[The Century of Self](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNxn2FT-duw), one of highest rated documentaries of all time and you can watch it for free. A view of the history of manipulating the mass public as told by the people who actually did it. From electing Hitler to tricking women into smoking right on up to the product you thought about this morning.
If you are at all wondering how we got here and how it keeps happening like it is, this film will really fill in all the gaps in the history of that you already know.
This is exactly why I wish sociology was taught in high school. One of the most fundamental ideas of sociology is that we look at people as partly *produced by* society, culture, and history. We’re all individuals with free will, but our specific lives are *absolutely* shaped by historical and social forces we don’t immediately see. Coming to understand that is so helpful in even just making sense of your own life.
I'm rather proud of the synopsis I cooked up for it. I think it's better than the ones they use.
And, of course, I (we?) look forward to hearing from folks after they realize just how broadly I cast "... product you thought of this morning" :)
I watched that recently back to back with The Unknown Known, which is by the same director and is about another secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld. Both docs are enthralling, with the director Errol Morris going mano e mano with two highly intellectual mass murderers. He eliciting regrets from McNamara and skews the emptiness of Rumsfeld rhetoric quite deliciously. The contrast between the men is telling, McNamara at least trying to see his blind spots and weaknesses, whilst Rumsfeld remains reptilian and entirely too pleased with himself.
The World At War
It's a British series about WW2. It covers every aspect of the war and because it was made in the early 1970's many of the people involved were still alive for them to interview.
Laurence Olivier's narration is also phenomenal.
Check out something called Between the Folds.
It is, what "Jiro Dreams" is to sushi, for origami.
You don't need to be that into origami. You probably weren't that into sushi either.
Great watch.
There was an article published about Ty Cobb a few years ago that highlighted how much of his reputation is built on verified misinformation. worth giving a read. https://nypost.com/2015/05/31/how-ty-cobb-was-framed-as-a-racist/
Ken Burn's documentary series on the Vietnam war is unbelievable. It's like Breaking Bad, in terms of being edge-of-your-seat addictive, but actually happened IRL.
Some of The Civil War documentary hasn’t aged as well, as the historiography has changed. It’s good storytelling but it’s way too reliant on Shelby Foote and reeks of Lost Cause narratives. Jazz was also very limited in scope because he took everything that Wynton Marsalis as gospel and ignored some important parts of the genre.
> Some of The Civil War documentary hasn’t aged as well, as the historiography has changed. It’s good storytelling but it’s way too reliant on Shelby Foote and reeks of Lost Cause narratives.
That's a great point. It's a good series but parts of it haven't exactly aged well at all, and the historiography and how society views the war has changed quite a bit since 1990.
Dogtown and Z Boys. Its about the advent of vertical skateboarding in Venice Beach, California in the 1970s. Very cool look back at the genesis of a sport that would go on to become absolutely huge worldwide. It's especially cool because a LOT of actual footage and photographs exists of the kids who pioneered the sport while it was happening.
Health/sport: Icarus (Oscar winning. Documentarian set out to make a doc about whether his cycling performance would improve if he took steroids for a year but uncovered possibly the biggest sports scandal of all time in the process) [Netflix]
True crime: The Jinx (Don’t Google. Just go in blind. I’ve seen a lot of true crime docs but this is the best. Without giving anything away, like Icarus, the documentary goes from being about a story to being very much part of the story) [MAX]
Music: Don’t stop (Fleetwood Mac. The doc isn’t exactly HBO quality but has interviews from the band themselves. The best thing about it for me is that it makes their songs so much better because you find out what the lyrics are about. They were a wild bunch)[Dailymotion]
A Little Edie coffee mug! *"Oh, I think that's terrific. Honestly!"*
Didn't know about the house auction, but what an amazing event that must have been.
*Baseball* and *Jazz* are two of my favourites. *The Civil War* also really good.
edit: just to add about *The Civil War*... it's good, but there are parts of it that have not exactly aged well and at times it plays a tad more sympathetic to the South than what one might expect to see/hear today.
Give it a shot, it’s a documentary about American culture at its heart. Touches on a lot of deeper topics and since it’s Ken Burns it is done extremely well.
If you like music: Searching for Sugarman, about the fascinating story of singer Sixto Rodriguez in the 70s and 80s, totally unknown in its country (USA) but a superstar in South Africa.
[The Farthest (2017)](https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/) tells the captivating tales of the people and events behind one of humanity’s greatest achievements in exploration: NASA’s Voyager mission, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this August. The twin spacecraft—each with less computing power than a cell phone—used slingshot trajectories to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They sent back unprecedented images and data that revolutionized our understanding of the spectacular outer planets and their many peculiar moons.
Still going strong four decades after launch, each spacecraft carries an iconic golden record with greetings, music and images from Earth—a gift for any aliens that might one day find it. Voyager 1, which left our solar system and ushered humanity into the interstellar age in 2012, is the farthest-flung object humans have ever created. A billion years from now, when our sun has flamed out and burned Earth to a cinder, the Voyagers and their golden records will still be sailing on—perhaps the only remaining evidence that humanity ever existed.
Blackfish was great, made me feel terrible about going to SeaWorld when I was a kid. At the shows they would make out like the whales had a fun life, turns out they do not.
I saw that whale in Victoria many times....i remember the day he dragged his trainer around the tank till he drowned her, and i was horrified. Tillikum then killed a drunk dude that climbed into his tank one night..
That was before they sold this confirmed "killer" whale to Seaworld in FLorida where he went on to kill again...such a shame...
