Here is an incomplete list of some great films and directors. Some we will watch in class, and the list will expand through the term. Add your suggestions in the comments.
“A Propos de Nice” Jean Vigo, 1929
“Amandla! A revolution in Four Part Harmony” Lee Hirsch, 2002
“L’Amour Exist” Maurice Pialat,1960
“Bete Lumineuse” Pierre Pierrault
“Better This World” Kelly Duan,
“The Bully Project” Lee Hirsch 2011
“Capturing the Friedmans” Andrew Jarecki, 2003
“Century of the Self” Adam Curtis, 2002
“Chronicle of a Summer” Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin, 1961
“Cleo from 5 to 7” Agnes Varda, , France
“Close-Up” Abbas Kirostami, 1989 Iran
“Crumb” Terry Zwigoff, 1994
“D’Est” Chantal Akerman 1993, Belgium/France/Portugal
“Diaries, Notes and Sketches” Jonas Mekas,, 1969 USA
“Don’t Look Back” D.A. Pennebaker 1967 USA
“F for Fake” Orson Welles, 1975 France/Iran
“Five Broken Cameras” ,Ernad Burnat, 2011
“Fog of War” Errol Morris 2003 USA
“Gates of Heaven” Errol Morris
“Gimme Shelter” Albert and David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin, 1970
“Grey Gardens” Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, 1975 USA
“Harlan County USA” Barbara Kopple, 1976
“HighSchool” Fredrick Wiseman
“Hoop Dreams” Steve James 1994
“In search of Lin Zhao’s soul” Hu Jie, 2008,China
“Jai Bhim Comrade” Anand Patwardhan, 2011, India
“Last Train Home”, Lixin Fan 2009
“Let the Fire Burn,” Jason Osder, 2011
“Leviathan” Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel 2012 France/UK/USA
“Madrid” Patricio Guzman, 2002, Spain
“Man with A Movie Camera” 1929
“Man on Wire” James Marsh, 2007 UK
“Manufactured Landscapes”, Jennifer Baichwal, 2006
“Nanook of the North” Robert Flaherty, 1922 Canada
“Night and Fog” Alain Resnais, 1955
“Petition” Zhao Liang, 2011
“Portrait of Jason” Shirley Clarke, 1967
“Roger & Me” Michael Moore, 1989, USA
“Salaam Bombay!” Mira Nair , India
“Sans Soleil” Chris Marker, 1982 France
“Searching for Sugar Man” Malik Bendjelloul, 2012
“Senna” Asif Kapadia, 2010
“Shoah” Claude Lanzmann, 1985
“Signers Suitcase: Signers Koffer”, Peter Liechti, 1996
“The Act of Killing” Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous, 2012
“The Carbon Rush” Amy Miller, 2012
“The Gleaners and I” Agnes Varda, 2000, France
“The House is Black” Forough Farrokhzad 1963, Iran
“The Interrupters” Steve James, 2011
“The Law in these Parts” Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, 2011, Israel
“The Thin Blue Line” Errol Morris, 1989 USA
“The War Room” 1993
“The War Game” Peter Watkins 1965, UK
“This is Spinal Tap”
“Triumph of the Will” Leni Riefenstahl, 1935
“We live in Public” Ondi Timoner
“West of the Tracks” Wang Bing, 2002 China
“Working Man’s Death”, Michael Glawogger, 2005, Austrain-German
“The Battle for Chile” Patricio Guzman
Documentaries about Cities
- À Saint-Henri le cine septembre, 1962, Hubert Aquin, Canada
- Africa Shafted Under One Roof, 2012, Ingrid Martens, South Africa
- Amsterdam Global Village, 1996, Johan van der Keuken
- Battle for Johannesburg, 2009, Rehad Desai, Darryl Els, South Africa
- Beijing Taxi, 2010, 76 min, Miao Wang, China
- Bombay: Our City, 1985, Anand Patwardhan, India
- Chronique d’un été, 1961, Jean Rouch et Edgar Morin, France
- D’ou je viens (Where I come from), 2013, 60 min, Claude Demers, Canada
- Dark Days, 2000, 81 minutes, Marc Singer, US
- Daybreak Express, 1953, D.A. Pennybaker, US
- Detropia, 2012, 91 min, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, US
- Dimanche à Pékin, 1956, Chris Marker, France
- Estamira, 2005, Marcos Prado, Brazil
- FIX: A Story of an Addicted City, 2002, 92 min, Nettie Wild, Canada
- Fuck Cinema, 2005, Wu Wenguang, China
- Highrise, NFB, Katerina Cizek, Canada
- If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise, 2010, Spike Lee, US
