Re: Documentaries
 

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street fight - chronicles the 2002 mayoral election in newark, nj. the incumbent, sharpe james is the prototypical fast talking, crooked, career politician. his opponent is corey booker, a stanford and yale educated city councilman who lives in one of the housing projects in his district. lots of dirty politics. if you enjoy the political subplots on the wire, you will like this a lot. well produced and very interesting.

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Street fight is totally awesome. 4*s.

Re: Documentaries
 

Just got done watching Cocaine Cowboys thanks to this thread.
Unreal. Always been a Dolphins fan but I really didn't realise just how much of an impact the coke dollars had on the city. And the folks interviewed/covered are ..um..intense. The Godmother and her #1 hitman. Miami's unstoppable economy when the rest of the country is in a recession.
Amazing.

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
Just got done watching Cocaine Cowboys thanks to this thread.
Unreal. Always been a Dolphins fan but I really didn't realise just how much of an impact the coke dollars had on the city. And the folks interviewed/covered are ..um..intense. The Godmother and her #1 hitman. Miami's unstoppable economy when the rest of the country is in a recession.
Amazing.

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Yeah. I just finished it too. What a great film! I knew but had no idea.

Re: Documentaries
 

Yea cocaine cowboys was the most enjoyable drug documentary I've seen.

Re: Documentaries
 

Two I haven't seen mentioned:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0166896/ The Straight Story, though not strictly a documentary

"The Straight Story" chronicles a trip made by 73-year-old Alvin Straight from Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wis., in 1994 while riding a lawn mower. The man undertook his strange journey to mend his relationship with his ill, estranged, 75-year-old brother Lyle. Written by Christian Sandberg

Alvin Straight is a very old man with a quiet life in a small country town. When his brother gets seriously sick, he decides to put away their differences and visit him after many, many years. So, alone, he begins a long journey through hundreds of miles, just to see again his brother, even if it's the last thing he will ever do... Based on a real story. Written by Chris Makrozahopoulos {makzax@hotmail.com}


AND

http://imdb.com/find?s=all&q=southern+comfort Southern Comfort

At its essence, Kate Davis's film, Southern Comfort, is about a transgendered man who is dying from cancer in his female reproductive organs. Southern Comfort is more than this, however. It also deals with the intricacies of the social community that the main character, Robert Eads, has surrounded himself with since transitioning from female to male, details the romantic attachment that Robert has formed with his girlfriend Lola Cola near the end of his life, and examines the dynamics between Robert and his genetic family. More than this, Southern Comfort engages in a discourse on human sexuality that serves to enlighten the audience viewing the film on the realities of transgendered life in the backcountry of the Deep South.

Re: Documentaries
 

Bastards of the Party

HBO documentary. Good, not great. Very interesting if you're interested in gang culture. This documentary traces the history of LA gangs starting from the history in the 40s, but mainly focusing on how things evolved into the current gang culture from the Black Panther and other politically focused organizations.

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
dark days - follows a group of homeless who live in an abandoned, underground railroad tunnel in new york. they have "houses" and electricity etc. in their little world. this sounds like it would be interesting, but for whatever reason it was boring. i only made it halfway through.


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Watching this right now on Netflix (its featured in the play now section and you can watch it for free right on your comp if you have an acct.).

Coincidentally I've watched only about the first half and I decided to pull up this thread and see if anyone mentioned it. Very surprised by your review El D. So far I have found it utterly gripping and fascinating. I'd rate the first half of Dark Days among the best 45 minutes of documentary I've ever seen.

Off to watch the 2nd half now.

Re: Documentaries
 

Finished. Amazing film. Can't recommend it enough.

El D, I think this one might be worth another look. Try watching the whole thing this time.

Re: Documentaries
 

Kind of weird not to see The Sorrow and the Pity mentioned.

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
Very surprised by your review El D.

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eh - all of the reviews in The op are mine, diablo just posted it for me. i may watch it again - a number of people have advised that.

Re: Documentaries
 

This one hasn't been mentioned yet:

http://www.secondamendmentdocumentary.com/

It's incredibly dry (I watched it in 2 one hour sittings) and very low budget but historically accurate. There are a few pro-rights people they could have dropped but that goes with the territory I guess. If you are interested in either the 2nd or the 14th amendment this is a good flick to watch. It's interesting to see how misguided even some of our circuit courts are on this piece of history.

