Buzz
Even in the best scenarios, documentaries often struggle to attract viewers. Many people perceive them as either uninteresting or overly dramatic. However, the challenge intensifies when governments attempt to suppress these films or when adversaries resort to extreme measures to silence them.
10. The Sweatbox
This documentary reveals Disney’s extensive overhaul of The Emperor’s New Groove, transforming it from the more artistic Kingdom of the Sun into a commercially appealing final version. Initially, Disney enlisted Sting to compose songs for the film, prompting his wife, producer Trudie Styler, to document the process for a standard behind-the-scenes feature. However, when Disney altered Sting’s contributions and drastically reshaped the movie, her project became a contentious exploration of how studios control creative direction.
Disney blocked the distribution of the documentary, permitting only one screening at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. Although the film doesn’t heavily criticize Disney, the company’s efforts to suppress it have fueled its reputation as a critique of Disney’s practices. A decade later, the documentary surfaced online, but Disney persistently works to remove any uploads it discovers.
9. Let It Be
It’s rare for Academy Award winners to actively suppress their own Oscar-winning films. However, the Beatles documentary Let It Be was never well-received by the band. After winning the 1970 award for Best Original Song Score, the group declined to acknowledge the honor and spent decades engaged in legal disputes to prevent the film’s distribution.
Let It Be chronicles the making of the Beatles’ 1969 album of the same name, a process John Lennon described as “six weeks of misery.” The film captures the band at their most tense, contrasting sharply with their cheerful public image. One scene, filmed without their consent, features George Harrison angrily confronting Paul McCartney, while another shows John Lennon visibly disinterested during Paul’s lengthy explanations.
In 2008, the surviving members of the band prevented the documentary from being released on home video, and to this day, no official home version has been made available.
8. Tabloid
Errol Morris, an Academy Award-winning director known for works like Fog of War and The Thin Blue Line, took an unexpected turn in 2010 by creating a documentary about Joyce McKinney, a former beauty pageant winner. McKinney enthusiastically participated in interviews and even shared personal home videos of her property. However, she later discovered the film centered on her alleged involvement in the kidnapping and assault of her husband, as well as the bizarre story of her cloning her dog multiple times.
Upon viewing the final cut, McKinney filed a lawsuit against Errol Morris and publicly accused the film’s producer of breaking into her home. She also engaged in online discussions under the pseudonym “Truthteller,” threatening legal action against writers who she believed spread Morris’s falsehoods. Notably, she twice threatened to sue renowned critic Roger Ebert—first for reviewing the film and later for reporting on her threats.
Despite the controversy, or perhaps because of it, Errol Morris has described McKinney as the most fascinating subject he has ever documented.
7. Let There Be Light
John Huston, celebrated for directing classics like The Maltese Falcon and Treasure of Sierra Madre, had already raised eyebrows with his work when the military commissioned him to direct this film in 1946. The army had previously come close to censoring one of his projects due to its graphic war scenes. Yet, they entrusted him with the more subdued topic of post-war rehabilitation for soldiers.
Huston’s 58-minute film addressing post-traumatic stress disorder stirred even more controversy than his earlier work. The military deemed it so sensitive that they suppressed it from public view for 34 years. While the official justification was protecting the soldiers’ privacy, Huston believed there were deeper reasons behind the decision.
Viewed today, the film appears far from controversial. It lacks any sensational revelations and aligns with the style of its era, even concluding on an uplifting note with recovering patients joyfully playing baseball. The content itself is inoffensive—except, as Huston speculated, for its portrayal of American soldiers as vulnerable and human. Huston theorized that the army suppressed the film because it challenged the “myth of the warrior,” a narrative crucial to military morale.
6. Idi Amin: A Self-Portrait
Idi Amin, whose regime led to the deaths of 300,000 people, stands as one of history’s most ruthless leaders. Yet, Barbet Schroeder’s 1974 documentary captures him as both a comical caricature of a dictator and a terrifying figure. Memorable moments include Amin gleefully observing a military drill, thrilled by a helicopter flying above, and visiting a hospital to admonish doctors against drunkenness, warning it would cost them respect. More chilling is his laughter when Schroeder recounts his statement that Hitler should have killed more Jews.
After completing filming, Schroeder traveled to London to edit and screen the documentary. Informants working for Amin attended the screenings and reported back to him. Based on their feedback, Amin demanded specific cuts. When Schroeder refused, Amin resorted to his typical tactics, taking French citizens in Uganda hostage and threatening their lives unless the filmmaker complied with his demands.
The dictator achieved his desired outcome. However, after Amin was overthrown in 1977, the removed footage was reinstated, ensuring the director’s original version remains the one preserved today.
