The MoFo Top 100 Documentaries Countdown

I knew Grizzly Man had a good chance at #1. In my first prediction before the top 12 i guessed it would be second to Dear Zachary.

I had the final four movies on my list... I'm SO predictable and boring. Only three of mine didn't place, one as a one-pointer. Here's my list, with just the last two missing, one of which could have and maybe should have been my #1.

My List:

1. Man with a Movie Camera (#13)
3. When We Were Kings (#15)
4. Crumb (#39)
5. For All Mankind (#66)
6. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (#24)
7. Pumping Iron (#53)
9. Sans Soleil (#20)
10. Night and Fog (#4)
11. Man on Wire (#11)
12. Jesus Camp (#37)
13. Dark Days (#79)
14. Waltz with Bashir (#10)
15. The Times of Harvey Milk (#85)
16. The Thin Blue Line (#3)
17. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (#6)
18. Life Itself (#19)
19. Food, Inc. (#23)
20. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (#48)
21. Kooyansqatsi (#77)
22. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (DNP)
23. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (#41)
24. Tyson (DNP)
25. Jupiter’s Wife (1 pointer)

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

This the end. The end of the Mofo Documentaries Countdown.

Just want to thank again those who helped out (especially Rodent - invaluable) and those who participated (both submitting lists and commenting in this thread). It was fun. This is a Mofo tradition so we need to keep it alive. I see most of us here for the long haul so we'll be doing these ten or twenty years from now. Of course by then it will be The Mofo Top 100 Movies with a Blue Car, but that's okay.

And now...

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

My #1 didn't make it on the list either. In fact, I am sure 100% that nobody except me voted for it.

Hint: It's a documentary about a band not everyone likes, but has a huge cult following.

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It's a band that Piers Morgan is a huge fan of?....




.... Oh, wait. I misread that. Nevermind.

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I had Exit Through the Gift Shop at #12, and Grizzly Man at #22. It's interesting that while I'm a big fan of Herzog docs (prefer his features more though) that this one ranked only at #22. Thing is if this was a top 35 and I ignored my one doc per director rule then there would have been maybe four more Herzog docs on my list. His filmography of documentaries is astounding and I highly recommend those who haven't watched many (or any) to get to it, starting with this one.

Happy! to see Exit Through the Gift Shop, very interesting story and well done doc. But those 'street artist' sticking 1000s of stickers everywhere need to have their ears boxed

I had Grizzly Man at #20. It's equally fascinating and maddening (for Treadwell's hubris and folly). I liked Exit Through the Gift Shop, but not really all that much.
I don’t use the phrase “hangout movie” but even I would consider The Endless Summer (my avatar) a super hangout movie. Two surfers travel around the world searching for the perfect wave while a cool instrumental guitar score accompanies their light-hearted adventures across a wide array of exotic locales. It was my #4.

1973’s Jimi Hendrix is the most all-encompassing look at the fascinating man and otherworldly musician ever made, with interviews from him and his friends and loved ones combined with musical highlights which are chosen from a broad spectrum of rare concert films. I had it at #11.

1. Night and Fog (#4)
2. The Act of Killing (#8)
3. Olympia (#34)
4. The Endless Summer (DNP)
5. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (#5)
6. My Winnipeg (#33)
7. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (#25)
8. Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (#96)
9. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (#38)
10. My Best Fiend (#55)
11. Jimi Hendrix (DNP)
12. Searching for Sugar Man (#28)
13. Jodorowsky's Dune (#27)
14. Riding Giants (DNP)
15. Life Itself (#19)
16. Man with a Movie Camera (#13)
17. Woody Allen: A Documentary (DNP)
18. The Thin Blue Line (#3)
19. Cocaine Cowboys (#43)
20. Grizzly Man (#1)
21. Everybody Street (DNP)
22. Dogtown and Z-Boys (#95)
23. Anvil!: The Story of Anvil (#40)
24. Cobain: Montage of Heck (DNP)
25. 5 Broken Cameras (1-pointer - DNP)
Seen 100/100

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And now everyone can post their full lists. Here's mine:

1. Shoah
2. Man with a Movie Camera
3. Close-up
4. The Act of Killing
5. Quince Tree of the Sun
6. West of the Tracks
7. Titicut Follies
8. Hoop Dreams
9. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
10. Night and Fog
11. Crumb
12. Exit Through the Gift Shop
13. Hearts of Darkness
14. The Last Bolshevik
15. The Fog of War
16. Twenty Years Later
17. My Winnipeg
18. F for Fake
19. The Land of Sao Sarue
20. Los Angeles Plays Itself
21. Waltz with Bashir
22. Grizzly Man
23. The Battle of Chile
24. Burden of Dreams
25. Hearts and Minds

A suburb job as always Harry, thanks for taking on this huge task!

