David Holzman's Diary

A satire on cinema verite, this "fake documentary" was shot in only five days on a $2500 budget. L. M. Kit Carson plays Holzman, a young New York filmmaker who decides to get a handle on his life by putting it all down on celluloid. Written, directed and produced by Jim McBride, later a mainstream film and television director,  captures the essence of the filmmaker as artist while skewering it with its own devices: grainy black-and-white 16mm film, wobbly handheld camerawork, bizarre angles and lenses. Diary led the way to popular mockumentaries like Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap and Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.

 was added to the National Film Registry in 1991.