Film Category: Thematic

Gone: The Forgotten Women of Ohio
Joe Berlinger

After numerous women go missing, leaving their families and local law-enforcement officers with more questions than answers, this stunning series investigates whether or not a serial killer is responsible.

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In Cold Blood
Richard Brooks

Mixing elements of reality and fiction, In Cold Blood delves into the real-life murders of the Clutter family at the hands of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock in this scripted true-crime cinematic narrative based on Truman Capote’s novel.

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Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky

When three young boys are brutally murdered, three teenagers are accused of committing the crime as part of a satanic ritual, and are convicted by their community before they even reach the courtroom. Paradise Lost is the first film of the groundbreaking trilogy that documented the case of the West Memphis Three.

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Titicut Follies
Frederick Wiseman

An intense, purely observational look at the stark conditions of inmate life in the 1960s at the Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane in Massachusetts.

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The Thin Blue Line
Errol Morris

A man is sent to prison for shooting a Dallas police officer. The documentary questions the veracity of the verdict through interviews with detectives, lawyers, and the alleged murderer, who all paint very different accounts of events, which are represented in stunning reenactments.

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Scenes of a Crime
Grover Babcock, Blue Hadaegh

When a four-month-old boy dies, officers are convinced he was killed by his father, who after more than ten hours of questioning, confesses to the crime. Medical experts, police officers, and lawyers offer their opinions on this controversial admission of guilt, but the film’s focal point is the videotaped interrogation itself.

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The Farm: Angola, USA
Liz Garbus, Jonathan Stack

In The Farm, life at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, is seen through the eyes of both its wardens and its prisoners—many of whom will die there—with disturbing parallels to plantation life.

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Jeremy

Music video by Pearl Jam.

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Empire
Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol’s 1964 unique meditation on the Empire State Building was displayed at the Center for Documentary Studies.

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The March of Time: One Day of War — Russia 1943

A hundred and sixty Russian cameramen from across the Soviet Union chronicle a single fighting day during World War II.

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