Documentaries

[wacki]

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.

[Pete H]

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

[shemp]

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

[wet work]

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.

[shaniac]

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.

[Pete H]

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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.

[Brocktoon]

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

[MicroBob]

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.

[troymclur]

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.

[bkholdem]

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