Documentary films have the power of opening the gates of our collective consciousness, forcing us to confront uncomfortable realities while telling us about the true state of the world. Last year’s nonfiction arena witnessed ambitious and beautifully realized projects where grand stories came to life with social change as the focal point.

“One of the best ways to help people understand the challenges we face is with a movie that can grab an audience and move them to action,” said UC Berkeley economist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, whose own call-to-action film, Inequality for All, is among the documentaries with the strong social messages in 2013.

The following are our top choices of last year's films that helped people see the world differently, by exposing some of the issues that matter most:

THE ACT OF KILLING Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

In Indonesia in 1965-66, around 2.5 million people suspected of being Communists were slain by paramilitary groups working for the government. No apology or compensation has been offered to the victims’ families, nor have truth and reconciliation efforts come to pass, as the perpetrators of those crimes remain in power still today.

This beautiful, brutal documentary – a powerful and haunting film inside a film – must be seen to be believed. Director Joshua Oppenheimer spent 10 years making The Act of Killing. The first day he meets Gangster Anwar Congo, who took part in the 1960s carnage, Oppenheimer is led to a specific roof – a place that Anwar says is full of ghosts, where he developed a technique that allowed him to kill hundreds of people with wire, and without the unwanted blood splashes.

The surreal “guerrilla style” film has started a debate in Indonesia about a national trauma that was never addressed. The leading newspaper in Jakarta extensively wrote about the film and opened its pages to the debate about the massacre.

AFTER TILLER Directors: Lana Wilson and Martha Shane

Forty years after Roe v. Wade, a new survey shows 70 percent of Americans oppose overturning the landmark decision on abortion rights. Meanwhile, 2013 saw vicious attacks on women’s reproductive rights, as states put forward the second highest number of anti-choice restrictions in American history.

After Tiller follows four remaining doctors who perform third trimester abortions. The film is named after Dr. George Tiller, who was shot and killed by anti-choice extremists during a Sunday morning church service on May 31, 2009, in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Tiller’s medical practice had been previously fire-bombed in 1985, and Tiller was shot in the arm in 1993.

The film tackles the struggles of the four doctors who defy death threats and isolation in their efforts to help women, while taking a compassionate look at the choices women face as they seek late-term, third trimester abortions.

A FIERCE GREEN FIRE: THE BATTLE FOR A LIVING PLANET Written and Directed by Mark Kitchell

A Fierce Green Fire chronicles the environmental movement, grassroots action and global activism spanning 50 years, from early conservation awareness to efforts battling climate change. Academy Award-nominated director Mark Kitchell highlights personal stories of environmental warriors, from Lois Gibbs and Love Canal residents’ struggle against tens of thousands of tons of toxic chemicals, to Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubbertappers’ fight against ranchers and big business to save the Amazon rainforest.

The film connects worldwide environmental justice struggles and land rights conflicts, in movements ranging from the Chipko in India to the Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Meanwhile, on climate change it presents the clear disconnect between peoples’ demands to halt global emissions and the policymakers who act at the behest of oil and coal interests.

INEQUALITY FOR ALL Director: Jacob Kornbluth

This film – whose central character is President Clinton's former Labor Secretary and current Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, Robert Reich – charts the widening inequality gap that has eroded the middle class over the past 40 years in the U.S.

Taking a fighting stand for workers’ rights, Reich leads us down the slippery path of current economic policy to reveal ways the wealth gap now threatens the very fabric of American life, asking important and urgent questions about where the country is heading as he proposes ideas for a more just and fair future.

THE SQUARE Director: Jehane Noujaim

Almost three years since the Egyptian uprising, little justice has been realized. The struggle for social and economic rights continues, and this film takes an inside look at the youth who made the initial change possible. With on-the-ground footage and interviews from the now iconic Tahrir Square and beyond, The Square looks at the victories and heartbreak within the activist community in Cairo. The filmmakers themselves clashed with police while filming, adding another dimension of gritty realism to the picture.

Director Jehane Noujaim said she met the cast of her film during the 18 days of uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, while she camped in Tahrir Square. She returned to Egypt after the revolution to re-edit the film so that it included the June 30th uprising against ousted President Mohamed Morsi. Despite the positive reception the film has received globally – including an Oscar nomination – it still awaits the Egyptian authorities’ permission to be shown in Egypt.

BLACKFISH Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite

A profound look at the magnificent orca whales and the horrors they face under the grip of business and sea parks, the film follows the story of the male whale, Tilikum, and his journey being abducted, abused and imprisoned. It also focuses on the killing of trainer Dawn Brancheau, as the harrowing journey makes watchers rethink what is moral and ethical in humans' relationship with orcas.

Revealing the lies and corruption of Sea World that ensured the business more cash – despite the known dangers to its trainers and the injustice it caused to wild orcas – the film provides a daring glimpse into the real operations of sea parks. Blackfish had a tremendous impact on Sea World itself, where artists like Willy Nelson cancelled planned performances and sales dropped as the film started a nationwide conversation over the ethical treatment of animals used for show.

PUSSY RIOT: A PUNK PRAYER Directors: Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin

Using exclusive footage and access to the politically persecuted punk band, this film profiles the three female activists – Nadia, Masha and Katia – who have become icons in the struggle against political and social injustice in Russia. Pussy Riot took the world by storm after breaking into a Cathedral and performing a punk prayer: "Mother of God, rid us of Putin.”

As a result, they were put on trial for “religious hatred” and sentenced to seven years in prison. All three members are now free, and say they plan to continue their activism for prisoners’ rights. Following the trial, the film narrates the activists' fight against a Russian justice system that has come under increasing fire for its persecution of peaceful protesters.

GOD LOVES UGANDA Director: Roger Ross Williams

American Christian fundamentalist organizations played a disgraceful role in anti-gay campaigns in Uganda, resulting in the passage late last year of what filmmaker Roger Ross Williams called a "draconian anti-gay bill” in that country. The law includes harsh punishments for homosexuality, with penalties of up to life in jail, and makes not reporting a gay person a crime punishable by prison.

The film follows the hate-exporting campaign of American Evangelicals and Ugandan religious leaders as they sow the seeds of oppression, calling Uganda "Ground Zero" for the Biblical battle against homosexuals. God Loves Uganda premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013 and went on to collect numerous awards at film festivals across the globe, despite being banned in Uganda.