Favourite Documentary/Documentaries??

dunkman

Byrnzie wrote:

Edit: Also, has anyone seen the unofficial Rolling Stones Documentary 'Cocksucker Blues'? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocksucker_Blues

seen bits of it... is it the one which has scenes of Keef after OD'ing? or at least shots of him taking heroin?

Byrnzie

dunkman wrote:

Byrnzie wrote:

Edit: Also, has anyone seen the unofficial Rolling Stones Documentary 'Cocksucker Blues'? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocksucker_Blues

seen bits of it... is it the one which has scenes of Keef after OD'ing? or at least shots of him taking heroin?

Yeah, there's footage of him shooting up, and then nodding off. It's very messy.

NickyNooch

Byrnzie wrote:

NickyNooch wrote:

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father - Absolutely incredible. The director made this movie in tribute of his deceased best friend.

I'm downloading it now.

NickyNooch wrote:

THE BRIDGE - The Golden Gate Bridge is the #1 place in the world to commit suicide. Over the course of a year the makers of this movie set up 24 hour cameras on the bridge and follow several people to their final plunge and follow up on the ones they left behind. Gripping and a unique plot. Phenominal!

I saw this on t.v in England a couple of years ago. I still remember the dude at the end - they focus on him throughout the film, pacing up and down the bridge - but the way he finally throws himself over is pretty...dramatic? (With some of these people you can see that there's some trepidation there, but this dude had no doubts about what he was doing).

You won't be disappointed on Dear Zachary. On the bridge it really was remarkable how it was filmed. I should have mentioned the "special features" on the Bridge make the movie even better. Following how they filmed it was a very cool bonus feature.

I should add...

Darkon - About live action role playing. I expected to just laugh my head off at nerds, but oddly enough I started rooting for one of the "countries". Also there is a documentary called "Monster Camp" about the same subject, both are good, but Darkon was a bit better IMO.

Wordplay - Pretty awesome documentary on crossword puzzles and the crossword puzzle championship. Tons of celebs in it too, Bill Clinton, John Stewart, etc. Spellbound is kinda similar (a documentary on the national spelling bee) and worth checking out too.

Kel Varnsen

Street Fight - The story of the 2002 Newark NJ mayoral race and how the sitting mayor was totally crooked with his tactics including things like ordering the cops to ticket, finding city employees who support the challenger and doing things like moving them to the graveyard shift and ordering city employees to remove the challengers political signs from public property.

Byrnzie

NickyNooch wrote:

Byrnzie wrote:

NickyNooch wrote:

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father - Absolutely incredible. The director made this movie in tribute of his deceased best friend.

I'm downloading it now.

NickyNooch wrote:

THE BRIDGE - The Golden Gate Bridge is the #1 place in the world to commit suicide. Over the course of a year the makers of this movie set up 24 hour cameras on the bridge and follow several people to their final plunge and follow up on the ones they left behind. Gripping and a unique plot. Phenominal!

I saw this on t.v in England a couple of years ago. I still remember the dude at the end - they focus on him throughout the film, pacing up and down the bridge - but the way he finally throws himself over is pretty...dramatic? (With some of these people you can see that there's some trepidation there, but this dude had no doubts about what he was doing).

You won't be disappointed on Dear Zachary. On the bridge it really was remarkable how it was filmed. I should have mentioned the "special features" on the Bridge make the movie even better. Following how they filmed it was a very cool bonus feature.

I should add...

Darkon - About live action role playing. I expected to just laugh my head off at nerds, but oddly enough I started rooting for one of the "countries". Also there is a documentary called "Monster Camp" about the same subject, both are good, but Darkon was a bit better IMO.

Wordplay - Pretty awesome documentary on crossword puzzles and the crossword puzzle championship. Tons of celebs in it too, Bill Clinton, John Stewart, etc. Spellbound is kinda similar (a documentary on the national spelling bee) and worth checking out too.

You are a docuholic

NickyNooch

Byrnzie wrote:

You are a docuholic

Big time! It's my favorite part of netflix! Netflix by the way is probably the best thing to happen to the internet, next to this message board

Who Princess

Byrnzie wrote:

Hearts of Darkness - I've always thought it was better than the movie itself; 'Apocalypse Now'.

I don't know if I necessarily like it better since the films are 2 different genres but seeing Hearts of Darkness really added some texture to Apocalypse Now.

