Documentaries

[El Diablo]

lapoker posted these recently and requested they be posted here. I'm a huge fan of documentaries, so let's kick things off here w/ lapoker's recent documentaries list:

some of these have probably been discussed before, but...

cocaine cowboys - chronicles the cocaine trafficking boom in miami during the 70s/80s. features interviews with the two biggest transporters and one of the top enforcers. exposes a number of key figures who are largely unknown and dispells the myth that pablo escobar was the top dog in the business. a compelling mix of news footage and interviews. this was the best of the bunch - really awesome.

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.

mayor of the sunset strip - biography of music scenester rodney bingenheimer, the first dj to play blondie, van halen, duran duran, coldplay and hundreds of other big bands. he's kind of like the forrest gump of the music world as he has befriended everyone from bowie to cher to gwen stefani. an interesting look at a weird dude. i had high hopes for this one, and was reasonably satisfied. lots of interviews and original footage.

dig! - follows the rise(?) and fall of two bands - the dandy warhols and the brian jonestown massacre. it's billed as being a comparison between the two frontmen - courtney taylor and anton newcombe, but taylor is so uninteresting that most of the footage follows necombe as he creates trainwrecks at every opportunity. though he is compared to dylan and lennon and plays over 80 instruments, his addictions and mental health problems leave him nothing more than tragic. the film was shot over seven years and cut from 1500 hours of film. i enjoyed it.

slasher - john landis directs this look at a traveling car salesman who is employed by dealers in need of immediate inventory reduction. in the film, the slasher travels to memphis with his entourage to rescue a dealership . though it was well done, the characters failed to grab me, which is surprising because i generally find good salesmen to be intriguing. worth a watch.

stevie - during his time in college, steve james (who directed hoop dreams), became a Big Brother to stevie, a kid growing up in poor, white, rural illinois. ten years after they lost touch, james returns to find out what has become of stevie. with little going for him, stevie has been in and out of trouble with the law and has a life that is sad at best. the film takes quite a turn as during filming, stevie is accused of sexually abusing a young girl. though completely disturbing, this is one of the more powerful films i've seen in years. i'm not even sure i enjoyed it, but james is so good at making documentaries and such an amazingly compassionate guy, that i somehow feel better for having watched it.

the poet and the con - a guy documents the parallels between his life and the life of his criminal uncle. i don't even feel like writing any more about it - it sucked.

[[censored]]

I really enjoyed The Fog of War which is about former secretary of Defense Robert Mcnamara. It gave a interesting historical account but I thought the best parts were the words of wisdom Mcnamara himself provides as the film moves along.

Mr. Conservative : Barry Goldwater (HBO) was also one that I enjoyed and learned from. If you are a conservative or enjoy politics I think this would be worth seeking out

[El Diablo]

[censored],

The Fog of War is by Errol Morris. He is one of my favorite documentary filmmakers.

Here are three other of his films (I think he has 8) that I really liked. I look forward to seeing the rest of them

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. - about an electric chair inventor who denies the Holocaust happened.

The Thin Blue Line - About a police murder and a guy wrongfully convicted for it.

Vernon, Florida - Can't describe it. Wacky people.

Some other of the many documentaries I love:

Crumb - about a crazy comic book writer/artist.

Rank - professional bullriding circuit

Murderball - wheelchair rugby. intense.

Spellbound - spelling bee

Word Wars - scrabble

Cowboy del Amor - about an old guy who sets up American guys w/ Mexican brides

That's just a few. Happy to elaborate on any of them, but I really enjoyed all of them. They all followed the same pattern of focusing on the stories of a few key participants in these worlds.

[El Diablo]

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.

[ChicagoTroy]

I was being a little sarcastic on the Hookers on the Point thing. It's one of those so-bad-it's-good things to me, but doesn't belong alongside Pumping Iron or many of the others mentioned. American Pimp was legitimately well done IMO.

[Kermit]

[ 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.

[troymclur]

[ 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!".

[Irish Mafia]

JESUS CAMP!

[nutsflopper]

different kind of dog show

[TiK]

[ 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).