10 Top Must-See Documentary Films

Director Davis Guggenheim won an Academy Award (2006) for An Inconvenient Truth, in which former Vice President Al Gore presents a very convincing case about what global warming bodes for our future. The film is also an extraordinary profile of Al Gore, who reveals aspects of his personality and details about his life that we have not seen before.

Michael Moore gets to the heart of America's obsession with guns in this Oscar-winning (2002) documentary film, which was prompted by the infamous killing spree at Columbine High School in Colorado. As a filmmaker, Moore is an active protagonist who tracks down and confronts the subjects in his films. Here, he visits Charlton Heston and demands that the NRA honcho explain and justify the gun culture that, according to Moore, is at the root of incidents like the schoolhouse massacre. Moore's outspoken, quirky, cranky style of presentation makes even statistics interesting--and amazingly alarming. Good documentary film stimulates social debate, and this is one of the best.

This film is filmmaker Amy Berg's harrowing exposé about the ongoing sexual abuse of children by Father Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest, and the horrifying cover-up by Cardinal Roger Mahoney of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Witnesses and their families reveal what happened and the effect it has had on their lives. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently agreed to settle with victims for a record $660 million, but they say that won't feel vindicated until O'Grady, who now lives abroad and is still an ordained priest, is brought to justice.

Nominated for an Oscar, this 2006 documentary reveals preteens who are being taught to talk in tongues, go into trances and commit themselves to crusading--to dying, even--for Jesus. We follow them from their home environments to summer camp, and then to the streets where they preach to strangers. Much to the credit of directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Jesus Camp maintains its objectivity to the degree that the movie is praised equally by fundamentalists, who consider these kids to be their next generation of missionaries, and by liberals, who identify them as potential religious fanatics and terrorists. It is up to you to take in the information, and make your own judgment.

James Marsh's thrilling documentary follows the incomparably inventive and skilled performance artist Philippe Petit as he defies gravity and the law by walking on a hirewire suspended between the now destroyed World Trade Center Twin Towers.

This absolutely engaging film about eight teenagers who are contestants in the 1999 National Spelling Bee was released in 2003, and received an Oscar nomination. You love and root for all of the kids and their families, and you simply don't know who you most want to win the competition. With a good eye for character development and editing, director Jeffrey Blitz turns this spelling bee into high suspense. It is even fun to try to spell along. Not only that, Spellbound is an absolute inspiration for kids.

It's unclear just why American soldiers in charge of interrogating suspected terrorists at Abu Ghraib decided to take photos of some of their harsher techniques, but when their pictures of shackled, naked men forced into humiliating and terrifying behavior became public, they instigated an investigation that eventually brought criminal indictment of the soldiers, incarceration and dishonorable discharges from their military careers. Errol Morris' brilliantly executed film looks beyond the infamous photographs to discover that the bad behavior shown was typical, and known to their superior officers--who were never punished.

Alex Gibney's Taxi To The Dark Side is a shocking expose about the American military's use of torture to get confessions--not always truthful ones--from prisoners suspected of terrorism.

Directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud and their crew of 500 people spanned the globe for four years to capture these amazing and startlingly beautiful images of various species of migrating birds as they fly thousands of miles twice annually in search of food.

The Young@Heart Chorus is made up of 80- and 90-year-olds who love to sing, and do it very well. They may be senior citizens, but their zest for life, commitment to the chorus and determination to learn new songs and put on a great show makes them both remarkable and ageless--and truly inspiring.