The 25 Best Documentaries of the Decade (2000-2009)

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15. Super Size Me (2004)
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Starring: Morgan Spurlock
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Super Size Me was a documentary that America wished was a mockumentary, but it was all too true. Few other filmmakers have paid such a heavy toll for their projects as Morgan Spurlock, the host who subjected himself to 30 days of only eating McDonald’s food for three meals a day, always opting for the Super Sized servings when asked. One month and 24 1/2 pounds later, Spurdock revealed some of fast food’s dirtiest secrets. Gage Henry

14. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Starring: Al Gore
Studio: Paramount Classics

Al Gore proved himself a better narrator than a campaigner, with an Oscar for a consolation prize after losing the Presidency in 2004. And despite having its scientific conclusions questioned, the film gave the issue of global warming a voice much louder than an audible sigh. Josh Jackson

13. Jesus Camp (2006)
Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Starring: Becky Fischer, Mike Papantonio
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

This hard-to-watch film follows three children who attend a charismatic Christian summer camp called Kids On Fire in North Dakota. The kids speak in tongues, believe global warming is a political conspiracy, and bless a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush. There’s no need for a narrator or editorial opinion—the footage says it all. It’s no surprise that the camp closed after the film’s release. Kate Kiefer

12. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Director: Andrew Jarecki
Starring: Arnold Friedman, Elaine Friedman, David Friedman, Seth Friedman, Jesse Friedman
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

This is the story of Arnold Friedman and his son Jesse, who were convicted of multiple counts of child molestation that took place in the basement of their home in a quiet New York suburb during the ’80s. In Capturing the Friedmans, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki interviews the victims and prosecutors, but never reaches a conclusion as to the veracity of the charges, tacitly acknowledging that guilt and innocence are fluid concepts in such sensational and shameful circumstances. Instead, he documents the implosion of the family and the destruction of an already tenuous marriage. Surely, the details of the abuse are disturbing, but almost as unsettling is the cruelty with which the two older Friedmans reject their mother in blind loyalty to their shamefaced father and numb younger brother, further facilitating the family’s emotional separation. Emily Reimer

11. Born into Brothels (2004)
Director: Zana Briski
Starring: Shanti Das, Puja Mukerjee, Avijit Halder, Suchitra
Studio: ThinkFilms

Zana Briski was working as a documentary photographer in Calcutta when she began teaching photography to children of prostitutes. The resulting film, though not without controversy, offered a glimpse into the difficult lives of the kids. Briski’s continued Kids With Cameras project offers hope a path for some kids to find new opportunities outside the brothels, but there’s no candy-coating the difficulties facing the kids, even once they’ve headed off to school. Josh Jackson