Yarn Documentary Club

Great documentaries made in a millennial's lifetime
(1985 - present) 

Here at Yarn HQ we love documentaries. The artform has exploded in my lifetime (40 years) with the widespread availability of affordable digital cameras and editing software, easy access to archival and found footage and the advent of new distribution methods. I was 15 in 2001 when I saw the skateboarding documentary; Dogtown and Z-Boys. The film blew my mind. I realised a documentary could be as exciting and as slick as any feature film. I was hooked ever since. 

What follows is a personal list of my favourite documentaries, made in my lifetime. I’ve grouped them by theme for my own amusement but also with the idea that someday we may make this list into a podcast series, each episode will focus on a theme. (If you really want to see this happen please reach out to me and let me know) 

I’ve also given each documentary a personal star rating of 1-3, again just for my own amusement. In my opinion every title on this list is worth a watch.

This is an ever evolving list and will be added to so suggestions are always welcome.

Happy watching
John Roche (Producer - Yarn | A story podcast)

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Difficult film productions

Movie sets are high pressure environments. When things go wrong they can spiral out of control. The Director’s vision can dwarf the budget, studio executives can meddle, actors can make ridiculous demands, or the Philipine’s military can keep flying your helicopters out of shot to fight a local rebellion. Most of the productions at the heart of these documentaries were doomed but the record of making them is often so entertaining that no one can say the filmmakers' efforts were totally in vain.

• Jodorowsky's Dune 2013 *1

• Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau 2014 *2

• The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? 2015 *1

• Shirkers 2018 *3

• Hearts of Darkness 1991 *3

• Lost in La Mancha 2002 *3

• My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn 2019 *1

Behind the scenes

These documentaries take us behind the camera for some of our favourite films and TV shows. Delve into pre production, concept design, production design. Ride along during principle photography then enter post production, editing, VFX, music and sound design. The films below show it all. It’s not always smooth sailing (especially if you're Ridley Scott) but all of these productions left behind groundbreaking works of cinema.

• The Fear of God: 25 Years of the Exorcist 1998 *3

• The Matrix revisited 2001 *3

• The Beginning: Making Star Wars 'Episode 1 2001 *2

• Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner 2007 *3

• 78/52 2017 *3

• Memory: origins of alien 2019 *2

• What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2018 *3

• He dreams of giants 2021 *1

• ILM - Industrial Light & Magic: Creating The Impossible 2022 *2

  
  

Finding Kubrick

For a person so famous for his privacy and his extremely demanding personality it's not surprising that documentary makers are so keen to uncover the truth about the genius film director Stanley Kubrick. These documentaries dispel some of the myths about him, confirm a lot of them and one goes all out tinfoil hat conspiracy theory. 

• Stanley Kubrick: an life in pictures 2001 *3

• Stanley Kubrick’s boxes 2008 *1

• Room 237 2012 *3

• Filmworker 2017 *3

Film directors

Here are some of the greatest documentary films about the greatest filmmakers. Sit back and immerse yourself in their back catalogs and listen to them wax lyrical about their process and careers.

• Altman 2014 *1

• Hitchcock/Truffaut 2015 *3

• Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny 2016 *1

• Spielberg 2017 *3

Film anthologies

Can’t decide what classic film to rewatch or are you looking for inspiration? Why not watch a compilation of scenes from some of the best movies ever made, lovinging curated by some of the best film makers. Films on this list include beautiful visuals, emotive soundtracks, behind the scenes stories, historical context and film theory essays.

• Los Angeles Plays Itself 2003 *2

• Easy riders raging bulls 2003 *2

• Story of film 2011 *3

• Side by side 2012 *3

• Beyond Clueless 2014 *3

• SCORE: A Film Music Documentary 2016 *3

• James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction 2018 *3

• Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema 2018 *2

• Making waves 2019 *3

• Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger 2024 *2

Reenactment As Narrative Device

Reenactment has always been a technique available to documentary filmmakers but these films use reenactment not just to illustrate or imagine something, they use reenactment as a narrative device. They lean into the inherent fakeness of recreation to uncover a truth and the people reenacting the story become the story themselves.

