List of feature films described as non-narrative

The distinction between non-narrative film and "narrative films" can be rather vague and is open for interpretation. Few filmmakers would define their works as non-narrative. The following list contains films which have been described as "non-narrative" by independent sources.

More information Title, Year ...

Title	Year	Country	Director(s)	Cinematographer(s)	Music	Ref(s)
13 Lakes	2004	United States	James Benning	James Benning		^[1]^[2]
23rd Psalm Branch	1967	United States	Stan Brakhage			^[3]
L'Age d'Or	1930	France	Luis Buñuel	Albert Duverger	Luis Buñuel, Georges van Parys	^[3]
Alice (Neco z Alenky)	1988	Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, West Germany	Jan Švankmajer	Svatopluk Malý		^[3]
Anima Mundi	1992	Italy, United States	Godfrey Reggio	Graham Berry	Philip Glass	^[4]
Ashes and Snow	2005	United States	Gregory Colbert		Gregory Colbert	^[5]
Atlantis	1991	France, Italy	Luc Besson	Luc Besson	Éric Serra	^[6]
Baraka	1992	United States	Ron Fricke	Ron Fricke	Michael Stearns	^[7]
Bestiaire	2012	Canada, France	Denis Côté	Vincent Biron		^[8]
Blue	1993	Japan, United Kingdom	Derek Jarman		Simon Fisher-Turner	^[9]
Bodysong	2003	United Kingdom	Simon Pummell		Jonny Greenwood	^[10]
Chronos	1985	United States	Ron Fricke	Ron Fricke	Michael Stearns	^[11]
The Clock	2010	United Kingdom	Christian Marclay			^[9]
Decasia	2002	United States	Bill Morrison		Michael Gordon	^[3]
Delirium	2013	Ukraine	Ihor Podolchak	Mykola Yefymenko	Alexander Shchetynsky	^{[citation needed]}
Diva Dolorosa	1999	Netherlands	Peter Delpeut		Loek Dikker	^[3]
Dogora: Ouvrons les yeux	2004	France	Patrice Leconte	Jean-Marie Dreujou	Étienne Perruchon	^[12]
Earth from Above	2004	France	Renaud Delourme	Laurent Fleutot, Daniel Marchetti	Armand Amar	^{[citation needed]}
Epic Java	2013	Indonesia	Febian Nurrahman Saktinegara	Febian Nurrahman Saktinegara	Denny Novandi Ryan	^{[citation needed]}
The Falls	1980	United Kingdom	Peter Greenaway	Mike Coles, John Rosenberg	Michael Nyman	^[9]
Field Niggas	2015	United States	Khalik Allah	Khalik Allah		^[13]
Film Socialisme	2010	France, Switzerland	Jean-Luc Godard	Fabrice Aragno, Paul Grivas		^[9]
Hitler: A Film from Germany (Hitler, ein Film aus Deutschland)	1977	France, United Kingdom, West Germany	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg	Dietrich Lohmann		^[9]
Koyaanisqatsi	1982	United States	Godfrey Reggio	Ron Fricke	Philip Glass	^[14]^[15]
The Last of England	1987	United Kingdom, West Germany	Derek Jarman	Tim Burke, Richard Heslop, Christopher Hughes, Derek Jarman, Cerith Wyn Evans	Simon Fisher-Turner	^[3]
