Two more great ones I just thought of:

Hands on a Hardbody About this crazy contest in Texas to win a Nissan Hardbody pickup. A great insight into the human psyche. One of the yokel-type dudes has some tremendous words of wisdom that most would think he's incapable of articulating. A great film.

Trekkies All about Star Trek geeks. Some horrifying stuff in there. Kind of painful to see how pathetic people are, but if it makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone, who cares?

This one is great. Even though the production quality is pretty poor, the characters are extremely entertaining(po' Southern trash). Not available yet on DVD, though.

DN

these are all worth seeing:

enron - smartest guys in the room
wallmart - high cost of low prices
biggie and tupac (plus other nick broomfield stuff)
death in gaza
mclibel
put the needle on the record
riding giants
dogtown and z boys
the corporation
capturing the friedmans
tupac resurection

also everyone should watch the Loose change film on 9/11

http://www.loosechange911.com/lcfc.htm

this is my first post in your forum. i downloaded this movie on the other week on a whim. never heard of it before but i loved the movie Blow, so this sounded good. i watched it about it week ago and man was it awesome. i probably would have been a coke smuggler if i was that age in the 70s

this is an awesome surf flic. also worth watching is Endless Summer II, Riding Giants (note my location) and Step Into Liquid.

of a similar genre is Dogtown and Z-Boys

also instead of making another new post:
awesome! i don't know where to find it though. some guys brought it into my marketing class like 5 years ago and we watched most of it. i can't remember at all how it tied into the class, but it was hilarious and wicked.

also el d you mentioned Why We Fight. it's pretty dec. i'd call it the 'military industrial complex' rather than the 'military industrial' complex though.

peace

Onibus 174 (Bus 174) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340468/

Good documentary about a hostage situation on a bus in Rio .. powerful doc.

Havent seen anyone mention: The Smashing Machine yet.

An excellent look inside the world of MMA and in particular the rise and ultimate fall of Mark Kerr. From his addiction to painkillers and steroids to his first defeat in the ring.

Also features Mark Coleman and Bas Ruttan.

yeah, that was awesome, i saw it a long time ago, may need to see it again.

i just got born into brothels and control room (about al jazeera) from netflix.

A look into a different world, not a well made movie, but still interesting:

Disbelief

i may be a little too mainstream and a few years late, but i recently saw "Murder on a Sunday Morning". It did a great job of showing the flaws that can exist in eyewitness id's and confessions. Plus, the public defender is just an awesome character.

Some documentaries that have been mentioned that I have liked a lot:

Hoop Dreams - Really terrific as many have mentioned.

Thin Blue Line - Same. This film really got to me. It's been so long since I've seen it and I still remember how I was so blown away by it.

Crumb - Funny and weird.


Diablo mentioned Word-Wars about the Scrabble Circuit which I haven't seen yet. I really want to check this out.
The book Word Freaks about the same subjet was really good I thought and got me interested.


A few months ago I saw a documentary on ESPN called, "The Time of Their Lives" about the growth of the NY Cosmos and North American Soccer League in the 1970's including Pele and other star players.
This documentary was masterfully done in my opinion.
The music and editing gave it a kind of funky 70's feel but without being so over-the-top as to be silly.

Even if you're not a soccer fan I think it would be interesting to see the story of how this practically semi-pro team drawing 1k fans a game was able to somehow land the best player in the world and eventually become a huge craze and sell-out Giants Stadium (over 70k fans) and then, almost just as quickly, fade-away entirely.


Koshien - This was a documentary I saw on PBS a few mths ago about the Japanese High-School baseball tournament. Not really that well-done but still somewhat interesting to watch. Thousands of teams battling in a giant nationwide single-elim tourney. Top 49 teams go to the Koshien finals that every player dreams of participating in.
It's a glimpse into the difference in attitudes in general between the U.S. and Japanese cultures as well imo.


Trekkies - Funny film from about 10 yrs ago about obsessed Star Trek fans attending various conventions, etc. Some of the interviews with the nerdier of the group are really funny of course, but I also developed an appreciation for how devoted they are to the history of the show.


The Big Bang (1989) - Probably my favorite documentary. Interviews with various people from different walks of life about love, life, death, etc. Some have very interesting stories to tell. Funny, sweet, thoughtful, simple.
Read a review on IMDB that it didn't go in-depth enough on each of the topics. I thought that keeping it moving and a little lighter and not bogging it down in really deep philosophy was the preferred approach.

Regarding some other documentary makers:

Michael Moore - I saw Fahrenheit 911 and was really disappointed. Frankly, I thought it was pretty terrible. And my political leanings are not that far from Moore's.
I have a feeling I would not be impressed by Columbine either but I still want to see it and will try not to let my opinion of 911 influence me.


Ken Burns - I've seen parts of Civil War, Baseball and Jazz. I didn't particularly care for any of them actually.
Jazz I guess I liked best. The baseball one really disappointed me.
one thing I remember is that he actually dubbed in sound-effects (like crack of the bat, fan-noise, etc) on some films that obviously wouldn't have had any sound because they were so old...and also onto modern games where I thought he would have been better to just use the regular sound even if it included the announcer.

