285 Free Documentaries Online

Watch over 200 free doc­u­men­taries online. The doc­u­men­taries cov­er every­thing from music and cin­e­ma, to lit­er­a­ture, reli­gion, pol­i­tics and physics. They’re thought-pro­vok­ing, eye-open­ing, and enlight­en­ing. For more great films, please vis­it our com­plete col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More.

  • 3,000 Free Films from the Nation­al Film Board of Cana­daFree — The Nation­al Film Board of Cana­da has put online thou­sands of films, includ­ing a good num­ber of doc­u­men­taries.
  • 400 Free Doc­u­men­taries from Deutsche WelleFree — The Ger­man pub­lic broad­cast­er makes avail­able 400+ doc­u­men­taries cov­er­ing many areas, includ­ing arts & cul­ture.
  • 10 Years with Hayao Miyaza­kiFree — A four part doc­u­men­tary on the unstop­pable Japan­ese ani­ma­tor direct­ed by Kaku Arakawa. (2019)
  • 15 Films by Design­ers Charles & Ray EamesFree — Watch a series of short films by the icon­ic design­ers.
  • 50 Archi­tec­ture Doc­u­men­tariesFree — A col­lec­tion of free doc­u­men­taries direct­ed by Richard Copans on famous archi­tects and build­ings. Top­ics include Bauhaus, Le Cor­busier, Zaha Hadid & more.
  • A is for Archi­tec­tureFree — This short doc­u­men­tary offers a panora­ma of archi­tec­ture, mov­ing from one tra­di­tion to anoth­er, illus­trat­ing how each reflects the sen­ti­ments and val­ues of its time. (1960)
  • A Brief His­to­ry of John BaldessariFree — A short film nar­rat­ed by Tom Waits on the life and work of West-Coast con­cep­tu­al artist John Baldessari. (2012)
  • A Com­mu­ni­ca­tions PrimerFree — An instruc­tion­al film on the basics of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, cre­at­ed by Charles and Ray Eames of Eames Office for IBM. (1953)
  • A Land With­out BreadFree — Osten­si­bly a doc­u­men­tary about the Las Hur­des region locat­ed in a remote cor­ner of Spain, this Luis Buñuel’s film is in fact a lac­er­at­ing par­o­dy of trav­el doc­u­men­taries. (1933)
  • A Look Behind the Future — Free — Intrigu­ing 1966 doc­u­men­tary takes you inside the mak­ing of Kubrick­’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and the thrilling tech­nolo­gies then in real-life devel­op­ment. (1966)
  • A Man Among Men: Alber­to Gia­comet­tiFree — An hour-long doc­u­men­tary about Gia­comet­ti, by Jean-Marie Drot. (1963)
  • A Nec­es­sary Ruin: The Sto­ry of Buck­min­ster Fuller and the Union Tank Car DomeFree — Tells the his­to­ry of the Union Tank Car Dome, the largest clear-span struc­ture in the world, based on the engi­neer­ing prin­ci­ples of the vision­ary design sci­en­tist Buck­min­ster Fuller. (2010)
  • A Sto­ry of Heal­ing — Free — Won Acad­e­my Award for best Doc­u­men­tary Short Sub­ject. Fol­lows a team of vol­un­teers in Viet­nam. (1997)
  • A World of Art: The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art — Free — Found­ed in 1870, the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art in New York City is a three dimen­sion­al ency­clo­pe­dia of art his­to­ry. Filmed in 2004.
  • Albert Ein­stein: How I See the WorldFree — Doc­u­men­tary on physi­cist Albert Ein­stein which chron­i­cles the expe­ri­ences that lead him to become a great advo­cate for world peace. (1991)
  • Aleis­ter Crow­ley: The Wickedest Man in the World — Free —  Takes you into the life of Aleis­ter Crow­ley, an Eng­lish occultist, cer­e­mo­ni­al magi­cian, poet, and moun­taineer, respon­si­ble for found­ing the reli­gion of Thele­ma.
  • Albert Camus: The Mad­ness of Sin­cer­i­tyFree — About the life and work of writer Albert Camus, includ­ing inter­views with his for­mer mis­tress­es and Camus’ daugh­ter Cather­ine and her twin broth­er Jean. (1997)
  • Andy Warhol and Roy Licht­en­stein Free — Doc­u­men­tary on the two artists from 1966.
  • Alfred Stieglitz: The Elo­quent Eye Free — A reveal­ing look at the “Father of Amer­i­can Pho­tog­ra­phy.” Appeared in the PBS Amer­i­can Mas­ters series. (1999)
  • Andy Warhol: The Com­plete Pic­tureFree — A doc­u­men­tary cov­er­ing the life and work of the most enig­mat­ic and influ­en­tial artist of the late twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. (2001)
  • Ansel Adams, Pho­tog­ra­ph­er — Free — Doc­u­men­tary reveals the artis­tic and tech­ni­cal approach of Ansel Adams, Amer­i­ca’s finest pho­tog­ra­ph­er of nat­ur­al land­scapes. (1958)
  • Ansel Adams: The Inci­sive ArtFree — Explores the work of one of America’s most famous pho­tog­ra­phers, Ansel Adams as he goes beneath the sur­face to record nature and the qual­i­ty of human­i­ty. (1962)
  • Arduino: The Doc­u­men­tary — Free — Revis­its a project launched in the Ital­ian town of Ivrea back in 2005. The chal­lenge? To devel­op cheap, easy-to-use elec­tron­ics com­po­nents for design stu­dents. (2010)
  • At the Muse­umFree — The Muse­um of Mod­ern Art (aka MoMA) cre­ates an 8‑part doc­u­men­tary series on what it takes to run a world-class muse­um. (2017)
  • Athe­ism: A Rough His­to­ry of Dis­be­lief — Free — A mini-series cre­at­ed by Jonathan Miller explores the his­to­ry of athe­ism in the world. (2004)
  • Audio Ammu­ni­tion — Free — A series of short doc­u­men­taries on The Clash and five of their clas­sic stu­dio albums. Pro­duced by Google. (2013)
  • BadiouFree — The first fea­­ture-length film on France’s most famous liv­ing philoso­pher. (2018)
  • Bauhaus WorldFree — To com­mem­o­rate the 100th anniver­sary of the found­ing of the Bauhaus school, this doc­u­men­tary explores the his­to­ry and influ­ence of Germany’s leg­endary art, archi­tec­ture & design move­ment. (2019)
  • Bob Mar­ley ‘Come A Long Way’Free — Doc­u­men­tary made for NZ tv show ‘Good Day’ by Dylan Taite. (1979)
  • Beat This!: A Hip-Hop His­to­ry — Free — Orig­i­nal­ly part of the Are­na tele­vi­sion series, the TV doc was among the first crop of doc­u­men­taries about hip-hop and hip-hop cul­ture. (1984)
  • Bed Peace Free — 70 minute doc­u­men­tary revis­its John and Yoko’s famous 1969 Bed-Ins, which amount­ed to a peace­ful protest against the Viet­nam War. (2011)
  • Beau­ti­ful Equa­tionsFree — Artist/writer Matt Collings takes the plunge into an alien world of equa­tions, ask­ing top sci­en­tists to help him under­stand five of the most famous equa­tions in sci­ence. (2010)
  • Benoit Man­del­brot: Father of Frac­talsFree — In this final inter­view shot by film­mak­er Erol Mor­ris, Man­del­brot shares his love for math­e­mat­ics and how it led him to his won­drous dis­cov­ery of frac­tals. (2013)
  • Black Cof­feeFree — A three part look at  “the world’s most wide­ly tak­en legal drug,” a bev­er­age whose intel­lec­tu­al­ly intense die-hard enthu­si­asts give wine’s a run for their mon­ey, from his­tor­i­cal, polit­i­cal, social, and eco­nom­ic angles. (2007)
  • Blitzkrieg Bop - Free — Hour-long TV doc­u­men­tary takes an old school look at CBGB dur­ing the hey­day. Fea­tures The Ramones, Blondie and The Dead Boys. Mix­es live per­for­mance with short inter­view clips. (1978)
  • Bob Geld­of: The MomentFree — In a short doc­u­men­tary by Errol Mor­ris, Bob Geld­of talks about the great­est day in his life–stepping on the stage of Live Aid and rais­ing mon­ey to end the famine in Africa. (2014)
  • Bowl­ing for ColumbineFree — Through his YouTube chan­nel, Michael Moore has made avail­able his Acad­e­my Award win­ning doc­u­men­tary on guns & gun vio­lence in Amer­i­ca. (2002)
  • Bri­an Eno: The Man Who Fell To Earth, 1971–1977 - Free — Explores Eno’s life, career and music between those tit­u­lar years—the peri­od that some view as his gold­en age, and oth­ers as just one great era in a long and very eclec­tic career. (2012)
  • Buck­min­ster Fuller: Think­ing Out LoudFree — Doc­u­men­tary on the inventor/visionary/thinker R. Buck­min­ster Fuller, pro­duced and direct­ed by four time Acad­e­my Award nom­i­nees Karen Good­man and Kirk Simon. (1996)
  • Brus­sels Express Free — Direct­ed by Sander Van­den­broucke, this 20 minute film explores the risks of cycling in mod­ern Brus­sels, one of the most con­gest­ed cities in today’s Europe. (2012)
  • Car­avag­gioFree — A doc­u­men­tary by Robert Hugh­es (cir­ca 1975)
  • Chick Corea: Doc­u­men­tary of Leg­endary Jazz Great, Pianist and Com­pos­erFree — Short doc­u­men­tary fea­tures Sting, Bob­by McFer­rin, Bela Fleck, Her­bie Han­cock, Wayne Short­er and more.