Re: Documentaries
 

I'm a huge fan of David Attenborough/BBC documentaries.

My favourites are Life of Mammals and The Trials Of Life, but they all are worth watching.

Magnificent footage from Norwegian mountains alone make Adrenaline Rush: The Science of Risk a good choice.

Besides showing skydiving/BASE jumping footage, they also explain why some people want to do things most people wouldn't do for any price.

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Metal: A Headbanger's Journey - Sam Dunn is a 30-year old anthropologist who wrote his graduate thesis on the plight of Guatemalan refugees. Recenly he has decided to study the plight of a different culture, one he has been a part of since he was a 12-year old: the culture of heavy metal. Sam sets out on a global journey to find out why this music has been consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned and yet is loved so passionately by its millions of fans. Along the way, Sam explores metals' obsession with some of life's most provacative subjects - sexuality, religion, violence and death - and discovers some things about the culture that even he can't defend. Shot on location in the UK, Germany, Norway, Canada and the US, this documentary is the first of its kind. It is both a defense of a long-misunderstood art form and a window for the outsider into the spectacle that is heavy metal.

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I loved Metal: A Headbanger's Journey His interviews in the film are great. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys metal and/or documentaries.

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I didn't like it that much. I felt it was made for people who know nothing or very little about metal.

His view on black metal was just like outsider's view on metal in general: only morons are into that kind of music.

NP: Akercocke - Horns Of Baphomet

Re: Documentaries
 

Haven't seen the "Up" series mentioned. Seven Up, etc...

Re: Documentaries
 

Not sure if this counts but the Blue Planet: Seas of Life series is incredible. THat's narrated by David Attenborough I believe as well. Just amazing footage.

Re: Documentaries
 

Mayor of Sunset Strip is awesome and depressing. Dig is too long and self-indulgent. Really want to see 'Dark Days.'

Two music docs that may not have been mentioned yet:

Wild Man Blues - Woody Allen's and Soon-Yi traveling through Europe with his jazz band. Barbara Kopple made this, also want to see her recent doc on the Dixie Chicks.

Don't Look Back - Amazing Pennebaker doc on Dylan's late-60s UK tour.

Re: Documentaries
 

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Not sure if this counts but the Blue Planet: Seas of Life series is incredible. THat's narrated by David Attenborough I believe as well. Just amazing footage.

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That's another good pick and yes, it's narrated by Attenborough.

Re: Documentaries
 

I eluded to this earlier but I'll mention it again anyway.

Anyone here who has a Netflix acct can watch a lot of the movies mentioned in this thread instantly on their comp for free. Everyone gets a certain amount of free "watch now" hours per month, a lot of hours FWIW.


They have Word Wars, Game Over: Kasparov vs. the Machine, Dark Days, Crumb, Street Fight, and Supersize Me among others. I've watched all of them (except street fight) after reading this thread

Re: Documentaries
 

This morning on IFC I've been watching "One Day In September" about the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis including footage of ABC's live coverage of the event and interviews with the participants in the crisis.

Jim McKay was the exhausted and emotionally drained anchor at ABC who was supposed to just be covering the Olympic games but had to quickly switch to the role of news-reporter.

A young Peter Jennings was phoning in reports of what he could observe on the grounds.


The whole film is extremely well done.


-- "In 1972, athletes from around the globe gathered in Munich, Germany for the Olympic Games. However, the Olympic spirit of brotherhood and peaceful competition was shattered when eight Palestinian terrorists invaded the athletes' quarters to take the Israeli team hostage, resulting in the violent deaths of eleven athletes. In One Day in September, director Kevin Macdonald mixes newsreel coverage of the tragedy with interviews of witnesses and participants (including Jamil Al Gashey, the only surviving member of the terrorist cadre Black September who were responsible for the killings), as they discuss what happened, and how a dangerous situation turned tragic and deadly . Produced by two-time Oscar winner Arthur Cohn,One Day in September earned Cohn another trophy when it received an Academy Award as Best Documentary Feature."


