Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature
Encyclopedia
The Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards
.
Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
.
2000s
- 2000: Dark DaysDark Days (documentary)Dark Days is a documentary made by Marc Singer, a British filmmaker. The film follows a group of people living in an abandoned section of the New York City underground railway system, more precisely the area of the so called Freedom Tunnel.-Background:...
- The Eyes of Tammy FayeThe Eyes of Tammy FayeThe Eyes of Tammy Faye is a 2000 documentary film directed by Fenton Bailey and narrated by drag queen RuPaul focusing on the life of Tammy Faye Bakker.-Reception:...
- Long Night's Journey into DayLong Night's Journey into DayLong Night's Journey Into Day is a 2000 American documentary film about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-Apartheid South Africa. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-External links:...
- Paragraph 175Paragraph 175Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code from 15 May 1871 to 10 March 1994. It made homosexual acts between males a crime, and in early revisions the provision also criminalized bestiality. All in all, around 140,000 men were convicted under the law.The statute was amended several...
- Sound and FurySound and FurySound and Fury is a documentary film released in 2000 about two American families with young deaf children and their conflict over whether or not to give their children cochlear implants, surgically implanted devices that may improve their ability to hear but may threaten their deaf identity...
- The Eyes of Tammy Faye
- 2001: Dogtown and Z-BoysDogtown and Z-BoysDogtown and Z-Boys is a 2001 documentary film directed by Stacy Peralta. Using a mix of film the Zephyr skateboard team shot in the 1970s by Craig Stecyk and more recent interviews, the documentary tells the story of a group of teenage surfer/skateboarders and their influence on the history of...
- Go Tigers!Go Tigers!Go Tigers! is a documentary film created about the Tigers of Massillon, Ohio. This full-length video informs the viewer about the football team, the city, and its rivalry against the Canton McKinley High School Bulldogs. The film follows the team during the 1999 regular season...
- Lalee's Kin: The Legacy of CottonLaLee's Kin: The Legacy of CottonLaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton is a 2001 American documentary film directed by Deborah Dickson, Susan Frömke and Albert Maysles. It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 74th Academy Awards.-Content:...
- PromisesPromises (film)Promises is a 2001 documentary film that examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem....
- ScratchScratch (film)Scratch is a documentary film, directed and edited by Doug Pray. The film explores the world of the hip-hop DJ. From the birth of hip-hop, when pioneering DJ's began extending breaks on their party records , to the invention of scratching and beat-juggling vinyl, to its more recent explosion as a...
- Go Tigers!
- 2002: Bowling for ColumbineBowling for ColumbineBowling for Columbine is a 2002 documentary film written, directed, produced, and narrated by Michael Moore. The film explores what Michael Moore suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School massacre and other acts of violence with guns...
- The CockettesThe Cockettes (film)The Cockettes is a 2002 American documentary film. It was directed by Bill Weber and David Weissman, and produced by Weissman. Its subject is the 1960s-70s San Francisco performance group The Cockettes. The film debuted at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury...
- Devil's Playground
- How to Draw a BunnyHow to Draw a BunnyHow to Draw a Bunny is a 2002 English documentary film following Ray Johnson.-External links:* New York Times Movie Review...
- Stevie
- The Cockettes
- 2003: The Fog of WarThe Fog of WarThe Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara is a 2003 American documentary film about the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara as well as illustrating his observations of the nature of modern warfare...
- Mayor of the Sunset StripMayor of the Sunset StripMayor of the Sunset Strip is a 2004 documentary film on the life of Rodney Bingenheimer directed by George Hickenlooper, and produced by Chris Carter.-Interviews:...
- My ArchitectMy ArchitectMy Architect: A Son's Journey is a 2003 documentary film about the American architect Louis Kahn. Kahn led an extraordinary career and left three families behind when he died of a heart attack in a Penn Station bathroom....
- OT: Our TownOT: Our TownOT: Our Town is a 2002 documentary film directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, about a high school in Compton, California which has not produced a play in over twenty years. With no money and no stage, two teachers and twenty-four students attempt to produce Thornton Wilder's American classic Our Town....
- Power TripPower Trip (film)Power Trip is a documentary film by director Paul Devlin that describes the electricity crisis in the country of Georgia shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union....
- Mayor of the Sunset Strip
- 2004: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
- Bright Leaves
- Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed
- Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust
- Tarnation
- 2005: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the RoomEnron: The Smartest Guys in the RoomEnron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a 2005 documentary film based on the best-selling 2003 book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, a study of one of the largest business scandals in American history...
- Grizzly ManGrizzly ManGrizzly Man is a 2005 American documentary film by German director Werner Herzog. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell. The film consists of Treadwell's own footage of his interactions with grizzly bears before he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a bear...
- RománticoRomántico (film)-Synopsis:Romántico is a documentary about Mexican musician Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez, who returns home to his beloved daughters after years spent playing San Francisco’s taquerías and hipster joints. But once Carmelo arrives in his hometown, he finds himself immediately confronted with the struggles...
- La Sierra
- Sir! No Sir!Sir! No Sir!Sir! No Sir! is a 2005 Displaced Films and BBC documentary film about the anti-war movement within the ranks of the United States Military during the Vietnam War....
- Grizzly Man
- 2006: The Road to GuantanamoThe Road to GuantanamoThe Road to Guantanamo, alternatively The Road to Guantánamo, is a British 2006 docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British detainees at a detainment camp in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba...
