Independent Lens Filmmakers’ Favorites

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On the Independent Lens film companion sites, we ask filmmakers to list their top three favorite films. Yes, they protest when we say “only three,” and sometimes they list more than three (it’s not easy to direct directors.) From the esteemed documentary classics of Marlon Riggs and Errol Morris to Hollywood favorites When Harry Met Sally and Babe, their choices are as individual as the filmmakers themselves.

See who chose what below. You can also view the complete list, including the names of the directors, and download a printer-friendly version to use when you’re ready to see the best of the best. Prepare to expand your film watching horizons!

Filmmaker Amy Nicholson
MUSKRAT LOVELY
My favorite film in the whole world is a short by Elliott Erwitt called Beauty Knows No Pain. It’s a documentary about the 1971 try-outs for the Kilgore College Rangerettes. It’s brilliant. I’ve watched it a million times. It's impossible to pick just three. Next on the list would be two more documentaries. Vernon, Florida by Errol Morris is a level of genius I can only dream of, same with Grey Gardens by the Maysles. My favorite fiction films are About Schmidt, Polyester, Napoleon Dynamite and Dog Day Afternoon.

Director/Producer Byron Hurt
HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
Color Adjustment by Marlon Riggs, because of its impact on me as a college student. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore, because it was so courageous and anti-war. Eyes on the Prize by Henry Hampton, because it captures the Civil Rights Movement in such a powerful and riveting way.

Producer/Writer/Director Barbara Multer-Wellin and
Producer/Writer/Editor Jeffrey Abelson
PAUL CONRAD: Drawing Fire
Barbara: Three of many docs I admire: Super Size Me, My Architect and Spike Lee’s Four Little Girls.
Jeffrey: Politically-themed feature films like The Parallax View and Reds, and illuminating docs like The Corporation.

Director Leslie Sullivan and Producer Catherine Gund
A TOUCH OF GREATNESS
Leslie: Michael Apted’s 28 Up and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Catherine: Sorry but I can only get it down to five: Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa), Ma Vie En Rose (Alain Berliner), Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs), Body Beautiful (Nguzi Onwurah), Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais).

Producer Danny Hakim
SHADYA
West Side Story, West Side Story, West Side Story

Filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi
MOTHERLAND AFGHANISTAN
3 Women
Vivre Sa Vie
On the Waterfront

Filmmakers Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET
Goldstein Knowlton: Harold and Maude, My Life As A Dog, Amadeus, To Kill a Mockingbird, Out of Africa, Raising Arizona
Hawkins Costigan: To Kill a Mockingbird, Brokeback Mountain, The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Rienfenstahl, Truly Madly Deeply

Director/Producer Barbara Ettinger
TWO SQUARE MILES
Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders
Wild Strawberries by Ingmar Bergman
Dr. Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick

Director Cal Skaggs
DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE
My favorite documentary of the last couple of years is The Staircase. “Top tens” vary from decade to decade, but Welles’s Citizen Kane, Renoir’s Rules of the Game, Bergman’s The Silence, Bresson’s A Condemned Man Escapes or Chabrol’s La Femme Infidele usually finds a place.

Filmmaker Frank Popper
CAN MR. SMITH GET TO WASHINGTON ANYMORE?
My list of favorite films is always shifting, but off the top of my head I’d say Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lindsay Anderson’s O Lucky Man! and Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven.

Producers/Directors Courtney Hayes and Tim Gallagher
A FISH STORY
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
American Movie

Co-directors/Co-producers Joel P. Engardio and Tom Shepard
KNOCKING
Tom: The Times of Harvey Milk, First Person Plural, Billy Elliot
Joel: When Harry Met Sally, Roger & Me, It's a Wonderful Life

Director Rebecca Dreyfus
STOLEN
Rosemary’s Baby
Gimme Shelter
Shadow of a Doubt

Filmmaker Laurel Chiten
TWISTED
The Last Wave (directed by Peter Weir), Shawshank Redemption and Babe. I am also completely addicted to the television series Rescue Me, Prison Break and Law and Order.

Writer/Producer/Director Robert Levi
BILLY STRAYHORN: LUSH LIFE
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Viridiana and Belle de Jour are three films by the master, Luis Buñuel.

Director/Co-producer Rachel Lyon and Co-producer Jim Lopes
RACE TO EXECUTION
Rachel: The Godfather (I and II), When We Were Kings, Blade Runner
Jim: Spartacus, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Judgment at Nuremburg

Director/Producer Micha Peled
CHINA BLUE
It’s easier just to mention three recent films that really moved me:
Turtles Can Fly
Shape of the Moon
Working Mom

Co-producer/Director Linda Hattendorf
THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI
It's so hard to choose favorites! I've been influenced by so many great films. I love the honesty in all the films by Cassavetes, especially A Woman Under the Influence. Tarkovsky's works are so magical, especially Solyaris. Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast is something I'll see again and again. Work by Herzog, Maysles, Pennebaker, Kurosawa.

Director/Producer Nicole Cattell
REVOLUCION: Five Visions
Europa, Europa
Baraka
The New World

Director Alex Gibney
ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Once Upon a Time in the West, Out of the Past and Night and Fog. These are favorites, not a best list.

Co-producers/Co-directors Nicole Newnham and David Grabias
SENTENCED HOME
To Be and To Have
Chronicle of a Summer
Gods and Monsters

Director Judy Irving
THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL
Burden of Dreams
The Last Picture Show
Missing

Check out the filmmakers' picks in Volume Two >>

Check out the filmmakers' picks in Volume One >>

View the complete list of films >>

Want to know more about these and other film faves? Check it out at IMDb >>