When "based on a true story" flashes on the screen, many moviegoers are left cold, knowing that Hollywood obliterates so much of the truth in pursuit of dramatic arc and tried-and-true narrative formulas. Documentary film allows a much smaller margin for manipulation, and the best ones prove that truth is indeed stranger -- and more rewarding -- than fiction. While they can be hard to come by, several of the documentary gems listed here should be in larger video shops (or you can always buy them online).
On the surface, the artist behind such 1970s icons as "Fritz the Cat" and "Mr. Natural" is an oddball pseudo-celebrity. By digging deep into the life of the man dubbed the Brueghel of the 20th century, filmmaker Terry Zwigoff reveals Robert Crumb to be a deeply perverse and yet fascinating man.
The subject of the latest documentary by Errol Morris, of "The Thin Blue Line" fame, is a self-styled death expert who strives to make state execution equipment the best it can be. When he's recruited by Holocaust deniers to travel to Europe to expose Auschwitz as a historical hoax, he falls into a trap laid by his own ego.