  • Churchill’s Island — Free — WWII pro­pa­gan­da film chron­i­cling the defense of Great Britain. Won the very first Acad­e­my Award for Doc­u­men­tary Short Sub­ject. (1941)
  • City Sym­phoniesFree — Watch “city sym­phonies” filmed in the 1920s. These poet­ic, exper­i­men­tal doc­u­men­taries present a por­trait of the dai­ly of cities like Berlin, Paris, Sao Paulo and New York.
  • Code Rush — Free — Doc­u­men­tary fol­low­ing the lives of Netscape engi­neers in Sil­i­con Val­ley. (1998)
  • ColetteFree — 90-year-old Colette Marin-Cather­ine con­fronts her past by vis­it­ing the Ger­man con­cen­tra­tion camp Mit­tel­bau-Dora where her broth­er was killed. Pre­pared to re-open old wounds, Marin-Cather­ine offers impor­tant lessons for us all. The film won the Acad­e­my Award for best doc­u­men­tary short in 2021.
  • Con­fronta­tion: Paris, 1968Free — A doc­u­men­tary by Sey­mour Dresch­er (Pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of His­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pitts­burgh & for­mer stu­dent of George Mosse), looks at the stu­dent and work­er upheaval in France in May, 1968.
  • Con­ver­sa­tions with Myself — Free — Alan Watts walks in the moun­tains and talks about the lim­i­ta­tions of tech­nol­o­gy and the prob­lem of try­ing to keep track of an infi­nite uni­verse with a sin­gle tracked mind. (1971)
  • Cre­ative Process: Nor­man McLarenFree — This fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary is a jour­ney into Nor­man McLaren’s process of artis­tic cre­ation. (1990)
  • Cry Baby: The Ped­al That Rocks the World — Free — Tells the sto­ry of the wah wah effect ped­al, from its inven­tion in 1966 to the present day. (2011)
  • Curi­ous About Cuba: The Great Muse­ums of Havana — Free — This film shows a side of the island nation that we sel­dom hear about: her art, his­to­ry, and cul­ture. (2008)
  • Cyber­punkFree — Doc­u­men­tary intro­duces the cul­ture of Cyber­punk. Fea­tures vin­tage footage of William Gib­son & Tim­o­thy Leary (1990).
  • David Bowie: Sound and VisionFree — Takes you on a jour­ney throug Bowie’s career. Fea­tures inter­views with Bowie, Iman his wife, his musi­cal con­tem­po­raries includ­ing Iggy Pop, Moby and Trent Reznor. (2002)
  • David Bowie: The Sto­ry of Zig­gy Star­dustFree — Film tells the sto­ry of how Bowie arrived at one of the most icon­ic cre­ations in the his­to­ry of pop music. The songs, the hair­styles, the fash­ion, etc. (2012)
  • David Lynch on the His­to­ry of Sur­re­al­ist Cin­e­ma — Free — Pret­ty much what the title said. (1987)
  • Day of the DeadFree — Design­ers Charles and Ray Eames short por­trait of the Mex­i­can fes­ti­val, Day of the Dead. (1957)
  • Death Mills — Free — Bil­ly Wilder’s doc­u­men­tary in Ger­man show­ing what Allies found when they lib­er­at­ed Nazi exter­mi­na­tion camps. (1945)
  • Degen­er­ate ArtFree — Direct­ed by David Gru­bin, this doc­u­men­tary explores the 1937 art exhib­it under the Nazi regime, which fea­tured mod­ern art, or what the Nazis called ‘Entartete Kun­st’ or ‘Degen­er­ate Art. (1993)
  • Diane Arbus: Mas­ters of Pho­tog­ra­phy — Free — The doc­u­men­tary cre­at­ed soon after the pho­tog­ra­pher’s death is based on inter­views with those who knew her best. (1972.)
  • Dis­cov­er­ing Elec­tron­ic Music: RevisedFree —  Direct­ed by Bernard Wilets, the film explores this idea: “We live in an age of tech­nol­o­gy in which machines touch every part of our lives. It is not sur­pris­ing that music has also been influ­enced by tech­nol­o­gy.” (1983)
  • Dorothea Lange Part 1: Under The TreesFree — Film explores the Amer­i­can doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­ph­er and pho­to­jour­nal­ist, best known for her Depres­­sion-era work for the Farm Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion. View alter­nate ver­sion here. (1965)
  • Dreams Are What We Wake Up FromFree — Doc­u­men­tary about Ray­mond Carv­er was direct­ed by Daisy Good­win and includes con­tri­bu­tions from Richard Ford and Jay McIn­er­ney. (1989)
  • Dream of Life — Free — Direct­ed by Steven Sebring, the film offers an inti­mate por­trait of poet, painter, musi­cian and singer Pat­ti Smith. (2008)
  • Earth­lingsFree — Nar­rat­ed by Joaquin Phoenix, and with a sound­track pro­vid­ed by Moby, Earth­lings “is a fea­­ture-length doc­u­men­tary about our absolute eco­nom­ic depen­dence on ani­mals raised as pets, food, cloth­ing, enter­tain­ment and for sci­en­tif­ic research.” (2005)
  • Ein­stein’s Brain — Free — A strange doc­u­men­tary that fol­lows Japan­ese schol­ar Ken­ji Sug­i­mo­to’s quest to find Ein­stein’s brain. (1994)
  • Eric Hob­s­bawm: The Con­so­la­tions of His­to­ry — Free — Antho­ny Wilks traces the con­nec­tions between the events of Eric Hobsbawm’s life and the his­to­ry he told, from his teenage years in Ger­many and his com­mu­nist mem­ber­ship, to the jazz clubs of 1950s Soho and the mak­ings of New Labour…
  • Europe After the RainFree — Doc­u­men­tary on the two great art move­ments, Dada & Sur­re­al­ism, cre­at­ed by the Arts Coun­cil of Great Britain. (1978)
  • Everything1017: How David Byrne and Bri­an Eno Make Music Togeth­erFree — A short doc­u­men­tary on how David Byrne and Bri­an Eno make music togeth­er. By the late visu­al artist Hill­man Cur­tis. (2012)
  • Every­thing Is a RemixFree — Kir­by Ferguson’s 4‑part video series explores the idea that  “great art doesn’t come out of nowhere. Artists inevitably bor­row from one anoth­er, draw­ing on past ideas and con­ven­tions, and then turn these mate­ri­als into some­thing beau­ti­ful and new.” (2010–14)
  • Eye of the Pan­golinFree — The sto­ry of two men on a mis­sion to share the won­der of all four species of African pan­golin on cam­era for the first time ever. (2019)
  • F. Scott Fitzger­ald: Win­ter Dreams — Free — Peabody award-win­n­ing film chron­i­cles the life of Fitzger­ald, one of America’s great­est nov­el­ists, in images and ideas as lyri­cal and inven­tive as his prose. (2002)
  • Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hol­ly­woodFree — A look at “Gonzo jour­nal­ist”, Hunter S. Thomp­son with his col­lab­o­ra­tor, British illus­tra­tor, Ralph Stead­man. (1978)
  • Felli­ni: A Director’s Note­book Free — Fed­eri­co Felli­ni intro­duces him­self to Amer­i­ca in exper­i­men­tal doc­u­men­tary aired on TV. (1969)
  • Film­ing ‘The Tri­al’ — Free —  An unfin­ished mak­ing-of film by Orson Welles, made in 1981, which focus­es on the pro­duc­tion of his 1962 film The Tri­al. (1981)
  • First Orbit Free — A real time recre­ation of Yuri Gagar­in’s pio­neer­ing first orbit, shot entire­ly in space from on board the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion. (2011)
  • First Per­sonFree — In this TV series, Errol Mor­ris brings his unri­valled tal­ents to the small screen for a styl­ized series of inti­mate inter­views with a unique and fas­ci­nat­ing array of peo­ple. (2000)
  • Fla­men­co at 5:15Free — An Oscar win­ning doc­u­men­tary takes you inside a Fla­men­co dance class. The film is about dance as it is about life. (1983)
  • Flâneur III — Free — An attempt at cap­tur­ing the char­ac­ter of Paris by fol­low­ing the devel­op­ment of the city’s dif­fer­ent forms through­out the 19th and 20th cen­turies, in the spir­it of the Ger­man philoso­pher Wal­ter Ben­jamin. (1998)
  • For Neda — Free — An HBO doc­u­men­tary on the life of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman gunned down dur­ing the crush­ing of Iran’s Green Rev­o­lu­tion. (2010)
  • Found­ing FathersFree — Doc­u­men­tary nar­rat­ed by Pub­lic Enemy’s Chuck D presents the true his­to­ry of hip hop.