This film is on again tonight at 5:30pm (eastern) and I will probably make sure to either watch the whole thing (haven't seen it from the start) and/or perhaps tape it.

Re: Documentaries
 

Not your typical doc, but "The Blue Planet" is far and away the best ocean documentary i have ever seen. It's just stunning. It's in 7 parts, i believe, each covering a different section of ocean life, some of which are out of this world (almost literally). "The Deep" is one of the last sections, and will give you a true appreciation for the evolution of nature.

There are several creatures that have multi-colored lights on them, one even looks like a carousel. However the kicker was a certain underwater creature that would jettison a small, glowing ball from itself near its prey. The ball would burst in a bright flash, temporarily blinding the prey long enough for the creature to attack. This blew me away. Nature has created a [censored] flash bomb!

I recommend this series to any and everybody.

Re: Documentaries
 

In case no one has mentioned these:

The Iceman and the Psychiatrist

and

The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer

These are 2 documentaries about Richard Kuklinski, who worked as a contract killer for the mob for many years. He started killing people in his teenage years and estimates that he has killed over 200 people. There might have been a 3rd one too.

Here's a clip:


http://youtube.com/watch?v=rBSDiCu4Bb8

Re: Documentaries
 

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Not your typical doc, but "The Blue Planet" is far and away the best ocean documentary i have ever seen.

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Totally agreed, I love this series. They have a newer one called Life of Mammals that is also amazing.

Re: Documentaries
 

Reminder - The 'One Day In September' documentary I posted about this morning is on again right now on IFC (Independent Film Channel). Just started.

My VCR is rolling (Beat - Don't have Tivo or DVR).

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
All,

Sorta interesting that neither of these films have been mentioned yet. Both are worth watching, though not at the top of my list.

Fahrenheit 9/11 - Michael Moore documentary re; 9/11.



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There is also a documentory titled 'FarenHYPE 9/11' which is a 'conservative' response to the 'liberal' Moore film. If you dislike Moore/Moore's politics you will proably love FarenHYPE 911 and if you love more you will probably not want to see the HYPE film. lol

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
In case no one has mentioned these:

The Iceman and the Psychiatrist

and

The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer

These are 2 documentaries about Richard Kuklinski, who worked as a contract killer for the mob for many years. He started killing people in his teenage years and estimates that he has killed over 200 people. There might have been a 3rd one too.

Here's a clip:


http://youtube.com/watch?v=rBSDiCu4Bb8

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The 2 full versions of this are on youtube.

Anyone got links to any documentaries on youtube? Didnt look through the whole thread, but I found the iceman stuff really interesting and would love to watch more.

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Not your typical doc, but "The Blue Planet" is far and away the best ocean documentary i have ever seen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Totally agreed, I love this series. They have a newer one called Life of Mammals that is also amazing.

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Definitely agree. The footage they've gathered has been amazing, to say the least. When it first came out I was blown away by it.

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
CT: A bunch of those hooker/pimp documentaries on HBO are great. American Pimp is another documentary on that topic that's pretty entertaining.

ND: Pumping Iron and Hoop Dreams, two great picks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure if this documentary gets any additional attention in this thread. American Pimp is acutally a fairly well done documentary. However, any insight into the world of Pimpin' is grossly overshadowed by the onslaught of hilarious one liners and twisted logic. Its one of the most entertaining films i have ever seen.

Re: Documentaries
 

Murder on a Sunday Morning was excellent.

Also I was a Big fan of Born Rich It was directed by Jamie Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. Gives an interesting perspective in to young people with old money. A reminder that Fitzgeralds famous opening line is still true.

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
CT: A bunch of those hooker/pimp documentaries on HBO are great. American Pimp is another documentary on that topic that's pretty entertaining.

ND: Pumping Iron and Hoop Dreams, two great picks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure if this documentary gets any additional attention in this thread. American Pimp is acutally a fairly well done documentary. However, any insight into the world of Pimpin' is grossly overshadowed by the onslaught of hilarious one liners and twisted logic. Its one of the most entertaining films i have ever seen.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Pimp War segment was gold. For those who haven't seen it, a legendary pimp, one that doesn't his his bitches i might add, goes to gain new turf in Miami (i think) and a rival pimp steals all his ho's, but the guy is like 'what ev!' and brings out a whole new line of bitches. A choice quote: "those were just his second string bitches!".

