Best Documentary Movies of 1969

Both sober and sobering, producer-director Emile de Antonio’s In the Year of the Pig is a powerful and, no doubt for many, controversial documentary about the Vietnam War.

Johnny Cash at San Quentin was recorded live at San Quentin State Prison on February 24, 1969 and released as an album onJune 16 of that same year. The concert was filmed by Granada Television. Songs performed include Wreck of the Old 97 , I Walk the Line, San Quentin and A Boy Named Sue.

Various different holiday locations ar joined together through the pleasures of ice cream in The Mutt & Jeff Icecream Sundae, while in Mothman the strange title character crawls through roof-top windows and we see footage of a funfair. These two films have many similarities with the other Keen diary movies but have always been shown in this pairing, and under this title.

This is a 1968 French documentary that was probably shot just after or during the making of his great marriage disaster film, ‘Faces.’

In this classic 1969 documentary, the Man in Black is captured at his peak, the first of many in a looming roller-coaster career. Fresh on the heels of his Folsom Prison album, Cash reveals the dark intensity and raw talent that made him a country music star and cultural icon. Director Robert Elfstrom got closer than any other filmmaker to Cash, who is seen performing with his new bride June Carter Cash, in a rare duet with Bob Dylan, and behind the scenes with friends, family and aspiring young musicians.

Intimate portrait of the daily life of the British Royal Family drawn from 18 months of filming within Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral.

This short film by Les Blank with Skip Gerson features the charismatic legendary blues icon Lightnin' Hopkins sing a beautiful song about a stuttering boy who learns that he can communicate through singing. Also features Billy Bizor on harmonica.

Kenneth Clarke's eloquent and deeply personal documentary mini-series explores the cultural heritage of the western world, from the collapse of the Roman Empire until the birth of modernism.

In this classic exploration of marriage in conflict, Billy and Antoinette Edwards, their son Bogart and dog, Merton spontaneously live out their lives and laughter, tears, wit, tenderness, fierce anger, patience, pain and sorrow ensue. Hoping to discover the heart of the trouble in their marriage in order to save it, BIlly and Antoniette offer up their day to day lives with antonishing bravery. Audiences project themselves into the couple, judging, loving or hating either or both. Many thought the marriage was doomed but it continued for another decade, producing a daughter, Amadea. All have had successful, normal lives.