Cinema Eye announced their list of the 25 Most Influential Documentaries which was put together by current filmmakers who are vying for the 2014 Cinema Eye Honor, one of the top awards for documentary film.
Cinema Eye founder, A.J. Schnack, explains the motivation behind the list and why they decided to release it.
For the last few years we’ve been asking eligible directors to tell us what films inspire them, to help guide us to the films we should consider for our
Legacy Award. The list is always interesting, and it changes a little bit each year — so as we were thinking about this year, we thought, why don’t we
actually release the list to show what films are foremost in filmmakers’ minds from one year to the next?
Many obvious choices made the list like Grey Gardens, Hoop Dreams and Gimme Shelter. Only 5 of the films of the 25 have won the Academy Award for Best Documentary including Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, USA.
5 films that were directed by or co-directed by women and interestingly, only Barbara Kopple made the list as a solo female director.
Below are the women directed documentaries on the list. You can find the full list here.
Gimme Shelter
, Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin (1970)
Grey Gardens
, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer (1975)
Harlan County, USA
, Barbara Kopple (1976)
Salesman, Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin (1968)
The War Room, Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker (1993)
