1922 - Nanook of the North, by Robert Flaherty - vicarious experience - audience became explorer, participated in building of igloo and cutting of window from inside, tug at rope through ice-hole, sympathy for family.
1926 - Moana, by Robert Flaherty about Samoa, was reviewd by John Grierson who created name "documentary" and defined it as "a creative treatment of reality."
1927 - Berlin: Symphony of a City, by Walther Ruttmann, "city symphony" shows rhythms and patterns and cross-section of life; also Rain, (1929) a "city poem" by Joris Ivens and Mannus Franken.
1929 - Drifters, by John Grierson, dignity of labor of herring fishermen in Britain, human drama, tension of getting daily catch to port.
1932 - Hunger, by Workers Film and Photo League in New York, about the National Hunger March.
1932 - Land Without Bread, by Luis Bunuel, about poverty in Spain.
1934 - New Earth, by Joris Ivens, how the effect of reclamation of Zuider Zee brought depression, not prosperity.
1934 - Hands, by WPA, was an expressive view of New Deal relief program
1934 - Song of Ceylon, by John Grierson, on the traditional customs of Ceylon in modern world of British empire
1935 - Triumph of the Will, by Leni Riefenstahl, was propaganda about the nationalizing experience of the 1934 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg
1936 - Night Mail, by John Grierson, a dramatization of ordinary process of delivering mail, of sound of train, of impact on people
1936 - The Plow That Broke the Plains, by Pare Lorentz, described the problem of the Dust Bowl
1937 - March of Time, by Roy Larson, won Academy Award in 1937 for its "Pictorial Journalsim"
1937 - We Work Again, by Pathe for the WPA, about federal programs employing African-Americans in New York City.
1938 - Olympia, by Leni Riefenstahl, dramatized the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin
1939 - The City, by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke of American Documentary Films, Inc., on the need for city planning, for the 1939 New York World's Fair.
1942 - Native Land, by Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz of the Frontier Film Group, narrated by Paul Robeson, about the irony of racial injustice in land of freedom.