• This Is Not a Film 2011 *3

• The act of killing 2012 *3

• Chasing Shakelton 2014 *3

• The Wolfpack 2015 *1

• Kate Plays Christine 2015 *1

• Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made 2015 *1

• Casting JonBennet 2017 *2

• Dick Johnson Is Dead 2020 *1

• The Rehearsal 2022 *3

• Reality (2023) *3

Wrestling 

Ever since ‘Wrestling With Shadows’ broke kayfabe and allowed viewers behind the scenes of professional wrestling, subsequent films have opened up the secret world even more. These documentaries feature athletes pushing their bodies to the limit and beyond. There's blood, sweat, tears and lots of  eyeliner. There are heroes and villains or more accurately ‘faces’ and ‘heels’. There are falls from grace and inspiring comebacks but most tragically there are aging showmen who don't know when to quit.  

• Hitman Hart: wrestling with shadows 1998 *3

• Beyond the mat 1999 *2

• The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family 2012 *1

• The Resurrection of Jake the Snake 2015 *3

• Undertaker: The Last Ride 2020 *1

• You cannot kill David Arquette 2020 *3
  

Art therapy

Stories of how art helps us overcome trauma, enriches our lives and allows us to communicate with others. Let the healing begin…

• Marwincol 2010 *1

• Life animated 2016 *2

• The painter and the thief 2020 *3

• Grayson’s art club 2020 *3

• Museums in Quarantine 2020 *3

• Painted with my hair 2021 *3

• A bunch of amateurs 2022 *3

Art Business

Stories about the business side of art. The art world is oftentimes corrupt, complex and exploitative. In these documentaries money and greed come in conflict with artistic integrity. Art is beauty and truth but the Art world is ugly and deceitful. 

• My kid could paint that 2007 *3

• Citizen lane 2018 *3

• Exit through the giftshop 2010 *3

• My Rembrandt 2019 *1

• Obey giant 2017 *2

• Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed 2021 *1

• The lost Leonardo 2021 *2

National treasures / life stories

• Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind 2018 *3

• Won't you be my neighbour? 2018 *3

• Finding Jack Charlton 2020 *1

• RGB 2019 *1

• Mike wallace is here 2020 *1

• Life itself 2014 *3

• Real Charlie Chaplin 2022 *2

• Still: A Micheal J. Fox Movie 2023 *3

• Reframed: marilyn monroe *2

• Pamela: a love story *1

Intimate portraits - sport

• Senna 2010 *3

• Maradona 2019 *3

• Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist 2014 *1

• Muhammad Ali 2021 *3

• Schumacher 2021 *1

Intimate portraits - music

• Amy 2015 *3

• Whitney: Can I be me 2017 *3

• Sinatra: All or Nothing at All 2015 *2

• Being Frank 2018 *3

• Kurt Cobain: montage of heck 2015 *3

• What happened, miss simone 2015 *3

• Beastie boys story 2020 *3

• Kings From Queens: The Run-DMC Story 2024 *1

Dangerous Dynasties (Powerful families)

