Documentaries about filmmaking offer a unique window into the intense, often chaotic reality behind cinema’s polished exterior. These films capture everything from technical failures and on-set personality clashes to the obsessive pursuit of an impossible creative vision.
Ranking at number 20, 1985’s “Document of the Dead” remains a essential watch for horror enthusiasts, focusing on George A. Romero’s 1979 classic “Dawn of the Dead.” The documentary provides an intimate look at the production process through to the film’s distribution. Which follows the 1979 satirical zombie horror all the way through to distribution, behind-the-scenes footage from Dawn of the Dead is the highlight of this aficionados-only affair. Makeup maestro Tom Savini and the occasional zombie actor shoot the breeze in the deserted shopping mall that provides the movie with its incongruous central location, director George A Romero. This affectionate documentary tracks the film from preproduction to premiere. The footage ended up impounded by the Iranian revolutionary government, after all that.
The 2015 release “The Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened?” takes the 19th spot, exploring the infamous unproduced Tim Burton project. It highlights the frustration surrounding what many consider the stupidest major movie ever made. At 18, “Becoming Bulletproof” (2014) highlights the inclusive Zeno Mountain Farm arts project, where actors with disabilities collaborated on a western filmed in the California desert. Documentary maker Jon Schnepp cosies up on screen with his interviewees and insinuates himself unforgivably into the story, imagining what might have been if Tim Burton’s Superman Lives had got off the ground. Plus interviews with Burton, original screenwriter Kevin Smith and producer Jon Peters, who was adamant that Superman should fight polar bears and a giant spider, the material is almost good enough to transcend his vanity: there is test footage of lead actor Nicolas Cage in his Man of Steel duds. Crucially, Bulletproof itself isn’t about disability, but rather an attempt to highlight the lack of on-screen representation – and plug the gap.
Seventeenth is “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” (2018), a deep dive into the complex making of Orson Welles’s final feature, “The Other Side of the Wind.” The film utilizes archive footage and interviews to detail the on-set bluffs and creative procrastination that defined Welles’s final years.
George Lucas’s 1968 short “Filmmaker: A Diary” lands at 16, documenting Francis Ford Coppola during the production of “The Rain People.” This intimate snapshot captures early creative tensions between the director and his lead, Shirley Knight.
The 15th spot is occupied by “Boorman and the Devil” (2025), which examines John Boorman’s decision to helm “Exorcist II: The Heretic” after passing on the original. “Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four” (2015) takes 14th place, detailing the rushed, low-budget production of an ill-fated superhero film.
Thirteenth is “Jodorowsky’s Dune” (2013), an exploration of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s massive, ultimately failed attempt to adapt Frank Herbert’s novel in the 1970s. At 12, “Lost Soul” (2014) chronicles the troubled, occult-adjacent production of Richard Stanley’s “The Island of Dr. Moreau.”
Coming in at 11 are two documentaries by Peter Braatz, “No Frank in Lumberton” (1988) and “Blue Velvet Revisited” (2016), which provide a rare, student-perspective look at David Lynch’s creative process. At number 10, “The Sweatbox” (2002) exposes the significant internal struggles during Disney’s production of “Kingdom of the Sun.”
Ninth is “From Darkness to Light” (2024), detailing Jerry Lewis’s infamous 1972 abandoned film “The Day The Clown Cried.” Eighth is “Poultry in Motion: Truth Is Stranger Than Chicken” (2008), documenting the grueling, unpaid conditions endured by the Troma team during “Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.”
“Shirkers” (2018) takes the seventh spot, chronicling the mystery surrounding a lost film project, while “The Peddler” (2010) ranks sixth, focusing on the hand-crafted, DIY filmmaking philosophy of Daniel Burmeister.
The top five begins with Terry Gilliam’s “Lost in La Mancha” (2002), which captured the disastrous collapse of “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” Fourth is “Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno” (2009), continuing the legacy of investigative docs on unfinished projects like the original “I, Claudius.”
Third is “Burden of Dreams” (1982), which follows Werner Herzog’s grueling, mud-soaked struggle to complete “Fitzcarraldo” in the Amazon rainforest. Second is the cult classic “American Movie” (1999), portraying Mark Borchardt’s relentless, amateur passion for cinema in Milwaukee.
Finally, at number one, “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse” (1991) remains the definitive look at the turbulent 238-day shoot of “Apocalypse Now.” Co-directed by Eleanor Coppola, the film masterfully weaves together diaries, audio recordings, and 60 hours of footage to document a production fraught with arguments, lost lines, and intense pressure, offering a look at a film that feels as intense as the experiences it depicts.