I remember being annoyed at how they portrayed the Game 6 of the 1975 World Series (Cincy and Boston) because it was weird that the crowd noise would be the same for a Cincy base-hit as it would be for a Boston base-hit.

This was only one of the aspects that bugged me about it though.

i cant beleive no one has mentioned VERNON, FLORIDA. has anyone mentioned VERNON, FLORIDA? it is an absolute must see on the order of: my brothers keeper, crumb, roger and me and PARADISE LOST.

I don't recall seeing this one mentioned, Tom Dowd & The Language of Music. If you're into music this is a must see. Dowd's influence on music is immeasureable.

For those in SF , the Balboa Theatre is showing all the oscar nominated documentaries FOR FREE , Feb 20 & 21.

http://www.balboamovies.com/oscar/
The Balboa Theater - Oscars 2006

Great thread! But why hasn't anybody mentioned Jean Xavier Lestrade yet? imho he is the best documentary film maker out there juging by the two things i've seen by him: (death on) the Staircase and Murder on a Sunday Morning. Like John Grisham, only stranger, more disturbing and more unpredictable. Maybe they never aired in the US, since he is a French filmmaker, but both documentaries are on the US judicial system.

****
Plot Synopsis: Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, presents a gripping courtroom thriller, offering a rare and revealing inside look at a high-profile murder trial. In 2001, author Michael Peterson was arraigned for the murder of his wife Kathleen, whose body was discovered lying in a pool of blood on the stairway of their home. Granted unusual access to Peterson's lawyers, home and immediate family, de Lestrade's cameras capture the defense team as it considers its strategic options. "The staircase" is an engrossing look at contemporary American justice that features more twists than a legal bestseller.
****
French documentary about the trial of a black American teenager accused of robbing and murdering an elderly white tourist at a Florida hotel. The film follows the teen's defense team as they build a case that shows ineptitude and prejudice on the part of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

I guess this more of a mockumentry:
FISHING WITH JOHN
This is so good and funny. This guy Joh seems to know everyone and gets them to go fishing with him. Dennis Hopper in Thailand, Tom Waits in Jamacia, and it's just perfect. Way too serious voice-overs like when John and Tom Waits are paddling up a river. Something like(deep voice) "Tom and I were now where no white man had ever fished before."

American Splendor -- Brilliant, but is it a documentary? Harvey Pekar.

I'm a Ross McElwee fan -- Charleen, Sherman's March.

On The Muscle
Follows the horses, trainer, veterinarian, jockeys, owners and caretakers through the highs and lows of a year of world class racing leading up to the Breeders Cup.

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2 more i just saw:



control room - about tv network al jazeera. follows the network's operations around 2003 when the us and allies began to wage war on iraq. the subject matter is super-facsinating to me - "upstart", often unpopular network covers a war on its home turf - but the final product falls way short. the characters are boring, and for a war, there is very little action. there is a fetching female producer who is enjoyable to watch, and a likable army pr officer, but other than that it's just a bunch of middle eastern men bitching about how awful the us is, which is pretty tired and played out at this point.

word wars - folllows 4 scrabble experts as they prepare for the national championships. this is an amazing film. the characters are as real as any i've ever seen - real in that they are generally unsuccessful in all areas of life, and they don't make any effort to appear otherwise. one of my favorite parts of the film is this quote from GI Joel (one of the subjects - GI stands for gastro intestinal because he has horrible acid reflux and is constantly chugging maalox):

"i never applied myself ever into anything i ever did in my life besides scrabble. i never succeeded in any other endeavor. i have done very little to contribute to society most of my life. i was a college dropout. i felt i had learned everything i needed to get by in this life in kindergarten - when i knew how to read.

i don't have a real life as compared to most people i know and even most scrabble players i know. how a typical day goes for me: i sleep while the sun is shining, then uh, get up, and uh eventually play a few games of scrabble, and that's the day.....

there's very little else i'm actually qualified to do at this point, and playing scrabble is the only thing my body will allow me to sit still and do."

tons of parallels exist between the scrabble world and the poker world. everyone should see this.

http://www.unflinchingtriumph.com/shell.html

A fun mockumentary you can view in its entirety online

Gobble Gobble.

Judging by the rest of your list though, you've missed a few.

BURDEN OF DREAMS is a documentary about the making of the movie FITZCARRALDO. First you have to see FITZCARRALDO, then BURDEN OF DREAMS. FITZCARRALDO is directed by a man named Werner Herzog who ate his shoe after Errol Morris (director of vernon, fla.) made his first movie (GATES OF HEAVEN). morris wouldn't get off his ass, so herzog told him he'd eat his shoe if he made a movie. Well, he ate his shoe and someone filmed it. it's an extra on the Burden of Dreams DVD.

Also, "hearts of darkness" It's the making of Apocalypse Now. You'll trust me if you see the movies above.

Werner Herzog!!! I've seen about 8 of his movies and I'm going to eventually see them all.

Charliedont surf? Are you serious?? Where is HEARTS OF DARKNESS???????? Please explain.