Best Documentary Movies of 2006
1.
The Bridge
5.2
7.3/10
The Bridge is the controversial documentary that shows people jumping to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Director Eric Steel staked out for a year under the infamous bridge filming 23 suicides. The footage was then compiled along with interviews from family, friends, witnesses, and survivors to create this disturbing yet very intriguing documentary.
Starring:
Eric Geleynse, Susan Ginwalla, Caroline Pressley, Gene Sprague, Elizabeth 'Lisa' Smith
Directed by:
Eric Steel
Release date:
2006-10-27
2.
Cocaine Cowboys
4.9
7.8/10
In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago - and it put the city on the map. "Cocaine Cowboys" is the true story of how Miami became the drug, murder and cash capital of the United States, told by the people who made it all happen.
Starring:
Jon Roberts, Jorge Ayala, Mickey Munday, Toni Mooney, Nelson Andreu
Directed by:
Billy Corben
Release date:
2006-04-26
3.
Madonna: Confessions Tour
4.6
9.1/10
The Confessions Tour was the seventh world concert tour by American singer-songwriter Madonna to support her album Confessions on a Dance Floor. According to Billboard The tour grossed over US$194.7 million, becoming the highest grossing tour ever for a female artist. Madonna broke her own record in 2008, with her Sticky & Sweet Tour. 01. Future Lovers/I Feel Love 02. Get Together 03. Like A Virgin 04. Jump 05. Confessions 06. Live to Tell 07. Forbidden Love 08 .Isaac 09. Sorry 10 .Like It Or Not 11. Sorry (Remix) 12. I Love New York 13. Ray of Light 14. Let It Will Be 15. Drowned World/Substitute For Love 16. Paradise (Not For Me) 17. Music Inferno 18 .Erotica 19 .La Isla Bonita 20. Lucky Star 21. Hung Up
Starring:
Madonna, Donna DeLory, Nicki Richards, Addie Yungmee-Schilling-George, Jason Young
Directed by:
Jonas Ã…kerlund
Release date:
2006-11-22
4.
Sharkwater
4.2
8.0/10
Driven by passion fed from a life-long fascination with sharks, Stewart Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.
Starring:
Patrick Moore, Erich Ritter, Paul Watson, Rob Stewart, Boris Worm
Directed by:
Rob Stewart
Release date:
2006-09-11
5.
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
4.1
7.8/10
In March 2005, Neil Young was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. Four days before he was scheduled for a lifesaving operation, he headed to Nashville, where he wrote and recorded the country folk album PRAIRIE WIND with old friends and family members. After the successful operation and recovery period, he returned to Nashville that August to play at the famed Ryman Auditorium, once again gathering together friends and family for this special performance.
Starring:
Neil Young, Emmylou Harris
Directed by:
Jonathan Demme
Release date:
2006-02-10
6.
The Battle of Chernobyl
4.1
8.3/10
On April 26, 1986, a 1,000 feet high flame rises into the sky of the Ukraine. The fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant just exploded. A battle begins in which 500,000 men are engaged throughout the Soviet Union to "liquidate" the radioactivity, build the "sarcophagus" of the damaged reactor and save the world from a second explosion that would have destroyed half of Europe. Become a reference film, this documentary combines testimonials and unseen footage, tells for the first time the Battle of Chernobyl.
Starring:
Tim Birkett, Mikhail Gorbachev, Hans Blix, Oleg Mirochnikov
Directed by:
Thomas Johnson
Release date:
2006-05-05
7.
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
4.1
7.7/10
Documentary portraying the actions of U.S. corporate contractors in the U.S.-Iraq war. Interviews with employees and former employees of such companies as Halliburton, CACI, and KBR suggest that government cronyism is behind apparent "sweetheart" deals that give such contractors enormous freedom to profit from supplying support and material to American troops while providing little oversight. Survivors of employees who were killed discuss the claim that the companies cared more for profit than for the welfare of their own workers, and soldiers indicate that the quality of services provided is sub-standard and severely in contradiction to the comparatively huge profits being generated. Also depicted are the unsuccessful attempts by the filmmakers to get company spokesmen to respond to the charges made by the interviewees.
Starring:
Shereef Akeel
Directed by:
Robert Greenwald
Release date:
2006-01-01
8.
My Chemical Romance: Life on the Murder Scene
4.1
9.3/10
Life on the Murder Scene is the first live album by New Jersey's My Chemical Romance. It was released on March 21, 2006 (see 2006 in music). The release includes three discs (two DVDs and one CD) of the whole history documenting the band from the start to the present. Life on the Murder Scene is a predominantly live album, but also includes two demo tracks and a previously unreleased track. Models Jamisin Matthews and Jaime Andrews portray the demolition couple in the cover photo, booklet, packaging, DVD art, and DVD menus. One DVD documents the band on the road in the form of a diary and the other covers live footage, Sessions@AOL, MTV $2 Bill performance, and four of their videos with the behind-the-scenes "Making Of..." for three of them. The cover features a live version of "Demolition Lovers II" (the name of the album cover of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge).
Starring:
Gerard Way, Ray Toro, Mikey Way, Frank Iero, Bob Bryar
Directed by:
Greg Kaplan
Release date:
2006-01-29
9.
