Documentaries you like

[jjt]

I enjoy documentaries, probably more now than when I was younger. I guess it fits into my INTP thing of collecting information. (I also tend to read non-fiction) I especially enjoy a documentary that is thought provoking.

I am curious if you like docos; do you have a few favourites and why?

Recently I have seen "The Corporation" and "Supersize Me" which were both thought provoking and have changed the way in which I view large companies.

[Flinchy]

I love documentaries! One of my favorite TV shows is P.O.V. on PBS (it's a docu series).

I like them because I like learning about new things, seeing how other people live, stuff like that. And they tend to be thought-provoking, which is very important to me.

Anyhoo, my current favorite documentary is a French movie called "Etre et Avoir," (http://chipsquaw.free.fr/etreetavoir/) about a one-room-schoolhouse-type classroom in rural France.

My all-time favorite documentary probably still is Michael Moore's "Roger & Me." A perfect example of persuasive journalism in the form of personal narrative. And funny, too.

I recently saw a documentary called "Stevie," about a filmmaker who revisits a man to whom he had been a mentor through the Big Brother program many years ago. Very compelling and disturbing.

I have seen zillions more, but am horrible at compiling lists of movies I have seen.

Oh, I saw "Supersize Me," as well...I thought it was pretty good, although I saw the film already thinking fast food was evil. (Although, to be honest, I haven't set foot inside a McDonald's since seeing the movie!) My fave part of "Supersize Me" was the segment about school lunches. Pathetic!

[jjt]

Oh, I saw "Supersize Me," as well...I thought it was pretty good, although I saw the film already thinking fast food was evil. (Although, to be honest, I haven't set foot inside a McDonald's since seeing the movie!) My fave part of "Supersize Me" was the segment about school lunches. Pathetic!

Agree - I thought that was one of the better bits. I am a nutritionist and I was appalled at the school lunches dished out in the USA. How can anyone's brain and body function properly on such 'junk'? Interesting how the school for problem kids had improved behavoiur considerably with a change in lunches provided.

[Avengardh]

Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" and if Fahrenheit 9/11 was one of them, because I don't remember if it was, then that one too.

Columbine hit closer to home...cause I was a freshman in a neighboring school...

[mgb]

Excellent thread.

I loved the Fog of War.

Also, startup.com was great, showed the whole tech explosion, and the bubble bursting. It was made by the same people that made the War Room (which I haven't seen and would like to).

The First Year was a great documentary about first year teachers.

Also, Girlhood (I think that's that title) was great.

Etre et avoir was really good too, so were the Corporation and Supersize Me. I can't wait for the Corporation to come out on DVD.

[Lee]

The description "documentry" is to often used to describe entertainment with a political agenda.

I do like proper documentries......but ones mainly to do with science and such.

[mgb]

The description "documentry" is to often used to describe entertainment with a political agenda.

I do like proper documentries......but ones mainly to do with science and such.

Maybe lately.

But really, it's non-fiction, as in documenting things on film.

[ApeTheDog]

I've seen quite a few good ones, I don't think I can remember them all. Supersize me, especially the section with all the fast food in schools, was really good. There's a documentary I once saw about prostitution along the chechoslovakian border that really gripped me - German tourists would pull up next to a mother and rent her 5 year old child for a couple of hours. Disgusting. There's walking with dinosaurs and walking with animals which really fascinated by showing so many different kind of animals that I had no idea ever existed. There's everything that has to do with the holocaust; always makes me cry. Actually, most of the BBC's documentaries are great. There's one about the universe I loved, a couple about human behavior with desmond morris that were great - the naked monkey they were called, a lot of them about emotions and the likes with and elder, mustach-toting man whose name I don't know. I've seen many, and I love most of them. There has really only been a few documentaries that I didn't like, and they were all national geographic's ones - I can't stand their style.

