Doctumentaries You Like

[MLJames]

Right now I'm watching Rebels & Redcoats: How Britain Lost America. It's an interesting take on the Revolution, as it looks at it as much as a civil war as it was a rebellion. It's also interesting because it's done by a British military historian.

I'd also recommend two documentaries by Simon Schama: A History Of Britain and The American Future - A History. You definitely won't finish the first one in one sitting; it's 15 hours long!

I agree with Davros about Terry Jones' programs. Medieval Lives and Barbarians are great, and the companion book to the latter, co-written by Jones and Alan Ereira, is worth reading as well.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Becoming Human PBS, All of Michael Moore's movies, The Fog of War, An Inconvient Truth, The Bhudah PBS, Ancient Aliens, Cocaine Cowboys, The High Cost of Low Living, Maxed Out, SuperHigh Me, Americas Parks, The Universe, Life, Planet Earth, The Civil War(though it had some inaccuracies), The Real West. I think that's about it.

 

[Admiral Shran]

The History Channel did one called The Ku Klux Klan: A Secret History. It was very good.

They tried to replicate it with Nazi America: A Secret History. That one wasn't so good.

 

[Mistral]

The Civil War was great. Much of Jacque Cousteau's work was excellent. World At War was also seminal.
I think my favorite might be Primary Colors. Wait, that's not a documentary?

 

[Mysterion]

Almost forgot about James Burke's two wonderful series: Connections and The Day The Universe Changed.

The way he would start off an episode with some seemingly obscure and/or insignificant thing/event and end up at the massively historic and/or significant thing was always fascinating to me. And Burke had a very engaging and entertaining way of presenting his stories.

And, of course there is Cosmos. 'nuff said, there.

 

[Pingfah]

This is Spinal Tap.

Just kidding!

I do really enjoy Brian Cox's documentaries, also Planet Earth was fantastic. My favourite docu though is Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets.

 

[Galileo7]

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes 2008 documentary is an interesting look into the late director's extensive research for all his films.

 

[ToddKent]

The Rock-Afire Explosion

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ETK24ax-9A[/yt]

Pressure Cooker

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRcYJZVDU5g[/yt]

Anything by Rick Sebak (who invented a genre that is now being exploited by the Travel Channel, Food Network and tons of others).

And, ahem, the documentary link that's in my sig...

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Almost forgot about James Burke's two wonderful series: Connections and The Day The Universe Changed.

Oh yeah, The Day the Universe Changed is spectacular. Really one of the most interesting and informative looks at history and science there is.

 

[auntiehill]

One of m favorite documentaries of all time is To Be and To Have, about a one-room school in the French countryside. I thought it was beautiful.

Yeah, this is wonderful. Some other good ones:

.......<snip>
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

^I loved that one, too. I actually got all emotional towards the end.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The IMAX movie about Mount Everest, specifically the storm that killed eight people on May 8, 1996. It was originally just a normal documentary about Everest - but the storm happened halfway through filming, and the IMAX film crew put down their gear and followed Ed Viesturs (the leader of the group) up into the storm to try and rescue the stragglers on the mountain.

Also, the 9/11 documentary by the Naudet brothers (Jules and Gedeon). They and a NYC firefighter, James Hanlon - you L&O fans might have seen him in a few episodes, he's also an actor - teamed up to do a piece on a rookie firefighter. But 9/11 happened right in the middle of *that*. This documentary actually has footage from *inside* one of the towers as the other one is collapsing. It also contains footage of one of the towers being hit.

 

[iBender]

I like;

Discovery Channel's The First Time Machine

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRWwI61so5Q&NR=1[/yt]

Nah, that was over ten years ago at least.

.

OH, the documentary wasn't about modern-day Coney Island. It was a nostalgic look back at the glory days of Luna Park, Dreamland, etc.

This Coney Island Documentary has captured my fascination, but with out knowing which company produced it, I actually don't think I can find it ( , on YouTube. )

 

[Greg Cox]

^ A poster named GNDN helpfully posted a link to the Amazon.com listing back on page 2 of this thread. It's "American Experience: Coney Island" and available on DVD.

It's really good, btw. My girlfriend and I practically wore out our old VHS copy.