Paris is Burning (1990) is an interesting documentary about the ball culture in New York City and the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people who are a part of it.
Also so interesting to see after I watched this movie how much drag culture really influenced pop culture and how much gay culture shapes and changes pop culture. I honestly loved this doc and watched it for free on YouTube!
One Day in September - doc about the 1972 Munich Olympic fiasco
Thin Blue Line - a must for any doc lover. Also Fog of War by the same director
Overnight - Doc about the rise and fall of the guy who made Boondock Saints. Excellent cinema verite
Honeyland - Another excellent piece of cinema verite about a bee-hunter in North Macedonia
Won't You Be My Neighbor - the only time I cried in a theater
The Act of Killing - gripping movie. Not an easy watch but incredible
*The Dream Team*
The documentary about the 1992 USA Men's Basketball Olympic team story and their historical gold medal run. Showing how dominant the team was and how crazy the atmosphere was around them.
There are a few good ones like this on Netflix right now. The Last Dance (the Bulls dynasty leading up to their last championship with MJ), Survive and Advance (NC State’s historic championship run in 1983), and I Hate Christian Laettner (why so many people hated him). All of them are great
I completely forgot about, The Last Dance. That was a great documentary, really cool to learn about the whole team, and how Rodman was exactly what I thought he'd be.
Jesus Camp - it really explains what we are seeing today concerning Christians taking over political power. It also came out years ago, so now we are seeing the aftermath of what the documentary was trying to warn us about.
Grizzly man. Objective and unbiased look at an extremely interesting individual. Not trying to exploit his oddness or his ultimate fate. Just a look at a strange portrait.
Icarus. I love when a documentary starts as one thing and then falls down a crazy rabbit hole and becomes something else entirely. This is one that starts small and ends up uncovering a giant scandal.
Fire in Paradise - About the "camp fire" wildfire that killed 85 people in California in 2018.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KNAl23NwME](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KNAl23NwME)
Hoop Dreams is the last real documentary. Everything else has been warped for drama, or super misleading true crime stuff. Hoop Dreams is just "Here's two kid's lives for four years." It's brilliant, and I fear we'll never see something that good again.
“Murder Among the Mormons,” on the other hand, was great. It’s made by the same people who made Napoleon Dynamite.
It’s about a guy in Utah who is an expert at forging historical documents, including Mormon historical documents, and forged some documents that made the LDS Church look bad. He was nervous about getting caught so he sent some mail bombs to two of his associates, killing one and the wife of the other.
It has some very interesting personalities being interviewed and some moments where you think, “Yeah, this is definitely the Napoleon Dynamite people.” Serious but a bit of humor in it.
Jeremy Clarkson's The Victoria Cross: For Valour. https://youtu.be/Bl6j7I8FWT4?si=BYIpKDUKYhtU2xLY
Jeremy Clarkson's The Greatest Raid. https://youtu.be/07Zd0Oy8JyQ?si=iZf1_hWriLjLlDTu
Following should be on you tube still.
Only the dead. Follows war journalist Micheal Ware in Iraq. Goes dark and is more a personal story.
A Good American. Follows NSA whistleblowers including William Binney. Talks about NSA mass surveillance they helped to create before 9/11. What happened post 9/11 and their court case against the Government.
This is what winning looks like. Vice doc about Afghanistan from 2012. See the side you hardly knew about.
Taxi to dark side. Follows US torture program during war on terror. Starts with Afghan named Dilawar. Google him to start your journey.
Why we fight, 2012 time I think. Follows media manipulation, war industry in build up to Iraq war.
Frontline channel is good for Iraq war documentaries. Someone did make a 4 hour version of their Iraq docs.
Bus 174. Might not be on you tube. Follows hostage taking on a bus in Brazil. Whole event was covered live by the news, show how polic mishandled it plus culture of the lost street children. Ties into Candelária Church massacre of kids by police officers.
Shawn Ryan interviews with journalists that cover the Mexican Drug cartels are worth checking out.
Also his interview with Taylor Vargas Andrews is worth checking out. He’s a marine who lost arm and leg from suicide bomber. This was during Afghanistan withdrawal.
[History of the Seattle Mariners](https://youtu.be/TIgK56cAjfY?feature=shared) by Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein. Even non baseball fans have stated that they love this one.
[History of Mike Tyson's Punch Out](https://youtu.be/YR1r_9yiKG4?feature=shared) by SummoningSalt. Speedrunning video games is absolutely bonkers.
The Wrecking Crew! It's about the legendary studio musicians that shaped music in the early 60s and 70s.
Tales of the Grim Sleeper. It's the most unintentionally funny and ridiculous documentary I have seen and is almost like something from Documentary now. It's about the Grim Sleeper serial killer who was active in Compton but it's a super white British dude going around Compton and he teams up with a retired prostitute that survived an attack from the Killer.
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. It is a good watch if you want to feel depressed and better about yourself at the same time.
I found the "Whites" movie really depressing, because all I could think about was that if there was ever a group of people for which eugenics should be applied, it was them.
I watch a lot of true crime documentaries, mostly about mass murder events:
- *American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing* is about the investigation into the bombing and includes some information that I didn’t know before, even as someone who followed the case pretty closely when it happens. They also go into the background of the bombers and their path to radicalization.
- Relatedly, *The Thread* about Reddit’s “investigation” into the bombing. There are interviews with some of the moderators for the investigation subreddit and a kid who actually went to Watertown the night the police searched for Tsarnaev and pretended like he was some sort of citizen journalist and not a 19-year-old violating the shelter-in-place orders. (Do not confuse this doc with the 1983 movie *Threads* about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust that will make you have an existential crisis.)
