Best Documentary Movies of 1988

A very surreal video shot behind the scenes during the production of Blue Velvet in Wilmington North Carolina in 1985 by Peter Braatz.

This is a short film (30min), part documentary part art-film, about the Berlin Wall back in 1988 when West Berlin was still an isolated fiefdom of the capitalist west, located 125 miles behind the Iron Curtain in communist eastern Europe. The film follows a young girl (Tilda Swinton of Narnia fame) and her thoughts as she circumnavigates West Berlin alongside the 96 mile long, iconic, symbol of the cold war. The film blends visual and audio art into a montage of simple scenes depicting the wall, its watch towers and life along the border strip just as it was a year before the wall fell and the cold war ended.

In this video, the artist tries to overcome the effects of distance, and reflects on geography represented in exile due to war, and on the psychological distance represented in each one’s approach to her womanhood. The video beautifully weaves personal images and audio recordings of a very intimate nature, binding the personal with the political. Reading aloud from letters sent by her mother in Beirut, Hatoum creates a visual montage reflecting her feelings of separation and isolation from her Palestinian family. The personal and political are inextricably bound in a narrative that explores personal and family identity against a backdrop of traumatic social rupture, exile and displacement.

Lauren Bacall tells the story of her late husband Humphrey Bogart, presenting clips from his movies and interview clips with his peers.

A young woman wanders around New York City and stumbles across a number of strange characters and settings that represent the "underground" areas of the city. She sees stand up comedy in Central Park, a prostitution auction, a voodoo ceremony, an S&M club, and a number of very interesting performance artists. These are just a few of the sights and sounds of New York that she encounters.

Documentary — featuring both interviews and live footage — about underground rock music in Russia, during the last years of the Perestroika.

1988 short film by Philip Hoffman.

Coffee-Colored Children is an autobiographical portrayal of Ngozi's, and her brother's, sad welcome to the world where the color of your skin dictates the amount of respect & love you receive.

A one-hour documentary on the making of Frank Zappa's bizarre 1971 comic musical. Vintage private footage from Frank's personal archives plus behind-the-scenes of the actual shooting and recording. With Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, Keith Moon and such songs as "Sleeping in a Jar," and "Strictly Genteel." The inside history of the first feature-length film to be shot on video in 6 days.