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Random Quiz
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Can you name the '50 Documentaries To See Before You Die' as selected by Current TV?
created by
rockgolf
Enter a documentary film titles in the box below
Correctly named titles will show up below
Answers do not have to be guessed in order
Source:
Current TV site
Note: List was limited to films from the past 25 years, so all older documentaries will not be listed.
This quiz has not been verified by Sporcle
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Enter documentary film titles:
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Rank
Title
Year - Director(s) - Description
1
1994 - Steve James - Following the lives of two high-schooler on the road to basketball scholarships
2
1988 - Errol Morris - the film uncovers evidence of corruption that frees a Texan convicted of murder.
3
1989 - Michael Moore - Moore tries unsuccessfully to interview the CEO of General Motors after the Flint MI plant is downsized.
4
2008 - Ari Folman - An Israeli director uses animation to reconstruct his part in the 1982 Lebanon invasion
5
2004 - Morgan Spurlock - Spurlock eats only McDonalds meals for a month
6
1993 - Hegedus / Pennebaker - Inside look at the 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign
7
1995 - Epstein / Friedman - History of the depiction of homosexuality in Hollywood films
8
2006 - David Guggenheim - Al Gore gives a lecture on the effect of global climate change
9
2008 - Deal / Lessin - The story of Hurricane Katrina as built around footage taken by survivors.
10
2005 - Werner Herzog - Animal activist is killed by the bears in Alaska that he wants to protect
11
1991 - Jennie Livingston - New York drag queens compete in drag balls
12
2002 - Michael Moore - After the Columbine massacre, Moore explores America's fascination with guns and violence
13
2003 - Errol Morris - Former Secretary of State Robert McNamara discusses the nature and lessons of Vietnam
14
2000 - Marc Singer - Homeless New Yorkers survive by living in subway tunnels
15
1994 - Terry Zwigoff - Biography of the underground comic artist behid 'Keep On Truckin'' and 'Fritz the Cat'
16
2002 - Padilha / Lacerda - A Brazilian takes a busload of passengers hostage, leading to a national crisis
17
2005 - Marshall Curry - Cory Booker attempts to unseat the long-term mayor of Newark, NJ
18
2008 - Kenner - The effect of corporate culture on the American food industry
19
2003 - Kevin McDonald - When two mountain climbers are separated in Peru, one must make a grueling journey to survive
20
2003 - Andrew Jarecki - A family's loyalties are divided when the father, a respected music teacher, is accused of child abuse
21
2010 - Banksy - The internationally known graffiti artist maintains anonymity by turning the camera back on a film maker profiling him
22
2006 - Kopple / Peck - An anti-Bush statement has huge repercussions to the Dixie Chicks career
23
2000 - Bailey/ Barbato - The life story of the wife of PTL televangelist Jim Bakker
24
1996 - Berlinger / Sinofsky - Three outcast boys are convicted on flimsy evidence for a triple child murder in West Memphis AR
25
2005 - Gibney - An energy corporation run by Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling goes from the top 10 US companies to bankruptcy due to corporate greed
Rank
Title
Year - Director(s) - Description
26
2005 - Rubin / Shapiro - Quadriplegics compete in a brutal full-contact Paralympic event
27
2003 - Jonathan Caouette - the director uses mixed media to describe his childhood raised by a schizophrenic mother
28
2010 - Josh Fox - Using 'fracking' to get access to American natural gas has unintended health and environmental consequences
29
2008 - James Marsh - In 1974, Philippe Petit attempts to walk from the top of one World Trade Center tower to the other on a tightrope
30
2004 - Michael Moore - Did the Bush administration use the Twin Towers attack to pursue an unjust war they already wanted to wage?
31
2006 - Ewing / Grady - A camp called 'Children on Fire' trains its attendees to become evangelical preachers
32
2001 - Stacy Peralta - The origin of extreme skateboarding through the story of the 1970s Zephyr team
33
1989 - Marlon Riggs - Black homosexuality as a revolutionary act
34
1992 - Berlinger / Sinofsky - An elderly illiterate man is charged with murder in the death of his brother in small-town New York state
35
2000 - Epstein / Friedman - Interviews with survivors of Nazi persecution of homosexuals, named for one section of the German Penal code.
36
2007 - Alex Gibney - An innocent Afghan cab driver is tortured to death in this examination on the use of torture by Americans
37
2010 - Charles Ferguson - How Wall Street practices caused the worldwide 2008 financial crisis
38
2005 - Luc Jacquet - Emperor penguins make their annual pilgrage to their breeding grounds under harsh conditions
39
2002 - Nick Broomfield - The East Coast/West Coast rap wars culminate in the murders of two hip-hop giants
40
1996 - Leon Gast - A look back at the 1974 Ali-Foreman boxing match in the Zaire 'Rumble in the Jungle'
41
2007 - Seth Gordon - Enthusiasts compete to set the record high score in Donkey Kong
42
2010 - Joost / Schulman - Schulman's brother travels to Michigan to meet '12-year-old Abby' whom he met on Facebook, with surprising results
43
2006 - Spike Lee - The effects and aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans
44
2008 - Anders Østergaard - Burmese monks instigate protests against government suppression
45
1988 - Penelope Spheeris - A study of heavy metal music scene of the late eighties
46
1998 - Werner Herzog - Dieter Dengler's harrowing escape from a Vietnam prison, the basis for the fictional film Rescue Dawn
47
1999 - Kevin McDonald - A Palestinian terror group kidnap Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics
48
2002 - Burstein / Morgen - The life story of Paramount producer Robert Evans
49
1991 - Keshishian / Miceli - The backstage story of Madonna's 1990 Blond Ambition tour
50
2002 - Jeffrey Blitz - The stories behind 8 participants in the 1999 National Spelling Bee
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There are
21 comments
for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)
Current TV: 50 Documentaries To See Before You Die Quiz
by
rockgolf
Created Aug 29, 2011 in
Movies
Game Plays 942
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Editor Pick
rockgolf
:
Aug 30th, 2011 at 04:01 GMT
5 points
LEGAL NOTICE: The term "must see before you die" is strictly for dramatic purposes. Current TV makes no predictions, promises or claims that watching only 49 of these documentaries bestows immortality on the viewer.
