An Impossible Job: ILX's 40 Favorite Documentaries

i also briefly considered trolling the poll by submitting nothing but Shoot Interviews. these would've been my top 2:

1. Brickhouse Brown Shoot Interview (2009) (30 points) - Little-known Memphis wrestler Brickhouse Brown shares a succession of awesome hood anecdotes, brags that he "got Jeff Jarrett his first piece of black pussy."
2. Face Off Vol. 2: Iron Sheik, New Jack & Honky Tonk Man (2007) (30 points) - New Jack, Iron Sheilk and the Honky Tonk Man smoke a lot of crack and talk shit about Benoit for 30 minutes before someone from the Hotel bangs on the door and tells them they're making too much noise and have to leave.

The Paradise Lost films would have made it to the top 40 if votes had been combined (25 points/5 votes). But four of the voters made it clear they were voting for one of them only.

ive completely forgotten the name of the 70s british documentary about a family that lives in the country (surrey?) untouched by modern life

I forgot to send a ballot:

Gates of Heaven
The Gleaners & I
Las Hurdes
Paris is Burning
Capturing the Friedmans
No End in Sight
Grizzly Man
Phantom India
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
The Thin Blue Line
Looking For Richard
Harlan County USA

colby: The Moon and the Sledgehammer?

Looking For Richard owns

No End in Sight was one of a few that surprisingly got no votes. From my own list of runners-up, I would've thought The Celluloid Closet and My Architect would get some votes.

this was mine;
yea looking for richard is really engaging, should be shown in schools

Crumb - 30 pts
Capturing the Friedmans - 30 pts
Genghis Blues - 10
I Like Killing Flies - 10
Land of Silence & Darkness - 5
Forbidden Lie$ - 5
Harlan County, USA - 5
Lets Get Lost - 5

celluloid closet's good, but the book is so much better that i have a hard time rating the doc anymore.

colby: The Moon and the Sledgehammer?

― emil.y, Tuesday, August 16, 2011 11:07 AM

thanks thats the one! i clean forgot, even tho i bought the (bootleg?) dvd earlier this summer, but havent got round to watching yet

For all the bitching, I was expecting the Morbs list to be some truly esoteric shit.

Just want to post the final list as easy reference before ducking out:

#40: Salesman (Albert Maysles/David Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin, 1968) -- 20 points/3 votes
#40: The Filth and the Fury (Julien Temple, 2000) -- 20 points/3 votes
#40: The Gleaners & I (Agnes Varda, 2000) -- 20 points/3 votes
#40: The Times of Harvey Milk (Rob Epstein, 1984) -- 20 points/3 votes
#39: Être et Avoir (Nicolas Philibert, 2002) -- 21 points/2 votes/1 first
#38: Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010) -- 22 points/3 votes
#36: Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles/David Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin, 1970) -- 24 points/3 votes
#36: Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin/Jacques Cluzaud, 2001) -- 24 points/3 votes
#34: Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz, 2002) -- 25 points/2 votes/1 first
#34: The World at War (Hugh Raggett/John Pett/David Elstein/Ted Childs/Michael Darlow/Martin Smith, 1973/74) -- 25 points/2 votes/1 first
#33: Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003) -- 26 points/2 votes
#32: Sherman's March (Ross McElwee, 1986) -- 25 points/4 votes
#31: Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Sacha Gervasi, 2008) -- 26 points/2 votes
#30: The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978) -- 26 points/4 votes
#29: WR: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev, 1971) -- 27 points/2 votes/1 first
#28: The Fog of War (Errol Morris, 2003) -- 27 points/3 votes
#27: My Best Fiend (Werner Herzog, 1999) -- 29 points/3 votes
#26: Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985) -- 30 points/2 votes/1 first
#25: Paris Is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990) -- 32 points/3 votes
#24: Winter Soldier (Fred Aronow/Robert Fiore/David Gillis/David Grubin/Jeff Holstein/Michael Lesser, 1972) -- 32 points/4 votes/1 first
#22: The Century of the Self (Adam Curtis, 2002) -- 35 points/2 votes
#22: Hype! (Doug Pray, 1996) -- 35 points/2 votes/1 first
#21: Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) -- 35 points/3 votes/1 first
#20: Grey Gardens (Albert Maysles/David Maysles/Ellen Hovde/Muffie Meyer, 1975) -- 35 points/5 votes
#19: Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982) -- 35 points/6 votes
#18: Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984) -- 38 points/5 votes
#17: Brother’s Keeper (Joe Berlinger/Bruce Sinofsky, 1992) -- 40 points/2 votes
#16: Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929) -- 41 points/6 votes
#15: Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955) -- 48 points/3 votes
#14: The Up Series (Michael Apted/Paul Almond, 1964-2005) -- 48 points/5 votes/2 firsts
#13: Man on Wire (James Marsh, 2008) -- 49 points/4 votes
#12: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Seth Gordon, 2007) -- 49 points/5 votes
#11: When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, 1996) -- 52 points/4 votes/1 first
#10: Streetwise (Martin Bell, 1984) -- 53 points/4 votes
#9: The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988) -- 53 points/5 votes/1 first
#8: Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris, 1978) -- 61 points/5 votes/1 first
#7: American Movie (Chris Smith, 1999) -- 64 points/8 votes/1 first
#6: Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 1994) -- 68 points/8 votes
#5: The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophüls, 1969) -- 70 points/5 votes/1 first
#4: Harlan County U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple, 1976) -- 78 points/5 votes/1 first
#3: Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki, 2003) -- 88 points/8 votes
#2: Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005) -- 98 points/8 votes/1 first
#1: Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, 1994) -- 163 points/13 votes/4 firsts

