Dallas has a lot of stories to tell. It could take a hundred films to tell all those stories — about the city’s history, its music, its sports teams, its legendary characters. For now, let’s take a look at 10.
We decided to spotlight some documentaries about Dallas that were released in the last five years (so no Thin Blue Line), but the list is by no means comprehensive. Let us know if we missed any Dallas docs worth seeing.
Nowitzki: The Perfect Shot (2014)
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This German film about the best player in Mavericks history is not a masterful documentary, but it sheds new light on what it is that makes Dirk Nowitzki so great, and the movie should charm anyone with an interest in Dallas basketball. Nowitzki: The Perfect Shot, which went into wide release in the U.S. this month, is still showing at the Magnolia.
30 for 30: Pony Excess (2010)
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ESPN’s fantastic 30 for 30 series looks at the life and crimes of the SMU football program of the early 1980s. Directed by Thaddeus Matula, an alum of SMU’s film school, the documentary examines the cheating and the greed that led the NCAA to deliver the death penalty against the school’s football program.
30 for 30 Shorts: The Great Trade Robbery (2014)
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A shorter and happier (for Dallas sports fans) edition of 30 for 30, this quick documentary looks at the trade that helped build the Cowboys dynasty of the early 1990s. Minnesota got Herschel Walker. Dallas got a few Super Bowls.
We From Dallas (2014)
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We From Dallas is the story of Dallas’ hip-hop scene as told by the graffiti artists, rappers, DJs, and B-boys who built it. It’s a thorough portrait of one of the city’s most important cultural movements.
The Starck Club (2014)
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Director Michael Cain’s documentary about the legendary Dallas nightclub — a 1980s cultural hotspot for great dance music and drug-fueled debauchery — had its unofficial premiere at the Dallas International Film Festival in 2014, but the filmmaking project is ongoing. You may have better luck tracking down the other Starck Club documentary, 2011’s Warriors of the Discotheque.
City of Hate: Dallas and the Assassination (2013)
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There are a whole lot of films about the events of Nov. 22, 1963. Most of them devolve into conspiracy theory panic (Oliver Stone’s JFK being one prominent and highly entertaining example), and most of them are not very good. The locally made documentary City of Hate may not be an exception to that rule, according to most of the reviews I’ve found, but it’s notable for focusing on the political climate in Dallas before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the city’s reputation in the aftermath.
Strike: The Greatest Bowling Story Ever Told (2015)
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Short and sweet, and — even better — inspired by Michael Mooney’s 2012 story in D Magazine, Strike lives up to its name and relates the greatest bowling story ever told: The night Bill Fong came within one pin of rolling a perfect three-game series at the Plano Super Bowl.
When Dallas Rocked (2013)
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Kirby Warnock’s documentary explores the heyday of Dallas rock ‘n’ roll in the 1970s, when the city out-cooled Austin as the music capital of the state and much of the Southwest.
La Bare (2014)
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Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello was so inspired by his role in that movie he took to the director’s chair for this documentary about dancers at La Bare, Dallas’ male strip club. The Washington Post opines that the movie “offers some perspective on the men behind the banana hammocks.”
His Name Is Bob (2010)
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His Name Is Bob tells the story of Dallas’ most well-known wanderer. The documentary is a portrait of Bob Crawford, an enigmatic character and familiar sight to many people who spend time in Old East Dallas and Deep Ellum.
