70 Best Free Online Documentaries

The 70 Best Free Online Documentaries list contains the best films youtube has to offer. This list is slightly different to our Best Documentaries of All Time list as this list is restricted to films that are free to watch. Our other list, on the other hand, is restricted by the film's availablity on Amazon. Therefore there are some excellent films here that are not on our other list as they are not currently being sold.

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1. Lord of the Ants

1,350,560 views

2. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (CC available)

688,170 views

3. Richard Feynman - The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out

529,360 views

4. The End of Suburbia - 52 minute documentary on peak oil

419,742 views

5. Grizzly Man (Docudrama 2005)

304,756 views

6. Ground Zero Syria: Chapter 1 (Parts 1-6)

286,667 views

7. (1/5) Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

195,411 views

8. Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media

174,407 views

9. The War On Democracy (John Pilger's documentary)

136,136 views

10. Inside Job - The 2008 Financial Crash

132,086 views

11. Kierkegaard - Sea of Faith - BBC documentary (Part 1 of 2)

131,441 views

12. John Berger / Ways of Seeing , Episode 1 (1972)

127,766 views

13. Adam Curtis: The Living Dead

121,000 views

14. Carl Sagan's: Cosmos Part 1 - The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean

120,868 views

15. The Guns of August

97,757 views

16. Jean Paul Sartre : The Road to Freedom

91,534 views

17. HEARTS AND MINDS (1974)

89,543 views

18. Occupation 101

88,278 views

19. Plan Colombia-Cashing In on the Drug War Failure

86,385 views

20. The Other Side of Suez (BBC Documentary)

85,176 views

21. Planet Ant - Life Inside The Colony - BBC

80,423 views

22. Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun

75,563 views

23. A Place Called Chiapas

72,515 views

24. The Story of Science | What is out there? [1]

72,455 views

25. James Burke Connections³, Episode 1 Feedback

68,495 views

26. Ernest Hemingway: The Spanish Earth (1937)

62,276 views

27. Africa: Ep 1 - Different But Equal

54,641 views

28. F. FOR FAKE

53,451 views

29. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Chavez, The Coup

52,126 views

30. Baghdad ER (english) 1/5

39,692 views

31. PBS Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution (2009)

38,591 views

32. War Dance uganda

34,364 views

33. Meet the Romans with Mary Beard 1/3 - HD

33,837 views

34. Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room

33,573 views

35. The Bases Are Loaded: US Permanent Military Presence in Iraq

31,844 views

36. Dirty Wars ++ Full Documentary USA 2013

29,194 views

37. The Age of Uncertainty Episode 1 - The Prophets and Promise of Classical Capitalism

28,241 views

38. Dirt! The Movie (FULL)

27,170 views

39. This Is What Democracy Looks Like (Seattle 1999 WTO)

26,899 views

40. Arna's Children. A film by Juliano Mer Khamis

24,619 views

41. COMMANDING HEIGHTS P1 THE BATTLE OF IDEAS

24,618 views

42. The Birth of Israel(full length)

22,132 views

43. 1914~18 Episode 1: Explosion (1 of 7)

21,847 views

44. Frank Snepp on the CIA, Vietnam and torture part 1

21,601 views

45. The Shock of the New - Ep 1 - The Mechanical Paradise

19,248 views

46. From Beirut to Bosnia - PART 1 - The Martyr's Smile - by Robert Fisk

18,842 views

47. Night and Fog with the music by Fred Vogels

14,760 views

48. Taking Liberties [Full Film]

14,707 views

49. Big Ideas That Changed The World - Democracy-Tony Benn

14,601 views

50. Malcolm X: Make It Plain

14,039 views

51. Gore Vidal - 1995 BBC Documentary - Episode One (1/4)

13,930 views

52. Arena - Harold Pinter - A Celebration

12,051 views

53. The Take (2004) Occupy, Resist, Produce! (english sub)

11,458 views

54. War with Gwynne Dyer, Part 1: The Road to Total War (1983)

10,710 views

55. The Fourth World War

7,837 views

56. PALESTINE IS STILL THE ISSUE [full documentary]

7,579 views

57. We have ways of making you talk 1/9

6,631 views

58. The Power of Community How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

6,036 views

59. Britain and America's War Against the Left in Greece

5,192 views

60. War Made Easy - How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death

4,740 views

61. Paying the Price - Killing the Children of Iraq [2000]

4,623 views

62. Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train 1

3,957 views

63. American Radical - The Trials of Norman Finkelstein

3,595 views

64. The Doctor the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children 1_6

3,544 views

65. THOMAS EISNER: Seven Wonders of the World

3,485 views

66. THE CIA: ON COMPANY BUSINESS (1980) - Alternative Views review with J.R. Stockwell

3,412 views

67. CIA Influence On Mass Media: How Disinformation Campaigns Work PT 1.

2,994 views

68. Gore Vidal in Venice Part 1 of 12

2,984 views

69. Dr Amartya Sen

2,776 views

70. White Light & Black Rain - Hiroshima & Nagasaki

2,495 views