  • Frac­tals: The Col­ors of Infin­i­ty Free — Arthur C. Clarke brings us inside the world of frac­tal geom­e­try, David Gilmour pro­vides the sound­track. (1995)
  • Frames of Ref­er­enceFree — “Direct­ed by the pio­neer­ing UK doc­u­men­tar­i­an Richard Lea­cock, Frames of Ref­er­ence is a slick and sur­re­al dive into physics fun­da­men­tals and, in par­tic­u­lar, why every­thing is indeed rel­a­tive.” (1960)
  • Frank Zap­paFree — A Dutch doc­u­men­tary for VPRO Tele­vi­sion, direct­ed by Roelof Kiers (1971).
  • From One Sec­ond to the Next — Free — Ger­man direc­tor Wern­er Her­zog presents a har­row­ing 35 minute film on the dan­gers of tex­ting while dri­ving. (2013)
  • Future Shock — Free — A short doc­u­men­tary based on a book writ­ten by futur­ist Alvin Tof­fler in 1970. It’s nar­rat­ed by Orson Welles. (1972)
  • Gau­guin: Sym­bol­is­m’s Prob­lem ChildFree — Art crit­ic and broad­cast­er Walde­mar Januszczak wrote and direct­ed this exam­i­na­tion of a man who was not only a great painter but sculp­tor, wood carv­er, musi­cian, print mak­er, jour­nal­ist and ceram­i­cist. (2020)
  • Gente del Po — Free — Michae­lan­ge­lo Anto­nion­i’s doc­u­men­tary short on the peo­ple of the Po val­ley. (1947)
  • George East­man House: Pic­ture Per­fect Free — The urban estate of George East­man, who made pho­tog­ra­phers of us all, is a trea­sure trove of pho­tographs and one of the world’s pre­mier film archives. (2003)
  • Georges Bataille: À Perte de VuesFree — Doc­u­men­tary on the sub­ver­sive French philoso­pher Georges Bataille. (1997)
  • Geor­gia O’Keeffe: A Life in Art - Free - A short doc­u­men­tary on the painter nar­rat­ed by Gene Hack­man.
  • Gia­comet­tiFree — An inti­mate look at Alber­to Gia­comet­ti in his stu­dio, mak­ing his icon­ic sculp­tures (1965)
  • Glass - Free — Direct­ed by Bert Haanstra, this short doc­u­men­tary about the glass indus­try won the Acad­e­my Award for Doc­u­men­tary Short Sub­ject in 1959. (1958)
  • Glenn Gould — Off the Record and Glenn Gould — On the Record- Free — Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor made a pair of gor­geous­ly shot doc­u­men­taries about the Cana­di­an pianist, giv­ing view­ers insight into his life and music. (1959)
  • Great Lakes, Bad LinesFree — The sto­ry of two Michi­gan adven­tur­ers and their 500-mile, fos­­sil-free jour­ney across the Upper Penin­su­la along the route of Line 5 — a 63-year-old pipeline – that threat­ens our inland waters and Great Lakes. Brought to you by Patag­o­nia, Founders, Moose­jaw, and Cher­ry Repub­lic. (2016)
  • Haru­ki Muraka­mi: In Search of this Elu­sive Writer — Free — Alan Yen­tob trav­els through Japan, from the mid­night Tokyo of After Hours to the snowed-in Hokkai­do of A Wild Sheep Chase, in a quest to find arti­facts of the novelist’s imag­i­nary world.
  • Heavy Met­al Park­ing LotFree —  Filmed in 1986 at a Mary­land con­cert are­na park­ing lot before a heavy met­al show, this hilar­i­ous doc­u­men­tary is an unvar­nished anthro­po­log­i­cal study of Amer­i­can met­al­heads in their mid-’80s glo­ry.  You can also see the 2006 fol­lowup, “Heavy Met­al Park­ing Lot Alum­ni: Where Are They Now.” (1986)
  • Hen­ri Car­ti­er-Bres­­son: The Deci­sive Moment — Free — 18-minute film fea­tures a selec­tion of Cartier-Bresson’s icon­ic pho­tographs, along with rare com­men­tary by the pho­tog­ra­ph­er him­self. (1973)
  • Hen­ry Miller Asleep & Awake — Free — Tom Schiller’s 34 minute voy­age into the world of Hen­ry Miller (Trop­ic of Can­cer, Trop­ic of Capri­corn). (1975)
  • His­to­ry of the Leica Cam­eraFree — The film is in Ger­man, but it’s still great to watch.
  • Hof­man­n’s Potion — Free — A bal­anced look at the his­to­ry of LSD by Cana­di­an film­mak­er Con­nie Lit­tle­field. (2002)
  • Hol­ly­wood: A Cel­e­bra­tion of the Amer­i­can Silent Film Free — Epic, 13-part doc­u­men­tary chron­i­cles the ear­ly his­to­ry of cin­e­ma. (1980)
  • Home — Free — Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film that will make you look at our plan­et in a new way. (2009)
  • Home­made Amer­i­can Music — Free — A his­to­ry of rur­al south­east­ern tra­di­tion­al Amer­i­can music, as told and played by Mike Seeger and Alice Ger­rard. (1980)
  • How Build­ings LearnFree — Stew­art Brand (cre­ator of the icon­ic Whole Earth Cat­a­log) cre­at­ed a 6‑part series on archi­tec­ture, with Bri­an Eno pro­vid­ing the music. (1997)
  • How Walt Dis­ney Car­toons Are Made — Free — Dis­ney’s in-house doc­u­men­tary walks you through the stages of Snow White‘s devel­op­ment. (1939)
  • Human, All Too Human — Free — A three part doc­u­men­tary on the life & thought of Niet­zsche, Hei­deg­ger and Sartre. (1999)
  • I Signed the Peti­tionFree — A philo­soph­i­cal med­i­ta­tion on the deci­sion to sign a peti­tion ask­ing Radio­head to boy­cott per­form­ing in Tel Aviv. Direct­ed by Mah­di Fleifel. (2018)
  • Idem — Free — A short film by David Lynch on the art of mak­ing lith­o­graphs. Shot at the Idem stu­dio in Paris. (2013)
  • If You Love This Plan­et — Free — Oscar-win­n­ing short film on the need for nuclear dis­ar­ma­ment. (1982)
  • Iggy Pop and the Stooges - Free — A doc­u­men­tary from the always good South Bank Show. (2004)
  • I’ll Find a Way — Free — Oscar-win­n­ing doc­u­men­tary presents Nadia, a 9‑year-old girl with spina bifi­da. (1977)
  • Images of a Vision­ary World — Free — Avant-garde author Hen­ri Michaux cre­ates film try­ing to demon­strate the expe­ri­ence of tak­ing hal­lu­cino­genic drugs. (1964)
  • In a Bril­liant Light: Van Gogh in ArlesFree — This doc­u­men­tary cov­ers Van Gogh’s stay in Arles where he com­plet­ed over two hun­dred paint­ings and one hun­dred draw­ings. (1984)
  • In Search of Moe­bius — Free — Doc­u­men­tary about French­man Jean Giraud, one of the most influ­en­tial com­ic strip illus­tra­tors and authors of all time.
  • In The Ocean – A Film About the Clas­si­cal Avant Garde — Free — A doc­u­men­tary look at com­posers Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, John Cage, Steve Reich, Elliott Carter and their con­tem­po­raries.
  • Inside: Dr. Strangelove — Free —  Inter­views with cast mem­bers, crit­ics, edi­tors, pro­duc­ers and oth­ers asso­ci­at­ed with the pic­ture reveal how this Cold War worst-case-sce­­nario devel­oped into some­thing so very… Kubrick­ian.
