Items24The creator’s order
  1. 1How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976)How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976) 6.3/10 on IMDbReleased Oct 30, 1976At the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship in New Holland, Pennsylvania, Herzog watches auctioneers turn prices and bids into a continuous stream of sound. Start here if you want a short documentary that is funny and attentive to an exacting skill.0
  2. 2The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985)The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased Mar 9, 1985Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander set out to climb two Gasherbrum peaks in a single push. The interviews are as important as the ascent. Pick it when you want to hear climbers explain why they keep going back.0
  3. 3Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995)Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995) 6.9/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 6, 1995The music of Carlo Gesualdo gives Herzog a way to explore the composer’s reputation and the stories attached to his violence. Hear the madrigals alongside portraits of people who keep retelling his life. Some of the documentary’s stranger episodes are staged.0
  4. 4On Death Row (2012)On Death Row (2012) 7.9/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 9, 2012In the television series On Death Row, Herzog interviews people sentenced to death and others connected to their cases. The time spent on each case makes it a good starting point for his interview style, with room for the people speaking to complicate what you expected to hear.0
  5. 5Herakles (1962)Herakles (1962) 5.6/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 1, 1962Herzog’s first short cuts between bodybuilders posing and archival footage of the deadly Le Mans racing crash. The collision between the two kinds of images is the whole point. It’s a compact starting place for seeing how early he let editing make the argument.0
  6. 6Last Words (1968)Last Words (1968) 6.0/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 3, 1968A stubborn musician won’t say a word after being removed from his island home, so the people around him tell his story. Listen to the repetitions in their testimony. This early staged short gives the rhythm of an interview the force of a refrain.0
  7. 7Precautions Against Fanatics (1969)Precautions Against Fanatics (1969) 5.7/10 on IMDbReleased Mar 28, 1969Men at a racetrack describe the elaborate precautions they take to protect the horses from supposed fanatics. Herzog presents their boasts with the straight face of a television report. Watch it with the livestock-auction film for two very different uses of an earnestly delivered interview.0
  8. 8The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1970)The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1970) 6.5/10 on IMDbReleased May 2, 1970One of Herzog’s earliest documentary assignments follows doctors who travel by plane to reach their patients in East Africa. Start here for a practical look at what it takes to get medical care to a remote place, and for a chance to see Herzog before his much more familiar narration style.0
  9. 9No One Will Play with Me (1976)No One Will Play with Me (1976) 6.5/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 1, 1976A boy left out by the other children begins to make a friend when a classmate takes an interest in his pet crow. Herzog drew partly on stories the preschoolers told him. Pick this little-seen short for an example of how he builds a story from the way children explain their own world.0
  10. 10Handicapped Future (1971)Handicapped Future (1971) 7.0/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 14, 1971This early television short asks disabled children about everyday life and education, then looks at differences in how Germany and the United States include them. It’s a useful early example of Herzog organizing a film around the people affected by a public question.0