Documentaries

[russellmj]

Mr. Death: This docu follows the exploits of a prison guard's son who helps repair the electric chair of a prison back east, and then somehow manages to parlay this into "expert" status and get work all over the country making/repairing electric chairs. Full of himself and cocksure, things spiral out of control and he winds up a pariah.

Heart of Gold: Johnathan Demme's Docu/concert film of Neil Young's premiere of his songs from the album Prairie Wind. Must see for any Young fan.

C*cksucker Blues: Documentary of The Stones '72 tour in support of their album Exile On Mainstreet. This film was never officially released though bootlegs are occasionally available. Read all about it.

[ohgeetee]

I thought Rock School was worth watching. The teacher is a Zappa freak that basically runs a rock school for kids of almost all ages.

Bowling for Columbine and moreso Farehnheit 9/11 are hardly documentaries IMO. There is certainly going to be bias in documentaries, but these films have complete falsities and misrepresentation of truth in them, which is about as anti documentary as you can get. Its bad that I have to qualify with this, but its usually needed... I am about as far from conservative as one can get, but I still hate being purposefully misled by such a maniac.

[lapoker17]

2 more:

overnight - follows troy duffy, who wrote the boondock saints, and his group of friends during a time when it seems their careers in entertainment are taking off. this is like the startup.com of the hollywood scene. a bunch of geniuses who have it all figured out and are about to take over the world. they inevitably flame out completely and they are such huge douchebags that the ending is perfect. not particularly well made, but if you like laughing at losers you should check it out.

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.

[ChrisCo]

On Any Sunday is a classic motorcycle/dirtbike documentary from the 70s with Steve Mqueen. Great if you have any interest in any two wheel sport.

Why We Fight is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen.

Who killed the electric car is good as yellosub was saying.

Baraka is an awsome. It has clips from cultures all around the world. Has some excellent footage and really opens your eyes. This would be a good movie to be drugged out too if that is your thing. It would be a fun trip.

Outfoxed is a good one to see also.

There was a video I believe I saw from OOT that followed meth users in Australia that was amazing.

That is all for now.

[proell]

Not the best, but worth a watch and still unmentioned:

Loose Change
Triumph of the Nerds
Catch a Fire

[samsdmf]

Just a quick heads up to UKers- More4 are starting to show a series of Errol Morris films on Monday at 9pm- this monday is 'Mr Death' which is suggested in an early post here.

[debater]

I have always enjoyed all things FRONTLINE.

Most recent was:

"The Meth Epidemic"

Very frustrating to hear how easily this problem could have been significantly reduced. It was not, because of the influence of the major drug companies. Irony or what!

Debater

[ryanj247]

[ QUOTE ]
I just saw something on the news last night about The Bridge which is about people committing suicide off the Golden Gate bridge over the course of a year. It stirred controversy for several reasons, and I think I'm going to catch it. The filmmaker used four cameras at two locations to film, and then afterwards, talked to the families about the person who jumped. It looks like it's still making the rounds in art house theatres, but has anyone seen it?

[/ QUOTE ]

for anyone in vegas, this documentary is playing now through thursday at the tropicana cinemas . i saw it last night and i thought it was excellent.

[microbet]

I just saw Who Killed the Electric Car a couple nights ago.

I don't think it was the greatest documentary. A little more time was spent on some things that I don't think were as interesting as some others that got less time. I did know some of this before I saw it though, since I was very interested in the car when it came out. For me it was preaching to the choir, but I'm not totally sure the movie would be convincing to a more skeptical audience.

It was pretty good though. I had already thought that the current policy towards alternative powered cars was bad, but I had thought it was more misguided than intentional.

I was already planning on getting or converting a car to electric soon. The movie certainly has me more motivated.

[iSTRONG]

There was a very good documentary on life in Tehran by/on the BBC a couple of days ago.

Rageh Inside Iran

It can be seen in full on google video

It's a genuine look at the life of iranians in Tehran. Very far from the image of flag-burning fanatics Fox Network wants you to have.