The “Mount Rushmore” rating system—picking the absolute favorites—has become a familiar way to celebrate the greatest in any field. When the conversation turns to film directors, few names dominate like Martin Scorsese. For many cinephiles, Scorsese holds a permanent place among the greatest directors of all time, and it’s easy to see why.
A prolific filmmaker whose career began in 1967 with Who’s That Knocking at My Door, Scorsese has worked consistently across decades. A devoted cinephile and masterful storyteller, his movies have become modern classics. Raised in Italian-American neighborhoods in Queens and Little Italy, he grew up among the vivid characters and crime-ridden streets of New York—an upbringing that spurred his fascination with complex personalities and character-driven stories.
Most readers will know Scorsese for his celebrated narrative features—27 in total—including landmark films such as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), The Departed (2006), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Yet beyond his fiction work, Scorsese has an extensive and acclaimed body of documentary work that reveals other facets of his passions: people, music, and cinema itself.
Across his career, Scorsese has directed 17 documentaries. He first gained experience making short informational films for the United States Information Agency (USIA). His 1974 short Italianamerican marked the beginning of his deeper engagement with the documentary form. These nonfiction films reflect the same thematic obsessions present in his narrative work—faith, identity, art, and the lives of singular personalities.
Here is a curated list of five essential Martin Scorsese documentaries that showcase his range as a documentarian and illuminate the influences and interests that shaped his films.
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1. Italianamerican (1974)
The 1970s were formative for Scorsese’s development as an auteur. By 1974 he had already directed Who’s That Knocking at My Door, Boxcar Bertha, and Mean Streets. Italianamerican is an intimate portrait of the director’s parents, Catherine and Charles Scorsese, filmed in their modest Elizabeth Street apartment in New York.
The film is a candid conversation about family, faith, Italian heritage, and the immigrant experience in America. Amid heartfelt recollections, one scene stands out: Catherine demonstrating how she makes her famous meatballs—a homey sequence that encapsulates the warmth and cultural pride at the film’s core. Its modest production and conversational tone are precisely what make it effective and moving.
Italianamerican offers a revealing glimpse into the personal and thematic roots of Scorsese’s work: the importance of religion, family loyalty, and the moral complexities faced by ordinary people. Even in a brief 50-minute runtime, the film foreshadows many of the motifs that would recur throughout his career.
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2. The Last Waltz (1978)
By the late 1970s Scorsese’s craft had matured further, and The Last Waltz stands as one of the most celebrated concert documentaries ever made. Filmed during The Band’s farewell concert at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in 1976, the film blends live performances, studio recordings, and interviews to create a vivid portrait of a band at the end of an era.
The Last Waltz features an extraordinary roster of guest artists—Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton—and Scorsese’s love of music drives the film’s confident aesthetic. The director and his editors sifted through extensive footage, crafting a film that captures both the ecstatic energy of live performance and the backstage humanity of the musicians. With its famous opening instruction—“This film should be played loud”—The Last Waltz remains a definitive example of how to translate a musical event into cinema.
3. My Voyage to Italy (1999)
The 1990s saw Scorsese directing several major narrative films while also producing two notable documentaries on cinema itself: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995) and My Voyage to Italy (1999). My Voyage to Italy is a deeply personal exploration of the Italian films and directors who shaped him.
In this expansive film, Scorsese revisits his childhood neighborhoods and discusses classics of Italian cinema—particularly the neorealist movement. He pays tribute to filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, and others, showing how their formal innovations and humanist themes influenced his own visual and narrative choices. At about 246 minutes, My Voyage to Italy serves as both a personal reminiscence and an educational survey of Italy’s cinematic legacy.
4. No Direction Home (2005)
No Direction Home is Scorsese’s two-part chronicle of Bob Dylan’s rise from folk singer to cultural lightning rod between 1961 and 1966. The film examines the cultural impact of Dylan’s music, the controversies around his shift to electric rock, and the complex persona behind the songs.
Scorsese approaches the subject with admiration and a documentarian’s restraint. He uses archival footage, interviews, and period material to trace Dylan’s influence on mid-20th-century popular culture. At around 208 minutes, the film captures a crucial and turbulent period in Dylan’s career and stands as one of the most comprehensive cinematic portraits of a modern musician.
5. Public Speaking (2010)
Public Speaking profiles the writer and cultural commentator Fran Lebowitz. Based largely on interviews and archival footage, the film captures Lebowitz’s razor-sharp wit and uncompromising views on city life, culture, and American society. Scorsese intercuts conversational sequences with evocative images of New York, creating a portrait that is both funny and revealing.
Lebowitz, a New Jersey native who became part of New York’s cultural scene in the 1970s and 1980s, shares anecdotes about her life, friendships, and struggles with writer’s block. Scorsese’s direction highlights her incisive humor and observational style while situating her within the larger cultural context she inhabited. The result is a thoughtful, entertaining character study of a singular voice.
Watching these documentaries sheds light on recurring themes that inform Scorsese’s narrative films: an interest in outsiders, the moral weight of faith, and a profound reverence for music and cinema. His nonfiction work deepens our understanding of his fiction, revealing the personal experiences and artistic influences behind his storytelling. Scorsese’s accomplishment as both a narrative and documentary filmmaker underscores his enduring curiosity and commitment to cinema. Across dozens of films in both forms, he remains one of the most versatile and insightful directors working today.
Written by John McDonald
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