  • Inside the Rhap­sody — Free — A short doc­u­men­tary on the mak­ing of Queen’s clas­sic song, ‘Bohemi­an Rhap­sody’ (2002)
  • Jack­son Pol­lock 51 Free – Short doc­u­men­tary by Hans Namuth fea­tures the abstract expres­sion­ist painter up close, paint­ing on glass. (1951)
  • Jacques Lacan Speaks — Free — The psy­cho­an­a­lyst gives a packed lec­ture at the Catholic Uni­ver­si­ty of Lou­vain in 1972, fol­lowed by a prob­ing inter­view. One of only 2 known appear­ances by Lacan on film. Shot by Bel­gian doc­u­men­tar­i­an Fran­coise Wolff. (1972)
  • Jazz HotFree — Djan­go Rein­hardt, vio­lin­ist Stéphane Grap­pel­li and their band the Quin­tette du Hot Club de France per­form togeth­er in a short film designed to pro­mote a UK tour. (1938)
  • John Peel’s Record BoxFree — British doc­u­men­tary explores the most prized records in John Peel’s huge record col­lec­tion, which he kept stored in a spe­cial box. (2005)
  • Jorge Luis Borges: The Mir­ror Man — Free — Doc­u­men­tary on Argenti­na’s most famous and beloved lit­er­ary fig­ure. (2000)
  • Ladies and Gen­tle­men… Mr. Leonard Cohen Free  — This Cana­di­an doc­u­men­tary cap­tures Leonard Cohen just as he was poised to begin his singer-song­writer career. (1965)
  • Last Days at the Fill­moreFree — Doc­u­ments the final days of Bill Gra­ham’s Fill­more West. (1972)
  • Laugh­ing and Not Being Nor­mal - Free — A doc­u­men­tary about the fem­i­nist music pro­duc­er, Grimes. (2016)
  • Le dinosaure et le bébé, dia­logue en huit par­ties entre Fritz Lang et Jean-Luc Godard — Free — A 1967 TV doc­u­men­tary fea­tur­ing two great film­mak­ers (Jean-Luc Godard and Fritz Lang) in con­ver­sa­tion. (1967)
  • Le Noise — Free —  Direct­ed by Adam Vol­lick, this movie fea­tures a live per­for­mance of Neil Young’s album Le Noise. It was record­ed at the stu­dios of Daniel Lanois in LA. (2010)
  • Life in a Day — Free — Film cap­tures for future gen­er­a­tions what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010. Exec­u­tive pro­duced by Rid­ley Scott and direct­ed by Kevin Mac­don­ald.
  • Live at Pom­peiiFree — David Gilmour makes his Live at Pom­peii con­cert film free to watch online. (2016)
  • Lost Kubrick: The Unfin­ished Films of Stan­ley KubrickFree — Nar­rat­ed by Mal­colm McDow­ell, this short doc­u­men­tary exam­ines the films Stan­ley Kubrick devel­oped but did­n’t live long enough to make. Fea­tures inter­views giv­en by Kubrick­’s long­time pro­duc­er Jan Har­lan, Jack Nichol­son, Syd­ney Pol­lack etc. (2007)
  • Love­craft: Fear of the UnknownFree — Named the Best Doc­u­men­tary at the 2008 Com­ic-Con Inter­na­tion­al Inde­pen­dent Film Fes­ti­val, the film revis­its the life and writ­ings of H.P. Love­craft, the father of mod­ern hor­ror fic­tion. (2008)
  • Man­hat­taFree — A short doc­u­men­tary film direct­ed by painter Charles Sheel­er and pho­tog­ra­ph­er Paul Strand. It’s con­sid­ered Amer­i­ca’s first avant-garde film. (1921)
  • M.C. Esch­er: Adven­tures in Per­cep­tionFree — The first half of the film shows a lot of M.C. Escher’s work accom­pa­nied by a dis­so­nant score by Felix Viss­er. About halfway through, we see shots of Esch­er at work. (1971)
  • Mar­cel Duchamp: Icon­o­claste et Inoxyd­ableFree — Three- part, three-hour doc­u­men­tary with inter­views about Mar­cel Duchamp, direct­ed by Fab­rice Maze. (2009)
  • Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thou­sand Voic­es — Free — Doc­u­men­tary focus­es on voice artist extra­or­di­naire Mel Blanc. (2008)
  • Melt­down: The Secret His­to­ry of the Glob­al Finan­cial Col­lapse Free — A 4 part look at the 2008 finan­cial cri­sis by the CBC. (2011)
  • Mem­o­ry of the Camps — Free — An attempt to revive a World War II film meant to doc­u­ment the Holo­caust. Hitch­cock was involved with the orig­i­nal project. (1985)
  • Meta­mor­phose: M.C. Esch­er, 1898–1972 Free —  Reveals the life and work of artist M.C. Esch­er. (1999)
  • Michel Fou­cault: Beyond Good and Evil — Free — Doc­u­men­tary explores the con­tro­ver­sial life and work of Michel Fou­cault. (1993)
  • Min­gus — Free — A close-up of bass play­er and com­pos­er Char­lie Min­gus as he and his five-year-old daugh­ter await evic­tion by the City of New York. (1968)
  • Mus­cle Shoals- Free — “A doc­u­men­tary that cel­e­brates Rick Hall, the founder of FAME Stu­dios in Mus­cle Shoals, Alaba­ma, and the sig­na­ture sound he devel­oped in songs such as ‘I’ll Take You There’, ‘Brown Sug­ar’, and ‘When a Man Loves a Woman,’ ” accord­ing to IMDB. (2013)
  • N is a Num­ber Free — Doc­u­men­tary direct­ed by George Paul Csic­sery about the life of math­e­mati­cian Paul Erdős.
  • Nanook of the NorthFree — The first fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary. Direct­ed by Robert J. Fla­her­ty, the film, focus­ing on an Inu­it fam­i­ly liv­ing in the Arc­tic Cir­cle, was one of the first films to be select­ed for his­tor­i­cal preser­va­tion by the Library of Con­gress. (1922)
  • Nazi VRFree — A short doc­u­men­tary on how a vir­tu­al real­i­ty mod­el of Auschwitz was cre­at­ed to suc­cess­ful­ly pros­e­cute a Ger­man SS guard sev­en decades after WWII. (2017)
  • Nico-IconFree — Focus­es on Nico, renowned for her asso­ci­a­tions with artist Andy Warhol and the Vel­vet Under­ground. (1995)
  • No Sub­sti­tute for Vic­to­ry — Free — Pro­pa­gan­da, Pro-Viet­­nam doc­u­men­tary host­ed by John Wayne. (1970)
  • No Maps for These Ter­ri­to­riesFree — Brings you on a road trip and into the mind of cyber­space vision­ary William Gib­son. (2000)
  • Novem­ber 22, 1963 — Free — In a short doc­u­men­tary, Errol Mor­ris asks what we can and can­not know about the Kennedy assas­si­na­tion. (2013)
  • One Way Street - Free — Explores the life and work of Ger­man Jew­ish crit­ic and philoso­pher, Wal­ter Ben­jamin. (1993)
  • Oper­a­tion Con­crete (aka Opéra­tion béton) — Free — The first movie by Jean Luc Godard. It’s a short doc­u­men­tary about the build­ing of the dam. (1955)
  • Our Hob­by is Depeche ModeFree — Jere­my Deller’s and Nicholas Abra­hams’ doc­u­men­tary on Depeche Mode fans. (2007)
  • Paul Klee: The Silence of the AngelFree — A visu­al jour­ney into the work of a major painter of the 20th cen­tu­ry by Michael Gaum­nitz, an award-win­n­ing doc­u­men­tar­i­an of artists and sculp­tors. (2005)
  • Paul McCart­ney: Chaos & Cre­ation at Abbey Road — Free — Sir Paul revis­its the Bea­t­les’ record­ing tech­niques and vin­tage instru­ments used by the band. (2005)
  • Pen, Brush and Cam­eraFree — 50-minute doc­u­men­tary about the life and work of Hen­ri Car­ti­er-Bres­­son, the pho­tog­ra­ph­er con­sid­ered to be the father of pho­to­jour­nal­ism. (1998)
  • Phi­los­o­phy: A Guide to Hap­pi­ness Free — With Alain de Bot­ton. A doc­u­men­tary series that shows how Niet­zsche, Socrates and four oth­er philoso­phers can change your life. (2000)
  • Phi­los­o­phy and the Matrix: Return to the Source — Free —  Doc­u­men­tary looks at how The Matrix dealt with ques­tions about reli­gious rev­e­la­tion and author­i­ty, para­psy­chol­o­gy, free will and deter­min­ism, and the nature of per­son­al iden­ti­ty. (2004)
  • Pickin’ & Trim­min’ Free — Award-win­n­ing short doc­u­men­tary fea­tures blue­grass musi­cians in a down-home North Car­oli­na bar­ber­shop. (2008)
  • Plagues & Plea­sures on the Salton SeaFree — Cult movie leg­end John Waters nar­rates an off­beat doc­u­men­tary on the acci­den­tal lake cre­at­ed in the desert of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. (2004)
  • Plas­tic BagFree — Wern­er Her­zog nar­rates the exis­ten­tial jour­ney of a plas­tic bag. Direct­ed by Ramin Bahrani. (2009)
  • Poor KidsFree — Doc­u­men­tary explores what pover­ty means to chil­dren in Amer­i­ca through the sto­ries of three fam­i­lies. (2017)
  • Por­trait of an Artist: Jack­son Pol­lock — Free — Doc­u­men­tary of the abstract expres­sion­ist artist nar­rat­ed by Melvyn Bragg. (1987)
  • Por­trait Wern­er Her­zog — Free — A Ger­man pro­duc­tion direct­ed by Her­zog him­self, Por­trait Wern­er Her­zog shows the direc­tor in his home­land, in Munich. (1986)