- A Lion in the House
- My Country, My CountryMy Country, My CountryMy Country, My Country is a 2006 documentary film. Filmmaker Laura Poitras spent over eight months alone in Iraq filming this documentary. The film shows life in Iraq for average Iraqis under U.S. occupation. Poitras focuses primarily on Dr...
- The Trials of Darryl Hunt
- You're Gonna Miss MeYou're Gonna Miss MeThis article is about the documentary film. For the related 1966 song of the same name see You're Gonna Miss Me You're Gonna Miss Me is an American documentary film by Keven McAlester. It focuses on Roky Erickson, the former frontman for the band The 13th Floor Elevators. The band is cited as...
- 2007: Crazy LoveCrazy Love (2007 film)Crazy Love is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens. The screenplay by Klores explores the troubled relationship between New York City attorney Burt Pugach and his considerably younger mistress Linda Riss, who was blinded and permanently scarred when thugs hired...
- Lake of FireLake of Fire (film)Lake of Fire is a 2006 documentary film that graphically depicts abortion in the United States. It features Noam Chomsky, Peter Singer, Alan Dershowitz, Nat Hentoff and Randall Terry....
- Manufactured LandscapesManufactured LandscapesManufactured Landscapes is a 2006 documentary film about the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky. It was directed by Jennifer Baichwal and is distributed by Zeitgeist Films.- Subject matter :...
- The Monastery
- The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony BlairThe Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony BlairThe Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair is a documentary film by American documentary filmmaker Michael Tucker.The film depicts Yunis Khatayer Abbas, an Iraqi journalist who was detained by US troops in 2003 and later imprisoned at Abu Ghraib prison for nine months...
- Lake of Fire
- 2008: Man on WireMan on WireMan on Wire is a 2008 British documentary film directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. It is based on Philippe Petit's book, To Reach the Clouds, recently released in paperback with the new title...
- The BetrayalNerakhoon (The Betrayal)The Betrayal — Nerakhoon is a 2008 documentary film directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath. It is about an immigrant from Laos living in New York. The film centres on the families flight from Laos after the United States Secret War in Laos and the difficulty of assimilating into...
- Encounters at the End of the WorldEncounters at the End of the WorldEncounters at the End of the World is an American documentary film by Werner Herzog completed in 2007. The film studies people and places in Antarctica...
- The Order of MythsThe Order of MythsThe Order of Myths is a 2008 documentary film directed by Margaret Brown. It focuses on the Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama, the oldest in the United States. It reveals the separate mystic societies established and maintained by black and white groups, and acknowledges the complex...
- Up the YangtzeUp the YangtzeUp the Yangtze is a 2007 documentary film directed by Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang. The film focuses on people affected by the building of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze river in Hubei, China. The theme of the film is the transition towards consumer capitalism from a farming,...
- The Betrayal
- 2009: Anvil! The Story of AnvilAnvil! The Story of AnvilAnvil! The Story of Anvil is a 2008 documentary film about the Canadian heavy metal band, Anvil. The film is directed by screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, whose previous credits include The Big Tease and The Terminal....
- Food, Inc.Food, Inc.Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film examines corporate farming in the United States, concluding that agribusiness produces food that is unhealthy, in a way that is environmentally harmful and abusive of both animals and...
- More Than a GameMore Than a GameMore Than a Game is a 2009 American documentary film that follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Akron, Ohio, and James's journey to fame. The film trailer was released in April featuring the single "Stronger" by...
- October Country
- Which Way HomeWhich Way HomeWhich Way Home is a 2009 documentary film directed by Rebecca Cammisa. The film follows several children who are attempting to get from Mexico to the United States. Cammisa received a Fulbright Scholar Grant to make the documentary in 2006. The film premiered on HBO on August 24, 2009.-External...
- Food, Inc.
2010s
- 2010: Exit Through the Gift ShopExit Through the Gift ShopGuetta happily accepts the assignment, adopting the name "Mr. Brainwash", putting up street art in the city and six months later, re-mortgaging his business to afford renting copious equipment and a complete production team to create pieces of art under his supervision...
- MarwencolMarwencolMarwencol is a 2010 independent documentary film that explores the life and work of photographer Mark Hogancamp. It is the debut feature of director-editor Jeff Malmberg.-Plot:...
- RestrepoRestrepo (film)Restrepo is a 2010 documentary film about the Afghanistan war, directed by American journalist Sebastian Junger and British/American photojournalist Tim Hetherington....
- SweetgrassSweetgrass (film)Sweetgrass is a 2009 documentary film that follows modern-day cowboys as they lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana's Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. It was directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, a Harvard anthropologist, and produced by his wife Ilisa Barbash...
- Thunder Soul
- Marwencol
- 2011
- An African ElectionAn African ElectionAn African Election is a political documentary film of 2011 directed by Jarreth and Kevin Merz.-Synopsis:An African Election is a political documentary that exposes the never-before-seen, nitty-gritty of political electioneering in Africa...
- Bill Cunningham New YorkBill Cunningham New YorkBill Cunningham New York is a 2010 documentary film directed by Richard Press and produced by Philip Gefter. Bill Cunningham New York is distributed by Zeitgeist Films and was released in theaters on March 16, 2011.-Synopsis:...
- The InterruptersThe InterruptersThe Interrupters is a 2011 documentary film, produced by Kartemquin Films, that tells the story of three violence interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed...
- The Redemption of General Butt Naked
- We Were HereWe Were Here (film)We Were Here is a 2011 documentary film about the AIDS crisis in San Francisco. The film, produced and directed by David Weissman with editor/ co-director and Bill Weber, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011, The Berlin Film Festival in February 2011 and had its theatrical...
- An African Election