People occasionally ask me what’s the best way to become a better editor. For a long time, my stock answer was to watch a lot of movies. I think now that a more precise answer is to understand how movies work: to dissect them the way Renaissance artists dissected cadavers in order to better understand the human form.

With that in mind, here’s a list of 50 documentaries that I particularly enjoyed. The list is not a best of. And it’s far from complete. Many were produced in America and most are from the last 20 years. What these films have in common is that they are all tell great stories.

Make sure to add your favorite documentaries to the list below.

Enjoy.