documentaries for people who want to watch more documentaries but don't know where to start

This powerful documentary delves deep into the complex tapestry of race, celebrity and justice that defined a nation. Beyond the sensational trial, it traces the roots of the O.J. Simpson saga to the Great Migration and explores how the effects of racism shaped the lives of countless African Americans, including Simpson himself. From his meteoric rise as a football hero to the infamous murder trial and its consequences, the film examines a case that continues to haunt the American soul.

Errol Morris’s documentary reenacts the 1976 murder of a Dallas officer. Drifter Randall Adams is accused after a 16-year-old runaway, David Harris, blames him. As flimsy evidence and judicial bias pile up, it becomes clear Harris was likely guilty, used as a scapegoat so prosecutors could pursue the death penalty.

A devastating two hour documentary based on Lawrence Wright's book of the same name. Scientology is laid bare by a film that skilfully knits together archive footage, testimonials from former high ranking officials and public, and dramatic reconstructions.

In this documentary, director Asif Kapadia offers a soulful portrait of the talented british singer Amy Whinehouse, who died at the age of 27. Through archival footage, interviews, personal testimonies and never-before-seen material, it presents a very personal Amy, reflecting on her life and her artistic decisions, so closely linked to one another. It also explores the constant media pressure, her troubled relationships, as well as her success and lifestyle; a story equally intense and hypnotic.

In January 2013, Laura Poitras started receiving anonymous encrypted e-mails from "CITIZENFOUR," who claimed to have evidence of illegal covert surveillance programs run by the NSA in collaboration with other intelligence agencies worldwide. Five months later, she and reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The resulting film is history unfolding before our eyes.

Berlinger and Sinofsky's documentary of a gruesome triple murder in West Memphis, Arkansas and the subsequent trials of three suspects, takes a hard look at both the occult and the American justice system in 'small-town' America. Three teenagers are accused of this horrific crime of killing three children, supposedly as a result of involvement in Satanism. As in their previous documentary, things turn out to be more complex than initial appearances and this film presents the real-life courtroom drama to the viewer, as it unfolds.

A groundbreaking six-part documentary directed and produced by Andrew Jarecki and produced and shot by Marc Smerling (the Oscar nominated behind "Capturing the Friedmans (2003)") delves into the strange history of real estate heir Robert Durst, long suspected in the still-unsolved 1982 disappearance of his wife as well as the subsequent murders of family friend Susan Berman and neighbor Morris Black. It features an extended, revealing interview with Durst himself, with whom Jarecki developed a unique relationship following the release of "All Good Things (2010)", Jarecki's 2010 feature about Durst's life starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst. "The Jinx" results from nearly a decade of research by the filmmakers, who expose police files, key witnesses, never-before-seen footage, private prison recordings, and thousands of pages of formerly hidden documents.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney exposes the abuse of power in the Catholic Church and a cover-up that winds its way from the row houses of Milwaukee Wisconsin, through the bare ruined choirs of Ireland's churches all the way to the highest office of the Vatican. By investigating the secret crimes of a charismatic priest who abused over 200 deaf children in a school under his control - the film shows the face of evil that lurks behind the smiles and denials of authority figures and institutions who believe that because they stand for good they can do no wrong.

Posing as filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Hossain Sabzian convinces a wealthy Tehran family they’ll star in his next film. The real people involved later re-enact the events, culminating in footage from the actual trial that followed.

On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit, a French wire walker, juggler, and street performer days shy of his 25th birthday, spent 45 minutes walking, dancing, kneeling, and lying on a wire he and friends strung between the rooftops of the Twin Towers. Uses contemporary interviews, archival footage, and recreations to tell the story of his previous walks between towers of Notre Dame and of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, his passions and friendships, and the details of the night before the walk: getting cable into the towers, hiding from guards, and mounting the wire. It ends with observations of the profound changes the walk's success brought to Philippe and those closest to him.

This documentary follows Kurt Kuenne, who, after his friend Andrew Bagby's tragic murder in 2001, embarks on a heartfelt cinematic journey to preserve Andrew's memory for his unborn son, Zachary, following the shocking revelation that Andrew's ex-girlfriend, Shirley Jane Turner, is both a suspect in his murder and carrying his child. Kuenne's deeply personal direction and the use of personal footage create an emotional tribute transcending traditional storytelling, showcasing the strength of love and friendship in the face of unimaginable loss, making it a profoundly moving film you won't forget.

In 1994, a 13-year-old boy vanished from San Antonio, Texas. Over three years later, he reappears in Europe, claiming abduction and torture. Welcomed home by his family, his return raises unsettling questions, as inconsistencies suggest that not everything is as it seems.

The accident made national headlines: a suburban mother drove the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in New York and crashed head-on into an SUV, killing herself and seven others. In the aftermath, Diane Schuler was portrayed as a reckless drunk and a mother who cracked. But was she the monster the public made her out to be...or the perfect wife and mother that many say she was? Investigating the case six months after the accident, this documentary searches for answers to a mysterious and senseless tragedy.

David Farrier, a New Zealand pop cultural reporter whose story subjects often verge into the bizarre, believes he's found his next story when he stumbles across an online video on the world of competitive endurance tickling, a sport where the participants, with hands and feet tied down, are tickled for as long as they can endure. Participants are flown to Los Angeles first class, paid $1,500, and put up for four nights in a luxury hotel. Suitable participants are deemed to be younger, muscular males. The event is held on a monthly basis. In contacting the organizers, US-based Jane O'Brien Media, via their popular Facebook page to arrange for an interview, David receives a return message from one of their representatives, Debbie J. Kuhn, declining the offer, the message a homophobic rant largely against David. In that message, Debbie asserts that the competition is wholly a heterosexual athletic activity, she who does not appreciate what will be David's assumed gay bent on the story as a homosexual himself (which David does not state he is or isn't in his request). David finds the message all the more odd as the activity as it appears in the videos has an undeniable gay vibe. What is even more odd is that Debbie on behalf of Jane O'Brien, continually emails David over the following weeks expounding on the themes in the original message. At this time, David's friend, Dylan Reeve, enters the fray, acting initially as a researcher for David, and then eventually as co-filmmaker for a documentary on the subject. However, the documentary eventually morphs from the sport of competitive endurance tickling into the mysterious world of Jane O'Brien and Debbie Kuhn, especially: as they seem to have unlimited resources both to hold the events and to conduct their online harassment they learn not only of David, but of former associates who now seem to want to distance themselves from the "sport" and Jane O'Brien Media; as Jane and Debbie initiate legal action and threaten even more legal action, and issue general threats time and time against David and Dylan not only for this unauthorized documentary but for their activities toward Jane O'Brien Media as a whole; and as no one seems to know who Debbie or Jane are, even the people that work for them, or what their end goal is, namely what will be done with the resulting videos of the competitions, which populate the Internet. The story takes a further twist when David and Dylan learn there truly is a tickling sexual fetish subculture, one within that community, Richard Ivey, who willingly talks to David and who remembers someone else online decades ago within the community with a similar M.O. to Debbie and Jane.

American exchange student Amanda Knox is charged with the 2007 death of another student in Italy.