Maybe some unorthodox choices but I’ve always been into non-narrative, experimental documentaries. Some of the best I know are “As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty”, “Koyaanisqatsi”, “Sans Soleil”. These were some of the purest, most powerful cinematic experiences I’ve had in my life, so I’d suggest you peep them.
On a (slightly) more conventional note, literally any documentary made by Herzog
A great site with loads of shorts and artfilms you usually only get to see in museums. I can highly recommend checking it out! I just watched some of Johan Grimonprez stuff if you need a place to start.
But I would recommend anything by Frederick Wiseman- his movies are slow, and usually long! But he essentially picks a theme/place/institution and films the shit out of it and if one hits you at the right time, it feels so crazy that we have access to these peeks at reality. Very remarkably human!
