20 Documentary Movies You Must See Before You Die

17. Man On Wire (2008)

Sometimes a documentary highlights a subject so unbelievable that it near enough blows your mind. Man on Wire, which chronicles one Frenchman's madcap attempt to cross the gulf between the two towers of the World Trade Centre using a tightrope, is one of those documentaries - you really have to see it to believe it.

Constructed like a heist movie, Man on Wire tells the story of Philippe Petit, a eccentric French trapeze artist who decided to complete such an astonishing feat of endurance in 1974 that the real wonder is that it took until 2008 for somebody to make a documentary about it. Pieced together with humour and a real affection for its leading man, Man on Wire is one of the most relentlessly watchable documentaries ever made.

And there is arguably no moment in recent documentary history quite so stomach-churning as the one where Petit takes his first steps out over the abyss.

Robert Zemeckis adapted Petit's story as a feature film in 2014, where he was played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Avoid the middling film and watch the documentary instead.