Re: Documentaries
 

This site has 419 documentaries available for free, including 'Born Rich'.

Re: Documentaries
 

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This site has 419 documentaries available for free, including 'Born Rich'.

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Wow! Great find, thanks!

Re: Documentaries
 

I haven't had time to read through this whole list yet, but there's a really amazing documentary about Ernest Shackleton. I'm not sure if it's The Endurance or Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, but it's an amazing story about how a crew of 28 struggle to survive after their ship gets stuck in the ice in Antarctica. It's an incredible story about so many things but survival in particular.

Re: Documentaries
 

Has anyone mentioned "Long Way Round?" It has the highest rating I have ever seen on IMDB. It is like Endless Summer only on motorcycles. AWESOME!

Re: Documentaries
 

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Don't Look Back - Amazing Pennebaker doc on Dylan's late-60s UK tour.

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Don't Look Back is great. Watching it there's this feeling that everything in the movie has dated except Dylan.

Re: Documentaries
 

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i just got born into brothels and control room (about al jazeera) from netflix.

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I saw Born Into Brothels in the theater and thought it was very good, even though some of the things were a bit cliched as documentaries go. I think that documentaries with kids at the right age really can't go wrong.

Re: Documentaries
 

Best doc. ever made is called The Dancing Outlaw: Jesco White.

It was made about this redneck from Boone County West Virginia. I cant explain how great and funny this video is. You can get it off the internet and I promise you will not be dissapointed.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endid=59550249

This myspace page has a clip at the bottom that is so hilarious. It's really the funniest video that has ever been made. You guys really need to see it.

Re: Documentaries
 

I'll probably receive a lot of flack for this but I really enjoyed Shut Up & Sing, a documentary about the Dixie Chicks and their battle with the suits of country music. They made some anti-Bush comments at the beginning of the conflict in Iraq and were blackballed from a ton of country music stations. I think it's definitely worth seeing.

Re: Documentaries
 

~ Over Canada an Aerial Adventure ~
Very little narration, but absolutely breath taking footage...most shot from a helicopter. The music chosen to accompany the exploration of the various regions is as beautiful as the scenery. The sounds and imagery will leave you with a greater appreciation for the immense size of the country and the stark comparison of so much landscape.

It aired on PBS in 1999-2000. I ordered a copy of the video and still enjoy popping it in now and then. It's almost therapeutic [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Documentaries
 

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This site has 419 documentaries available for free, including 'Born Rich'.

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wowowowowowoow. I owe you bigtime.

Re: Documentaries
 

Yes, that would be the great Filmore Slim (name after Filmore Street in San Francisco).

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]
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Who Killed the Electric Car? - a great look at the EV1 that GM produced (as well as other electric cars), their amazing potential to redefine driving in america, and how they were quietly killed by a combination of... well i guess you must watch it to see.

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...their 75-150 mi driving limit on an 8-hr charge, and top speed of 80?
Something not mentioned in the film at all- just a thought. I don't know anyone who would want to drive in LA or NJ or DC with a car that maxes out after a few hours of driving.

According to GM, fully costed these would have been $80k, which you can debate, but is still awfully high for a car that only 800 people leased at half that price or less 10 years ago. These were 'quietly killed' by lack of demand.

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It wasn't lack of demand that killed them. Also, keep in mind the technology was rapidly improving and prices would obviously have come way down. We could all be driving 500+ mile electric cars today if the auto companies, state of CA, and the federal government wanted us to. They already had 300 mile versions ready at the time GM pulled the plug.

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From the always yummy Equity Private:
'

Since joining Sub Rosa, I have had occasion to review any number of NFDs. A common theme in major "green" or "socially responsible" projects is that when someone finally bothers to study the larger impact of the technology or product it becomes painfully obvious that the product or technology is either astonishingly impractical or has a more substantial negative impact on, e.g., the environment than the "non-Green" alternatives already in the marketplace. If this pattern appears regular in SRI or Green projects, I believe it is because of this miasma effect. It is, however, easy to avoid the miasma effect. Ask what the pricing mechanism is for the product. Is it the market, or something else that is setting pricing?