- In the Pit, 2006, Juan Carlos Rulfo, Mexico
- Invisible City, 2007, 58 minutes, Pin Pin Tan, Singapore
- Jeppe on a Friday, 2014, 82 min, Shannon Walsh & Arya Lalloo, South Africa
- Koundi and the National Thursday, 2011, 86 min, Ariane Astrid Atodji, Cameroon
- Land of Opportunity, 2010, 97 min, Luisa Dantas, US
- Les hommes du port, 1995, Alain Tanner, Italy
- Les printemps incertains, 1992, Sylvain L’Espérance, Canada
- Lightning Over Braddock: A Rustbowl Fantasy, 1988, Tony Bubba
- London – The Modern Babylon, 2012, Julien Temple
- London, 1994, Patrick Keiller, UK
- Los Angeles Plays Itself, 2003, Thom Anderson, US
- Los, 2000, James Benning
- Mafrouza, 2007, Emmanuelle Demoris, Egypt
- Megacities, 1998, 90 minutes, Michael Glawogger, Germany
- Moi, un noir, 1958, Jean Rouch, France/Cote D’Ivoire
- Moug (Waves), 2012, 71 min, Ahmed Nour, Egypt
- My Brooklyn, 2012, 80 min, Kelly Anderson, US
- My Winnipeg, 2007, 79 minutes, Guy Maddin, Canada
- News From Home, 1977, Chantal Akerman, UK
- Notebook on Cities and Clothes, 1989, Wim Wenders, Germany
- Oblivion, Heddy Honigmann, 2009, 93min, Peru
- Of Time and the City, 2008, 74 min, Terence Davies, UK
- Overdale, 1988, 27 min, Robert Craig, Canada
- Paris Is Burning, 1990, 78 minutes, Jennie Livingston, US
- Porto of my Childhood, 2001, 62 minutes, Manoel de Oliveira
- Radiant City, 2006, 85 min, Jim Brown & Gary Burns, Canada
- Return to Homs, 2014, 94 minutes, Talal Derki, Syria
- Roger & Me, 1989, 91 min, Michael Moore
- S.P.I.T. Squeegee punks in traffic, 80 min, 2001, Daniel Cross with Eric Denis, Canada
- Sans Soleil, 1983, 90 min, Chris Marker, France
- Sea Point Days, 2008, 96 min, François Verster, South Africa
- Singapore Gaga, 2005, 55 min, Pin Pin Tan, Singapore
- Squat – The City Belongs to Us, 2011, 94 min, Christophe Coello, Spain
- SQUAT 69, 2006, 81 min, Morten Revsgaard Frederiksen, Anders Hornstrup, Denmark
- St-Henri, the 26th of August, 2011, 76 min, Shannon Walsh, Canada
- Taxi Tehran, 2015, 82 min, Jafar Panahi, Iran
- The Garden, 2008, 79 min, Scott Hamilton Kennedy, US
- The Interrupters, 2011,125 min, Steve James, US
- The London Nobody Knows, 1967, 45 min, Norman Cohen, UK
- The Man who Fought the Planners: The Story of Ian Nairn, 2014, Kate Misrahi
- The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, 2012, 83 min, Chad Freidrichs, US
- The social life of small urban spaces: William H. Whyte,1980
- Tokyo Waka: A City Poem, 2013, 60 min, John Haptas & Kristine Samuelson
- Trouble the Water, 2008, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, US
- Up the Yangtze, 2008, Yung Chang, Canada
- Urbanized, 2011, 85 min, Gary Hustwit, US
- Valparaiso, 1965, Joris Ivens, Chile
- Voir Miami, 1962, Gilles Groulx, Canada
- Waste Land, 2010, 99 min, Lucy Walker and Karen Harley, US/Brazil
- Welcome to Lagos, BBC
- Welcome to Leith, 2015, 85 min, Michael Beach Nichols, Christopher K. Walker, US
- West of the Tracks, 2002, Wang Bing, China
- When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, 2006, 255 min, Spike Lee, US
- Work in Progress, 2001, 125 min, by José Luis Guerin, Spain
SHORT DOCUMENTARIES
- 780 St. Remi, 11 min, 2014, Karen Vanderborght, Canada
- Casus Belli, 11 min, 2010, Yorgos Zois, Greece
- FOURWALLS: In Ur Eye, 3 min, 2015, Ayo Akingbade, UK
- FOURWALLS: London, 3 min, 2015, Lewis Knaggs, UK
- FOURWALLS: Squat, 3 min, 2015, Matt Mead, UK
- Lost Book Found, 36 minutes, 1996, Jem Cohen, US
- Made by China in America, 11 min, 2014, Miao Wang, China
- Madrid, 41 min,2002, Patricio Guzman, Chili
- Nan Lakou Kanaval, 2014, 7min, Kaveh Nabatian, Canada/Haiti
- Saute ma ville, 13 min, 1968, Chantal Akerman, Belgium
- Under the Umbrella, 8 min, 2014, Shannon Walsh, Hong Kong