[CapnEnnui]

Fog of War was a pretty incredible documentary. Has anyone here seen "What the $&@% Do We Know?" or whatever that gibberish part actually is? Some of it was dumb, unconvincing babble (like when they try to convert you to New Age at the end, for ten damn minutes) but a lot of it really had fascinating insight for the chemical reasons behind emotions and personality. Not particularly... exciting unless you love ideas, but worth checking out.

[Edmond Zedo]

"Bring on the Night" about Sting's initial solo project & prep. for concert. If you like early Sting/Police. I think about it often; Should get it on dvd if I can.

[Warrior413]

Moore's films were good, Fog of War was good, and Control Room was good. Control Room is about al-Jazeera and it's very interesting the way it talks about censorship and the media war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[mgb]

Moore's films were good, Fog of War was good, and Control Room was good. Control Room is about al-Jazeera and it's very interesting the way it talks about censorship and the media war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's disappointing that Control Room wasn't nominated for an Oscar. It was great to see "the other side".

[songbird36]

"Bright Leaves" (by Ross McElwee about the South Carolina tobacco industry) was very good indeed.

So was "Timor: Death of a Nation" (Pilger 1994). Anything by Pilger is usually good (if a little tendentious).

[YardGnome]

"American Pimp" Documentary that delves into the lives of real life pimps, i.e. Don Magic Juan.

Absolutely hilarious... but at the same time sad.

[synchronous]

I am curious if you like docos; do you have a few favourites and why?

I enjoy documentaries very much. I like the science/human nature oriented documentaries. I think the BBC puts out some excellent ones. I've enjoyed Micheal Moore's works. I have a particular fondness for documentaries that examine the Bible and the life of Jesus - ones that make attempts to tease out fact from fiction, or provide alternative interprations of historical/biblical events in order to gain a better understanding of the 'truth'.

I should add as well that I am fond of the CBC's program, The Passionate Eye. I like it the documentaries because they are bold in seeking the truth. The program will examine issues, events or lifestories that are not necessarily palatable for the general population - Issues that examine maybe the underbelly of society or issues that most of us would most likely prefer to deny, dismiss or ignore. It challenges beliefs.

[Geoff]

BBC - The Horizon documentary series (I saw a good one on Global dimming and the offset against Global warming the other day).

Secrets of the Dead is good too - shown here on Channel 4 but I do not know if it one of their productions. Re-examining past events in the light of modern techniques. Some interesting ones on :

1) was witch burning linked to LSD type hallucinations from diseased wheat grain in the middle ages and also in Salem.
2) How did Greenland die out as a Viking settlement
3) Did Native Indians in California area practice cannibalism
etc.

Well worth seeing if you get the opportunity.

-Geoff

[Swift]

I like documentaries about World War II, science & technology, history in general, ancient cultures, shipwreckhunting, etc...

I don't watch a lot of TV though. But my grandma has Discovery Channel, which I think is great.

[Crispy]

I like to watch a lot of documentris on the discovery channel, usally the programmes that interest me the most are ones about space, mental illness, world war 2 (I have a worrying intrest in nazis, almost a macbrei ntrest in how one country could belive in a ideology so fucked up at the core) and also documetnries about famous or interesting people, saw a documentry about micheal jackson and his "special friends" the other night, which had a hell of a lot of evidence against him, but my judgement is still undecided about him being a pedo but the documentry put foward a lot of convining evidence against him, needless to say if he is guilty he should have the book thown at him.

Farenhiet 9/11 was also on ch4 (british tv) tonight which I recorded so i'll probably watch that tommorrow and see if it justifies the hype

[Crispy]

Yeh horizon documentries are usually brilliant, I haven't seen any recently but I saw one not long ago (can't remember the content) but the documentery was excellent.

[Warrior413]

Oh yeah, for Christmas my aunt sent me several Discovery Channel movies that I watched a week ago when I was sick. They were interesting, also watched the History Channel, always good. I've seen the documentary on the Salem witch trials and LSD, that was a trip.


