Edvard Munch by Peter Watkins 1974

Watkins had a unique style - a combination of didacticism and story-telling:

Gates to Paradise - by Andrzej Wajda - 1968

Wajda made some amazing films.  This one is about the Children's Crusade of 1212.

Basically, this film explores individual motivation for participation in widespread social or religious movements.  You always have a few true believers but then you get folks with ulterior motives or the wrong motives entirely.  Some folks might even be participating in movements of liberation against their will.

Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI-O0EtRB20

Fort Apache, The Bronx by Daniel Petrie 1981

Actually, this film sucks.  It's a pretty badly conceived film. But, it's a film that gives you a glimpse at what New York City looked and felt like in the outer boroughs before gentrification set in. It's a pretty shocking view.

As someone who taught in the Bronx, there are still chunks of this borough that look the way this film from the early 80s portrayed it.

How bad is this film? At times it's stupid.  Why does Paul Newman, as a cop, have to deliver a baby in an apartment?  A paramedic just as readily could have done that. Then this unnecessary and unsanitary delivery leads to Paul Newman finally getting a date with the sexy nurse he's been lusting after.  Pretty tacky stuff.

In any case, I was just fascinated by what a hell hole the Bronx used to be.  It's still a hell hole which has been neglected by business and government, but not as much of a hell hole as it used to be.  I guess it couldn't have gotten any worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrcVKWm7vog

Stroszek by Werner Herzog 1977

I saw this movie years ago - it is a bizarre little film.  Apparently Herzog needed a schizophrenic actor to play the role of Caspar Hauser in a film he wanted to make about that poor person (Hauser had been raised in a dark basement in a German town until he was discovered as a teenager).

Herzog found Bruno S. in a mental institution to play the role of Hauser (the film was called: Every man for himself and God against all) and really liked working with Bruno S. So he made this film specifically for Bruno S.

Click on cc for the English subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obgwTetpjE4&index=97&list=PL7C2D82459F428C2A