Las Meninas	2008	Ukraine	Ihor Podolchak	Serhiy Mykhalchuk	Alexander Shchetynsky	^[16]
Laya Project	2007	India	Harold Monfils	Yuk Hoy Cheong, Agung Dewantoro	Yotam Agam, Patrick Sabag	^[17]
Leviathan	2012	France, United Kingdom, United States	Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel	Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel		^[18]
Lines	2016	Greece	Vassilis Mazomenos	George Papandrikopoulos	Dna	^[19]
Man with a Movie Camera	1929	Soviet Union	Dziga Vertov	Mikhail Kaufman, Gleb Troyanski		^[20]-^[21]
Microcosmos	1996	France, Italy, Switzerland	Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou	Thierry Machado	Bruno Coulais
The Mirror	1975	Soviet Union	Andrei Tarkovsky	Georgi Rerberg	Eduard Artemyev	^[9]
Naqoyqatsi	2002	United States	Godfrey Reggio	Russell Lee Fine	Philip Glass	^[15]
Palestrina - Prince of Music	2009	Italy	Georg Brintrup	Benny Hasenclever, Paolo Scarfò, Oliver Kochs	Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence	2011	Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Denmark	Roy Andersson	István Borbás, Gergely Pálos	Stock music from various sources, The Battle Hymn of the Republic prominently featured	^[22]^{[additional citation(s) needed]}
Powaqqatsi	1988	United States	Godfrey Reggio	Graham Berry, Leonidas Zourdoumis	Philip Glass	^[14]^[15]
Ruhr	2009	Germany	James Benning	James Benning		^[23]
Sacred Site	1986	United States	Ron Fricke	Ron Fricke		^[24]
Samsara	2011	United States	Ron Fricke	Ron Fricke	Marcello de Francisci, Lisa Gerrard, Michael Stearns	^[25]
Silence Above the Clouds (Ticho nad oblakmi)	2009	Slovakia	Pavol Barabáš	Pavol Barabáš	Maok Martin Tesak	^{[citation needed]}
Sixty Spanish Cigarettes	2015	Spain	Mark John Ostrowski	Mark John Ostrowski	Gabriel Prada	^[26]
Sophie's Place	1986	United States	Larry Jordan			^[3]
Sweetgrass	2009	France, United Kingdom, United States	Lucien Castaing-Taylor	Lucien Castaing-Taylor		^[27]
El Valley Centro	2000	United States	James Benning	James Benning		^[28]
Visitors	2013	United States	Godfrey Reggio	Graham Berry, Trish Govoni, Tom Lowe	Philip Glass	^[29]
¡Vivan las Antipodas!	2011	Argentina, Chile, Germany, Netherlands	Victor Kossakovsky	Victor Kossakovsky	Alexander Popov	^[30]
Walden (Diaries Notes and Sketches)	1969	United States	Jonas Mekas	Jonas Mekas		^[9]
Winged Migration	2001	France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United States	Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats	Various	Bruno Coulais	^[31]
Zorns Lemma	1970	United States	Hollis Frampton			^[9]