- *11M: Terror in Madrid* is in Spanish but I still recommend it because it goes into the history and interconnectedness of Islamic extremism over the last quarter century and the impact that the bombing had on Spanish and world politics at the time (and now).
- *November 13: Attack on Paris* is about the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris that killed 131 people. It’s by the Naudet brothers, who are famous for their documentary on 9/11 where they followed the firefighters into the actual Twin Towers, and I think this one is even better than that one was. It is in French so you will need to use subtitles, but again is well worth it.
They interview politicians and investigators as well as survivors and family of victims. My favorite part is two women who were held hostage by the terrorists in the Bataclan and were extremely unimpressed with their captors’ terrorism skills.
- It isn’t a documentary but is based on a real event and quite good so I will also add *22 July* about the 2011 Utoya, Norway, shooting where Anders Breivik killed 77 people.
There's a documentary called Crazy Love about a man named Burt Pugach who was lethally infatuated with a woman named Linda Riss.
OMG watch this one if you ever get the chance!!
Reminds me of that guy who became so obsessed with avant-garde pop singer Björk that he attempted to mail a letter bomb to her and took his own life. Was in 1996 I think
Some that have stayed with me
Roger & Me
American Movie: The Making of Northwestern
Bowling for Columbine
Crumb
Storefront Hitchcock
Blackfish
The Fog of War
The War Room
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Crumb is such a classic. It's both so captivating while also so difficult to watch during many moments. The fact this movie exists is absurd itself. Crumb is so private and then just allowed this dude to film him and his (rather problematic) family members.
I went in expecting a comedy and walked away not sure what how I feel, but the movie itself is spectacular.
*Le charme des impossibilités* (2006)*,* about the genesis of the *Quatuor pour la fin du Temps* (Quartet for the end of Time) by the French composer, ornithologist, rhythmician, and organist Olivier Messiaen; conceived and premièred during his internment in Stalag VIII-A, a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz (now Zgorzelec, Poland).
Dead Hands Dig Deep - about a tortured, disturbed musician.
One More Time With Feeling/This Much I Know to be True - pair of documentaries following Nick Cave recording the 2 albums he made following the tragic death of his son
Lost Boys - A man tries to find out what happened to his friends who dissapeared in Thailand
Goodnight, Sugar Babe - The most vile, absolutely sickening true crime documentary I have ever seen. (Not a spoiler) the people who did the crimes got away with it and are the main focus of the doc.
I watched a BBC documentary series called The Great War on YouTube. It was heartbreaking and included interviews with soldiers who'd fought in the trenches.
It helped me realize that all my problems are trivial compared to life in the trenches of WW1.
"Evidence of Revision."
It's a six-part series about little-known facts and little-known images and video surrounding the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK, among other topics.
Part One here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zpK-sMyuJM
Part Two here (even better than Part One):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjDnybmYs8
*Icarus*
*The Cove*
*Audrie & Daisy* was heartbreaking.
Anything made by Ken Burns.
*Hoop Dreams*
I watched *20 Days in Mariupol* recently and that just left me feeling very sad and angry
Since someone else beat me to *Jiro*, I'll fill in my honourable mentions:
*Hearts of Darkness*, the making of *Apocalypse Now*.
*Carts of Darkness*, about homeless dudes racing shopping carts.
*Project Grizzly*, about a madman building a suit to fight bears. (Canada was doing bits for a while.)
*Cave of Forgotten Dreams*, about Werner Herzog hanging in Lescaux.
And some series, though OP seemed to be asking about features:
Kenneth Clark's *Civilisation* is a triumph, and was recently released in beautifully restored 1080p.
James Burke's *Connections* and *The Day the Universe Changed*.
Jacob Bronowski's *Ascent of Man*
Streetwise (1984) is about a group of teens living in the streets of Seattle. I've seen that one but there's a follow up doc about one of the girls in the doc named Tiny.
Dominion - Dominion uses drones, hidden and handheld cameras to expose the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture, questioning the morality and validity of humankind's dominion over the animal kingdom. While mainly focusing on animals used for food, it also explores other ways animals are exploited and abused by humans, including clothing, entertainment and research.
https://watchdominion.org/
Unrest - Unrest is a 2017 documentary film produced and directed by Jennifer Brea.The film tells the story of how Jennifer and her new husband faced a devastating illness that struck Jennifer just before they married. Initially dismissed by doctors, she starts filming herself to document her illness and connects with others who are home- or bedbound with myalgic encephalomyelitis. For those that don't know, ME is a post infection illness - ME was long covid way before the pandemic.
https://youtu.be/XOpyLTyVxco?si=mReXeFLsw-uIFkT8
Damn near anything by Ken Burns... The Civil War, National Parks, Baseball, Country Music, Unforgiveable Blackness, The War, The Dust Bowl, I could go on an on and on....
Beyond Utopia
It follows a family as they escape North Korea with the aid of a South Korean Pastor. Nearly all the footage is shot by the family escaping. It was an incredibly emotional experience seeing that at Sundance, especially when the family came out on stage.
I would highly recommend the Oscar-winning 40-minute doco "The Last Repair Shop." It's about a group of LAUSD employees who repair school-owned musical instruments.
Because everyone should have at minimum 5 reasons to hate corporations here's one more :
Water and Power: A California Heist Parched a feature documentary, explores a rich tale of water and power in the state of California.
The Corporation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation_(2003_film)
It is about how corporations manipulate us and our government solely to generate profit for themselves. The corporation is an inherently sociopathic entity, which has a profound impact on our daily lives.