It's disappointing that Control Room wasn't nominated for an Oscar. It was great to see "the other side".
Oh yeah, without a doubt. Which reminds me of this book I just read, Soldat, an autobiography about a German artillery officer in WWII who I think is an NT of some sort... but... anyway, the Oscars and so on tend to be politicized.

[Claverhouse]

...There's everything that has to do with the holocaust; always makes me cry.
If the holocaust rocks your boat, you'd looove Britain just now. There seem to be about three programmes a day about Auschwitz. Where 1.2 million jews died in three years. Or 4 million until 1991.

The Daily Mail even revived the stuff about Germans making soap from corpses, a venerable story the British first floated in the First World War. It's difficult to know why people want to believe in horror stories even worse than what actually happened.


In general, I distrust documentaries; not only are they facile, but there's nearly always an agenda, even if not always so blatant.



Claverhouse :ph34r:

[mgb]

Into the arms of strangers was good. Stories of Jewish children adopted by or taken care of by British families.

[Warrior413]

Oh I just remembered another one: Tibet - Cry of the Snow Lion. That made me want to go to Tibet. Except for the whole Communist torture stuff.

[songbird36]

If the holocaust rocks your boat, you'd looove Britain just now. There seem to be about three programmes a day about Auschwitz. Where 1.2 million jews died in three years. Or 4 million until 1991.

The Daily Mail even revived the stuff about Germans making soap from corpses, a venerable story the British first floated in the First World War. It's difficult to know why people want to believe in horror stories even worse than what actually happened.


In general, I distrust documentaries; not only are they facile, but there's nearly always an agenda, even if not always so blatant.



Claverhouse :ph34r:

If there wasn't an agenda, no-one would bother watching them as they wouldn't make good entertainment. Balance can be extremely boring.

[mgb]

If there wasn't an agenda, no-one would bother watching them as they wouldn't make good entertainment. Balance can be extremely boring.

I guess they would all be time-lapse photography.

[floyd]

dig
crumb

[ApeTheDog]

If the holocaust rocks your boat, you'd looove Britain just now. There seem to be about three programmes a day about Auschwitz. Where 1.2 million jews died in three years. Or 4 million until 1991.

The Daily Mail even revived the stuff about Germans making soap from corpses, a venerable story the British first floated in the First World War. It's difficult to know why people want to believe in horror stories even worse than what actually happened.


In general, I distrust documentaries; not only are they facile, but there's nearly always an agenda, even if not always so blatant.



Claverhouse :ph34r:

Yeah I know. I'm lucky to get BBC 1 and 2 in Belgium and often watch it. I was surprised to see that, even in the morning news, they were covering auschwitz. They had a live reporter on the scene. That was a bit unconventional. Still, coverage about it is always a really good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

[jjt]

In general, I distrust documentaries; not only are they facile, but there's nearly always an agenda, even if not always so blatant.

Claverhouse :ph34r:

My husband is a documentary maker. I know a number of people who make docos quite well. They're all driven to make docos for different reasons.

Documentaries are made by people like you and I - we all have a particular world view or paradigm. It would be virtually impossible for anyone to make a documentary without looking through or from their own paradigm. So I think it is good to watch them critically, I often watch then and wonder what the viewpoint of the maker was. His or her viewpoint will inevitably influence the material selected, the way that material is portrayed, the balance of infromation selected from both sides of a story. They get to write the voice-over, choose a certain voice to deliver the voice-over, control the edit and select the music which all influence we the viewers.

With regards to an agenda, there may be one, but not necessarily, it may be just to document something to show a wider audience.

So yes be aware, never take what is on the screen as the truth.

[Slider]

Night and Fog, french documentary from the 50s about the Holocaust. probably the first of its kind. like the history and discovery channels. when I was a kid one of my favorite shows was Wild America, heh. marty stouffer, wot a dude.