RandallPinkston
:
Aug 30th, 2011 at 05:56 GMT
2 points
Not a bad list. Brother's Keeper doesn't seem to work for me.
rockgolf
:
Aug 30th, 2011 at 13:16 GMT
1 point
@RandallPinkston: Thanks. The darn "smart quote" struck again. Fixed.
billymac72
:
Aug 30th, 2011 at 20:40 GMT
-3 points
Sheesh....this is very top-heavy on the liberal wacko stuff. Where's Salesman, Grey Garden's, Gimme Shelter (no Maysles stuff?!! They practically invented the modern documentary), Hearts of Darkness, The Cove, Shoah..... There's some good stuff for sure, but holy cow, some huge omissions.
rockgolf
:
Aug 30th, 2011 at 21:10 GMT
4 points
As Al Gore is a major player in Current TV, the liberal bias is understandable.
sharpdale
:
Aug 31st, 2011 at 17:46 GMT
5 points
@rockgolf - Certainly not your fault, but a VERY questionable list. The editorial staff of CurrentTV thinks the genre began in 1988? And documenting Madonna's ego is a must-see? Or watching "No Spit" Spurlock blow the lid off the obesity crisis with endless images of fat people (of which I am one) and eating Mickey D's three meals a day for a month? Certainly some worth viewing, but on the whole the list is pitiful.
sharpdale
:
Aug 31st, 2011 at 17:54 GMT
5 points
IMHO, any list of "must see" docs MUST include: The Sorrow and the Pity, Nanook of the North, Into the Arms of Strangers, The Kids Are Alright (the Who doc, not the drama) and, of course, Harlan County U.S.A. (I'd include Shoah as well, except that, realistically, it's not a movie but rather an indispensable historical document that just happens to be filmed rather than printed.)
rockgolf
:
Sep 1st, 2011 at 01:20 GMT
1 point
@Sharpdale: No argument from me. I'd include "A Married Couple" too, but Docs don't get a lot of quizzes and this seemed an accessible list where many Sporclers would at least be aware of several of the films. You gotta start somewhere.
sharpdale
:
Sep 1st, 2011 at 17:47 GMT
1 point
@rockgolf - Fair enough. Glad you took the initiative and made the innovation. I'll see if my admittedly addled noodle can put one together as well. I'm not familiar with "A Married Couple", but I'll definitely look it up.
Antithesys
:
Sep 3rd, 2011 at 12:12 GMT
4 points
Oops, Michael Apted's "Up" series isn't on there. How could it possibly be taken seriously by anyone?
CorneliusTree
:
Sep 3rd, 2011 at 22:59 GMT
3 points
@billymac72 - I've only seen Salesman and Gimme Shelter from your list, but yeah, I don't understand having Super Size Me and a lot of that Michael Moore stuff over those classics. I'm fairly liberal but I do think this list is politicized and I don't like that.
CorneliusTree
:
Sep 3rd, 2011 at 23:05 GMT
6 points
However, the Errol Morris docs definitely belong here - that's not liberal bias. He's just a great filmmaker.
gbv
:
Sep 3rd, 2011 at 23:11 GMT
1 point
Stacy Peralta's name is spelled wrong.
DarkPhalanx
:
Sep 4th, 2011 at 00:47 GMT
1 point
Yeah I love this quiz Rockgolf, so don't take this as a personal insult, but the fact that The Sorrow and the Pity isn't on here is like making a Best Movies list without Citizen Kane.
Stillwater100
:
Sep 4th, 2011 at 18:33 GMT
3 points
For those wondering where the Sorrow & the Pity, Harlan County USA, Gimme Shelter, etc. are, take a look at the source link. It's only for docs made in the last 25 years. Rockgolf--you might want to add that to the quiz info.
NYCub
:
Sep 5th, 2011 at 04:45 GMT
3 points
I believe you mean "West Memphis, AR" for #24, no? AK is the abbreviation for Alaska.
googlebird
:
Sep 6th, 2011 at 02:33 GMT
1 point
@rockgolf - I figure I better pace myself to one film a year if I want to live to 100. That's OK by me;} And what happened to your iconic icon? I can barely recognize you anymore!
bondfool
:
Sep 6th, 2011 at 22:50 GMT
2 points
On the series, for some reason, they limited the list to the past twenty-something years. Still, it exposed me to some films I'd never heard of before.
rockgolf
:
Sep 7th, 2011 at 23:08 GMT
2 points
@Gbv: Thanks. Fix applied.
@Stillwater: I've taken your advice and added a note on the date range. Thanks, too.
@NYCub: No wonder I keep failing the States Abbreviation minefield! Corrected.
@googlebird: My new logo is the Muaythai Premier League logo. Family reasons.
billymac72
:
Sep 9th, 2011 at 16:25 GMT
2 points
Cornelius, I agree. I LOVE Errol Morris. But virtually EVERY Michael Moore film? I mean, really. I think this guy has played his hand, even with liberals.
TrixRabbi
:
Sep 25th, 2011 at 22:26 GMT
0 points
Night and Fog?
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