• House of saud: A Family at War 2018 *3

• A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad 2018 *3

• The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty 2020 *3

• The Crime of the century 2021 *3

Great escapes

• Touching the void 2003 *3

• The Hijacker Who Vanished: The Mystery of DB Cooper 2020 *1

• Sabaya 2021 *3

• Last breath 2018 *2

• Dave not coming back 2020 *2

• The rescue 2021 *3

• Beyond Utopia 2023 *3

• The deepest breath *2

Con artists & cheats

• The imposter 2012 *3

• Great hip hop hoax 2013 *3

• The Armstrong Lie 2013 *3
  Lance 2020 *3

• An Honest Liar 2014 *3

• Sour Grapes 2016 *2

• Killing for Love 2016 *1

• Nuts! 2016 *2

• Icarus 2017 *2

• The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley 2019 *2

• Hillsong church - god goes viral 2021 *2

Courtroom Dramas

• The thin blue line 1988 *3

• Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills 1996 *3

• OJ: Made in America 2016 *3

• Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press 2017 *2

• The Trial: A Murder in the Family 2017 *3

Dubious characters - regrets I’ve had a few or maybe not / unreliable narrators

• The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl 1993 *3

• The fog of war 2003 *3

• The unknown known 2013 *2

• Fear of 13 2015 *1

• Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee 2016 *3

• Weiner 2016 *2

• Get Me Roger Stone 2017 *1

• The Kingmaker 2019 *3

• Dogs of war (2024)*3

Deep cover

• I’m still here 2010 *2

• The green prince 2014 *3

• Taxi (tehran) 2015 *3

• The Look of Silence 2015 *3

• Jim and Andy 2017 *3

• The Mole: Undercover in North Korea 2020 *3

• The mole agent 2020 *3

• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm 2020 *3

• Derren Brown miracles for sale  2011*2

• My Old School 2022 *1

Half-baked schemes 

• Operation Odessa 2018 *1

• Killing Escobar 2021 *2

• The fallen astronaut  2020 *2

• Becoming Bond 2017 *1

• High: Confessions of an Ibiza Drug Mule 2021 *1

• Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in PyongYang 2015 *1

• Deep water 2006 *3

• Red Penguins: Murder, Money and Ice Hockey 2020 *2

Abuse of power

• Untouchable: The Rise and Fall of Harvey Weinstein 2019 *3

• Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich 2020 *1

• Framing Britney Spears 2021 *2

• Surviving R. Kelly 2019 *1

• Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator 2019 *3

• Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes 2018 *2

• Leaving Neverland 2019 *3

• Team foxcatcher 2016 *3

• Athlete A 2020 *3

• The invisible war 2012 *3

• The Hunting Ground 2015 *1

• Scouting for girls 2022 *2

• Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power *2

Corruption and greed

• Water & Power: A California Heist *2

• Flint 2020 *2

• The great invisible 2021 *1

• Atlantic 2016 *2

• Inside Job 2010 *2

• Enron: smartest guys in the room 2005 *3

• Merchants of doubt 2010 *3

• Collective 2019 *3

• Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom 2015 *3

• The seven five 2014 *3

• Putin, Russia and the West 2012 *3

• Nothing lasts forever 2022 *2

• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed 2022 *2

Skateboarding 

• Dogtown and Z-Boys 2001 *3

• All this mayhem 2014 *3

• Bones Brigade: An Autobiography 2012 *3

• Pretending I'm a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story 2020 *2

• Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off 2022 *3 

The holocaust

• Shoah 1985

• The Accountant Of Auschwitz 2018 *2

• Devil next door 2019 *1

• Last days 1998 *1

In competition (rivalries and a main event)

• The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young 2014 *2

• Hunt vs Lauda: F1's Greatest Racing Rivals 2013 *2

• AlphaGo 2017 *2

• Spellbound 2002 *3

• King of Kong 2007 *3

• When we were kings 1996 *3

• Speed Sisters 2015 *1

• Maiden 2018 *1

• TT3D: closer to the edge 2011 *1

• Paris is burning 1990 *3

• Next goal wins 2014 *3

• Battered bastards of baseball 2014 *1

• Murderball 2005 *2

• Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance 2015 *1

• What Carter lost 2017 *2

• Tour de France: Unchained *2

Mental illness (when the mind plays tricks on you)

• ​​The Devil and Daniel Johnston 2005 *2

• Bedlam 2019 *3

• God knows who I am 2016 *1 

• Yung Lean: In My Head 2021 *1

• The Crash Reel 2013 *3

Support act takes centre stage

• 20 Feet from Stardom 2013 *3

• The Wrecking Crew 2008 *1

• Wonderful losers: A different world 2020 *2

• I know that voice 2019 *1

• Ice guardians 2016 *2

Natural charisma (discovering an interesting character others ignored) (people are a joy to watch) Mundane