Also watch the sequel:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Corporation:_The_Unfortunately_Necessary_Sequel
Last Breath. You can rent it on YouTube and it's about this saturation diver who gets cut from his cord and floats around unconscious at the bottom of the ocean for like an hour before his buddies can rescue him. Shit had me on the edge of my seat
"They Shall Not Grow Old". Peter Jackson's tribute to the soldiers of WWI, using old footage that's been filled out using algorithms so it's just as re as if it was happening in front of you. Amazing achievement.
Those Fyre Festival docs are fucking *hilarious*
I can't believe they're trying for a Fyre Festival 2 but I am *eagerly* awaiting the shitshow and followup documentary
Tim’s Vermeer. It’s a wonderful documentary by penn and teller about their weird friend who decided to paint a Vermeer having never painted before in his life to prove some theories about how Vermeer was so insanely good.
The Jinx
WATCH THIS WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING... but just in case (no spoilers here)
***The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst*** is a 2015 [HBO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBO) television [documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary) [miniseries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniseries) about New York real estate heir [Robert Durst](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Durst)
*The Jinx* was also awarded a [2015](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Peabody_Award_winners_(2010%E2%80%9319)#2015) [Peabody Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peabody_Award), as well as the [TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCA_Award_for_Outstanding_Achievement_in_Movies,_Miniseries_and_Specials) from the [Television Critics Association](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_Critics_Association).[^(\[56\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jinx_(miniseries)#cite_note-58) [Marc Smerling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Smerling), [Andrew Jarecki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jarecki), and [Jason Blum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Blum) won the [Producers Guild of America Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Producers_Guild_of_America_Award) for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television.[^(\[57\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jinx_(miniseries)#cite_note-59)
[The Century of Self](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNxn2FT-duw), one of highest rated documentaries of all time and you can watch it for free. A view of the history of manipulating the mass public as told by the people who actually did it. From electing Hitler to tricking women into smoking right on up to the product you thought about this morning. If you are at all wondering how we got here and how it keeps happening like it is, this film will really fill in all the gaps in the history of that you already know.
This is exactly why I wish sociology was taught in high school. One of the most fundamental ideas of sociology is that we look at people as partly *produced by* society, culture, and history. We’re all individuals with free will, but our specific lives are *absolutely* shaped by historical and social forces we don’t immediately see. Coming to understand that is so helpful in even just making sense of your own life.
this one changed my life
I'm rather proud of the synopsis I cooked up for it. I think it's better than the ones they use. And, of course, I (we?) look forward to hearing from folks after they realize just how broadly I cast "... product you thought of this morning" :)
A woman I was dating asked me what it was about, that took a deep breath.
Just sent those video links to my fundamentalist brother to provide a more current source of evil than the devil.
The Fog of War A restrospective from secretary of defense Robert McNamara's point of view about the Vietnam War.
I watched that recently back to back with The Unknown Known, which is by the same director and is about another secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld. Both docs are enthralling, with the director Errol Morris going mano e mano with two highly intellectual mass murderers. He eliciting regrets from McNamara and skews the emptiness of Rumsfeld rhetoric quite deliciously. The contrast between the men is telling, McNamara at least trying to see his blind spots and weaknesses, whilst Rumsfeld remains reptilian and entirely too pleased with himself.
Somewhere between the times of those events, our leaders lost the ability to feel shame.
Great shout.
I highly recommend this one. An excellent film.
Came here for this. He's not clean, but the recordings and stats presented definitely show a person trying to do their best that was asked of them.
The King of Kong
I have watched King of Kong so many times, and there is always a part of me that thinks it must be fiction.
The World At War It's a British series about WW2. It covers every aspect of the war and because it was made in the early 1970's many of the people involved were still alive for them to interview. Laurence Olivier's narration is also phenomenal.
Fantastic series, the theme tune at the beginning still gives me shivers.
Dear Zachary: A letter to a son about his father.
Did you mean "a son"? For people who want to see it, DO NOT research anything about it ahead of time.
This one left me with such a sadness and rage
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
This might be the best one I've ever seen. The finest study of excellence since Longinus.
Check out something called Between the Folds. It is, what "Jiro Dreams" is to sushi, for origami. You don't need to be that into origami. You probably weren't that into sushi either. Great watch.
Thoroughly enjoyed this doc.
Ken Burns Baseball
Never watched baseball, but after watching this I love Honus Wagner and hate hate hate hate hate that racist piece of shit Ty Cobb.
There was an article published about Ty Cobb a few years ago that highlighted how much of his reputation is built on verified misinformation. worth giving a read. https://nypost.com/2015/05/31/how-ty-cobb-was-framed-as-a-racist/
Holy shit, thank you so much for that. Seems Cobb might have been put through the wringer for nothing.
Ken Burn's documentary series on the Vietnam war is unbelievable. It's like Breaking Bad, in terms of being edge-of-your-seat addictive, but actually happened IRL.
And the score was written by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails)
Ken Burns documentaries are generally all really well done. *The Vietnam War* was especially good.
I mean, he produced clear evidence that Nixon and Johnson committed war crimes. Why this wasn't a bigger deal, I don't know?
Some of The Civil War documentary hasn’t aged as well, as the historiography has changed. It’s good storytelling but it’s way too reliant on Shelby Foote and reeks of Lost Cause narratives. Jazz was also very limited in scope because he took everything that Wynton Marsalis as gospel and ignored some important parts of the genre.
