<p>Documentaries provide a different vision of life than you would get from a major motion picture or feature film. Instead, the focus on real life and real stories can open the audience’s eyes to larger issues and problems in their own societies. The Documentary Blog is well-known on the Internet for its incisive and thoughtful comments on documentaries past and present. It put out a list a few years ago of what it thought to be the 25 best documentaries of all time, and although it may not still be completely up to date, the top entries deserve a further look. Gates of Heaven, which came in first place, is from 1978, directed by Errol Morris. Unnarrated and told through interviews, the movie talks about the pet cemetery business and did much to launch Morris’s career. It’s viewed as a classic, masterpiece film not from its coverage of pet cemeteries but of Morris’s discussion of mortality and the afterlife. The second-place documentary is from 1969-Salesman by brothers Albert and David Maysles. It follows four salesmen as they travel trying to sell expensive Bibles in low-income neighborhoods in Florida and New England. The film was lauded for its commentary on capitalism and religion.</p>