5. Shoah
This nine-hour documentary on the Holocaust is renowned for relying solely on interviews and raw footage, featuring no musical score and minimal narration. Director Claude Lanzmann interviewed not only survivors but also residents living near death camps—some indifferent to the mass killings nearby and others expressing satisfaction at being free of Jewish neighbors.
The most contentious aspect was Lanzmann’s interviews with former camp guards and SS officers. Using concealed cameras and microphones that transmitted footage to a nearby van, Lanzmann captured their testimonies. In one instance, an interviewee discovered the hidden camera. Rather than simply ending the interview, the ex-SS officer had his son and three associates assault Lanzmann, resulting in the director spending a month in the hospital.
4. Harlan County U.S.A
Harlan County U.S.A. chronicles the struggles of the United Mine Workers Union at the Brookside Mine in Harlan County, Kentucky. It features interviews with individuals who narrowly survived mine collapses or faced the grim fate of black lung disease. Central to the narrative are the 1930s coal mine strikes, which led to 11 fatalities and gave the region its infamous nickname, “Bloody Harlan.”
However, the most haunting moment for viewers is a contemporary scene where miners confront armed enforcers. Leading the group is Basil Collins, a former sheriff candidate. At daybreak, as the gang ushers replacement workers into the mine, Collins waves a gun at the camera, his face unmistakably clear. After he departs, the thugs assault the camera crew, nearly smashing the lens.
Kopple and her cameraman, Perry Hart, emerged victorious from the encounter. The film won the 1976 Academy Award and was later added to the American National Film Registry. More crucially for the filmmakers and the striking miners, the footage became key evidence in convicting Collins, who should have realized the folly of attacking a film crew.
3. The Act Of Killing
The most recent and unconventional entry on this list, The Act of Killing, documents a group of murderers theatrically reenacting their crimes. These men, who carried out government-sanctioned killings during Indonesia’s 1965 anti-Communist purge, gleefully recount their past atrocities on camera. Their open self-incrimination is startling, and the film’s stylistic approach, by global standards, is even more peculiar.
The film begins with a striking visual: a line of dancers in pink dresses emerging from a giant fiberglass fish. Later, former government assassins don flamboyant costumes reminiscent of Dick Tracy comics, as one of them envisions the production as a gangster film—despite being an actual gangster who views his crimes through the lens of that genre.
These killers supposedly remain untouchable due to their government’s corruption and the international community’s lack of jurisdiction. However, creating the film still earned the filmmakers numerous adversaries. To protect their team, the director concealed the crew’s identities in the credits, prompting these enemies to target public screenings instead.
At an Indonesian screening, a gang assaulted several individuals, including a journalist who had praised the film. Two festival organizers also received death threats. Given that the interviewees are now part of a powerful paramilitary group, these threats are far from idle.
2. Nub City
Errol Morris makes another appearance on this list, this time for a project from his early career. In 1981, after directing only one film (Gates of Heaven, famously one of Roger Ebert’s favorites), Morris turned his attention to Vernon, Florida. Known as “Nub City,” Vernon earned its nickname because residents deliberately amputated their limbs to claim insurance payouts. Funded by a German television network, Morris and his crew arrived in Vernon and announced their plans to document the town’s bizarre phenomenon.
The amputees in Vernon were highly resistant to the documentary project. Morris believed this hostility stemmed from a local politician who styled himself as the “king of the nubbies.” During his time in Vernon, Morris faced multiple death threats. The self-proclaimed king reportedly escalated his aggression by attempting to hit Morris’s cinematographer, Ned Burgess, with his car.
This intimidation succeeded where other censors failed. Although Morris eventually completed a documentary about eccentric residents of Vernon, it made no mention of the town’s infamous amputations.
1. Titicut Follies
The 1967 ban on this film stands as one of the most egregious acts of government censorship in U.S. history.
Director Frederick Wiseman filmed this documentary using raw footage of patients at Massachusetts’ Bridgewater State Hospital. He obtained consent from superintendent Charles Gaughan and secured release forms from lucid patients; for others, permission was granted by their legal guardians. Despite this, state Attorney General Elliot Richardson demanded the film be banned, citing alleged violations of the patients’ privacy.
It’s no surprise that those in authority sought to suppress this film. It depicts a force-feeding scene where a doctor’s cigarette ash accidentally drops into the feeding funnel. It also reveals the stark conditions at Bridgewater, where cells were furnished with nothing more than a mattress and a bucket, lacking basic plumbing. While superintendent Gaughan reportedly hoped the documentary might draw attention to boosting the hospital’s funding, it seemed more likely to trigger a federal inquiry than garner additional support.