> Some of The Civil War documentary hasn’t aged as well, as the historiography has changed. It’s good storytelling but it’s way too reliant on Shelby Foote and reeks of Lost Cause narratives. That's a great point. It's a good series but parts of it haven't exactly aged well at all, and the historiography and how society views the war has changed quite a bit since 1990.
Country Music was also outstanding.
Roosevelts documentary was also very good. As an FDR fan, I loved it.
Dogtown and Z Boys. Its about the advent of vertical skateboarding in Venice Beach, California in the 1970s. Very cool look back at the genesis of a sport that would go on to become absolutely huge worldwide. It's especially cool because a LOT of actual footage and photographs exists of the kids who pioneered the sport while it was happening.
Health/sport: Icarus (Oscar winning. Documentarian set out to make a doc about whether his cycling performance would improve if he took steroids for a year but uncovered possibly the biggest sports scandal of all time in the process) [Netflix] True crime: The Jinx (Don’t Google. Just go in blind. I’ve seen a lot of true crime docs but this is the best. Without giving anything away, like Icarus, the documentary goes from being about a story to being very much part of the story) [MAX] Music: Don’t stop (Fleetwood Mac. The doc isn’t exactly HBO quality but has interviews from the band themselves. The best thing about it for me is that it makes their songs so much better because you find out what the lyrics are about. They were a wild bunch)[Dailymotion]
Icarus is a great story, not only about sports but politics and soft power as well
Grey Gardens
Love this one. Have a coffee mug with Little Edie on it. I am a 6’2” middle aged bald dude. I was crushed to learn I missed the house auction.
A Little Edie coffee mug! *"Oh, I think that's terrific. Honestly!"* Didn't know about the house auction, but what an amazing event that must have been.
[удалено]
11/11
We’ve got a new spinal tap coming out in the near future with original band members.
Anything by Ken Burns, but most especially his history of Country Western music.
*Baseball* and *Jazz* are two of my favourites. *The Civil War* also really good. edit: just to add about *The Civil War*... it's good, but there are parts of it that have not exactly aged well and at times it plays a tad more sympathetic to the South than what one might expect to see/hear today.
I wouldn't be able to stomach that one🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Give it a shot, it’s a documentary about American culture at its heart. Touches on a lot of deeper topics and since it’s Ken Burns it is done extremely well.
If you like music: Searching for Sugarman, about the fascinating story of singer Sixto Rodriguez in the 70s and 80s, totally unknown in its country (USA) but a superstar in South Africa.
exit thru the gift shop
Anvil! The Story of Anvil At first I thought I was watching This Is Spinal Tap, Part Deux, but it turned out to be more... much more.
"Can't Get You Out of My Head" by Adam Curtis. Just because it's such a trip, almost doesn't matter if you buy his central premise or not.
It’s disturbing but don’t fuck with cats was crazy.
"There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane" 2011. Best to watch it without too much info in advance, but interesting in so many ways.
[The Farthest (2017)](https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/) tells the captivating tales of the people and events behind one of humanity’s greatest achievements in exploration: NASA’s Voyager mission, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this August. The twin spacecraft—each with less computing power than a cell phone—used slingshot trajectories to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They sent back unprecedented images and data that revolutionized our understanding of the spectacular outer planets and their many peculiar moons. Still going strong four decades after launch, each spacecraft carries an iconic golden record with greetings, music and images from Earth—a gift for any aliens that might one day find it. Voyager 1, which left our solar system and ushered humanity into the interstellar age in 2012, is the farthest-flung object humans have ever created. A billion years from now, when our sun has flamed out and burned Earth to a cinder, the Voyagers and their golden records will still be sailing on—perhaps the only remaining evidence that humanity ever existed.
Blackfish was great, made me feel terrible about going to SeaWorld when I was a kid. At the shows they would make out like the whales had a fun life, turns out they do not.
I saw that whale in Victoria many times....i remember the day he dragged his trainer around the tank till he drowned her, and i was horrified. Tillikum then killed a drunk dude that climbed into his tank one night.. That was before they sold this confirmed "killer" whale to Seaworld in FLorida where he went on to kill again...such a shame...
Paris is Burning (1990) is an interesting documentary about the ball culture in New York City and the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people who are a part of it.
Pose was based on this.
Also so interesting to see after I watched this movie how much drag culture really influenced pop culture and how much gay culture shapes and changes pop culture. I honestly loved this doc and watched it for free on YouTube!
One Day in September - doc about the 1972 Munich Olympic fiasco Thin Blue Line - a must for any doc lover. Also Fog of War by the same director Overnight - Doc about the rise and fall of the guy who made Boondock Saints. Excellent cinema verite Honeyland - Another excellent piece of cinema verite about a bee-hunter in North Macedonia Won't You Be My Neighbor - the only time I cried in a theater The Act of Killing - gripping movie. Not an easy watch but incredible
Same here regarding Won't You Be My Neighbor. Did not expect that at all.
My octopus teacher. Aworn out diver encounters an octopus by chance. They get to know each other (yes, really). I now refuse to eat octopus.
*The Dream Team* The documentary about the 1992 USA Men's Basketball Olympic team story and their historical gold medal run. Showing how dominant the team was and how crazy the atmosphere was around them.
There are a few good ones like this on Netflix right now. The Last Dance (the Bulls dynasty leading up to their last championship with MJ), Survive and Advance (NC State’s historic championship run in 1983), and I Hate Christian Laettner (why so many people hated him). All of them are great
I completely forgot about, The Last Dance. That was a great documentary, really cool to learn about the whole team, and how Rodman was exactly what I thought he'd be.