  • Pow­ers of Ten — Free — Famous short film depicts the rel­a­tive scale of the Uni­verse in fac­tors of ten. Made by leg­endary design­ers Ray and Charles Eames. (1977)
  • Pro­file of a Writer: Jorge Luis Borges — Free — Are­na doc­u­men­tary the life and writ­ings of Argentina’s favorite son, Jorge Luis Borges. (1983)
  • Queen of CodeFree — Direct by Gillian Jacobs, this short doc looks at the life and career of Grace Hop­per, who worked on the first com­put­er and head­ed the team that cre­at­ed the first com­pil­er. (2015)
  • Ray Brad­bury: Sto­ry of a Writer — Free — A half-hour tele­vi­sion doc­u­men­tary about Ray Brad­bury. (1963)
  • Red Shirley — Free — Lou Reed’s short doc­u­men­tary on his fas­ci­nat­ing 100-year-old cousin. (2010)
  • Report from the Aleu­tians — Free — John Hus­ton, while a mem­ber of the U.S. Army Sig­nal Corps in 1943, cre­ates an Acad­e­my Award win­ning doc­u­men­tary about the Armed Forces’ effort to pre­vent the fall of the Aleut­ian Islands to Japan­ese troops. (1943)
  • Requiem for the Amer­i­can DreamFree — “Renowned aca­d­e­m­ic and author Noam Chom­sky elu­ci­dates 10 prin­ci­ples of con­cen­tra­tion of wealth and pow­er that have led to unprece­dent­ed inequal­i­ty and the hol­low­ing out of the Amer­i­can mid­dle class,” write IMDB. Streams only free in the Unit­ed States. (2015)
  • Rick Steves EuropeFree — 11 sea­sons of Rick Steves’ pop­u­lar trav­el doc­u­men­taries.
  • Road to the StarsFree — Direct­ed by Pavel Klushant­sev, this Sovi­et doc­u­men­tary com­bines ele­ments of sci­ence edu­ca­tion films and spec­u­la­tive sci­ence fic­tion. It was ground­break­ing for its use of spe­cial effects to depict life in space. (1957)
  • Room to Dream: David Lynch and the Inde­pen­dent Film­mak­erFree — David Lynch explains how he brings his unique vision to the screen with tech­nolo­gies that are now with­in reach for inde­pen­dent film­mak­ers. (2005)
  • Rus­si­a’s Open Book: Writ­ing in the Age of Putin — Free — Stephen Fry hosts a doc­u­men­tary explor­ing the vital lit­er­ary scene in con­tem­po­rary Rus­sia. (2014)
  • Samu­rai Sword: Mak­ing of a Leg­endFree — This sto­ry of the Katana sword pro­vides a unique insight into the Samu­rai mas­ters and the swords they use. (2008)
  • Saul Alin­sky Went to WarFree — In this fea­ture doc­u­men­tary, Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er and writer Saul Alin­sky goes to war against the con­di­tions that keep the poor in pover­ty. (1968)
  • Sea of Faith — Free — In this six-part series, Don Cupitt explores the his­to­ry of Chris­tian­i­ty in the mod­ern world, explor­ing the works of philoso­phers like Blaise Pas­cal, René Descartes, Kierkegaard, Jung, Freud, Schopen­hauer, Niet­zsche, Wittgen­stein and more. (1984)
  • Scenes from Allen’s Last Three Days on Earth as a Spir­it — Free — A kind of video diary of poet Allen Gins­berg’s last days. (1997)
  • Sell & Spin: A His­to­ry of Adver­tis­ingFree — Dick Cavett nar­rates the his­to­ry of adver­tis­ing, from ancient times to mod­ern. (1999)
  • ¿Sería Buenos Aires? — Free — An award-win­n­ing doc­u­men­tary look­ing at Argenti­na’s response to mod­ern crises. (2006)
  • She’s Nobody’s Baby: A His­to­ry of Amer­i­can Women in the 20th Cen­tu­ryFree — Alan Alda and Mar­lo Thomas trace the evo­lu­tion of the roles and lives of women in the 20th cen­tu­ry. (1982)
  • Shen­zhen: The Sil­i­con Val­ley of Hard­wareFree — From Wired comes a doc­u­men­tary look­ing at how Shen­zen, the fre­net­ic heart of Chi­na’s tech indus­try, is becom­ing a city of the future. (2016)
  • Shock of the NewFree — Art crit­ic Robert Hugh­es looks at the the devel­op­ment of mod­ern art since the Impres­sion­ists. (1980)
  • Sketch­es of Frank GehryFree — Syd­ney Pol­lack doc­u­men­tary explores Frank Gehry’s cre­ative process, from sketch­ing to mak­ing the phys­i­cal and 3D mod­els to the con­struc­tion itself. (2005)
  • Soft Self Por­trait of Sal­vador Dali — Free — French direc­tor Jean-Christophe Aver­ty trav­eled to Spain in 1970 and shot a sur­re­al bio­graph­i­cal doc­u­men­tary on the artist. (1970)
  • Some Yo Yo StuffFree — A short film about Cap­tain Beef­heart by Anton Cor­bi­jn. (1993)
  • Sound CityFree — A doc­u­men­tary direct­ed by Dave Grohl about the his­to­ry of record­ing stu­dio Sound City Stu­dios in Van Nuys, Los Ange­les. (2013)
  • Stravin­skyFree — This doc­u­men­tary is an infor­mal por­trait of the great mod­ern com­pos­er Igor Stravin­sky. Direct­ed by Wolf Koenig & Roman Kroitor. (1966)
  • Stress, Por­trait of a KillerFree — Sci­en­tif­ic dis­cov­er­ies in the field and in the lab prove that stress is not just a state of mind, but some­thing mea­sur­able and dan­ger­ous. Fea­tures Stan­ford neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gist Robert Sapol­sky. (2008)
  • Sun Ra: A Joy­ful NoiseFree — Exper­i­men­tal jazz vision­ary Sun Ra was filmed on loca­tion in Philadel­phia, Bal­ti­more, and Wash­ing­ton, D.C. between 1978 and 1980 by direc­tor Robert Mugge. Includes pub­lic and pri­vate per­for­mances, poet­ry read­ings, inter­views and exten­sive impro­vi­sa­tions with Sun Ra and his Arkestra. (1980)
  • Sym­pho­ny in Black: A Rhap­sody of Negro Life — Free — A musi­cal short that fea­tures Duke Ellington’s ear­ly extend­ed piece, “A Rhap­sody of Negro Life.” Stars 19-year-old Bil­lie Hol­i­day. (1935)
  • Ten Days That Shook the World — Free — Orig­i­nal­ly called Oktyabr, Sergei Eisen­stein’s film doc­u­ments the Russ­ian Rev­o­lu­tion of 1917. A mas­ter­piece by a pio­neer­ing film­mak­er. (1928)
  • That Far Cor­ner: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Ange­lesFree — Chris Hawthorne, archi­tec­ture crit­ic for the Los Ange­les Times, explores the hous­es Frank Lloyd Wright built in Los Ange­les, dur­ing a time when he was recov­er­ing from a vio­lent trag­ic episode in his life. (2018)
  • The ABCs of DadaFree — Explores the ori­gins of and con­trib­u­tors to the Dada move­ment. (2012)
  • The Amer­i­can West of John Ford — Free - A doc­u­men­tary encap­su­lat­ing the career and West­ern films of direc­tor John Ford, fea­tur­ing inter­views with John Wayne, James Stew­art and Hen­ry Fon­da. (1971)
  • The Artist For­mer­ly Known as Cap­tain Beef­heartFree — Elaine Shepherd’s clas­sic BBC doc­u­men­tary, intro­duced and nar­rat­ed by John Peel. (1997)
  • The Bat­mo­bileFree — Direct­ed by Roko Bel­ic, this doc­u­men­tary explores the evo­lu­tion of the Bat­mo­bile. (2012)
  • The Bat­tle of Mid­way — Free — Direct­ed by John Ford. Nar­rat­ed by Hen­ry Fon­da. On June 4–6, 1942, Japan­ese forces attempt­ed to cap­ture Mid­way Island in the North Pacif­ic, but were defeat­ed by U.S. forces. On hand was a crew of naval pho­tog­ra­phers direct­ed by John Ford. (1942)
  • The Bat­tle of San Pietro — Free — John Hus­ton’s war time doc­u­men­tary. (1945)
  • The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearl­man Sto­ryFree — A YouTube Orig­i­nal doc­u­men­tary that tells the sto­ry of famed boy band impre­sario Lou Pearl­man. The film tracks his life from his child­hood in Queens, through dis­cov­er­ing mega-bands *NSYNC and The Back­street Boys, and chron­i­cles his lat­er life. (2019)
  • The Charles Bukows­ki Tapes — Free — A col­lec­tion of 52 short inter­views con­duct­ed by French film­mak­er Bar­bet Schroed­er, who direct­ed the Bukows­­ki-penned Barfly. (1987)
  • The Church Of Saint ColtraneFree —  Direct­ed by Gayle Gilman and Jeff Swim­mer, this film looks at The Church of Saint Coltrane in San Fran­cis­co, which has can­on­ized John Coltrane as their patron saint and on Sun­days holds five-hour jam ses­sions inter­spersed with litur­gy and fel­low­ship. (1996)
  • The Com­plete Star Wars Fil­mu­men­tariesFree — Jamie Ben­ning has cre­at­ed a tril­o­gy of doc­u­­men­­tary-com­­men­­taries on the Star Wars tril­o­gy. Fea­tures delet­ed scenes, alter­nate takes and dif­fer­ent angles, bloop­ers, orig­i­nal on set audio record­ings and a huge amount of com­men­tary from cast and crew.
