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1980s Documentary Movies

Public list by WPS with 309 movies or TV shows/series

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309 movies found (page 1/11):

Koyaanisqatsi(1982)

NR
| 1h 26min | Documentary
4.0/5 (with 271 votes)

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

Directed by Godfrey Reggio

Stop Making Sense(1984)

1h 28min | Music, Documentary
4.1/5 (with 96 votes)

A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." The band takes the stage one by one and is joined by a cadre of guest musicians for a career-spanning and cinematic performance that features creative choreography and visuals.

The Times of Harvey Milk(1984)

1h 30min | Documentary
3.8/5 (with 43 votes)

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.

Directed by Rob Epstein - With Harvey Milk, Dan White, George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein, Anne Kronenberg, Tom Ammiano, ...

Imagine: John Lennon(1988)

1h 40min | Documentary, Music
3.6/5 (with 31 votes)

The biography of former Beatle, John Lennon—narrated by Lennon himself—with extensive material from Yoko Ono's personal collection, previously unseen footage from Lennon's private archives, and interviews with David Bowie, his first wife Cynthia, second wife Yoko Ono and sons Julian and Sean.

Burden of Dreams(1982)

1h 37min | Documentary
3.8/5 (with 59 votes)

The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.

Shoah(1985)

NR
| 9h 26min | Documentary, History
4.2/5 (with 78 votes)

Various aspects of the Holocaust, as told entirely through interviews with survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis.

Directed by Claude Lanzmann - With Raul Hilberg, Claude Lanzmann, Jan Karski, Szymon Srebrnik, Mordechaï Podchlebnik, Rudolf Vrba, ...

Terror in the Aisles(1984)

R
| 1h 24min | Horror, Documentary
3.1/5 (with 17 votes)

A non-stop roller coaster ride through the scariest moments of the greatest terror films of all time.

The Thin Blue Line(1988)

1h 43min | Crime, Documentary
3.9/5 (with 153 votes)

Errol Morris's unique documentary dramatically re-enacts the crime scene and investigation of a police officer's murder in Dallas.

Directed by Errol Morris - With Randall Dale Adams, Marianne Leone Cooper

A. K.(1985)

G
| 1h 15min | Documentary
3.1/5 (with 15 votes)

In 1985, Chris Marker traveled to Japan to attend the filming of Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Marker analyzes the progress of filming; the infinite patience of a team under the orders of a meticulous director down to the smallest detail; the antithetical mixture of the modern with the traditional; of the real with the fictitious; of life with cinema… and literature.

Twenty Years Later(1984)

1h 59min | Documentary
4.1/5 (with 24 votes)

Eduardo Coutinho was filming a movie with the same name in the Northeast of Brazil, in 1964, when there came the military coup. He had to interrupt the project, and came back to it in 1981, looking for the same places and people, showing what had ocurred since then, and trying to gather a family whose patriarch, a political leader fighting for rights of country people, had been murdered.

Directed by Eduardo Coutinho

Tokyo-Ga(1985)

NR
| 1h 32min | Documentary
3.4/5 (with 30 votes)

German director Wim Wenders made this documentary in which he tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. When Wenders visits Tokyo for the first time, he finds a very different city, one with a booming fascination with technology that often clashes with the traditional elements of Japanese culture. Wenders also interviews Ozu's cinematographer, Yuharu Atsuta, and Chishu Ryu, an actor who frequently collaborated with Ozu.

The Decline of Western Civilization(1981)

1h 40min | Documentary, Music
3.6/5 (with 38 votes)

The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.

Directed by Penelope Spheeris - With Black Flag, Germs, The Bags, Circle Jerks, Fear, Alice Bag, ...
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Powaqqatsi(1988)

G
| 1h 39min | Documentary
3.7/5 (with 65 votes)

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

Directed by Godfrey Reggio - With Cheryl Tiegs

Huie's Sermon(1983)

42min | Documentary
2.7/5 (with 5 votes)

Reverend Huie Rogers is a preacher at the Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Brooklyn. He is the topic of this short film, during which launches into an epic call-and-response denunciation of human hubris, greed, corruption and failure. The use of lengthy shots present it less like a sermon and more a performance, and induce an almost trance-like state.

Directed by Werner Herzog

Style Wars(1983)

3.7/5 (with 22 votes)

Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Directed by Tony Silver - With DONDI, Frosty Freeze, Ed Koch, IZ the Wiz

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years(1988)

R
| 1h 33min | Documentary, Music
3.4/5 (with 28 votes)

An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and W.A.S.P..