Others that haven't been mentioned:
The Thin Blue Line
Standing in the Shadows of Motown

BlackThirteen

I really liked
Enron: Smartest guys in the room
Tyson

NickyNooch

whoprincess wrote:

Byrnzie wrote:

Hearts of Darkness - I've always thought it was better than the movie itself; 'Apocalypse Now'.

I don't know if I necessarily like it better since the films are 2 different genres but seeing Hearts of Darkness really added some texture to Apocalypse Now.

Others that haven't been mentioned:
The Thin Blue Line
Standing in the Shadows of Motown

Wow never seen (or heard of those) looked at both on netflix and putting them on my queue! Great thread!

NickyNooch

Forgot to add a great one!

My Kid Could Paint That - About a 4 year old who paints paintings that cost about $300,000... pollock style. It goes in a direction you don't see coming and really leaves you scratching your head. Watch the extra features... you probably can't help yourself after you finish the movie!

"Who the &*$% is Jackson Pollock" is pretty good along similar topic. An old lady truck driver finds a painting, buys it for 5 bucks and discovers it may be a Jackson Pollock painting. The film goes through all the testing, interviews, and artist opinions on the painting. Really interesting stuff.

Arcticangel

norm wrote:

dogtown and z boys

american movie

Yes yes!
You guys listed pretty much all my favorites. I'm a total documentary movie dork, love em.

Paradise Lost is very powerful, about the WM3.

I also "liked" Bowling for Columbine... if you can like something like that, you know?

CHANGEinWAVES

NickyNooch wrote:

"Who the &*$% is Jackson Pollock" is pretty good along similar topic. An old lady truck driver finds a painting, buys it for 5 bucks and discovers it may be a Jackson Pollock painting. The film goes through all the testing, interviews, and artist opinions on the painting. Really interesting stuff.

this was good.

Drowned Out

Not one to pick favs (typing is easier than thinking anyway), I'll just list what I've collected in the last year...if I didn't like it, or at least find it interesting, I got rid of it...
I've come across many thru people on this board...I also 'discovered' a few on my own thru imdb...but damn, making a thread like this would've been so much easier (maybe I'll try netfile for searches?)
Lots of good suggestions in this thread - thanks folks

here goes, alphabetical order (some are loosely labelled documentaries )

Down the Rabbit Hole (What the bleep do we know? five disc set) - quantum physics/philosophy/perceptions etc
Controlling Our Food - monsanto corp., GMO plant seed etc.
FLOW: for love of Water
Grass - The History of Marijuana (woody harrelson narrates)
Howard Zinn - You Can't Be Neutral On a Moving Train
Idiocracy - by Mike Judge on the future (HAD to put in the doc category )
Iraq For Sale - the War Profiteers and
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered - both by Robert Greenwald
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky on the mainstream media
Occupation 101 - Palestine/Israel
Religulous - Bill Maher on religion
Sicko, Farenheit 9/11 - Moore
The Corporation, Naomi Klein on capitalism
The Take (La Toma)- Naomi Klein / Avi Lewis on the Argentinian co-op labour movement
The Obama Deception, End Game - Alex Jones :shock: on doom
The Iron Wall - palestine/Israel
The Money Masters - banking system
The Pharmacratic Inquisition - psychadelics thruout history
The Union - the Business Behind Getting High - marijuana prohibition (heard there's a sequel?)
Zeitgeist 1 & 2


I recommend The Take (La Toma)! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzXln5kbuw
I saw an interview with Naomi Klein laughing about how she got funding from the Canadian govt for a human interest story in Argentina, and it ended up being this quasi - Communist propaganda piece ....it's pretty political, but told from the point of view of one group of workers - one family in particular...it adds suspense and personal interst - totally dug it.