  • The Con­fes­sions of Robert Crumb — Free — A por­trait of the artist script­ed by the under­ground comics leg­end him­self (1987)
  • The Crazy Nev­er DieFree — 30 minute shot-on-video doc­u­men­tary that looks into the more pub­licly wild and per­for­ma­tive side of Hunter S. Thomp­son’s per­son­al­i­ty. (1988)
  • The Cry of Jazz — Free — Con­tro­ver­sial film by Ed Bland explores issues around African-Amer­i­­cans and jazz in the Unit­ed States. Includes inter­views with artists and intel­lec­tu­als and per­for­mances by Sun Ra and John Gilmore. In 2010, the film was select­ed for preser­va­tion in the Unit­ed States Nation­al Film Reg­istry by the Library of Con­gress. (1958)
  • The Dis­tor­tion of SoundFree — A doc­u­men­tary about the decline of sound qual­i­ty and how tech­nol­o­gy has changed the way we lis­ten to music. Fea­tures numer­ous musi­cians. (2014)
  • The Duc­tu­men­taryFree — A short film that explores surfer Joel Tudor’s “life as a surfer, his ulti­mate deci­sion to leave com­pet­i­tive surf­ing and the vision that inspired him to cre­ate the unique Duct Tape con­tests.” (2013)
  • The Ein­stein The­o­ry of Rel­a­tiv­i­tyFree — Einstein’s the­o­ry of rel­a­tiv­i­ty explained in one of the ear­li­est sci­ence films ever made. (1923)
  • The Fight­ing Lady — Free — Direct­ed by William Wyler, this film pro­vides a por­trait of life on a World War II air­craft car­ri­er (1944)
  • The Four Horse­menFree — Direct­ed by Ross Ashcroft, the indie doc­u­men­tary is a “jere­mi­ad against the fol­ly of Neo-clas­si­­cal eco­nom­ics and the threats it rep­re­sents to all we should hold dear.” (2012)
  • The Genius of Charles Dar­win — Free — A three part series pre­sent­ed by Oxford biol­o­gist Richard Dawkins. (2008)
  • The Gift: The Jour­ney of John­ny CashFree — This doc­u­men­tary, cre­at­ed with the full coop­er­a­tion of the Cash estate and rich in recent­ly dis­cov­ered archival mate­ri­als, brings Cash the man out from behind the leg­end. (2019)
  • The God Delu­sionFree — Oxford evo­lu­tion­ary biol­o­gist Richard Dawkins argues that the world would be bet­ter off with­out reli­gion. The film accom­pa­nied a book by the same title. (2006)
  • The God­moth­er of Rock N Roll: Sis­ter Roset­ta TharpeFree — The life, music & influ­ence of African-Amer­i­­can gospel singer and gui­tar vir­tu­oso Sis­ter Roset­ta Tharpe. Direct­ed by Mick Csaky. Find film at bot­tom of linked page. (2014)
  • The Grate­ful Dead MovieFree — The film doc­u­ments “a tour-end­ing five night stand at the Win­ter­land Ball­room in Octo­ber 1974. These were their last shows with the Wall of Sound.” (1977)
  • The Hen­ry Miller Odyssey — Free — Robert Sny­der’s doc­u­men­tary, almost entire­ly nar­rat­ed by Miller, fol­lows the author through his ear­ly years, from his child­hood in Brook­lyn to his bliss­ful exile in Paris. See more in the orig­i­nal review by The Har­vard Crim­son. (1969)
  • The His­to­ry of the Type­writer Recit­ed by Michael WinslowFree — Sound effects genius Michael Winslow per­forms the sounds of 32 type­writ­ers made between 1898–1983. (2010)
  • The His­to­ry of Iron Maid­enFree — A two-part doc­u­men­tary moves from the band’s begin­nings in London’s East End in 1975, to the Piece of Mind album and tour in 1983, and then beyond.
  • The HitchFree — Kristof­fer Seland Helles­mark cre­at­ed an 80-minute doc­u­men­tary about the icon­o­clas­tic jour­nal­ist Christo­pher Hitchens, lov­ing­ly enti­tled The Hitch, which fea­tures clips from his speech­es and inter­views. (2014)
  • The House I Live In — Free — A ten-minute short film star­ring Frank Sina­tra made to oppose anti-Semi­­tism and racial prej­u­dice at the end of World War II. (1945)
  • The Joy of StatsFree — Hans Rosling says there’s noth­ing bor­ing about stats, and then proves it in an one-hour long doc­u­men­tary. (2010)
  • The Land Where the Blues Began — Free — Alan Lomax takes you into the Mis­sis­sip­pi Delta, into to the heart of the Blues. (1978)
  • The Last 48 Hours of Kurt CobainFree — British doc­u­men­tary takes a look the final days of Kurt Cobain, the Nir­vana front­man who com­mit­ted sui­cide in 1994. (2007)
  • The James Dean Sto­ry — Free — Doc­u­men­tary on the life and times of James Dean made by the great film­mak­er Robert Alt­man — MASH, The Play­er, Gos­ford Park, etc. (1957)
  • The Japan­ese Sword as the Soul of the Samu­raiFree — Obscure doc­u­men­tary on the mak­ing of Japan­ese swords, nar­rat­ed by George Takei, offers a fas­ci­nat­ing look at the exhaus­tive process of forg­ing samu­rai swords. (1969)
  • The Love for WoodFree — A doc­u­men­tary about well known Dutch chess play­ers, fea­tur­ing Jan Tim­man, Hans Ree, Piet Hein Don­ner, Max Euwe and oth­ers. It’s a beau­ti­ful doc­u­ment of the peri­od and the state of chess at that time. Eng­lish sub­ti­tles. (1979)
  • The Mag­ic SunFree — Artist Phil Niblock cap­tures a brief moment of an inter­stel­lar com­mu­ni­ca­tion by Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra in their prime. (1968)
  • The Mak­ing of Almost BlueFree - South Bank Show fol­lows Elvis Costel­lo to Nashville for the mak­ing of his album “Almost Blue.” (1981)
  • The Mak­ing of Dark Side of the MoonFree — A look inside the cre­ation of a famous Pink Floyd album. (2003)
  • The Mak­ing of Koy­aanisqat­si Free — Direc­tor God­frey Reg­gio gives you the back­sto­ry behind his 1982 film, Koy­aanisqat­si.