 

[iBender]

Wow...
I hope this can be viewed everywhere and not just the UK, stupid BBC does that sometimes. I'm joking, I love the BBC .

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90TWpYkMj0I&NR=1&feature=fvwp[/yt]

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Re: Documentaries You Like

• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

I second this one. Fascinating documentary. As a CPA and former auditor with both Arther Andersen and Deloitte & Touche on my resume, you can imagine I am keenly interested in what happened at Enron...and at Arthur Andersen. This documentary filled in a lot of the blanks - at least on the Enron side. There are books out on the Enron debacle as well...and one of them is about the Arthur Andersen side of the equation - very interesting to see the thing from both sides of the table.

Other documentaries I like so much that I own them:

Everest - IMAX documentary on the 1996 Everest disaster. Wasn't supposed to be a documentary on the disaster, but instead on the commercialization of Everest mountaineering. But the film crew dropped everything to help with the rescue operations...and eventually made the documentary in large part about the disaster itself. The guy heading the IMAX expedition, David Brashears, is a really stand up guy, and Ed Viesturs, who is one of the best mountaineers in the world and the 'actor' in the IMAX movie ended up heads down in the rescue operation and at times were the coolest heads on the mountain.

I own a whole handful of documentaries about Everest...but this one, IMO, is the best.

Russia: Land of the Tsars - actually covers a good bit of Russian history in about 200 min. Not too bad if you are looking for an overview sort of thing.

El Che: Investigating a Legend - about Che Guevara, of course.

Hype! - a documentary about the grunge rock movement. The Seattle music scene of the late 80's and how it spawned Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, and a whole bunch of other bands. Tons of interviews with various members of the different bands, the founders of Subpop Records, etc.

The Beatles Anthology - This was really long (like, 8 DVDs or something), but was really interesting. And I say that as someone who likes the Beatles, but is not any sort of megafan or anything....

There are also a whole bunch of documentaries about classic film and classic film stars and directors that I like. But I'm too lazy to go and look them up at the moment.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Just saw The Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3D. Now that is what 3D is for! (Although it doesn't help much in the sections where people are being interviewed.) Also Herzog's blather can get to be a bit much, but he has a charming way of blathering, so it's no big deal.

Here's the description:

Celebrated documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog offers this unprecedented examination of ChauvetCave, a cavern in southern France that contains the oldest human-painted images yet to be found on Earth. Besides presenting stunning cinematography of the exquisite paintings themselves, Herzog interviews experts who describe the context and reflect on the existential meaning of this artwork, which is some 30,000 years old.

I also liked Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo:

Documentary on the hold the creepy-crawly creatures exert on the collective imagination of the Japanese people. Tracing the connection all the way back to that country's first emperor -- who dubbed Japan "Isle of the Dragonflies" -- the film shows how bugs have wormed their way into every aspect of Japanese culture.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Documentaries You Like

Everest - IMAX documentary on the 1996 Everest disaster. Wasn't supposed to be a documentary on the disaster, but instead on the commercialization of Everest mountaineering. But the film crew dropped everything to help with the rescue operations...and eventually made the documentary in large part about the disaster itself. The guy heading the IMAX expedition, David Brashears, is a really stand up guy, and Ed Viesturs, who is one of the best mountaineers in the world and the 'actor' in the IMAX movie ended up heads down in the rescue operation and at times were the coolest heads on the mountain.

Nice to see someone else here likes that movie. Which I also mentioned.

I'm dearly, desperately hoping for a Blu-Ray version. Because while this is a great film, the actual picture quality on the standard DVD is not what I would call 'great'.

 

[iBender]

I own a copy of this

I pre ordered it and have had this copy in my collection since the UK release date... (When ever that was, like months or years now.)
I do enjoy watching episodes from it time to time, although, this one's like the one I saw on TV, all 'British'ised' - British Narrator... All that stuff.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBg_GLQFQ_g[/yt]

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Wow. That is very scary.

 

[DeafPoet]

Ken Burns' Baseball is one of my all-time favourites. I also really liked The King of Kong.

And of course, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, which is one of the most devastating movies I've ever seen. I'm glad I saw it but I'm not sure I could ever watch it again.