Close

[1]
"13 Lakes | 2005 Tribeca Festival". Tribeca. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
[2]
Connerly, Courtney (2024-03-20). "A Novel on Documentary Film". Medium. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
[3]
Atkinson, Michael. "Be Very Afraid: The Best Experimental (Non-Narrative) Features, Part I". Fandor. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
[4]
"Anima Mundi". Spirit of Baraka.
[5]
""Ashes and Snow" – Gregory Colbert | The Forest". 2014-01-28. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
[6]
"Atlantis - Courte-Focale.fr - Grand angle sur le Cinéma ! Courte-Focale.fr – Grand angle sur le Cinéma !". Courte-Focale.fr – Grand angle sur le Cinéma ! (in French). 2017-11-21. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
[7]
McIntosh, Cody (February 2, 2020). "Baraka: 10 Most Visually Stunning Moments In The Film". Screen Rant. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
[8]
"Tënk". Tënk (in French). Retrieved 2024-07-03.
[9]
Atkinson, Michael. "Be Very Afraid: The Best Experimental (Non-Narrative) Features, Part II". Fandor. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
[10]
Castelo-Branco, Mafalda (2018-09-28). "Found Footage e a memória humana em Bodysong e Life in a Day". DOC On-line (in Portuguese) (24): 80–90. doi:10.20287/doc.d24.dt05. ISSN 1646-477X.
[11]
Magill, Frank Northen (1986-11-15). Magill's Cinema Annual: 1986. Cengage Gale. ISBN 978-0-89356-405-6.
[12]
"Dogora - Ouvrons les yeux de Patrice Leconte (2004) - Unifrance". www.unifrance.org. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
[13]
Scherstuhl, Alan (October 13, 2015). "Lexington One Two Five: Experimental Doc 'Field Niggas' Puts You There All Night". The Village Voice. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
[14]
Fulton, Helen; Huisman, Rosemary; Murphet, Julian; Dunn, Anne (2006). Narrative and Media. Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0521617420. Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (1983) and Powaqqatsi (1988) are non-narrative films, [...]
[15]
Hexel, Vasco (2018). The Film and Media Creators' Guide to Music. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138055728. Geoffrey Reggio's groundbreaking series of non-narrative montage films Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988), and Naqoyqatsi (2002) is accompanied by minimalist music by composer Philip Glass.
[16]
"Las meninas". IFFR EN. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
[17]
"Harvard College Calendar". Harvard College Calendar. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
[18]
Pulver, Andrew (2013-06-28). "Edinburgh gives top award to experimental documentary Leviathan". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
[19]
Castiel, Elie (December 31, 2017). "S.O.S. Grèce" (in French). Séquences. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
[20]
Teare, Kendall (2019-08-12). "Yale film scholar on Dziga Vertov, the enigma with a movie camera". YaleNews. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
[21]
PH (2015-07-23). "Man With a Movie Camera review: montage spinning out of control". Silent London. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
[22]
Hanke, Bob (2019). "Roy Andersson's Living Trilogy and Jean-Luc Nancy's Evidence of Cinema". Film-Philosophy. 23 (1). Edinburgh University Press: 72–92. doi:10.3366/film.2019.0099.
[23]
Touati, Yaniv (2023), Deville, Vincent; Le Bihan, Loig (eds.), "Passage au numérique et perception du temps dans Ruhr (2009) de James Benning : un rapport paradoxal à la technique", Penser les formes filmiques contemporaines, Cinéma, émergences-résurgences (in French), Grenoble: UGA Éditions, pp. 77–92, ISBN 978-2-37747-410-3, retrieved 2024-07-04
[24]
""Sacred Site", A short film in 65mm Omnimax". www.in70mm.com. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
[25]
Keefe, Brad (March 17, 2020). "Movies to stream from home amid growing coronavirus shutdowns". Columbus Alive. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
[26]
O'Falt, Chris (May 24, 2018). "From Lynch to Kiarostami to Ozu: See Where Your Favorite Directors Fall on Paul Schrader's Chart of Non-Narrative Cinema". IndieWire. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
[27]
O'Hehir, Andrew (January 5, 2010). ""Sweetgrass": Spectacular elegy for a dying West". Salon. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
[28]
"Cinema Fulgor". Cinema Fulgor. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
[29]
Boone, Steven. "Visitors movie review & film summary (2014) | Roger Ebert". rogerebert.com/. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
[30]
"¡Vivan las Antipodas! – Films". Visions du Réel (in French). Retrieved 2024-07-03.
[31]
VanDerWerff, Emily (April 19, 2015). "How March of the Penguins ruined the nature documentary". Vox. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

[1] [1]
"13 Lakes | 2005 Tribeca Festival". Tribeca. Retrieved 2024-07-03.

[2] [2]
Connerly, Courtney (2024-03-20). "A Novel on Documentary Film". Medium. Retrieved 2024-07-03.

[Atkinson1-3] [3]
Atkinson, Michael. "Be Very Afraid: The Best Experimental (Non-Narrative) Features, Part I". Fandor. Retrieved September 18, 2015.

[4] [4]
"Anima Mundi". Spirit of Baraka.

[5] [5]
""Ashes and Snow" – Gregory Colbert | The Forest". 2014-01-28. Retrieved 2024-07-03.

[6] [6]
"Atlantis - Courte-Focale.fr - Grand angle sur le Cinéma ! Courte-Focale.fr – Grand angle sur le Cinéma !". Courte-Focale.fr – Grand angle sur le Cinéma ! (in French). 2017-11-21. Retrieved 2024-07-03.

[7] [7]
McIntosh, Cody (February 2, 2020). "Baraka: 10 Most Visually Stunning Moments In The Film". Screen Rant. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

[8] [8]
"Tënk". Tënk (in French). Retrieved 2024-07-03.

[Atkinson2-9] [9]
Atkinson, Michael. "Be Very Afraid: The Best Experimental (Non-Narrative) Features, Part II". Fandor. Retrieved September 11, 2015.