  • The March — Free — James Blues’s “visu­al­ly stun­ning, mov­ing, and arrest­ing doc­u­men­tary of the hope, deter­mi­na­tion, and cama­raderie” embod­ied by The Great March on Wash­ing­ton. (1964)
  • The Men Who Made the Movies: Hitch­cock — Free — A look at Alfred Hitch­cock­’s films. The Mas­ter of Sus­pense him­self, who is inter­viewed exten­sive­ly here, shares sto­ries about film­mak­ing. (1973)
  • The Mys­tery of Picas­soFree — Pablo Picasso’s art emerges in front of our eyes in this remark­able film by the French mas­ter of sus­pense, Hen­ri-Georges Clouzot. (1956)
  • The New Cin­e­maFree — Nev­er-aired TV doc­u­men­tary takes a look at the new Hol­ly­wood scene emerg­ing in 1967. Fea­tures footage of Dustin Hoff­man, Roman Polan­s­ki, Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la and George Lucas. (1968)
  • The Nomi SongFree — Andrew Horn’s doc about the life of singer Klaus Nomi. Debuted at the Berlin Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val and won a Ted­dy Award for “Best Doc­u­men­tary Film. (2004)
  • The Out­sider: The Sto­ry of Har­ry PartchFree — A doc­u­men­tary about the avant-garde com­pos­er Har­ry Partch. (2002)
  • The Penul­ti­mate Truth About Philip K. Dick — Free — Doc­u­men­tary about the mys­ti­cal expe­ri­ences of sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick. (2007)
  • The Pho­tog­ra­ph­er — Free — Reveals the phi­los­o­phy, tech­niques & artistry of Edward West­on (1948)
  • The Pow­er of Night­maresFree — A three-part his­to­ry of how rad­i­cal Islamism in many ways par­al­leled the rise of Neo-Con­ser­­vatism. Though crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed, it nev­er aired in Amer­i­ca. (2004)
  • The Real Bruce LeeFree — This mar­tial arts doc­u­men­tary begins with a brief biog­ra­phy of Bruce Lee, and shows scenes from four of his child­hood films, Bad Boy, Orphan Sam, Kid Che­ung, and The Car­ni­val, each sepia-toned and dubbed to Eng­lish. (1979)
  • The Queen of TreesFree — The remark­able sto­ry of an African fig tree and the spe­cial rela­tion­ship it has with the ani­mals who depend on it. A Peabody award-win­n­ing nat­ur­al his­to­ry doc­u­men­tary. (2005)
  • The Respon­sive Eye Free — Bri­an DePal­ma’s short film doc­u­ment­ing the open­ing night of an OP ART exhi­bi­tion at the Muse­um of Mod­ern Art in New York in 1966.
  • The Secret Life of Adolf Hitler — Free — 1950’s tele­vi­sion doc­u­men­tary that includes inter­views with Hitler’s sis­ter Paula Wolf and footage from Eva Braun’s rare home movies.
  • The Sim­u­la­tion Hypoth­e­sisFree — Are we liv­ing in a vir­tu­al real­i­ty? And if so, could we ever tell? Fea­tures Appear­ances by Max Tegmark, Neil degrasse Tyson, Paul Davies and James Gates (2015).
  • The Sto­ry of Fas­cismFree — In an eye-open­ing doc­u­men­tary, Rick trav­els back a cen­tu­ry to learn how fas­cism rose and then fell in Europe — tak­ing mil­lions of peo­ple with it. (2018)
  • The Space Shut­tle Free — His­to­ry of the US Space Shut­tle pro­gram nar­rat­ed by William Shat­ner. (2011)
  • The Span­ish Earth — Free — A Span­ish Civ­il War pro­pa­gan­da film writ­ten and nar­rat­ed by Ernest Hem­ing­way. (1937)
  • The Strange Case of the Cos­mic RaysFree — Pup­pets of Dos­to­evsky, Dick­ens and Poe star in an edu­ca­tion­al sci­ence film cre­at­ed by Frank Capra. (1957)
  • The Sto­ry of Fas­cismFree — Rick Steves presents a thought-pro­­vok­ing doc­u­men­tary that revis­its the rise of fas­cism in Europe, remind­ing us of how charis­mat­ic fig­ures like Ben­i­to Mus­soli­ni and Adolf Hitler came to pow­er by promis­ing to cre­ate a bet­ter future for their frus­trat­ed, eco­nom­i­­cal­­ly-depressed coun­tries. (2018)
  • The Sto­ry of the Gui­tar — Free — A three part doc­u­men­tary reveals how the gui­tar came to “dom­i­nate the sound­track of our lives.” (2008)
  • The Sto­ry of Wish You Were Here — Free — Takes you inside the mak­ing of Pink Floy­d’s 1975 album. (2012)
  • The Tibetan Book of the Dead — Free — Nar­rat­ed by Leonard Cohen and fea­tur­ing the Dalai Lama, the film explores an essen­tial teach­ing in the Bud­dhist cul­tures of the Himalayas. (1994)
  • The Tony Alva Sto­ryFree — A doc­u­men­tary that cov­ers the rise, fall and rise of the leg­endary skate­board­er. (2019)
  • The Unchained God­dessFree — After win­ning three Oscars for best direc­tor, Frank Capra pro­duced a sci­ence edu­ca­tion film on the weath­er that made one of the first argu­ments for tak­ing action against cli­mate change. (1958)
  • The World of Buck­min­ster FullerFree — Direct­ed by Robert Sny­der, this doc­u­men­tary trans­ports you into Fuller’s mind and soul. It’s told entire­ly in his own words. (1974)
  • Tri­umph of the Will — Free — (1935) The major Nazi pro­pa­gan­da work by Leni Riefen­stahl. With sub­ti­tles.
  • The Ten-Year Lunch — Free — Oscar-win­n­ing film about the writ­ers who sat at the Algo­nquin Round Table in New York dur­ing the 1920s. (1986)
  • The True Glo­ry — Free — War time pro­pa­gan­da doc­u­men­tary direct­ed by Car­ol Reed, with Gen­er­al Dwight D. Eisen­how­er and Gen­er­al George S. Pat­ton. (1945)
  • The True His­to­ry Of The Trav­el­ing WilburysFree —  A short doc­u­men­tary on the mak­ing of the 1980s super group. (2007)
  • The Uni­ver­sal Mind of Bill Evans Free — 1966 doc­u­men­tary takes you inside the cre­ative process/world of jazz pianist Bill Evans.
  • The Vel­vet Under­ground: A Sym­pho­ny of Sound — Free - Pro­duced by Andy Warhol, the film shows VU per­form­ing a 67-minute instru­men­tal impro­vi­sa­tion. (1966)
  • The Way of the FleshFree — Direct­ed by Adam Cur­tis this doc­u­men­tary on Hen­ri­et­ta Lacks won the Best Sci­ence and Nature Doc­u­men­tary at the San Fran­cis­co Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val. Find an alter­nate ver­sion on Archive.org. (1998)
  • The Weight of a NationFree — The Emmy-nom­i­­nat­ed HBO Doc­u­men­tary Films series on obe­si­ty, cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the NIH (2012).
  • The World At WarFree — Acclaimed 26-episode WWII doc­u­men­tary “The World at War” was pro­duced by Thames Tele­vi­sion and aired in 1973–1974.