• American Movie 1999 *3

• Dina 2017 *1

• Anvil! The Story of Anvil 2008 *3

• Clarkson’s farm 2021 *3

• Radio man 2012 *1

• King of cruise 2019 *1

• Mattress men 2016 *1

• Bill Cunningham: New York 2010 *3
  

Close quarters/ bubble / isolated / living in a bubble

• Wild wild country 2018 *3

• The raft 2019 *2

• Spaceship Earth 2020 *3

• Jesus camp 2006 *1

• Going clear 2015 *3

• Pervert park 2014 *3

• Some Kind of heaven 2020 *2

• Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street 2020 *2

• Double Fine PsychOdyssey 2023 *3

Coming of age

• Up series

• Minding the Gap 2018 *3

• Hoop dreams 1994 *3

• All this panic 2016 *3

• A house made of splinters 2022 *3

Music concerts and tours

• Loud. Quiet. Loud 2006 *1

• Shut up and play the hits 2012 *3

• Part of the weekend never dies 2008 *3

• One more time with feeling 2016 *3

• Amazing Grace 2018 *2

• Glastonbury film 1996 *1

• The Beatles: Get Back 2021 *3

Climbing

• Valley uprising 2014 *3

• Sherpa 2015 *3

• Meru 2015 *3

• The dawn wall 2017 *3

• Free solo 2018 *3

• Alpinist 2020 *2

Ancient rome

• Roman Empire 2016 *3

• Meet the Romans with Mary Beard 2012 *3

• Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire 2006 *3

Twists and turns / stranger than fiction / thrillers

• Limo ride 2014 *1

• Three identical strangers 2018 *3

• Searching for Sugar Man 2012 *3

• Voyeur 2017 *1

• Tickled 2016 *2

• Catfish 2010 *2

• Blackfish 2013 *3

• Tiger King 2020 *3

Space exploration

• Above and Beyond: NASA's Journey to Tomorrow 2019 *2

• Apollo 11 2019 *3

• Challenger: The final flight 2020 *3

• NOVA Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster 2015 *2

• Saturn V story 2014 *3

• For all mankind 1989 *2

• In the shadow of the moon 2007 *2

• The farthest 2017 *3

• Wonders of the solar system 2010 *3

• The planets 2019 *3

• Last man on the moon 2014 *1

• Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey 2014 *3

Animation

• A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman 2015 *2

• Frank and Ollie 1995 *2

• The Pixar Story 2007 *1

• Waking Sleeping Beauty 2009 *3

Design and designers

• Objectified 2009 *2

• Rams 2018 *3

• Design is one: the vignellis 2012 *1

• Milton Glaser: to inform and delight 2008 *1

• Art and copy 2009 *1

• Grand Designs 1999 – present *3

• Eames: architect and painter 2011 *1

• Helvetica 2007 *3

• Seven wonders of the industrial world 2003 *3

• Great lighthouses of Ireland 2019 *3

• Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) *1

Fashion

• Clive James Meets the Supermodels (1998) *2

• Dior and I 2014 *3

• McQueen 2018 *3

• September Issue 2009 *1

• Just for kicks 2005 *2

War correspondents

• Only the dead 2015 *3

• Under the wire 2018 *2

• Jim: The James Foley Story 2016 *1

• This is not a movie 2019 *2

Soldiers in war

• Restrepo 2010 *3

• They shall not grow old 2018 *3 

• Bagdad ER 2006 *1

• Retrograde 2022 *3

Civilians in war

• Once Upon a Time in Iraq 2020 *3

• For Sama 2019 *3

• Last days in Vietnam 2014 *3

• Five broken cameras 2011 *3

• Precious Life  2010 *3

• Syria The Impossible Revolution 2018 *2

• 20 days in Mariupol *3

War history

• The iraq war (BBC series) 2013 *2

• Afghanistan: The Great Game - A Personal View by Rory Stewart 2012 *3

• The vietnam war 2017 *3

• World war 2 in colour 2009 *3

• The longest war 2020 *2

Internet stories

• Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World 2016 *2

• The Internet's own boy 2014 *1

• Feels good man 2020 *3

• Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer 2019 *2

When things get out of control

• Woodstock ’99 2021 *3

• Blackout 2015 *2

• Class Action Park 2020 *2

• Fyre 2019 *3

Nuclear fears

• Pandoras promise 2013 *3

• Command and control 2016 *3

• The Bikini atoll/radio bikini 1988 *3

• Atom 2007 *3

• Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield 2015 *3

• Turning point: the bomb and the cold war 2024 *2

• Britain's Nuclear Bomb scandal 2024 *2

Families in conflict

• Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father 2008 *2

• Capturing the Friedmans 2003 *3

• Stories We Tell 2012 *1

• Allen vs. Farrow 2021 *2

• Leftover Women 2019 *1

• North by Current 2021 *3

• Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers 2022 *1

Journalism

• Page One inside the NY times 2011 *2

• The Fourth Estate 2018 *3

• Obit 2019 *1

• Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004)

