10 Great Documentaries About Politics

This groundbreaking film forever changed political documentaries with its cinematic verité style, and six decades later it still offers a stunning new look at two very different Democratic candidates on the campaign trail. Producer Robert Drew enlisted cameramen including Attorney General Pennebaker and Albert Maysles to follow Hubert Humphrey and John F. Kennedy as they tried to catch up in Wisconsin, favoring ambient sound, close-ups, and live interviews over static shots of talking heads in the resulting hour-long program. Drew had trouble convincing major networks to air it, but the documentary community quickly embraced its distinctive style.

“Navalny” is a thriller, but the stakes are high because the subject of Daniel Rohr’s documentary is in grave danger. “Come on, Daniel,” Russian dissident Alexei Navalny protests when the director asks him about his possible death early in the film. “It’s like you’re making a film about my death.” “Navalny,” which won the Oscar for best documentary feature after its 2022 release, is a masterful film, all the more disturbing in the wake of the political dissident’s death earlier this year while in prison.

“The War Room” opens amid allegations of Bill Clinton’s infidelity in early 1992, and the resulting furor seems almost quaint after all the drama surrounding political candidates in recent years. Married directors Chris Hegedus and Attorney General Pennebaker focus on colorful campaign strategist James Carville and baby-faced George Stephanopoulos, Clinton’s then-communications director, to the film’s advantage: Their interactions on the wall in the campaign’s war room enliven the documentary.

Director Michael Moore satirized George W. Bush’s response to the 9/11 attacks with this record-breaking documentary, the first to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes since 1956. Two decades after its release, Moore’s connections between the Bush family and the Saudis provide the film’s greatest strength, along with heartbreaking footage of families affected by the U.S. war in Iraq. Fahrenheit 9/11 proved that documentaries could make big money and remains an insightful look at a turbulent time in America.

Stacey Abrams stars in “All In” for good reason: She’s a passionate advocate for fair voting practices. The film, directed by Liz Garbus and Lisa Curtis, begins with Abrams initially refusing to concede her first gubernatorial election over what she calls voter suppression tactics, then goes on to chart the history of oppressive measures against black voters in the South. As recent legislation has shown, the fight to protect voter rights is far from over; it will take determination and courage—both of which Abrams and her compatriots have in full possession.

Robert McNamara was secretary of defense during the Vietnam War, so much so that Paul Simon sang about McNamara’s deference to him in 1965. Decades later, this young Kennedy administration genius proved an inaccessible—but always interesting—subject for this documentary by Errol Morris, “Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara.” Released shortly after the controversial 2003 invasion of Iraq, the film won an Oscar.

A film that blends magic and disquiet, Please Vote For Me chronicles a third-grade election in Wuhan, China. Democracy is new to these boisterous eight-year-olds, but they prove to be quick learners, with the help and encouragement of their parents: Before the votes are counted, we see candidates play dirty tricks on each other, bribe classmates, and display disturbing authoritarian impulses. Director Weijun Chen’s 58-minute documentary, which won an award at SilverDocs, offers glimpses into contemporary life in China while suggesting that some campaign impulses are innate, even in a communist society.

Hearts and Minds was so explicit in its portrayal of America’s role in the Vietnam War that Columbia Pictures refused to release it, and it aimed to humanize the aftermath of the conflict. The film features audio clips of presidents dating back to Truman, Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, and controversial Gen. William Westmoreland, along with brief scenes of soldiers on the ground and Vietnamese people coping with the loss of family and home. Warner Bros. ended up releasing the documentary, which won an Oscar just weeks before the U.S. evacuated its embassy in Saigon.

This film revealed so many uncomfortable truths about the Nazi occupation of France that the head of the country’s state-owned television station refused to air it in 1969. Using a mix of archival footage and contemporary interviews, director Marcel Ophuls, who fled the country with his family during World War II, paints a complex picture of a military occupation in which some citizens collaborated with the Nazis while others resisted. The film was nominated for an Oscar and was immortalized in the movie “Annie Hall,” when Woody Allen’s Alfie takes Diane Keaton’s character on a date to see it.

More than half a century after Agnès Varda shot it, Black Panthers remains a powerful time capsule of politics and race relations during a particularly tumultuous time in America. The godmother of the French New Wave, then living in Los Angeles with her director husband Jacques Demy, traveled to Oakland to film protests for the release of Huey Newton during the summer of 1968, capturing a discourse on black beauty alongside political views. The result is poignant viewing during another period of political turmoil.