Wow that was close! I had Grizzly Man at #21, and I ended up having 21 from my list make the countdown. I also enjoyed Exit Through the Gift Shop.

My list-

1. Gimme Shelter #45
2. Hearts and Minds #64
3. Shoah #14
4. American Movie #12
5. Murderball DNP
6. Waltz with Bashir #10
7. The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer DNP
8. Life Itself #19
9. Cocaine Cowboys #43
10. The Thin Blue Line #3
11. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills #21
12. Night and Fog #4
13. West of Memphis #69
14. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness #62
15. Beauty Day #54
16. Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer DNP
17. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters #17
18. The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl #25
19. Last Train Home #56
20. Man on Wire #11
21. Grizzly Man #1
22. Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film DNP
23. My Winnipeg #33
24. Man with a Movie Camera #13
25. Pumping Iron #53

Seen 48, including 1 after it was revealed in this countdown. I look forward to watching the other 52.

Great job Harry!

Now that the whole countdown has been revealed, I can post my list. I'm not much of a "documentary person", so I only had three docs that made the list. (That's Entertainment! (1974) was my #6, For All Mankind (1989) was my #14, and Life Itself (2014) was my #18.)

Here is my complete list. The first three can be watched online for free on Vimeo, so I included the links to the videos at the bottom of this post, and if you like the movies, I highly recommend these documentaries:


1) Raiding the Lost Ark: A Filmumentary (Jamie Benning-2012)
2) Inside Jaws: A Filmumentary (Jamie Benning-2013)
3) Star Wars Begins: A Filmumentary (Jamie Benning-2011)
4) Shea Goodbye: 45 Years of Amazin' Mets (2008)
5) Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies (1996)

6) That's Entertainment! (1974)
7) Secret Voices of Hollywood (2013)
8) Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh (1998)
9) Walt: The Man Behind the Myth (2001)
10) Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens - A Life in Animation (2000)

11) Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices (2008)
12) Frank Capra's American Dream (1997)
13) How William Shatner Changed the World (2005)
14) For All Mankind (1989)
15) TimeScapes (2012)

16) Oceans (2009)
17) Earth (2007)
18) Life Itself (2014)
19) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic (1990)
20) Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' (2001)

21) Watch the Skies! Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us (2005)
22) Done the Impossible: The Fans' Tale of 'Firefly' and 'Serenity' (2006)
23) Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner (2007)
24) The Secret Tapes of the O.J. Case: The Untold Story (2015)
25) National Geographic: The Skyjacker That Got Away (2009)


1) Raiding the Lost Ark: A Filmumentary (Jamie Benning-2012)

2) Inside Jaws: A Filmumentary (Jamie Benning-2013)

3) Star Wars Begins: A Filmumentary (Jamie Benning-2011)

I had Grizzly Man at #5 and Exit Through The Gift Shop at #22. I'll post my five misses and my full list shortly.

Massive thanks to Harry for running this, and it was your second too you overachiever you . Honestly this was one of my very favourite countdowns, a little more activity would have helped but i feel that was counteracted by how unpredictable this was, this was the only one so far were i had no idea what was going to happen.

to Rodent for the posters too.

And SC just because he kept his nonsense up in this thread despite not much interest in it

For those interested I've attached a zip file with the full master list that I worked with that lists every documentary voted on and total points, etc. It's not in perfect order because it hasn't been sorted for ranking (# of lists, highest rank, etc) so I included the Top 100 file as well.

Attached Files

Mofo Docs.zip (165.8 KB, 150 views)

Exit Through the Gift Shop was #6. For me it's one of those films that was on my watchlist for a while, then when I finally got to it I fell in love.

Thanks to Harry Lime for running this, Rodent for the graphics, and all MoFos who posted.

You've got five misses? Are you Mormon or something?

Hey gb, For All Mankind also made the Countdown - it was #66.

I like gb's list. So many documentaries about one of my favourite things: movies. I have a lot of them in queue.