Essential Documentaries

Essential Documentaries

A selection of standout non-fiction films from the Metrograph library.

4K badge
Subscribe Share
Essential Documentaries
  • The Competition

    Directed by Claire Simon | 121 mins | 2016
    The Competition begins, significantly, with the image of a locked gate—that of La Fémis, one of the most prestigious film schools in the world, offering hands-on training from working professionals and accepting only 40 students per year from hundreds o...

  • The French

    Directed by William Klein | 130 mins | 1982
    “For me, this film encapsulates everything I loved and love about the tennis of that moment; and in the hands of the great and singular William Klein, it is at once a gripping sports page, a fascinating piece of reportage, and a work of art.”

    —Wes A...

  • The Prairie Trilogy

    Directed by John Hanson and Rob Nilsson | 97 mins | 1978
    John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, co-directors of Cannes Camera d’Or winner Northern Lights and fellow members of San Francisco’s Cine Manifest film collective, collaborated on this remarkable series of documentaries underwritten by the North D...

  • The Raft

    Directed by Marcus Lindeen | 97 mins | 2018
    In the summer of 1973, a young international crew of six women and five men embarked together on a most unusual sea voyage—a close-quarters trip across the Atlantic from Spain to Mexico on a free-floating raft christened the Acali, initiated by Mexican...

  • The Windmill Movie

    Directed by Alexander Olch | 82 mins | 2008
    “What if someone else wrote your autobiography?” That is the question posited by Alexander Olch as he tells the life-story of his former Harvard professor, the filmmaker Richard P. Rogers. For twenty years, Rogers worked on an autobiographical portrait...

  • Apolonia, Apolonia

    Directed by Lea Glob | 116 mins | 2022
    With her intense gaze and assured manner, the artist who gives Lea Glob’s documentary its title, a French painter born into the Parisian counterculture, is a figure of considerable magnetism. Filmed over the course of 13 years, from Apolonia’s early twentie...

  • This is Not a Movie

    Directed by Yung Chang | 106 mins | 2019
    “You’ve got to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer.” Such was the guiding principle of Robert Fisk, the intrepid British-born correspondent. Through decades of reportage from sites of conflict across the Middle East, he mounted scathing...

  • Reality Winner

    Directed by Sonia Kennebeck | 93 mins | 2023
    Between being played by Sydney Sweeney (in "Reality", 2023) and Emilia Jones (in "Winner", 2024), the Air Force veteran and NSA translator-turned-whistleblower finally plays herself in this remarkable documentary by Sonia Kennebeck, executive produced ...