Documentaries

[Marwan]

Onibus 174 (Bus 174) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340468/

Good documentary about a hostage situation on a bus in Rio .. powerful doc.

[Metamorphatory]

Havent seen anyone mention: The Smashing Machine yet.

An excellent look inside the world of MMA and in particular the rise and ultimate fall of Mark Kerr. From his addiction to painkillers and steroids to his first defeat in the ring.

Also features Mark Coleman and Bas Ruttan.

[lapoker17]

[ QUOTE ]
Havent seen anyone mention: The Smashing Machine yet.

An excellent look inside the world of MMA and in particular the rise and ultimate fall of Mark Kerr. From his addiction to painkillers and steroids to his first defeat in the ring.

Also features Mark Coleman and Bas Ruttan.


[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, that was awesome, i saw it a long time ago, may need to see it again.

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

[Arnfinn Madsen]

A look into a different world, not a well made movie, but still interesting:

Disbelief

[SB182]

i may be a little too mainstream and a few years late, but i recently saw "Murder on a Sunday Morning". It did a great job of showing the flaws that can exist in eyewitness id's and confessions. Plus, the public defender is just an awesome character.

[MicroBob]

Some documentaries that have been mentioned that I have liked a lot:

Hoop Dreams - Really terrific as many have mentioned.

Thin Blue Line - Same. This film really got to me. It's been so long since I've seen it and I still remember how I was so blown away by it.

Crumb - Funny and weird.


Diablo mentioned Word-Wars about the Scrabble Circuit which I haven't seen yet. I really want to check this out.
The book Word Freaks about the same subjet was really good I thought and got me interested.


A few months ago I saw a documentary on ESPN called, "The Time of Their Lives" about the growth of the NY Cosmos and North American Soccer League in the 1970's including Pele and other star players.
This documentary was masterfully done in my opinion.
The music and editing gave it a kind of funky 70's feel but without being so over-the-top as to be silly.

Even if you're not a soccer fan I think it would be interesting to see the story of how this practically semi-pro team drawing 1k fans a game was able to somehow land the best player in the world and eventually become a huge craze and sell-out Giants Stadium (over 70k fans) and then, almost just as quickly, fade-away entirely.


Koshien - This was a documentary I saw on PBS a few mths ago about the Japanese High-School baseball tournament. Not really that well-done but still somewhat interesting to watch. Thousands of teams battling in a giant nationwide single-elim tourney. Top 49 teams go to the Koshien finals that every player dreams of participating in.
It's a glimpse into the difference in attitudes in general between the U.S. and Japanese cultures as well imo.


Trekkies - Funny film from about 10 yrs ago about obsessed Star Trek fans attending various conventions, etc. Some of the interviews with the nerdier of the group are really funny of course, but I also developed an appreciation for how devoted they are to the history of the show.


The Big Bang (1989) - Probably my favorite documentary. Interviews with various people from different walks of life about love, life, death, etc. Some have very interesting stories to tell. Funny, sweet, thoughtful, simple.
Read a review on IMDB that it didn't go in-depth enough on each of the topics. I thought that keeping it moving and a little lighter and not bogging it down in really deep philosophy was the preferred approach.

[MicroBob]

Regarding some other documentary makers:

Michael Moore - I saw Fahrenheit 911 and was really disappointed. Frankly, I thought it was pretty terrible. And my political leanings are not that far from Moore's.
I have a feeling I would not be impressed by Columbine either but I still want to see it and will try not to let my opinion of 911 influence me.


Ken Burns - I've seen parts of Civil War, Baseball and Jazz. I didn't particularly care for any of them actually.
Jazz I guess I liked best. The baseball one really disappointed me.
one thing I remember is that he actually dubbed in sound-effects (like crack of the bat, fan-noise, etc) on some films that obviously wouldn't have had any sound because they were so old...and also onto modern games where I thought he would have been better to just use the regular sound even if it included the announcer.

I remember being annoyed at how they portrayed the Game 6 of the 1975 World Series (Cincy and Boston) because it was weird that the crowd noise would be the same for a Cincy base-hit as it would be for a Boston base-hit.

This was only one of the aspects that bugged me about it though.

[limon]

i cant beleive no one has mentioned VERNON, FLORIDA. has anyone mentioned VERNON, FLORIDA? it is an absolute must see on the order of: my brothers keeper, crumb, roger and me and PARADISE LOST.

[wet work]

I don't recall seeing this one mentioned, Tom Dowd & The Language of Music. If you're into music this is a must see. Dowd's influence on music is immeasureable.

[cbloom]

For those in SF , the Balboa Theatre is showing all the oscar nominated documentaries FOR FREE , Feb 20 & 21.

http://www.balboamovies.com/oscar/
The Balboa Theater - Oscars 2006