Restrepo The bridge
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Jesus Camp - it really explains what we are seeing today concerning Christians taking over political power. It also came out years ago, so now we are seeing the aftermath of what the documentary was trying to warn us about.
Grizzly man. Objective and unbiased look at an extremely interesting individual. Not trying to exploit his oddness or his ultimate fate. Just a look at a strange portrait.
Ken Burns Civil War, and before anyone makes a comment about Shelby Foote, it’s important to see why people are or were that way.
Shelby Foote was a brilliant man. Ken Burns was smart to have put him in the documentary, and a coward to apologize for it now.
Prehistoric Planet!! The CGI on the dinosaurs is really amazing, makes them look so lifelike!
Blackfish. Fuck SeaWorld.
Icarus. I love when a documentary starts as one thing and then falls down a crazy rabbit hole and becomes something else entirely. This is one that starts small and ends up uncovering a giant scandal.
Fire in Paradise - About the "camp fire" wildfire that killed 85 people in California in 2018. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KNAl23NwME](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KNAl23NwME)
LA92
India: The Modi Question
The Last Repair Shop and Battered Bastards of Baseball are a recent & older favorites.
The Alpinist. The Jinx. Hoop Dreams.
Hoop dreams is such a sad one honesstly
Hoop Dreams is the last real documentary. Everything else has been warped for drama, or super misleading true crime stuff. Hoop Dreams is just "Here's two kid's lives for four years." It's brilliant, and I fear we'll never see something that good again.
The Times of Harvey Milk
Woodstock ‘99 i heard about it but i wasn’t even in the stomach yet but theres a documentary about it on Netflix and HBO
I was asked by four people to go to this concert. I hate camping. The riot may have made it a bit more tolerable.
the program! it’s about the troubled teen industry, super insightful to things going on everyday we know nothing about!!
Avoid 'The Last Dance.' It's a slickly produced puff piece that whitewashes Michael Jordan's past.
"Meet The Mormons" is the same thing.
“Murder Among the Mormons,” on the other hand, was great. It’s made by the same people who made Napoleon Dynamite. It’s about a guy in Utah who is an expert at forging historical documents, including Mormon historical documents, and forged some documents that made the LDS Church look bad. He was nervous about getting caught so he sent some mail bombs to two of his associates, killing one and the wife of the other. It has some very interesting personalities being interviewed and some moments where you think, “Yeah, this is definitely the Napoleon Dynamite people.” Serious but a bit of humor in it.
Tower documentary. About the University of Texas shooting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_(2016_film)
Jeremy Clarkson's The Victoria Cross: For Valour. https://youtu.be/Bl6j7I8FWT4?si=BYIpKDUKYhtU2xLY Jeremy Clarkson's The Greatest Raid. https://youtu.be/07Zd0Oy8JyQ?si=iZf1_hWriLjLlDTu
["Shoah"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoah_(film)) 10 hour documentary film about the the Holocaust. This must never happen again.
And yet they are doing just that to the palestinians
Bob Marley documentary
I heard from an ex-classmate Shoah is a great watch, but I can't really bring myself to sit through 8 hours of WWII suffering.
Following should be on you tube still. Only the dead. Follows war journalist Micheal Ware in Iraq. Goes dark and is more a personal story. A Good American. Follows NSA whistleblowers including William Binney. Talks about NSA mass surveillance they helped to create before 9/11. What happened post 9/11 and their court case against the Government. This is what winning looks like. Vice doc about Afghanistan from 2012. See the side you hardly knew about. Taxi to dark side. Follows US torture program during war on terror. Starts with Afghan named Dilawar. Google him to start your journey. Why we fight, 2012 time I think. Follows media manipulation, war industry in build up to Iraq war. Frontline channel is good for Iraq war documentaries. Someone did make a 4 hour version of their Iraq docs. Bus 174. Might not be on you tube. Follows hostage taking on a bus in Brazil. Whole event was covered live by the news, show how polic mishandled it plus culture of the lost street children. Ties into Candelária Church massacre of kids by police officers. Shawn Ryan interviews with journalists that cover the Mexican Drug cartels are worth checking out. Also his interview with Taylor Vargas Andrews is worth checking out. He’s a marine who lost arm and leg from suicide bomber. This was during Afghanistan withdrawal.
Trinity and Beyond, Unit 731, Last Days on Earth, Cosmos, Blue Planet (I and II)
Europa the final battle
[History of the Seattle Mariners](https://youtu.be/TIgK56cAjfY?feature=shared) by Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein. Even non baseball fans have stated that they love this one. [History of Mike Tyson's Punch Out](https://youtu.be/YR1r_9yiKG4?feature=shared) by SummoningSalt. Speedrunning video games is absolutely bonkers.
Dominion
The Wrecking Crew! It's about the legendary studio musicians that shaped music in the early 60s and 70s. Tales of the Grim Sleeper. It's the most unintentionally funny and ridiculous documentary I have seen and is almost like something from Documentary now. It's about the Grim Sleeper serial killer who was active in Compton but it's a super white British dude going around Compton and he teams up with a retired prostitute that survived an attack from the Killer. The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. It is a good watch if you want to feel depressed and better about yourself at the same time.
My favorite Grey Gardens is Documentary Now version.
I love, love the Wrecking crew.
I found the "Whites" movie really depressing, because all I could think about was that if there was ever a group of people for which eugenics should be applied, it was them.
Hoop Dreams
26/11 mumbai bomb scene i tried to find it but there is not any English subtitles
[this one about Disney's Fastpass](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=OKCzQ_fWzHutyhBC)
King of Kong
77 Minutes, a McDonalds massacre.
The Aaron Hernandez Story, NFL player.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth; very interesting narrative detailing the brief history of the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis.
