Best Documentary Movies of 1972

A film about the first benefit rock concert when major musicians performed to raise relief funds for the poor of Bangladesh.

Part documentary, part expose, this film follows one-time child evangelist Marjoe Gortner on the "church tent" Revivalist circuit, commenting on the showmanship of Evangelism and "the religion business", prior to the start of "televangelism".

Concert footage and offstage documentary of singer Elvis Presley.

5 years in the life of a rural French farmer.

At a morgue, forensic pathologists conduct autopsies of the corpses assigned.

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is a 1971–72 documentary film by Jonas Mekas. It revolves around Mekas' trip back to Semeniškiai, the village of his birth.

James Earl Jones narrates this fascinating and moving documentary about the life of the assassinated black leader through various sources.

A documentary on China, concentrating mainly on the faces of the people, filmed in the areas they were allowed to visit. The 220 minute version consists of three parts. The first part, taken around Beijing, includes a cotton factory, older sections of the city, and a clinic where a Cesarean operation is performed, using acupuncture. The middle part visits the Red Flag canal and a collective farm in Henan, as well as the old city of Suzhou. The final part shows the port and industries of Shanghai, and ends with a stage presentation by Chinese acrobats.

The film's subject is a photograph of Jane Fonda visiting Hanoi during the Vietnam War. It asks what the position of the intellectual should be in the class struggle and points out the irony of Jane Fonda's participation in the photo shoot, which was staged.