Documentaries

[Marwan]

Saw Deliver us from Evil a few days ago, not bad, worth a watch.

[Anycall]

watched A State of Mind last night. it follows 2 north korean girl gymnasts and their families for about 1year, finishing off with pyongyang mass games. mass game scenes are spectacular. very interesting to have a peek inside the hermit kingdom.

[kyleb]

The Show on MOJO is an interesting series about minor league ballplayers trying to make it to the Diamondbacks.

[suzzer99]

Very positive review of Ken Burns' - The War. I tivoed this not sure what to expect as I feel like I've already seen lots of exhaustive documentaries on WWII. But after this review I'm getting excited.

"One motivation was learning that more than 1,000 veterans die every day. A real storyteller can't hide from what those losses mean to documenting history. But all that matters is that he did make "The War." Because as it unfolds starting Sunday - roughly seven years in the making and 15 hours long - there is little doubt that this is Burns' masterpiece."


As an aside, whenever I meet a WWII vet, which isn't that often, I always try to say something like "thank you for the sacrifices your generation made for my generation". It might seem a little cheesy, but I think it means more to them than we can imagine.

I had a guy sitting to me on a plane get a little choked up when I thanked him. He was with a bunch of "hump pilots" coming back from a reunion in China. Basically they flew prop planes over the Himalayas from Nepal and India to resupply troops fighting in China. It was an incredibly dangerous job. Puts commercial airline discomfort in perspective.

[mrkilla]

Suz
I DVR'd "The War". Ken Burns usually does an excellent job and his Documentary "The Civil War" is regarded as one the gold standard and one of my favorites (I've already posted about it in this thread) I am excited to see it hopefully some time this week.

[Bartman387]

Awesome thread, but there has been a couple notable exclusions.

The Aristocrats
This is a documentary about a joke. It is a joke only told by comedians to other comedians. One of the most crude, disgusting and entertaining films you will ever see. Especially funny is the telling of the joke by Billly The Mime.

Not quite a doc, and not a mockumentary, I guess a faux-doc:
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
A faux doc made in the Ken Burns style of the history of America had the Confederacy won. It's an interesting idea, has humor, and can be intriguing and though provoking. However it is not quite as convincing as I wanted, and can be a bit over the top in showing how different things would be.

In the same vein:

Death of a President
Another faux doc, which details the events leading up to and following President Bush's assasination. It is a very even handed telling of this possibility, and in doing so stays very neutral (no anti-war, anti-GOP message or slant).