  • The House Is Black

    9

  • The Thin Blue Line

    10

  • The Quince Tree Sun

    11

  • Twenty Years Later

    12

  • Hoop Dreams

    13

  • The Gleaners and I

    14

  • Dont Look Back

    15

  • The Sorrow and the Pity

    16

  • Koyaanisqatsi

    17

  • Harlan County U.S.A.

    18

  • Nanook of the North

    19

  • The Hour of the Furnaces

    20

  • Grey Gardens

    21

  • The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On

    22

  • Gimme Shelter

    23

  • Grizzly Man

    24

  • Listen to Britain

    25

  • Chronicle of a Summer

    26

  • Triumph of the Will

    27

  • As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

    28

  • Land Without Bread

    29

  • La région centrale

    30

  • Salesman

    31

  • Man of Aran

    32

  • Crumb

    33

  • Titicut Follies

    34

  • Nostalgia for the Light

    35

  • News from Home

    36

  • From the East

    37

  • Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

    38

  • Lessons of Darkness

    39

  • Portrait of Jason

    40

  • Iracema

    41

  • The Seasons

    42

  • Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations

    43

  • Blood of the Beasts

    44

  • Diary

    45

  • Paris Is Burning

    46

  • A Grin Without a Cat

    47

  • The Act of Killing

    48

  • Dog Star Man

    49

  • The Last Bolshevik

    50

  • Sherman's March

    51

  • Moi, un Noir

    52

  • Stop Making Sense

    53

  • Häxan

    54

  • Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

    55

  • Water-Mirror of Granada

    56

  • Welfare

    57

  • Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie

    58

  • The Mad Masters

    59

  • Waltz with Bashir

    60

  • When We Were Kings

    61

  • Stories We Tell

    62

  • My Winnipeg

    63

  • Los Angeles Plays Itself

    64

  • Fata Morgana

    65

  • A Tale of the Wind

    66

  • The Disenchantment

    67

  • Fires Were Started

    68

  • Playing

    69

  • Too Early / Too Late

    70

  • O.J.: Made in America

    71

  • Master, a Building in Copacabana

    72

  • India: Matri Bhumi

    73

  • Man on Wire

    74

  • A Diary for Timothy

    75

  • The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes

    76

  • Nathan for You: Finding Frances

    77

  • Que Viva Mexico!

    78

  • The War Game

    79

  • 13th

    80

  • Gates of Heaven

    81

  • Burden of Dreams

    82

  • Leviathan

    83

  • Dominion

    84

  • Minamata: The Victims and Their World

    85

  • Streetwise

    86

  • For Sama

    87

  • Hearts and Minds

    88

  • À propos de Nice

    89

  • The Arbor

    90

  • Our Trip to Africa

    91

  • The Fog of War

    92

  • The Beaches of Agnès

    93

  • To Be and to Have

    94

  • Capturing the Friedmans

    95

  • Baraka

    96

  • This Is Not a Film

    97

  • London

    98

  • The Five Obstructions

    99

  • Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

    100