Taylor Swift has made some intriguing documentaries and concert films throughout her career, from smaller-scale films like Speak Now World Tour Live to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The singer was born to be on stage and loves giving fans a closer look into her concerts with films like City of Lover Concert or The Eras Tour. Swift has allowed a handful of her concerts to be captured for the enjoyment of her fans, and she's also featured in a documentary revealing her life off the stage.

In recent years, Taylor Swift has taken on acting roles in movies, but it's her nonfiction films where audiences can appreciate her best performances as well as her most genuine screen presence. The life of a worldwide superstar who can't go anywhere without causing a scene is quite fascinating. With the Eras Tour movie out in the world, it is worth taking a look back at some of her earlier documentaries and concert films and seeing how they rank against one another.

8 Taylor Swift: Speak Now World Tour Live (2011)

Taylor Swift: Speak Now World Tour Live features footage of Taylor Swift's second world tour promoting her third studio album, Speak Now. The film doesn't include commentary but showcases Swift's incredible stage presence, especially during performances like "Dear John," in which fireworks explode as the singer belts the high note at the end of the bridge. Swift knew how to command a crowd early in her career, which is how she went from playing two shows at Madison Square Garden to three sold-out nights at MetLife Stadium. Looking back on it, it was a sweet beginning to Swift's career, and the movie captured every mesmerizing moment of the whimsical concert.

7 The 1989 World Tour Live (2015)

For Taylor Swift's fifth studio album, 1989, she took the show on the road again and later released the concert as a movie on Apple Music. This was around the time Swift had removed all her music from Spotify and influenced Apple Music to change their policy with an open letter posted on her Tumblr account. Unlike Taylor Swift: Speak Now World Tour Live, The 1989 World Tour Live does feature commentary from Swift and her close friends.

Related: Every Song In Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (& Which Were Cut)

One part that makes the film so special is when Swift discusses all the special guests she brought out during her shows. A few of the most memorable were Mick Jagger, Alanis Morissette, and The Weeknd. One of the weaker aspects of the film is the quick cuts that make it feel disorienting. For example, there is even a goofy clip where Swift seems to be levitating as the dancer she's leaning on has been inexplicably edited out. The editing plays against The 1989 World Tour Live.

6 Taylor Swift: City of Lover Concert (2020)

Due to Covid-19, Taylor Swift's Lover era was cut short. However, in late 2019, she'd taken her album promo to Paris, where she performed songs from the new record for her fans in France. This show is presented in the short film Taylor Swift: City of Lover Concert, which aired on ABC in May 2020. The concert showcases Swift's sharp vocals, specifically from her acoustic performance of "Cornelia Street." It also features upbeat pop hits like "You Need to Calm Down," demonstrating Swift's versatility as a music artist. Airing the special during the lockdown was the perfect way for Swift to uplift her fans with memories of a happier time.

5 Taylor Swift: Journey To Fearless (2010)

Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless feels like a lifetime ago compared to how far Taylor Swift has come in her career. While the special was eventually released in full on DVD, it was initially a three-episode series that aired on The Hub, which has since been rebranded as Discovery Family. The series showcases Swift's first tour promoting her second studio album, Fearless, and features commentary from Swift, her mother, and some of her bandmates as she talks fans through the experience of taking Fearless on the road.

The singer talks about her post-show meet and greet, in which members of her team chose fans from the audience to meet her after the show for free. She also discusses how incredible it is getting to do what she loves for a living. Fearless is the album that launched Swift into the spotlight, and Journey to Fearless is a nostalgic look back on how she ended up as the biggest pop star on the planet.

4 Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (2018)

Taylor Swift dominated the music industry with 1989, but after the 2016 "Kimye drama," the singer fell from her pedestal and had to do a full rebrand with her next album, reputation. Today, millions of people fight for a chance to secure Taylor Swift tickets, but back in 2018, she had to fight a bad reputation from social media and the press. What made the Reputation Stadium Tour so special was that it was for the fans who stood by Swift during some of her most difficult days.

Related: How Much Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Will Make At The Box Office (& How Much It Cost)

Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour was released at the end of 2018 on Netflix and took fans through the Reputation Stadium Tour from start to finish. Swift revisited older songs like Speak Now's "Long Live" but also put on quite the performance of reputation tracks like "I Did Something Bad" and "Don't Blame Me." It's special rewatching this tour movie because it takes fans back to a time when Swift's real friends, whom she sings about in "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things," and her real fans, were all that mattered.

3 Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020)

In Swiftie world, the best thing that came out of the Lover era ending was the creation of folklore and evermore. However, before the release of evermore, Swift celebrated folklore with Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions on Disney+. In the documentary, Swift takes fans through her writing process, from the love triangle she sings about in "cardigan," "august," and "betty" to the people pleaser's anthem "Mirrorball."

The special also features co-writers and producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, who joined Swift in the studio to perform all 17 tracks on the album. The documentary shows how Swift's creativity came to life during a time of global uncertainty and fear. It was the perfect way for Swift to connect with her fans in a time of social distancing and isolation, years before it was safe for her to perform the songs in stadiums around the world.

2 Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023)

One year after Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour, she released her seventh studio album, Lover, and planned a much smaller tour called Lover Fest. Unfortunately, Covid-19 caused the pop star to cancel the concerts. In the meantime, Swift wrote two albums during the lockdown, folklore and evermore. Then, in 2021, she began releasing her rerecorded albums and released her 10th studio album Midnights in 2022.

Related: How To Watch Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

The biggest question was how Taylor Swift was going to promote so many albums on tour. Swift's response was the three-and-a-half-hour-long Eras Tour, a journey through all of her albums. When fans struggled to get tickets due to extreme resale prices, Swift brought the show to the big screen. While concert films like Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert took the world by storm in 2008, no one had ever seen anything like Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.

Fans went wild in movie theaters, dancing at the front of the theater, starting conga lines, and concluding with a large circle during the ending credits, where they held hands and spun around like a coven inspired by "willow." This is just one example of how impactful the Eras Tour movie, which got a worldwide release, was. Swifties also made sure to stock up on merch, such as popcorn buckets and soda cups.

Taylor Swift has released several concert films in her 17-year career, but Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour knocks the rest of them out of the park, or as Swift might prefer, out of SoFi stadium. It is a complete experience that almost matches the feeling of watching the concert live. The Eras Tour lived up to its name, celebrating all of Taylor Swift's eras.

1 Miss Americana (2020)

One of Taylor Swift's most revealing documentaries is Netflix's Miss Americana. The documentary, directed by Lana Wilson, dives into Swift's life as a people-pleasing global superstar trying to stand up for what she believes in. There are clips of Swift planning her would-be-canceled 2020 Lover Fest tour and recording songs for her album Lover. However, the documentary also covers heavier topics like Swift's eating disorder and her 2017 sexual assault trial.

Miss Americana takes its name from Lover's seventh track, "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince," one of the first times Swift dove into politics, just like in the Miss Americana documentary. One memorable scene shows Swift arguing with her father and her management team over her need to speak out against Marsha Blackburn's blatant homophobia and other dangerous ideologies. Miss Americana presented a side of the singer fans hadn't seen before, but it's one that Taylor Swift should consider showing more often.