Re: Documentaries
 

My favorite Errol Morris documentary is Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. It's basically all talking-heads interviews and old stock footage, but it tells the story of 4 different weird, eccentric people. Thematically it's about what human existence is like. Good stuff.

Also, most HBO documentaries are typically very solid. One that stands out for me was a couple years back called Small Town Ecstasy. It was done by the same guy who did Capturing the Friedmans, and it's about this dad who parties and does drugs with his kids. Messed-up stuff.

Re: Documentaries
 

The Michael Apted 7 Up series.

Re: Documentaries
 

Be Here to Love Me about singer-songwriter Townes Van Zant is one of my favorite music documentaries.

He was a really troubled guy from an affluent family who walked away and became basicly a vagabond musician. Many critics agree he was one of the great songwriters of our time. He was given electro shock therapy for depression and it ended up erasing most of his childhood memories. A fascinating story.
Trailer

Re: Documentaries
 

hopefully bdk3clash will chime in, he's the documentary master. a good one about andy goldsworthy, one of my favorite artists, is rivers and tides.

goldsworthy makes sculptures and other things out of things he finds while exploring nature. he also does some installations. here's a black hole with leaves:

http://www.msubillings.edu/art/image..._with_Hole.jpg

Re: Documentaries
 

Also very good was Capturing the Friedmans. Particularly since that was a huge bit of local news for me when I was growing up.

Re: Documentaries
 

My Best Fiend- documentary about Klaus Kinsky by Werner Herzog.

Crumb is an excellent recommendation too.

Re: Documentaries
 

Many find them cloying, but I greatly enjoy Ken Burns' films, particularly The Civil War.

Another that deserves mention is Lost In La Mancha, which is about Terry Gilliam and Johnny Depp's quixotic journey to film a Don Quixote movie.

Re: Documentaries
 

Two of the best ones that haven't yet been mentioned are:

The Times of Harvey Milk -- a terrific and very moving look at the controversial gay San Francisco politician who was assassinated. I cried.

Startup.com -- I defy anyone to find a better exploration of the dot-com boom and bust.

Re: Documentaries
 

Noah: I thought Rize was visually great and enjoyed the dancing, but as a documentary I thought it was pretty bad in terms of creating a compelling story. I wouldn't recommend it.

Claunchy: Small Town Ecstasy was crazy, highly recommend it. Yeah, I try to watch all those HBO documentaries.

syf: Dope Sick Love was such a downer. I recommend it, but pretty sad stuff.

Re: Documentaries
 

[ QUOTE ]

Spellbound - spelling bee
Word Wars - scrabble

[/ QUOTE ]

Your mentioning these reminded me of Wordplay, focusing on the annual crossword puzzle tournament founded by Will Shortz, crossword editor of the New York Times. The documentary is interspersed with interviews of puzzlemakers, and puzzle doers (some pretty entertaining clips including Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart).