The re-birth of country music in the 70s is certainly a worthy subject for a documentary. The relationship between the music, the whiskey and the guns meld together seemlessly in this eloquent and elegant film about the small town lives that breathed new life into a dying art - the country and western song. The flashiness of David Allan Coe (who's prison shows make you cringe) contrasts with the simple charm of Townes Van Zandt (who struggles beautifully to juggle a Coke can, a bottle of booze a find out more...

A fascinating deconstruction of the destruction that befell Terry Gilliam's "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" a film that folded after only six days of filming following a catalogue of disasters which stretch the bounds of credibility. In turns funny and excruciating, Lost In La Mancha is an utterly gripping piece of movie voyeurism. find out more...

The story of Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook on charter boats, who became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989. This is a film that doesn't leave you: the images of gigantic waves and ice bergs and superhuman levels of courage and endurance are hard to process. If it were a work of fiction you would dismiss it as Hollywood hype: but it's not, find out more...

Great doco about the early days of NY hip hop and life on the projects. One of the best features of this film is that it examines the political trajectory of Nas' career through his lyrics as well as the environment and familial situation that gave rise to his stardom. Must see for fans of his music. And anyone interested in the political side of rap music.

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In 1998 Marco Pantani, the most flamboyant and popular cyclist of his era, won both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, a titanic feat of physical and mental endurance that no rider has repeated since. He was a hero to millions, the saviour of professional cycling following the doping scandals which threatened to destroy the sport. However, less than six years later, aged just 34, he died alone, in a cheap Italian hotel room.

This film is not just about cycling but an emotional expl find out more...

A highly personalised documentary account of one filmmaker's frustrated attempts to interview the Chairman of General Motors when he closed down 35,000 jobs in his hometown. Instead he focuses on the drastic and wry effects on the town. The result is incisive, witty, and (surprisingly) very, very funny. A Must! find out more...

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus is a thought-provoking road trip through the American South - a world of churches, prisons, coalmines, truck-stops, juke joints, swamps and mountains. Along the way we encounter various musicians, including: The Handsome Family, Johnny Dowd, 16 Horsepower and David Johansen, old time banjo player Lee Sexton, Rockabilly and Mountain Gospel churches, and novelist Harry Crews. All tell grisly stories down a dirt track. The film is a collage of stories and testimon find out more...

On one level it's terrifying, another tragic, but there's no denying it's utterly hypnotic. A hall seething with demonic young children obsessed with the national spelling Bee competition, a cruel concept made all the more vicious by parental participation. Spellbound is a dazzling documentary, sad, funny, and like any particularly fine true story....almost unbelievable. find out more...

The extraordinary life of Jean Dominique, an educated Haitian who ran Radio Haiti, which, by broadcasting the truth, provided the focus of opposition to various venomous and corrupt regimes, Papa Doc, Baby Doc, the US run military et al, across a period of over 30 years. Jean is a charismatic protagonist, his personal history colourful not only for his long, evidently satisfying career, his family and his similarly courageous and committed wife Michèle Montas, but for how it intersects with and find out more...

Produced by Spike Lee, CSA is a wickedly clever 'mockumentary' that attempts to show what life in America may have been like if the South had won the civil war. The film is peppered with fake adverts, together with some that are rooted in reality and manages to be satirically humorous as well as genuinely thought provoking. find out more...