[10] [10]
Castelo-Branco, Mafalda (2018-09-28). "Found Footage e a memória humana em Bodysong e Life in a Day". DOC On-line (in Portuguese) (24): 80–90. doi:10.20287/doc.d24.dt05. ISSN 1646-477X.

[11] [11]
Magill, Frank Northen (1986-11-15). Magill's Cinema Annual: 1986. Cengage Gale. ISBN 978-0-89356-405-6.

[12] [12]
"Dogora - Ouvrons les yeux de Patrice Leconte (2004) - Unifrance". www.unifrance.org. Retrieved 2024-07-03.

[13] [13]
Scherstuhl, Alan (October 13, 2015). "Lexington One Two Five: Experimental Doc 'Field Niggas' Puts You There All Night". The Village Voice. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

[fulton-14] [14]
Fulton, Helen; Huisman, Rosemary; Murphet, Julian; Dunn, Anne (2006). Narrative and Media. Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0521617420. Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (1983) and Powaqqatsi (1988) are non-narrative films, [...]

[hexel-15] [15]
Hexel, Vasco (2018). The Film and Media Creators' Guide to Music. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138055728. Geoffrey Reggio's groundbreaking series of non-narrative montage films Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988), and Naqoyqatsi (2002) is accompanied by minimalist music by composer Philip Glass.

[16] [16]
"Las meninas". IFFR EN. Retrieved 2024-07-04.

[17] [17]
"Harvard College Calendar". Harvard College Calendar. Retrieved 2024-07-04.

[18] [18]
Pulver, Andrew (2013-06-28). "Edinburgh gives top award to experimental documentary Leviathan". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-04.

[19] [19]
Castiel, Elie (December 31, 2017). "S.O.S. Grèce" (in French). Séquences. Retrieved December 31, 2017.

[20] [20]
Teare, Kendall (2019-08-12). "Yale film scholar on Dziga Vertov, the enigma with a movie camera". YaleNews. Retrieved 2024-07-08.

[21] [21]
PH (2015-07-23). "Man With a Movie Camera review: montage spinning out of control". Silent London. Retrieved 2024-07-03.

[22] [22]
Hanke, Bob (2019). "Roy Andersson's Living Trilogy and Jean-Luc Nancy's Evidence of Cinema". Film-Philosophy. 23 (1). Edinburgh University Press: 72–92. doi:10.3366/film.2019.0099.

[23] [23]
Touati, Yaniv (2023), Deville, Vincent; Le Bihan, Loig (eds.), "Passage au numérique et perception du temps dans Ruhr (2009) de James Benning : un rapport paradoxal à la technique", Penser les formes filmiques contemporaines, Cinéma, émergences-résurgences (in French), Grenoble: UGA Éditions, pp. 77–92, ISBN 978-2-37747-410-3, retrieved 2024-07-04

[24] [24]
""Sacred Site", A short film in 65mm Omnimax". www.in70mm.com. Retrieved 2024-07-04.

[25] [25]
Keefe, Brad (March 17, 2020). "Movies to stream from home amid growing coronavirus shutdowns". Columbus Alive. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

[26] [26]
O'Falt, Chris (May 24, 2018). "From Lynch to Kiarostami to Ozu: See Where Your Favorite Directors Fall on Paul Schrader's Chart of Non-Narrative Cinema". IndieWire. Retrieved September 4, 2018.

[27] [27]
O'Hehir, Andrew (January 5, 2010). ""Sweetgrass": Spectacular elegy for a dying West". Salon. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

[28] [28]
"Cinema Fulgor". Cinema Fulgor. Retrieved 2024-07-04.

[29] [29]
Boone, Steven. "Visitors movie review & film summary (2014) | Roger Ebert". rogerebert.com/. Retrieved 2024-07-04.

[30] [30]
"¡Vivan las Antipodas! – Films". Visions du Réel (in French). Retrieved 2024-07-03.

[31] [31]
VanDerWerff, Emily (April 19, 2015). "How March of the Penguins ruined the nature documentary". Vox. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

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List of feature films described as non-narrative

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List of feature films described as non-narrative

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See also

References