The Documentarian

Tonite Let's All Make Love in London: A Pop Concerto, by Peter Whitehead, 1967

American Pimp, by the Hughes brothers, the twins who brought us Menace II Society and, by extension, about 1bn middle-class white teenage boys fluent in ebonics. Myself included.

The Chief Architect of Gangsta Rap by Ilja Karilampi, 2009

Adam Curtis just posted this brilliant 1959 BBC documentary on self-proclaimed 'voice of interplanetary parliament' and one-time taxi driver, George King. It's fantastic. In it, George explains how he was contacted by Martians – initially through telepathy, later in person – and went on to become their conduit on earth, a kind of interplanetary ambassador. As is still their wont the BBC behave with great professionalism, tolerate his bizarre pronouncements and offer him the opportunity to present his case to a panel of scientists and psychologists. Indeed, they allow him to actually channel an alien voice. The experts, in turn, offer the most quiet and sensitive rebuttals to his (deranged) ideas. They're almost apologetic. It's very sweet.

Derrida, by Kirby Dick and some other person.

Feature-length documentary on discipline-defining post-structuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida, by two unashamed fanboys (fanpeople) in turtlenecks. Marvel as they drawl phrases like "my  theory is" and "it is their condition"... Watch in horror as they actually ask him which philosopher he'd want as his mother... But, whatever you do, don't fall into the post-snobbish trap of assuming all French philosophy is bullshit because those guys love a caveat-clause-sub-clause-caveat-clause. The obscurantism belies a genuinely rare intelligence, one that's finessing the fuck out of a system of complexes so utterly complex you'll want to lie down and 'be killed'.

Don't Look at Me, by Guy Girard, 1988

If you don't know who David Lynch is, and you don't want to watch this early early documentary about him, then you were probably looking for The Sockumentarian and keyed the address in badly. This is not The Sockumentarian. Now get off my site. 

The Incredibly Strange Film Show: John Waters, a C4 documentary made in 1988

Mad Dogs & Englishmen, a documentary following Joe Cocker's 1970 tour of the same name, by Pierre Adidge, 1971

Little Dieter Needs to Fly, by Werner Herzog, 1997

Frat House, an unreleased HBO documentary by Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland

The Police Tapes, by Alan and Susan Raymond, 1977

A double Emmy award winning documentary on the 44th Police Precint of the South Bronx. Death, drunks and shouting. The NYT called it a "startlingly graphic and convincing survey of urban crime, violence, brutality and cynical despair".

Around the World: France, by Orson Welles, 1955