Documentary Movies
F for Fake (1973)
Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works…
The Blues Under the Skin (1973)
Blurring the line between documentary and fiction, THE BLUES UNDER THE SKIN dramatizes the tumultuous relationship of a young couple (Onike Lee and Roland Sanchez) as they struggle to overcome…
Jimi Hendrix (1973)
Made shortly after his death, this documentary explores the brief life and remarkable legacy of guitarist Jimi Hendrix. After finding fame in the U.K., Hendrix brought his act back to…
Juvenile Court (1973)
JUVENILE COURT shows the complex variety of cases before the Memphis Juvenile Court: foster home placement, drug abuse, armed robbery, child abuse, and sexual offenses. The sequences illustrate such issues…
Cry of the Wild (1973)
This feature-length documentary from Bill Mason imparts his affection for the big northern timber wolves and the pure-white Arctic wolves. Filmed over three years in the Northwest Territories, British Columbia,…
Save the Children (1973)
A concert film highlighted by performances from Marvin Gaye, Jerry Butler, and Roberta Flack.
Ciao! Manhattan (1973)
Fiction and documentary mingle in a freewheeling portrait of Susan Superstar, a New York celebrity on a drug-fueled downward slide that mirrors Edie Sedgwick’s own self-destructive spiral.
Come On Children (1973)
Five boys and five girls ages 13 to 19 live on a farm for ten weeks, to be filmed, and to see what might emerge for each of them personally.
Wattstax (1973)
A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the…
Elvis – Aloha from Hawaii (1973)
A 1973 concert by Elvis Presley that was broadcast live via satellite on January 14, 1973. The concert took place at the Honolulu International Center in Honolulu and aired in…
Tarpon (1973)
The first of the modern fishing films, shot in the wild panorama of 1970s Key West. Colorful scenes of Key West from another era – with treasure hunters, smugglers, hippies…
The Tiger Leaps and Kills But It Will Die… It Will Die… (1973)
An obituary for Victor Jara, the Chilean folksinger who was murdered in a football stadium by the military junta during the days of the September 1973 coup.
Essene (1972)
Essene is about daily life in a Benedictine monastery and the resolution of conflict between personal needs and the institutional and organizational priorities of the community. In the Order, where…
Journey Through the Past (1972)
Self-directed combination of concert footage from 1966 onward, backstage footage and art film-like sequences.
Moonwalk One (1972)
This documentary by Theo Kamecke from 1970 gives an indepth and profound look at the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. NASA footage is interspersed with reactions to the mission…
Nationtime (1972)
A report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson,…
Elvis on Tour (1972)
This documentary captures Elvis Presley on his 1972 American tour and includes rehearsals, interviews, archival television appearances and backstage moments. With Elvis at his most flamboyant, the film features well-known…
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
British progressive rock band Pink Floyd perform at the ancient Roman Amphitheater in the ruins of Pompeii, Italy in 1971. Although the band perform a typical live set from the…
Parade (1972)
A short film on the first Gay Pride March in San Francisco in 1971 the year after the Stonewall Riots. This film was lost for 50 years before it was…
FTA (1972)
A documentary about a political troupe headed by actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland which traveled to towns near military bases in the US in the early 1970s. The group…
Pictures of the Old World (1972)
A raw and telling portrait of a people left behind by the modern world, inspired by the work of photographer Martin Martinček – whose pictures of the inhabitants of the…
Sapporo Winter Olympics (1972)
A documentary about the 1972 Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan.
Let Me Die a Woman (1972)
A documentary on the work of sex-change specialist Dr. Leo Wollman, including interviews with Dr. Wollman and a few of his patients, with an illustrated lecture on the various aspects…
I Am a Dancer (1972)
Documentary about the dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
Malcolm X (1972)
James Earl Jones narrates this fascinating and moving documentary about the life of the assassinated black leader through various sources.
Glastonbury Fayre (1972)
In the Summer of 1971 the Glastonbury legend was born when the organisers decided to try and create a festival that would be a forerunner for an ‘alternative and utopian…
Ingmar Bergman (1972)
Portrait of Ingmar Bergman, made while he was working on The Touch, about his professional and private life in the early 1970s.
Spend It All (1972)
Another short documentary of “Real Food, Roots Music, and People Full of Passion for what they do!”, Spend It All is Les Blank’s spirited look at the French-speaking Cajun community…
Morning of the Earth (1972)
In the early ‘70s, founding member of Australian surf magazine Tracks, Albert Falzon, began filming off the North Coast of New South Wales, Hawaii, and Indonesia. He set out to…
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1972)
“I think my film represents above all the proof to those who want to understand and accept it, that poetry can’t be filmed, that it is useless to try” –…
Cousin Jules (1972)
An ode to rural France and the simple joys of life, Dominique Benicheti’s glorious masterpiece Cousin Jules captures the daily routine and rituals of Jules, a blacksmith, living with his…
Secret Rites (1971)
Pseudo-documentary about black magic and the study of witchcraft with a rare appearance by real-life occultist Alex Sanders.
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since her teens, and her work on behalf of other deaf-blind people, this film shows how the…
The Moon and the Sledgehammer (1971)
The Page family lives without electricity or running water deep in the Sussex woods. Amidst ever-growing modernity and industrialization, the family carries out chores, hunts pheasants, builds steam engines, and…
On Any Sunday (1971)
Documentary on motorcycle racing featuring stars of the sport, including film star Steve McQueen, a racer in his own right.
Fidel (1971)
This film provides a unique view of Cuba’s leader, containing fascinating archive footage of the Bay of Pigs invasion and scenes of Che Guevara – alongside interviews with political prisoners.
Basic Training (1971)
Shot during the summer of 1970 at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Frederick Wiseman’s film Basic Training focuses on a group of men going through infantry training, showing how they are turned…
Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris (1971)
In 1970, a British film crew set out to make a straightforward literary portrait of James Baldwin set in Paris, insisting on setting aside his political activism. Baldwin bristled at…
The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971)
A scientist explains how the savagery and efficiency of the insect world could result in their taking over the world.
The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
Fred Hampton was the leader of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. This film depicts his brutal murder by the Chicago police and its subsequent investigation, but also…