I'm not Glenn McDonald, but I'll probably compile a few basic stats on which directors totalled the most overall points, and which got votes for the most number of films.

1. Brickhouse Brown Shoot Interview (2009) (30 points) - Little-known Memphis wrestler Brickhouse Brown shares a succession of awesome hood anecdotes, brags that he "got Jeff Jarrett his first piece of black pussy."

holy shit

For all the bitching, I was expecting the Morbs list to be some truly esoteric shit.

The bitching came from: you guys really didn't hafta try that hard. Just hang up on the Dem phone marketers and you'll have time to watch Shoah.

big ups to d*m p*ss*nt*no for the shoot recs

I'm sure I would've included "truly esoteric shit" that I've just plumb forgot some bcz they're not constantly talked about in the cultural conversations I hear. I'm just as susceptible to that as anyone, moreso with the death of my middle-aged brain cells.

Just hang up on the Dem phone marketers and you'll have time to watch Shoah.

But if they're that desperate they have to start lobbying people in the UK I feel it would be awfully rude to curtail their call.

I'm sure I would've included "truly esoteric shit" that I've just plumb forgot some bcz they're not constantly talked about in the cultural conversations I hear. I'm just as susceptible to that as anyone

Hm. You say you're just as susceptible to that as anyone and yet you pretty much deny the possibility that this happened to anyone else - rather, we're all a bunch of ignoramuses in your eyes.

Anyone, I do agree with Josh, it's extra infuriating when the person on a thread who does the most shouting about how everyone is ill-informed and barbaric turns out to be incredibly middlebrow.

My list:

1. Up Series (28 Up, if I need to pick one)
2. Man with a Movie Camera
3. Koyaanisqatsi
4. Tokyo Olympiad
5. Triumph of the Will
6. Grey Gardens
7. Sherman's March
8. Paris is Burning
9. Restrepo
10. Burden of Dreams

so much stuff on this list i haven't seen/need to see! a friend of mine was raving about 'streetwise' to me recently - apparently the original camera negative is lost :/

my list would've had the following, had i voted (not sure of order):

gates of heaven
sans soleil
inextinguishable fire
hoop dreams
spellbound
portrait of jason
paris is burning
my best fiend
harlan county usa
heavy metal parking lot
stop making sense
high school
enron: the smartest guys in the room
man with a movie camera

You and tape store both mentioned Portrait of Jason. I've got a home-taped VHS that a friend gave me a while back--will have to watch it.