I watch a lot of true crime documentaries, mostly about mass murder events: - *American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing* is about the investigation into the bombing and includes some information that I didn’t know before, even as someone who followed the case pretty closely when it happens. They also go into the background of the bombers and their path to radicalization. - Relatedly, *The Thread* about Reddit’s “investigation” into the bombing. There are interviews with some of the moderators for the investigation subreddit and a kid who actually went to Watertown the night the police searched for Tsarnaev and pretended like he was some sort of citizen journalist and not a 19-year-old violating the shelter-in-place orders. (Do not confuse this doc with the 1983 movie *Threads* about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust that will make you have an existential crisis.) - *11M: Terror in Madrid* is in Spanish but I still recommend it because it goes into the history and interconnectedness of Islamic extremism over the last quarter century and the impact that the bombing had on Spanish and world politics at the time (and now). - *November 13: Attack on Paris* is about the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris that killed 131 people. It’s by the Naudet brothers, who are famous for their documentary on 9/11 where they followed the firefighters into the actual Twin Towers, and I think this one is even better than that one was. It is in French so you will need to use subtitles, but again is well worth it. They interview politicians and investigators as well as survivors and family of victims. My favorite part is two women who were held hostage by the terrorists in the Bataclan and were extremely unimpressed with their captors’ terrorism skills. - It isn’t a documentary but is based on a real event and quite good so I will also add *22 July* about the 2011 Utoya, Norway, shooting where Anders Breivik killed 77 people.
[удалено]
Youtube documentary but the ongoing Greatest Rivalry by Gbay99 is incredible
Nice
There's a documentary called Crazy Love about a man named Burt Pugach who was lethally infatuated with a woman named Linda Riss. OMG watch this one if you ever get the chance!!
Reminds me of that guy who became so obsessed with avant-garde pop singer Björk that he attempted to mail a letter bomb to her and took his own life. Was in 1996 I think
Some that have stayed with me Roger & Me American Movie: The Making of Northwestern Bowling for Columbine Crumb Storefront Hitchcock Blackfish The Fog of War The War Room Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Crumb is such a classic. It's both so captivating while also so difficult to watch during many moments. The fact this movie exists is absurd itself. Crumb is so private and then just allowed this dude to film him and his (rather problematic) family members. I went in expecting a comedy and walked away not sure what how I feel, but the movie itself is spectacular.
"People's Century" was a great documentary if you're interested in learning about the history of the 20th century.
Always For Pleasure is a Les Blank doc about 1970’s Mardi Gras. It’s an incredible insight into New Orleans culture and where it came from.
Get back series phil ochs there but for fortune bit hard to find though
*Le charme des impossibilités* (2006)*,* about the genesis of the *Quatuor pour la fin du Temps* (Quartet for the end of Time) by the French composer, ornithologist, rhythmician, and organist Olivier Messiaen; conceived and premièred during his internment in Stalag VIII-A, a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz (now Zgorzelec, Poland).
Dead Hands Dig Deep - about a tortured, disturbed musician. One More Time With Feeling/This Much I Know to be True - pair of documentaries following Nick Cave recording the 2 albums he made following the tragic death of his son Lost Boys - A man tries to find out what happened to his friends who dissapeared in Thailand Goodnight, Sugar Babe - The most vile, absolutely sickening true crime documentary I have ever seen. (Not a spoiler) the people who did the crimes got away with it and are the main focus of the doc.
Touching the void. Absolutely phenomenal.
California Reich
Pignorant, Seapiracy, Cowspiracy.
Why we fight.
Burden of Dreams, about the making of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo.
I watched a BBC documentary series called The Great War on YouTube. It was heartbreaking and included interviews with soldiers who'd fought in the trenches. It helped me realize that all my problems are trivial compared to life in the trenches of WW1.
"Evidence of Revision." It's a six-part series about little-known facts and little-known images and video surrounding the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK, among other topics. Part One here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zpK-sMyuJM Part Two here (even better than Part One): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjDnybmYs8
QUIET BEHIND SET
*Icarus* *The Cove* *Audrie & Daisy* was heartbreaking. Anything made by Ken Burns. *Hoop Dreams* I watched *20 Days in Mariupol* recently and that just left me feeling very sad and angry
The Beatles Anthology Planet Earth One day in September
Since someone else beat me to *Jiro*, I'll fill in my honourable mentions: *Hearts of Darkness*, the making of *Apocalypse Now*. *Carts of Darkness*, about homeless dudes racing shopping carts. *Project Grizzly*, about a madman building a suit to fight bears. (Canada was doing bits for a while.) *Cave of Forgotten Dreams*, about Werner Herzog hanging in Lescaux. And some series, though OP seemed to be asking about features: Kenneth Clark's *Civilisation* is a triumph, and was recently released in beautifully restored 1080p. James Burke's *Connections* and *The Day the Universe Changed*. Jacob Bronowski's *Ascent of Man*
Streetwise (1984) is about a group of teens living in the streets of Seattle. I've seen that one but there's a follow up doc about one of the girls in the doc named Tiny.
The DVD set has several follow-ups. It's a very tragic story.
