Documentaries

[Aloysius]

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The War Room
A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. Bill Clinton himself is almost never seen.


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Forgot about this. Interestingly, Carville names people who he thinks are behind the adultery leaks during the NH primary and one, Roger Ailes, is now head of Fox News.

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Haha forgot about this also... I actually own this thing.

Believe some of his other docs have been mentioned in this thread - D.A. Pennenbaker is very good at what he does:

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In the early 1960s Pennebaker (known as "Penny" to his friends), together with Richard Leacock and Robert Drew, founded Drew Associates. In 1963 Leacock and Pennebaker left to found their own production firm. Later he often worked with his wife, Chris Hegedus. Their company, Pennebaker Hegedus Films, has made a number of influential documentaries. Sometimes called "Pennebaker documentaries", these films, shot with an obviously hand-held camera, typically eschew voice-over narration and interviews in favor of a "simple" portrayal of events.

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-Al

[mattsey9]

Two that I liked that haven't been mentioned so far:

Roger & Me: Michael Moore's first work documents the town of Flint, Michigan after the closing of GM's plant put 30,000 people out of work.

The Weather Underground: A lookback at the Weather Underground, an anti-war movement from the 60's & 70's. A lot of footage from the beginning of the movement and "where are they now" interviews with several of the main members.

[El Diablo]

All,

Sorta interesting that neither of these films have been mentioned yet. Both are worth watching, though not at the top of my list.

Fahrenheit 9/11 - Michael Moore documentary re; 9/11.

Super-Size Me - About the fast food industry / health impacts on America. Guy eats just McDonald's for a month. Very flawed and silly experiment, but interesting premise.

[Hobbs.]

Bukowski: Born into This. I really enjoyed this when I saw it recently. The film use a bunch of 70s and 80s interviews along with some filmed poetry readings to tell the story of Bukowski's life.

[KOTLP]

I second Touching the Void. Someone here recommended it a while back. One of the most amazing survival stories I've ever seen.

[Hoya]

Herzog documentaries are almost all very good.

For the nature side I'd suggest Microcosmos (insects) and Winged Migration (birds), which have beautiful imagery and show stuff well beyond that which you'd see on Animal Planet or Discovery.

[NajdorfDefense]

Lost in La Mancha
Enron
and Capturing the Freidmans were all very good.

Hoop Dreams may be 3.5 hours but feels like 20 mins to me.

[donkeylove]

Second to The Kid stays in the Picture and Stoked. Also Gladiator Days:The Anatomy of a Prison Murder I haven't seen mentioned.

[1-Lucky-SOB]

El Diablo
Cocaine Cowboys - Out of all the films in this thread that I now wanna see. I wanna see this one the most. Might even get down to a Blockbuster soon to get it?

The Bridge - Gotta see this flick.

Mayor of the Sunset Strip - Classic scene when Rodney interviewed the Sex Pistols on the phone. The pioneer of KROQ and now he is relegated to a Sun. night show. The Rodney on the Roq compilation albums where I first heard Agent Orange and Black Flag. This movie made me feel old. Entertaining.

KJS
The Decline of The Western Civilisation - Penelope Spheeris first film with FEAR, Black Flag, The Germs, X, Circle Jerks, and others. A punk rock classic detailing the LA hardcore scene, circa '81.

I didn't like the The Metal Years near as much, highlights: Ozzy cooking breakfast, Chris Holmes attempting to drink himself to death in the pool, while his mom sits there with a very worried look on her face.
Penelope Spheeris went on to direct bad major motion pictures The Beverly Hillbillies, the Brady Bunch, etc..

Orangeheat, mrkilla, samjjones
The Civil War., Baseball, any Ken Burns doc. - Ken Burns always gets a big budget for his docs, and spends the $$ well. Always well made movies.


[censored]
Mr. Conservative : Barry Goldwater - I am Liberal, Libertarian, Democrat from Ariz., and I liked this one alot. This flick was made by his grandaughter[?], anyway she sugarcoats what a true Badassmofo Barry was. He was a true free thinker who would now roll over in his grave with alot of the crap the conservitive GOP now does in his name.

Our local Phx. rag The New Times did an review / article [LINK] on Barry when this flick came out. They were the last people to have access to the full BG archives, where BG true ideology on politics and his true feelings about his family life in general came out in public for the first time in his old letters. The family has now since sealed alot of the archives that painted them in their true light.