Let's take an example. Trying to get back into the swing of work I have been researching hybrid cars, a project I began last spring related to some parts manufacturers we were considering acquisitions of. Some interesting things came out. Ford, for example, was at one point taking losses on every hybrid they sold. I haven't seen recent data but I suspect not much has changed. Consumers simply won't pay the $5,000 - $6,000 premium for a hybrid just "because," or at least not enough of them will do so to make the product even a break-even proposition. What was Ford thinking? Why would this be?

No matter, the savings on gasoline make up the premium cost. Nope. Not for a long while. The Toyota Prius is among the fastest at returning savings to the user. It takes 5 years and then how much can one expect? $80.00.

Well, it's worth it. Buying a hybrid will reduce your impact on the environment and if it takes 5 years to break even, well, that's just fine isn't it?

Sure, it would be, if that were true. It isn't.

In fact, the major hybrids are really quite unfriendly when you use real metrics to evaluate them. In this case, energy cost per mile over the lifetime of the vehicle.

CNW Market Research has done a comprehensive study (updated with 2006 model recently) on the "dust-to-dust" energy costs for everything from extracting and refining raw materials to manufacture, assembly, testing, delivery, driving during the life of the car and even disposal. This is, of course, the metric that should have been used to justify hybrids in the first place (since savings on fuel costs certainly didn't make their manufacture rational).

The study is intensely detailed (a great deal of time is spent modeling how long a vehicle remains with its first owner and how many times it changes hands before being disposed of, for instance, as each incremental transfer is additional energy expenditure). Read the 400 page report, absorb the "energy cost per mile" figures and some interesting things emerge:

* Actual consumption of gasoline is generally less than one third of the total energy consumption in the lifetime of a vehicle
* The 2006 model hybrid with the lowest energy impact during its life cycle is the Toyota Prius that consumes $2.965 per mile during its life
* The 2006 model hybrid with the highest energy impact during its life cycle is the Ford Escape that consumes $3.540 per mile during its life
* For many hybrid vehicles 25% to 30% of the life cycle energy expenditure is consumed in raw material production and manufacture- this is much higher than in non-hybrid vehicles. For foreign built cars this means that emissions in the country of use (the United States, say) are not being eliminated, but rather transferred to the country of manufacture. Next time a hybrid driver looks smug feel free to remind them that they are likely dumping their emissions into the second or third world. What kind of pig subjugates the peoples of Mexico and endangers their health to look "green" for their suburban neighbors and smirks about it?
* Federal (and state) subsidies mean that this energy use and emissions transfer is part of United States monetary policy (and California is exploiting Mexico).

Remembering that the hybrids consume $2.965 - $3.540 of energy per mile during their life cycle it is interesting to consider these figures for other popular vehicles:

Ford Escape: $3.540
Porsche Boxter: $3.388
Toyota Land Cruiser: $3.354
Maserati An: $3.219
BMW 5 Series: $3.197
Cadillac Escalade: $3.197
Corvette: $3.196
Toyota Prius: $2.965
Lincoln Navigator: $2.943
Porsche 911 Carrera 4: $2.806
Lincoln Town Car: $2.661
Range Rover Sport: $2.602
Porsche Cayenne: $2.539
BMW X3: $2.513
Hummer H3: $2.069

Interestingly, most large SUVs have a fairly significantly lower lifetime energy impact than do any of the hybrids.

What a wonderful "Green" investment strategy. Hybrid cars.

Hybrids are such a horrible mess because they mix all the elements required to destroy the market forces. Subsidies, state and federal. Green investing. Substantial research and development to avoid spending money on gasoline, which the market has actually left quite cheap, at the expense of a more expensive product. (Hint: use cheap resources until they are not cheap anymore).

Gas has to hit $6.00 per gallon before today's hybrids show any cost savings to their owners inside of three years. Even the most basic sensitivity analysis would expose this. We can only reason that the likes of Ford either expected $6.00 per gallon in the near future, or simply disregarded the economic analysis in favor of a political one. Is it any surprise that the resulting product is more expensive in every way worth measuring than its conventional counterparts? Shouldn't be if you were paying attention.'