france Documentaries

Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory

1900 Unrated

Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory, a short black and white film made in 1895 by French cinematographer Louis Lumière, one of the worlds first filmmakers.   The movie simply shows people leaving a factory in France. Never the less it is considered by experts to be the wor[...]

Why We Fight

2005
4

Why We Fight, a 2005 historical war documentary by Eugene Jarecki about the US military-industrial complex, and western foreign policies over the last 50 years.   The title of the film refers to a series of seven propaganda movies made by the United States during World War 2 with the same[...]

Night and Fog

1955
2

Night and Fog, a 1955 documentary about the Nazi concentration camps by French director, Alain Resnais. The film was made ten years after the camps were shut down and features a lot of footage of their grounds interlaced with people talking about what it was like to survive them.   The ti[...]

Paris Is Burning

1990 Unrated

Paris Is Burning, a 1990 documentary by American director Jennie Livingston about drag queens living in New York City.   The film focuses on their lifestyle and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it. According to many, this documentary is fundamenta[...]

Nostradamus: The Truth

2007 Unrated

Where Nostradamus' 942 predictions from his 1555 book his book Les Propheties real? This 2007 Nostradamus documentary with narration by English actor Oliver Dimsdale aims to separate fact from fiction and provide some straight answers.

France's Stolen Children

2018 Unrated

France's Stolen Children, a 2018 BBC Our World short documentary hosted by Katie Razzell about children who were taken to France during the 1960's and 1980's.   In just over 20 years, 20,000 children were "stolen" from the Island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean and se[...]

Great Escape at Dunkirk

2018
2

The Great Escape at Dunkirk documentary explores the mass exodus of the British army after being pushed back to the coast by the German Bilzkerig in the early days of World War 2.   In May 1940 more than 300,000 troops from various allied armies were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. The[...]

Microcosmos

1996
69

Microcosmos (Le Peuple de L'herbe) is a 1996 French nature documentary co-directed by Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou which takes us into the world of insects.   To capture these aliens worlds in meadows and ponds Microcosmos uses special macro lenses to provide amazing close[...]

The French Revolution

2005 Unrated

  In The French Revolution documentary, Doug Shultz explores this social and political rebellion which began on July 14th, 1789.    On this date, the people of France stormed the Bastille in Paris and basically kicked out the French royal family. The motivation behind th[...]

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

2010
4

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a 2001 documentary about the wonderful Chauvet cave located in Southern France. Chances are you have not heard anything about this cave but it is very important to our connection with our ancestors and a story that Werner Herzog wanted to share to peop[...]

The World at War 18 - Occupation

1973 Unrated

The World at War –  Occupation, the 18th film in the landmark documentary series, The World at War.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

2010
1

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a 2010 documentary film directed by the highly acclaimed British street artist Banksy about Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant living in Los Angels, street artist Invader and friends. Guetta has an obsession with street art and this film follows him in his every step to[...]

Concorde: 27 Years of Supersonic Flight

2003
1

Concorde documentary. Concorde was the first commercial airliner capable of Supersonic flight and was built with a French and British combined effort by Manufactures BAE Systems and Aérospatiale, The Aircraft was an unbelievable achievement crafted in pencil by hundreds of engineers [...]

Man on wire

2008
4

Here we watch the tremendous Man on Wire documentary. A documentation of Philippe Petit's life leading up to his daring attempt to walk between the two world trade centre buildings in 1974. This is what many say to be "the most artistic crime of the century". The Man on[...]

A collection of france documentaries to watch online.