Byrnzie

Drowned Out wrote:

Not one to pick favs (typing is easier than thinking anyway), I'll just list what I've collected in the last year...if I didn't like it, or at least find it interesting, I got rid of it...
I've come across many thru people on this board...I also 'discovered' a few on my own thru imdb...but damn, making a thread like this would've been so much easier (maybe I'll try netfile for searches?)
Lots of good suggestions in this thread - thanks folks

here goes, alphabetical order (some are loosely labelled documentaries )

Down the Rabbit Hole (What the bleep do we know? five disc set) - quantum physics/philosophy/perceptions etc
Controlling Our Food - monsanto corp., GMO plant seed etc.
FLOW: for love of Water
Grass - The History of Marijuana (woody harrelson narrates)
Howard Zinn - You Can't Be Neutral On a Moving Train
Idiocracy - by Mike Judge on the future (HAD to put in the doc category )
Iraq For Sale - the War Profiteers and
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered - both by Robert Greenwald
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky on the mainstream media
Occupation 101 - Palestine/Israel
Religulous - Bill Maher on religion
Sicko, Farenheit 9/11 - Moore
The Corporation, Naomi Klein on capitalism
The Take (La Toma)- Naomi Klein / Avi Lewis on the Argentinian co-op labour movement
The Obama Deception, End Game - Alex Jones :shock: on doom
The Iron Wall - palestine/Israel
The Money Masters - banking system
The Pharmacratic Inquisition - psychadelics thruout history
The Union - the Business Behind Getting High - marijuana prohibition (heard there's a sequel?)
Zeitgeist 1 & 2


I recommend The Take (La Toma)! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzXln5kbuw
I saw an interview with Naomi Klein laughing about how she got funding from the Canadian govt for a human interest story in Argentina, and it ended up being this quasi - Communist propaganda piece ....it's pretty political, but told from the point of view of one group of workers - one family in particular...it adds suspense and personal interst - totally dug it.

Thanks for those. I forgot to include the Zinn doc in my list.

'Down the Rabbit Hole' looks interesting.

Drowned Out

Byrnzie wrote:

'Down the Rabbit Hole' looks interesting.

It's AWESOME....I've watched the movie itself multiple times - lots to wrap your head around...haven't made it thru all the extras in the five discs...very thought provoking stuff!

edit: and thanks to you, Byrnzie, for Occupation 101 and The Iron Wall....not positive, but I think you posted or mentioned both on the train - both very informative and well done (and heartbreaking).

CHANGEinWAVES

Some others I liked:


Chernobyl Heart
On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history occurred when a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Sixteen years later, award-winning filmmaker Maryann De Leo took her camera to follow the devastating trail this radiation left behind in hospitals, orphanages, mental asylums and evacuated villages.

Children of Beslan
Harrowing recounting of the 2004 school siege in Beslan, Russia that killed over 300 hostages, as told primarily by the tragedy's surviving children.


Ganja Queen
The harrowing story of Schapelle Corby, a young Australian woman who is accused of international drug trafficking after ten pounds of marijuana are found in one of her bags while on vacation in Bali.


Hear and Now
This Sundance Award-winning documentary is a deeply personal memoir by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky about her deaf parents' decision to undergo risky cochlear implant surgery -- the only one of its kind that can restore a sense.


My Architect
The Oscar®-nominated CINEMAX Reel Life documentary MY ARCHITECT chronicles Nathaniel Kahn's epic journey to reconcile the life and work of his mysterious father, Louis I. Kahn.


Naked World
In this follow up to NAKED STATES, artist Spencer Tunick travels to capture art in the form of nudes from countries around the globe.


When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
This intimate, heart-rending portrait of New Orleans in the wake of the destruction tells the heartbreaking personal stories of those who endured this harrowing ordeal.

White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Filmmaker Steven Okazaki revisits the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and shares the stories of the only people to have survived a nuclear attack.


Wide Awake
Using himself as a primary case study, director and lifelong insomniac Alan Berliner artfully explores the world of chronic sleep deprivation - an affliction experienced by more than 100 million Americans.


also...

China's Stolen Children

Drowned Out

Nice list CiW! Haven't seen lots of those....thanks!
Don't think I could stomach Children of Beslan :( That story kills me :(

CHANGEinWAVES

Drowned Out wrote:

Nice list CiW! Haven't seen lots of those....thanks!
Don't think I could stomach Children of Beslan :( That story kills me :(

it was rough to watch... as were a few others. But I feel like I should watch these stories since people have been forced to live them.

scottstappsucks

Here's one I love off the top of my head: Overnight- About the egotistical director of The Boondock Saints, Troy Duffy. Highly entertaining, it's hard to believe somebody was that full of themselves. I definitely recommend the documentary Overnight and Duffy's film The Boondock Saints. Fascinating story.

Byrnzie

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Filmmaker Steven Okazaki revisits the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and shares the stories of the only people to have survived a nuclear attack.

I've seen this. Very good. I've still got it on my hard drive.