Directed by Penelope Spheeris - With Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Megadeth, Faster Pussycat, ...

This Is Elvis(1981)

PG
| 1h 50min | Drama, Music, Documentary
3.4/5 (with 12 votes)

Though several actors portray Elvis Presley at different stages of his life, this documentary is comprised mostly of actual performance footage and interviews with Elvis, his fans and those close to him. This biographical docu-drama features rare footage of Elvis and dramatically recreated scenes from Elvis' life.

The Story of Yanagawa's Canals(1987)

3.5/5 (with 2 votes)

A partially-animated documentary about the preservation and restoration of the canal system in Yanagawa, Fukuoka.

Directed by Isao Takahata

The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On(1987)

2h 2min | Documentary
3.7/5 (with 17 votes)

Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old veteran of the New Guinea campaign in World War II, sets out to conduct interviews with survivors and relatives to find the truth behind atrocities committed while the Japanese garrison was surrounded, in particular the unexplained killing of two Japanese privates in his unit.

Directed by Kazuo Hara

The Killing of America(1981)

1h 30min | Documentary, Crime
3.6/5 (with 21 votes)

A documentary of the decline of America. Featuring footage (most exclusive to this film) from race riots to serial killers and much-much more.

Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser(1988)

PG-13
| 1h 30min | Documentary, Music
3.5/5 (with 7 votes)

A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.

Directed by Charlotte Zwerin - With Jimmy Cleveland, John Coltrane, Ray Copeland, Pannonica de Koenigswarter, Johnny Griffin

Room 666(1982)

43min | Documentary
3.2/5 (with 16 votes)

During the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Wenders asks a number of global film directors to, one at a time, go into a hotel room, turn on the camera and answer a simple question: "What is the future of cinema?".

Let's Get Lost(1988)

3.5/5 (with 17 votes)

Documentary about jazz great Chet Baker that intercuts footage from the 1950s, when he was part of West Coast Cool, and from his last years. We see the young Baker, he of the beautiful face, in California and in Italy, where he appeared in at least one movie and at least one jail cell (for drug possession). And, we see the aged Baker, detached, indifferent, his face a ruin. Includes interviews with his children and ex-wife, women companions, and musicians.

Directed by Bruce Weber - With Chet Baker, William Claxton, Chris Isaak, Lisa Marie

Streetwise(1984)

1h 31min | Documentary
3.7/5 (with 20 votes)

This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.

Directed by Martin Bell - With Baby Gramps

The Atomic Cafe(1982)

1h 26min | Documentary, History
3.6/5 (with 28 votes)

A disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.

Directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty - With Paul Tibbets, Harry S. Truman, Lloyd Bentsen

Jango(1984)

1h 55min | Documentary, History
3.3/5 (with 4 votes)

The story of João "Jango" Goulart, the Brazilian left-wing president deposed by the military.

Directed by Silvio Tendler

That's Dancing!(1985)

G
| 1h 45min | Documentary, Music
3.4/5 (with 7 votes)

A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s 50s and 60s up to the break dance and the music videos from the 80s.

Vernon, Florida(1981)

55min | Documentary
3.4/5 (with 22 votes)

Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.

Directed by Errol Morris

Genocide(1982)

3.8/5 (with 7 votes)

The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazi regime is chronicled, with a warning that anti-Semitism is on the rise and the events of the Holocaust could happen again. The history of European Jewish culture and events before and during the Holocaust are seen in newsreels, photographs, and animated segments. The words of the victims of the era are read, and footage from the liberation os a concentration camp is shown.

Directed by Arnold Schwartzman - With Elizabeth Taylor, Orson Welles

The Day After Trinity(1981)

1h 28min | Documentary
3.8/5 (with 4 votes)

The Day After Trinity (a.k.a. The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb) is a 1980 documentary film directed and produced by Jon H. Else in association with KTEH public television in San Jose, California. The film tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), the theoretical physicist who led the effort to build the first atomic bomb, tested in July 1945 at Trinity site in New Mexico. Featuring candid interviews with several Manhattan Project scientists, as well as newly declassified archival footage, The Day After Trinity was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1980, and received a Peabody Award in 1981.

Directed by Jon H. Else - With Hans Bethe, Robert Serber, Robert R. Wilson, Frank Oppenheimer, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Freeman Dyson, ...
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