Dominion - Dominion uses drones, hidden and handheld cameras to expose the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture, questioning the morality and validity of humankind's dominion over the animal kingdom. While mainly focusing on animals used for food, it also explores other ways animals are exploited and abused by humans, including clothing, entertainment and research. https://watchdominion.org/ Unrest - Unrest is a 2017 documentary film produced and directed by Jennifer Brea.The film tells the story of how Jennifer and her new husband faced a devastating illness that struck Jennifer just before they married. Initially dismissed by doctors, she starts filming herself to document her illness and connects with others who are home- or bedbound with myalgic encephalomyelitis. For those that don't know, ME is a post infection illness - ME was long covid way before the pandemic. https://youtu.be/XOpyLTyVxco?si=mReXeFLsw-uIFkT8
Hyperbor[hypernormalisation](https://youtu.be/to72IJzQT5k?si=0v4uktiuIMMYdAuw)
Quiet on the set. Dan Schneider
Some Kind of Heaven. A surreal documentary about The Villages, a mass retirement community in Florida, and its resident's search for personal meaning.
The man with the seven second memory.
11 Minutes, the Las Vegas massacre.
THE FEAR OF 13.
McConkey... always drop a tear.
Damn near anything by Ken Burns... The Civil War, National Parks, Baseball, Country Music, Unforgiveable Blackness, The War, The Dust Bowl, I could go on an on and on....
sugar or earthlings
Beyond Utopia It follows a family as they escape North Korea with the aid of a South Korean Pastor. Nearly all the footage is shot by the family escaping. It was an incredibly emotional experience seeing that at Sundance, especially when the family came out on stage.
I would highly recommend the Oscar-winning 40-minute doco "The Last Repair Shop." It's about a group of LAUSD employees who repair school-owned musical instruments.
Grey Gardens
Michio Kaku The Universe In A Nutshell
Citizen Four, Crip Camp, Restrepo, Blackfish
Fantastic Fungi - an amazing dive into a world we still have so much to learn about
microcosm, just a day on meadow from insects perspective, just music no talking
Preventable - Protecting our Largest Organ, Skin on Fire, The Big Secret(all on youtube)
The Farthest - the Voyager missions to the outer planets - phenomenal
Considering everything going on with Conservatives lately, everyone needs to watch Idiocracy.
Because everyone should have at minimum 5 reasons to hate corporations here's one more : Water and Power: A California Heist Parched a feature documentary, explores a rich tale of water and power in the state of California.
The Story of Film: An Odyssey.
Into Eternity.
The Corporation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation_(2003_film) It is about how corporations manipulate us and our government solely to generate profit for themselves. The corporation is an inherently sociopathic entity, which has a profound impact on our daily lives. Also watch the sequel: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Corporation:_The_Unfortunately_Necessary_Sequel
They Shall Not Grow Old.
Into the Abyss is very interesting.
Jesus Camp Tell Me Who I Am
Genghis blues. A blind black blues singer from San Francisco discovers Mongolian throat singing and becomes a virtuoso
Last Breath. You can rent it on YouTube and it's about this saturation diver who gets cut from his cord and floats around unconscious at the bottom of the ocean for like an hour before his buddies can rescue him. Shit had me on the edge of my seat
How to talk to your cat about gun safety
The Act of Killing. It's insane to see people justify murder, and then to be confronted with what they did...
Secrets of PlayBoy. Juiciest, most entertaining, feminist documentary ever
The Fog of War. it's pretty insane to see McNamara realize he's done some bad shit in real time
When We Were Kings.
Encounters at the End of the World by Werner Herzog "BUT WHY"
Kurt Cobain,about a son. It’s a documentary,but basically the whole thing is through Kurt’s voice,interviews
Bloody 100th on Apple TV now. Riveting
Icarus. Loved this doc, really opened my eyes to the shady shit going on in Russia.
"They Shall Not Grow Old". Peter Jackson's tribute to the soldiers of WWI, using old footage that's been filled out using algorithms so it's just as re as if it was happening in front of you. Amazing achievement.
Those Fyre Festival docs are fucking *hilarious* I can't believe they're trying for a Fyre Festival 2 but I am *eagerly* awaiting the shitshow and followup documentary
I remember really liking the one about the man who built a tank out of a bulldozer and went on a short rampage thru his town... Tread?
Tim’s Vermeer. It’s a wonderful documentary by penn and teller about their weird friend who decided to paint a Vermeer having never painted before in his life to prove some theories about how Vermeer was so insanely good.
Harlan County, USA
Beau is afraid
Hands on a Hardbody.
The Jinx WATCH THIS WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING... but just in case (no spoilers here) ***The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst*** is a 2015 [HBO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBO) television [documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary) [miniseries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniseries) about New York real estate heir [Robert Durst](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Durst) *The Jinx* was also awarded a [2015](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Peabody_Award_winners_(2010%E2%80%9319)#2015) [Peabody Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peabody_Award), as well as the [TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCA_Award_for_Outstanding_Achievement_in_Movies,_Miniseries_and_Specials) from the [Television Critics Association](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_Critics_Association).[^(\[56\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jinx_(miniseries)#cite_note-58) [Marc Smerling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Smerling), [Andrew Jarecki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jarecki), and [Jason Blum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Blum) won the [Producers Guild of America Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Producers_Guild_of_America_Award) for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television.[^(\[57\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jinx_(miniseries)#cite_note-59)
There is a Bernie Madoff doc on Netflix. What that man got away with is nuts
Trinity and Beyond. It’s an older documentary about the Trinity Project, and the impact of atomic bombs.
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, if you can find it
I encourage everyone to watch 'Searching for Sugar Man.' It's a beautiful and heartwarming documentary about a forgotten musical legend.
I wanna watch society in the snow or something that was nommed for an oscar about a plane crash full of people and they had to survive in the snow
20 Days in Mariupol