Hacking Democracy
4.1
7.9/10
Documentary film investigating allegations of election fraud during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Electronic voting machines count approximately 90% of America's votes in county, state and federal elections. The technology is also increasingly being used across the world, including in Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Latin America. The film uncovers incendiary evidence from the trash cans of Texas to the ballot boxes of Ohio, exposing secrecy, votes in the trash, hackable software and election officials rigging the presidential recount.Ultimately proving our votes can be stolen without a trace "Hacking Democracy" culminates in the famous 'Hursti Hack'; a duel between the Diebold voting machines and a computer hacker from Finland - with America's democracy at stake.
Starring:
James Naughton, Bev Harris, Harri Hursti
Directed by:
Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels
Release date:
2006-01-01
10.
Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman
4.0
8.0/10
The history of the comic book superhero, Superman in his various media incarnations.
Starring:
Kevin Spacey, Richard Donner, Bryan Singer, Stan Lee, Christopher Reeve
Directed by:
Kevin Burns
Release date:
2006-06-12
11.
A Crude Awakening
4.0
7.8/10
Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack's nonfiction treatise Crude Awakening joins Maxed Out, An Inconvenient Truth, and other recent documentaries devoted to unearthing and exploring forces that are untying the connective threads of contemporary society. The subject at hand is crude oil - specifically, the depletion of petroleum from the Earth, in an era when consumption threatens to exceed supply.
Starring:
Wade Adams
Directed by:
Basil Gelpke, Ray McCormack, Reto Caduff
Release date:
2006-03-01
12.
God Grew Tired of Us
4.0
7.9/10
Filmmaker Christopher Quinn observes the ordeal of three Sudanese refugees -- Jon Bul Dau, Daniel Abul Pach and Panther Bior -- as they try to come to terms with the horrors they experienced in their homeland, while adjusting to their new lives in the United States.
Starring:
Nicole Kidman
Directed by:
Christopher Dillon Quinn, Tommy Walker
Release date:
2006-12-31
13.
The Secret
4.0
5.7/10
Interviews with leading authors, philosophers and scientists, with an in-depth discussion of the Law of Attraction. The audience is shown how they can learn and use 'The Secret' in their everyday lives.
Starring:
Bob Proctor, Joe Vitale, John Assaraf, Loral Langemeier, Marie Diamond
Directed by:
Drew Heriot
Release date:
2006-03-26
14.
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
4.0
7.9/10
Featuring never-before-seen footage, this documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.
Starring:
Claire Janaro, Deborah Layton, Garrett Lambrev, Hue Fortson Jr., Janet Shular
Directed by:
Stanley Nelson
Release date:
2006-04-26
15.
Iraq in Fragments
3.9
7.3/10
An opus in three parts, Iraq In Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied. American director James Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Directed by:
James Longley
Release date:
2006-01-21
16.
Get Thrashed
3.9
7.9/10
Get Thrashed traces the rise, fall and impact of thrash metal; from its early years, through its influence on grunge, nu metal and today's heavy metal scene. It is the story of the heaviest, hardest music of the 80s and early 90s as told by the bands who lived it, the fans and bands that grew up on it and by the artists that carry the "thrash metal" flag today.
Starring:
Lars Ulrich, Death Angel, Tom Angelripper, Phil Anselmo, Tom Araya
Directed by:
Rick Ernst
Release date:
2006-10-03
17.
Prehistoric Park
3.8
7.5/10
A BBC miniseries about Nigel Marvin's quest to bring the extinct dinosaurs through time to Prehistoric Park.
Starring:
Nigel Marven, Rod Arthur, Suzanne McNabb, David Jason
Directed by:
Matthew Thompson, Karen Kelly, Sid Bennett
Release date:
2006-01-01
18.
Kurt Cobain: About a Son
3.8
7.4/10
An intimate and moving meditation on the late musician and artist Kurt Cobain, based on more than 25 hours of previously unheard audiotaped interviews conducted with Cobain by noted music journalist Michael Azerrad for his book "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana." In the film, Kurt Cobain recounts his own life - from his childhood and adolescence to his days of musical discovery and later dealings with explosive fame - and offers often piercing insights into his life, music, and times. The conversations heard in the film have never before been made public and they reveal a highly personal portrait of an artist much discussed but not particularly well understood. Written by AJ Schnack
Starring:
Kurt Cobain
Directed by:
AJ Schnack
Release date:
2006-10-03
19.
We Don't Die, We Multiply: The Robin Harris Story
3.8
8.0/10
Featuring hysterical performance footage and insightful interviews, this affectionate documentary profiles Robin Harris, one of the most respected black comedians of his time whose life was cut short at age 37 by a respiratory problem. Friends and fans such as Bernie Mac, Cedric the Entertainer, Martin Lawrence and Robert Townsend share their memories of the funnyman, who continues to influence young comics.
Starring:
Robin Harris, Cedric the Entertainer, Reginald Hudlin, D. L. Hughley, Bernie Mac
Release date:
2006-10-17
20.
Deep Sea 3D
3.8
7.6/10
Sea life in a whole new way. Deep Sea 3D, an underwater adventure from the filmmakers behind the successful IMAX® 3D film Into the Deep, transports audiences deep below the ocean surface. Through the magic of IMAX®; and IMAX 3D, moviegoers will swim with some of the planets most unique, dangerous and colorful creatures, and understand this inspiring underworld.
Starring:
Kate Winslet, Johnny Depp
Directed by:
Howard Hall
Release date:
2006-03-03
Check out our top containing the Best Documentary Movies of 2006. This top was obtained with our unique algorithm ordered by our unique ranking system.
