The 22 Best Documentaries Of 2014

There are various unpleasant duties associated with the Christmas period —many of them involving poultry and arguments about poultry (goose FTW, btw)— but one welcome tradition that has evolved at Playlist HQ is the dedication of most free December moments to catching up with the year’s documentaries. DOCember, maybe? Anyway, it’s all a way to ramp up to one of our most tirelessly labored over end-of-year-lists (you can find the rest of our Best of 2014 lists here), and the time to unveil the fruits of that labor is now.

The year in documentaries has been outstanding. There was perhaps no single “blockbuster” doc, at least no good one —fans of poorly presented, inarticulate, right-wing, straw-man propaganda can look for “America: Imagine a World Without Her” on our Worst Films of the Year list— but even without an “Act of Killing” or a “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” or a polarizing Michael Moore doc, it’s been a very strong year.

For some time now, non-fiction filmmaking has...