Would you like to know which documentaries were most popular among viewers at DAFilms.com in the past six months? We have set up a TOP TEN list of most bought films for you! Will the documentary tensome be rather surprising or inspiring?
Would you like to know which documentaries were most popular among viewers at DAFilms.com in the past six months? We have set up a TOP TEN list of most bought films for you! Will the documentary tensome be rather surprising or inspiring?
Who wouldn’t love top ten lists? We definitely do; but what we love most is quality documentaries. It’s no wonder that our TOP TEN most bought films include titles that would doubtlessly stand the test among high-ranking key works of world cinema as well as films by young talented filmmakers you’ll definitely hear more about (while watching more films by them).
Which films make up the 10 most bought documentaries out of more than 1000 items in our collection?
1: A Sunday in Hell (Jørgen Leth, 1977, DE, 111 min)
A bicycle race. A million business to some, a chase of a group of skinny men in sweat-drenched outfits to others; however, not to world-acclaimed filmmaker Jørgen Leth. In his eyes, the traditional French cycling feast Paris – Roubaix becomes a mystical ritual experience, capturing the essence of human struggle for survival and victory in great detail.
2: Grasp the Nettle (Dean Puckett, 2013, UK, 90 min)
The global economic crisis gave rise to countless civil and political events. While some of them ceased to exist after several sessions, others turned the lives of its participants inside out, introducing them to alternative communities. Director of Grasp the Nettle spent three years in one of them.
3: Les Plages d’Agnes (Agnès Varda, 2008, FR, 110 min)
The first lady of world documentary exposes herself in an intimate film portrait, letting us look into the circle of her closest ones. Learn more about the world of a woman who was not afraid to get to know herself.
4: Praxis (Bruno Moraes Cabral, 2011, PT, 29 min)
Is the initiation of first year university students a mere innocent and amusing game? Rituals, mockery, sexual overtones; all that along with a social and power hierarchy is discovered by the winning film of the Portuguese short documentary competition of Doclisboa IFF from 2011.
5: President Wanted (Tomáš Kudrna, 2013, CZ, 104 min)
In the young democracy of the Czech Republic, the search for a new president in the first direct presidential election in Czech history turns into one big test of marketing manuals and media campaigns of a western type. What will be left of the political choice? A documentary farce?
6: Cooking History (Peter Kerekes, 2009, AT/CZ/SK, 90 min)
They were not standing in the front lines with a weapon in their hands; yet they became indispensable to war history. Their weapon was the cooking spoon. Watch the original story of war cooks who fought for their nation by their culinary art.
7: 66 Scenes from America (Jørgen Leth, 1982, DE, 39 min)
Combining the most classic symbols of American society, the visual collage alludes to unconscious processes and relationships within western media reality. The king of Nordic documentary Jørgen Leth crowns his visual triumph by the epochal scene of Andy Warhol eating a hamburger; one of 66 scenes you should not miss!
8: Abendland (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2011, AT, 91 min)
Under the cloak of darkness, European cities come alive with new stories. Many things cannot be seen while the yet unseen is revealed by the light of street lamps. The unique documentary journey across Europe begs the question whether the nature of western European society does not become much clearer in the dark of the night.
9: The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (Peter Liechti, 2009, CH, 88 min)
Is there a point in life when man can come close to the very essence of life’s beginning and end? A magical film essay on voluntary death which lays bare the essence of life.
10: Etre et Avoir (Nicolas Philibert, 2002, FR, 2002)
A leading French director captures the closed micro-world of a single-class village school where a small group of children becomes a unique community under the guidance of the teacher, sharing their happiness, troubles and questions related to the world outside the safety of their school desks.
What is your favourite film? Let us know on our Facebook pages!
DAFilms.com is powered by Doc Alliance, a creative partnership of 7 key European documentary film festivals. Our aim is to advance the documentary genre, support its diversity and promote quality creative documentary films.