• Whirlybird 2020 *3

• Shot in the dark 2017 *1

The Troubles

• Massacre at Ballymurphy 2018 *2

• I, Dolours 2018 *2

• No Stone Unturned 2017 *2

• Bobby Sands: 66 Days 2016 *3

• Provos, Loyalists and Brits 1999 *3

Business and entrepreneurs 

• The Defiant Ones 2017 *1

• Concorde: a supersonic story 2017 *2

• Valley of the boom 2019 *1

Murder investigations

• The staircase 2004 *2

• The jinx 2015 *3

• The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector (2009) *2

• Making a murderer 2015 *1

• Murder at the cottage 2021 *2

• Amanda Knox 2016 *2

• The Witness 2015 *2

Racism & slavery

• LA 92 2017 *3

• School that ended racism 2020 *3

• I am not your negro 2016 *2

• 13th 2016 *3

• Exterminate all the brutes 2021 *3

• The House I Live In 2012 *3

• Time 2020 *2

Inside the White House

• Inside Obama's White House 2016 *3

• The final year 2017 *1

• The Trump Show 2020 *3

• The Way I See It 2020 *1

• Corridors of power 2022 *3

• Trump: The criminal conspiracy case (2024)*3

David vs. Goliath stories (standing their ground)

• Citizen four 2014 *1

• Navalny 2022 *3

• The Lonely Battle Of Thomas Reid 2017 *3

• The Australian dream 2019 *2

• Risk 2016 *2

• How to survive a plague 2012 *2

• Tickling Giants 2016 *1

• Attica *3

• Telemarketers (2023) *3

Hangouts

• Studio 54 2018 *1

• School Life 2016 *3

• The Irish pub 2013 *1

• Hotel Coolgardie 2016 *3

• Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets 2020 *1

• Abbeyfealegood 2019 *2

• The aristocrats 2005 *1

• 20000 days on Earth 2014 *3

• Crip camp 2020 *1

• The parking lot movie 2010 *2

• The Stroll *3

Covert actions

• One day in September 1999 *3

• The gatekeepers 2012 *2

• Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden 2013 *2

• Assassins 2020 *2

• The Dissident 2020 *2

• Dirty wars 2013 *1

• Taxi to the darkside 2007 *3

• Zero Days 2016 *3

• Coup 53 2019 *2

• The revolution will not be televised 2003 *3

Alternative histories

• Oliver Stone’s The Untold History of the United States 2012 *3

• Jeremy Deller’s Everybody in the Place, An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992  2018 *3

• The French African Connection (Aljazeera) 2014 *3

• Hypernormalisation 2016 *3

• Can’t get you out of my head 2021 *2

• Screenwipe 2006 *3

• Scratch 2001 *3

• Justice: a civilians guide to the 21st century 2011 *3

• One million Dubliners 2015 *3

Irish History

• The Story of Ireland 2011 *2

• Seven ages of ireland 2000 *2

• The hunger 2020 *2

• Reeling in the years 1999 *3

Nature

• Planet earth 2006 *3

• Blue planet 2001 *3

• Secret life of plants *2

Obsession

• The Queen of Versailles 2012 *1

• Grizzly man 2005 *3

• The last dance 2020 *3

• Off the rails 2016 *2

• Man on wire 2008 *3

• Tim’s Vermeer 2013 *3

In search of beauty

• Cave of forgotten dreams 2010 *3

• Into the inferno 2016 *2

• The game: story of hurling 2018 *3

• John McEnroe: in the realm of perfection 2018 *3

• My Octopus Teacher 2020 *1

Storytelling and literature  

• Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth 1988 *2

• Secrets of the Arabian nights 2011 *3

• Secret History of comics  2017 *3

• Future shock: 2000 AD 2014 *1

• In Search of Dracula with Mark Gatiss 2020 *2

The hard sell (documentary as a campaign)

• Roger and me 1989 *2

• Bowling for Columbine 2002

• Supersize me 2004 *1

• An inconvenient truth 2006 *2

• Propaganda 2012 *2

Underground

• Dark Days 2000 *3

• Prohibition: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick 2011 *3

• Chuck Norris vs Communism 2015 *2

• Silk Road: Drugs, Death and the Dark Web 2017 *3

• Flee 2021 *3