The DaveR
Hookers on the Point - Half way interesting look into the lives of street whores, meh. Agree with DiDs, that the narrator was awful. Can't believe they let him do a second one.
American Pimp - Kinda on subject, was better.

Aloysius
March of the Penguins [/b]- Wanna see it.

HBO- Legendary Nights series - Hagler vs Leonard, sticks out.

Eagles
When We Were Kings - Rumble in the Jungle, Zaire, Africa George Foreman vs Ali how the locals immediately bonded with Ali and seemed to dislike George. Which was weird, because later in his career Foreman was such a fan favorite. Maybe just a better marketing team PR man?

MusashiStyle
Grizzly Man - Have seen pieces and parts of this, liked it alot, wanna see the whole thing

Frontline & NOVA on PBS - In the last few months one aired that was very good chronicling Eisenhower and 'military industrial' complex. Qoute - "we know they have weopons of Mass Destruction - We got the reciepts for them!" ROLMAO still when I thik of this line.

This year they also did one I liked very much on the US Forest Service, chronicling the history and different policy direction the agency has taken in their history

econophile
Gimme Shelter - Couldn't believe how ghey they were back then. Mick okay...but keith Richards seemed just as ghey, which suprised me. Good flick, but I thought it could have been a little better? When the chit was hitting the fan during Sympahy For the Devil, Mick and the Stones could have done alot more to help the situation. Sonny Barger talking about how the Stones hung the Angels out to dry. The Hells Angels supposedly still have a open contract out on Mick Jagger from this concert.

lippy, private joker & odellthurman
Bowling For Columbine, Roger and Me, and fareinheit 911 - I do think that even if republicans saw these movies with open minds, before the reviews. MM would get much more credit for the great all around movies he makes,

odellthurman; Liberals are just generally more artistic. so it is a natural they are better filmakers.

The Shot Heard Around the World [HBO?] - Detailing the epic season and rivalry between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the NY Giants. Chronicles the season and ends with a playoff game for the National League Pennant. October 3 1951, Bobby Thomson launches "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" & "The Giants Win The Pennant!" ...
MLB - Box Score and Newspaper Article on this Game....Right Side of Page, You Can Listen To The 9th Inning of this Game


J.A.Sucker Scared Straight - You get such classic lines as: "I ain't never heard the sounds of no birds chirping, but I do know what it sounds like to hear a mean screaming 'cause he's got two dicks in his ass!" - and - "Give me your shoes... GIVE ME YOUR DAMNED SHOES!!!!!!!!"
This show did scare me straight haven't even thought about it fot probably 25 years.
J.A.Sucker; you put those qoutes in your post, and I can hear them just like it was yesterday. This Terrified my azz when I was a kid.

Wires
Black Tar Heroin [/b]- Wanna see this one.

Golden_Rhino & El D
the corporation: was this the movie where they made a website as some conservitive sort of group, then went to a board meeting in Europe?

Golden_Rhino
Qoute "My biggest problem with it (and most documentaries), is that it was obviously pushing an "evil empire" agenda."
When you start analyzing the world in depth, it seems very easy to come up with conspiracy theories. When you follow the $$, sometimes it paints ugly pictures for you. [Kind of typical of alot of docs.]

P Chippa
The Iceman: Richard Kuklinski - Might have been the HBO 'coroner' narrating it? The first one was very much superior to the second one. How he kept it hidden from his family, and potrayed himself as being such a family man. Intense.


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[NajdorfDefense]

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Just realized Michael Moore is nowhere to be found in this thread. Despite the fact he is an insufferable, miserable prick, I think people often underrate his skills as a filmmaker. The craft involved with Bowling For Columbine is extremely strong and people forget how good he is at what he does. Agree with his politics or not, BFC is a really good movie.

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I actually agree with some of MM's ideologies and find them very enjoyable. However, I have such a tough time considering him a documentary filmmaker.

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Agreed. It's not a documentary if you completely make up facts to suit your worldview. Rise and Fall of Enron and Thin Blue Line are documentaries.
BFC is not, simply a well-made 'based on a true story' film that takes multiple liberties with history, which has nothing to do with POV or having a 'storytelling' angle.

Hoop Dreams had 3.5hours of footage after 6 years, so they clearly left stuff out and had a POV [Arthur's mom as hero, Gates' coach as gloryhound, etc] but is factually accurate in all depictions and narrations, unlike BFC.