The Moon And The Sledgehammer is great! As for great filmmakers who have not yet been mentioned (and apologies, maybe they have), I cannot recommend both Raymond Depardon and Johan Van Der Keuken (one of my personal favorites) enough.

oh shit i forgot one i love: forough farrokhzad's 'the house is black', which can be viewed here:

http://www.ubu.com/film/farrokhzad_house.html

and of that gorin CA trilogy, i probably would've picked 'routine pleasures'

Me too! That is also one of my all-time favorite movies! =)

oh! and 'word is out'

man why didn't i vote :/

"Let's Get Lost" looks so beautiful but I cannot listen to Chet Baker again after watching it. A friend of mine worked on that movie (just as a PA/grip, but still...)!

And I too need to see Streetwise. I noticed it was part of this (rather amazing!) programme curated by Harmony Korine and I had never heard of it before:
http://www.cphdox.dk/d/a5.lasso?e=1&s=2010119

I gave Let's Get Lost the last spot on my list because of how much effect it had on me when I first saw it (I've mentioned that the mid-'80s was when I first paid attention to documentaries). I watched it two or three more times after that, but that was a while back--not sure how it would hold up today. Baker's dissembling is very sad.

harmony korine's dad made documentaries! i've seen this one:

http://www.harmony-korine.com/news/2008/06/sol-korineblaine-dunlap-dvd/

('mouth music', that is)

oh wow i hated "let's get lost" sooo much.

I don't feel bad for not voting now, my 30 points would have only pushed Gates of Heaven to third.

my list, in no order whatsoever:

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About his Father
Impaler
Fall From Grace
Blood In The Face
Not Quite Hollywood
One Day In September
The Thin Blue Line
Brothers Keeper
The Rape of Europa
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Paradise Lost 2
Dark Days
Crips and Bloods: Made In America
Exit Through the Gift Shop
The Bridge
Best Worst Movie
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
The Wild and Wonderful Whites
Bomb It
The Architecture of Doom

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About his Father

I have been warned not to watch this because I'll cry for days or something like that. Is it really that sad?

It's not only very sad, it's a terrible, terrible movie

As in it made me uncomfortable, it is just so morally dodgy (and atrociously made, but that almost seems irrelevant). File alongside Catfish, which was also revolting in a similar way.

my weirdo picks, if i'd participated (saw these at a fest years ago when someone slipped me a pass)

The Ister
The Great Communist Bank Robbery

Dammit I knew I forgot something, and it was Let's Get Lost.

I also want to point out that, partially because of all the, ahem, discussion that took place above, this 40-film poll reveal thread is longer than some of the old ilx 100-film. Decade poll threads.

Haha, I've been tempted by The Ister but never watched it.

Also, super job Clemenza!

Yes, a round of applause for clemenza. I'm sure that despite all our differences, we have been glad of this opportunity to talk about this stuff.

i can't even really recommend the ister tbh. it's very narrow in appeal

i might have thrown a troll vote to "f for fake", i'm a little surprised that didn't happen here. not even a mention in one of the dumb arguments up there

Good for Alfred for throwing in Las Hurdes, too

Good for Alfred for throwing in Las Hurdes, too

interesting list, jjj

huh admrl, I hadn't heard those criticisms before. I'm sure I'll watch it eventually but I feel like I need to steel myself before doing so.

I thought The Wild and Wonderful Whites was OK but I liked Dancing Outlaw much better. Gah still made I left it off. It should have made my top ten tbh.

i might have thrown a troll vote to "f for fake", i'm a little surprised that didn't happen here. not even a mention in one of the dumb arguments up there

woulda been all over this but it seems such a quintessential essay film/not a docu/whatever it is that i couldn't, & i say that having voted for other essay-stuff like LA plays itself

I liked Dancing Outlaw much better.

Yeah, way better. I hated the Jackass-style production values of Wonderful Whites.