  • The Wreck­ing CrewFree — A doc­u­men­tary film direct­ed by Den­ny Tedesco, son of gui­tarist Tom­my Tedesco, cov­ers the sto­ry of the Los Angeles–based group of ses­sion musi­cians known as The Wreck­ing Crew. (2008)
  • There is No Author­i­ty But Your­selfFree — Fea­ture doc­u­men­tary about sem­i­nal anar­­cho-punk band Crass, direct­ed by Dutch film­mak­er Alexan­der Oey. (2006)
  • This is Mar­shall McLuhan: The Medi­um is the Mes­sageFree — “Mar­shall McLuhan dis­cuss­es his con­tro­ver­sial com­mu­ni­ca­tions the­o­ries in this exper­i­men­tal doc­u­men­tary pro­duced by Oscar-win­n­er Ernest Pintoff and Guy Frau­meni.” Came out the same year as his book: The Medi­um is the Mas­sage. (1967)
  • This is SkaFree — Filmed on loca­tion in Kingston, Jamaica, this doc­u­men­tary fea­tures per­for­mances by a who’s who of up-and-com­ing ska artists, includ­ing Prince Buster, Jim­my Cliff and The May­tals. (1964)
  • Thomas Pyn­chon: A Jour­ney Into the Mind of P. — Free — A doc­u­men­tary, writ­ten & direct­ed by Donatel­lo Dubi­ni & Fos­co Dubi­ni, on the reclu­sive nov­el­ist. (2008)
  • To Hear Your Ban­jo Play — Free — 16-minute intro­duc­tion to Amer­i­can folk music, writ­ten & nar­rat­ed by Alan Lomax and fea­tur­ing rare per­for­mances by Woody Guthrie, Bald­win Hawes, Son­ny Ter­ry. (1946)
  • Tokyo GirlsFree — A can­did jour­ney into the world of 4 young Cana­di­an women who work as well-paid host­esses in exclu­sive Japan­ese night­clubs. These mod­­ern-day geisha find them­selves caught up in the mizu shobai — the com­plex “float­ing water world” of Tokyo clubs and bars. (2000)
  • Tol­stoy Remem­bered — Free —  Doc­u­men­tary fea­tures Tol­stoy’s daugh­ter. Direct­ed by Michael Rabiger. (1970)
  • Tom Pet­ty, Some­where You Feel Free – The Mak­ing of Wild­flow­ersFree — The film was shot while Tom was on a pro­lif­ic song­writ­ing streak for years mak­ing what he intend­ed to be a dou­ble album called Wild­flow­ers. (2021)
  • Tom Waits: A Day in Vien­na — Free — Tom Waits sings and tells sto­ries in film that orig­i­nal­ly aired on Aus­tri­an TV. (1979)
  • Toute la mémoire du monde (All the World’s Mem­o­ries) — Free — Alain Resnais’s short doc­u­men­tary looks at the inner work­ings of the Bib­lio­thèque nationale de France in Paris. It’s “a med­i­ta­tive piece about the fragili­ty of human mem­o­ry and the ways in which we try to shore it up.” (1956)
  • Trapped: Andy Warhol’s Ami­ga Exper­i­mentsFree — Short film doc­u­ments how Carnegie Mel­lon experts recov­ered lost paint­ings that Andy Warhol made on the Com­modore Ami­ga com­put­er dur­ing the 1980s.
  • Tunisian Vic­to­ry — Free — World War II doc­u­men­tary direct­ed by Frank Capra and nar­rat­ed by Burgess Mered­ith. (1944)
  • UFOs: It Has Begun Free — Doc­u­men­tary nar­rat­ed by Rod Ser­ling explores the exis­tence of UFOs and extra-ter­res­tri­al beings. (1979)
  • Uni­verseFree — A 1960 doc­u­men­tary that inspired the visu­al Effects of Stan­ley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and gave the HAL 9000 com­put­er its voice (1960)
  • Unguid­ed Tour AKA Let­ter from Venice — Free — Susan Son­tag adapt­ed the Ital­ian-lan­guage fea­ture from her sto­ry of the same name, orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in 1977 in the New York­er. (1983)
  • Urban Strug­gle: The Bat­tle Of The Cuck­oos NestFree — Doc­u­ments the hard­core punk scene at the Cuck­oo’s Nest night­club. Fea­tures per­for­mances by T.S.O.L., Cir­cle Jerks and Black Flag, and shows ear­ly slam danc­ing. (1981)
  • Van Gogh: Paint­ed with WordsFree — Writ­ten and direct­ed by Andrew Hut­ton, this dra­­ma-doc­u­­men­­tary about Vin­cent Van Gogh fea­tures Bene­dict Cum­ber­batch in the lead role. (2010)
  • Veg­e­tar­i­an WorldFree — “William Shat­ner walks us through the his­to­ry, ben­e­fits, and mis­con­cep­tions of adher­ing to a veg­e­tar­i­an diet.” (1982)
  • Ver­meer: Mas­ter of LightFree — Explores Ver­meer’s com­po­si­tion­al meth­ods and tech­niques. Nar­rat­ed by Meryl Streep. (2001)
  • Vic­to­ry at SeaFree —  Award-win­n­ing, 26 episode TV series chron­i­cling naval war­fare dur­ing WWII. (1953)
  • Viet­nam! Viet­nam! Free — The last film pro­duced by the leg­endary John Ford was a work of pro­pa­gan­da com­mis­sioned by the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment in sup­port of the Viet­nam War. (1971)
  • Vir­ginia Woolf: A Nov­el­ist - Free — Draws on old maps, con­tem­po­rary draw­ings and paint­ings, por­traits and oth­er archive mate­r­i­al to present an out­line of Vir­ginia Woolf’s life and to con­vey a pic­ture of the social and his­tor­i­cal back­ground to her writ­ing.
  • Vis­it to Picas­so Free Part 1Free Part 2 — Bel­gian film­mak­er Paul Hae­saerts cap­tures Picas­so’s cre­ative process. (1949)
  • Viva Joe Strum­mer — Free — A doc­u­men­tary look at the great front­man of The Clash. (2005)
  • Wait­ing for Beck­ett — Free — Rare fea­­ture-length doc­u­men­tary on the Nobel Prize-win­n­ing writer Samuel Beck­ett. (1993)
  • Warhol’s Cin­e­ma — A Mir­ror for the Six­ties — Free ‑This 64 minute doc­u­men­tary from 1989 exam­ines Andy Warhol’s films from the 1960s. (You can view sev­er­al of these films — EatSleep, and Kiss — here.)
    (1989)
  • Watch­ing My Name Go ByFree — A short doc­u­men­tary about the ear­ly days of graf­fi­ti cul­ture in New York City. (1976)
  • WattstaxFree — Doc­u­ments the “Black Wood­stock” con­cert held 7 years after the Watts Riots. (1973)
  • We Were There to Be ThereFree — A doc­u­men­tary revis­its The Cramps famous punk con­cert at the Napa State psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal. (2021)
  • Wern­er Her­zog Eats His Shoe Free — Her­zog los­es a bet to Errol Mor­ris and eats a shoe with the help of chef Alice Waters. (1980)
  • Who’s Out There?Free — Orson Welles nar­rates a doc­u­men­tary ask­ing whether there’s extrater­res­tri­al life in the Uni­verse. (1975)
  • Who is Afraid of Ai Wei­wei?Free — A short PBS Front­line doc­u­men­tary on the dis­si­dent Chi­nese artist. (2011)
  • Who’s Afraid Of Machi­avel­liFree — This doc­u­men­tary asks how rel­e­vant Machi­avel­li’s book, The Prince, is 500 years after its pub­li­ca­tion. (2013)
  • Why We Fight — Free — A sev­en part series of WWII pro­pa­gan­da films direct­ed by Frank Capra. (1943)
  • What the Future Sound­ed Like? -Free — From Dr Who to The Dark Side of the Moon, “the pio­neer­ing mem­bers of the Elec­tron­ic Music Stu­dios rad­i­cal­ly changed the sound-scape of the 20th Cen­tu­ry. What the Future Sound­ed Like tells this fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry of British elec­tron­ic music.” (2007)
  • Will Self­’s Kaf­ka Jour­ney: A Prague Walk­ing TourFree — Will Self vis­its Prague for a walk­ing tour in search of Franz Kafka’s genius loci. (2015)
  • William S. Bur­roughs: 100 YearsFree — A short fea­ture on the life of writer William S. Bur­roughs by the LA Review of Books. (2014)
  • William S. Bur­roughs & LawrenceFree — William S. Bur­roughs and his years in Lawrence, Kansas. He lived in Lawrence longer than in any oth­er place and chose to spend the last sev­er­al years of his life here. (2014)
  • WikiRebels — Free — Doc­u­men­tary by Swedish pub­lic tele­vi­sion chron­i­cles his­to­ry of Wik­ileaks. (2010)
  • Wittgen­stein: A Won­der­ful LifeFree — About the remark­able life of the Aus­tri­an philoso­pher Lud­wig Wittgen­stein. (1989)
  • Woody Guthrie - Free — Cov­ers the life of Woody Guthrie, Amer­i­ca’s great trav­el­ling singer-song­writer. (1988)
  • You Don’t Know Jack — Free — Mor­gan Spurlock’s short doc­u­men­tary on the 15-year-old who invent­ed a new way to detect ear­ly stage pan­cre­at­ic can­cer. (2013)

For a full line­up of great movies, please vis­it our com­plete col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online.

documentaries

Sup­port Open Cul­ture

We’re hop­ing to rely on our loy­al read­ers rather than errat­ic ads. To sup­port Open Cul­ture’s edu­ca­tion­al mis­sion, please con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion. We accept Pay­Pal, Ven­mo (@openculture), Patre­on and Cryp­to! Please find all options here. We thank you!


Quantcast
Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.