# Best documentaries **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097 "2003-02-06T01:41:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/21 "2003-02-06T14:17:45Z")
Jazz on a Summer’s Day. Still the best music documentary around. It has been said that the makers of Woodstock got some of their ideas from seeing this film. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/22 "2003-02-06T14:53:12Z")
Kevin Brownlow’s **Hollywood** series **The Man in the Silk Hat** , a documentary about French silent comic Max Linder Maximillian Schell’s **Marlene** ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/23 "2003-02-06T15:10:54Z")
"Crumb and The Thin Blue Line aren’t documentaries. " Crumb is SO a documentary! And a great one. Another one that will upset the hell outta you is “Southern Comfort.” I was so pissed off after seeing it that I could barely see straight. ---
**Author:** ![MemoryGongs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@MemoryGongs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MemoryGongs)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/24 "2003-02-06T15:25:01Z")
Crumb Shoah (nine hours of holocaust study may be a bit much but you will never be the same after you see it) Project Grizzly Paradise Lost ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/25 "2003-02-06T15:32:17Z")
Thanks. Netflix has a surprising number of these. I’ll google him later, but what kind of cartoonist was Crumb (i.e. comic strip, political, Charles Addams-ish, etc.)? I certainly wouldn’t have gone looking for a documentary on him, but with this many recs it must be good. NANOOK OF THE NORTH- if I’m not mistaken, that’s the one whos subject died of starvation in the Arctic while the movie about him was the toast of Gotham- one of those great ironies, sort of like Sharbat Gula, who was world famous for her haunting beautiful eyes on the NAT’L. GEO cover even as she was covered in a burqa surviving bombs and poverty (or Al Bundy, whose heroism is sung across the galaxy but sells shoes on his own planet). ---
**Author:** ![MemoryGongs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@MemoryGongs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MemoryGongs)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/26 "2003-02-06T15:44:48Z")
Crumb was a sorta counterculture cartoonist from the late 60s-70s who made the icon “Keep On Truckin” and other tasty bits. He drew for a few mags but mostly did solo work, all very sexually depraved, misogynist, racist and wonderful. I guess he was mostly comic-strip-ish but he seemed to defy any solid category. He is amazing, I’ll give him that. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/27 "2003-02-06T16:47:32Z")
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control Project Grizzly The Line King Grey Gardens Gates of Heaven Mr. Death Hands on a Hard Body Trekkies. Just those which come to mind… hrh ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/28 "2003-02-06T16:51:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Biggirl \* > \*\*The first Connections series by James Burke (the second one is good too, but the first series is the best) > James’ brother Ric did New York: A Documentary, which was great too. \*\* Wasn’t that Ric _Burns_, brother of Ken Burns? hrh ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/29 "2003-02-06T16:59:49Z")
_One day in September_\* No it’s not what you think. It’s about the Munich olympics where some of the Israeli team where held hostage and well … lets just say it turned nasty. Great docu. You’ll be shock at some of the fuck ups made by the Germans. One of the great montage sequence in movies IMO is at the end of the movie backed by Sweet child in Time by Deep Purple. two thumbs up ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/30 "2003-02-06T17:10:02Z")
I’ll also chime in re: Crumb. Given my interest in history, and the role Virginia played in the Civil War, am very, very partial to Ken Burns’ “Civil War.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/31 "2003-02-06T17:13:29Z")
'ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER- thanks for reminding me- I’ve actually read that book and meant to see the documentary for years but forgotten. I loved TREKKIES- entertaining without being too belittling of the group. I love James Burke’s stuff also, though I’ve never seen the last two CONNECTIONS series. I particularly enjoyed DAY THE UNIVERSE CHANGED. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/32 "2003-02-06T17:15:11Z")
PARAGRAPH 175 is a good (not great) documentary on the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. (Only about 6 of the few known survivors agreed to be interviewed on camera.) Does anybody know of any other Holocaust documentaries to focus on groups other than Jews? ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/33 "2003-02-06T17:50:20Z")
This is Spinal Tap. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/34 "2003-02-06T17:54:14Z")
“Trinity and beyond” about the development and testing of atomic weapons. Shatner’s narration is subtle, exquisitely ironic. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/35 "2003-02-06T17:59:56Z")
_Harlan County, USA_ by Barbara Kopple ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/36 "2003-02-06T18:09:16Z")
Liberty - The American Revolution (1998) Koyaanisqatsi (koy-yan-iss-katsi) (1982) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/37 "2003-02-06T18:17:03Z")
I see you’re a Georgian, so I’ll recommend: **Sherman’s March** - The filmmaker planned to do a documentary of Sherman’s march to the sea, but winds up with a documentary of Georgia culture _circa_ 1983, and of the filmmaker’s own neuroses (and his search for love/sex in the course of his travels). It is funny as hell, like a Flannery O’Connor story come to life. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/38 "2003-02-06T19:24:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bearflag70 \* > \*\*Koyaanisqatsi (koy-yan-iss-katsi) (1982) \*\* One of my favs, but certainly not a documentary. Heck, not even close. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/39 "2003-02-06T19:37:11Z")
[Clay, Wood, Fire, Spirit.](http://net.unl.edu/artsFeat/claywoodfirespirit.htm) ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/40 "2003-02-06T21:22:19Z")
My faves, some of which have been mentioned by other discerning viewers: **Atomic Cafe** - funny and scary **Crumb** - brilliant **Hands on a Hard Body** - very emotional and scary at the same time **Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Story** - fascinating story, fantastic footage, good narration, great soundtrack **Bowling for Columbine** - a bit preachy at times, but good journalism for the most part **Hoop Dreams** - probably the best follow-the-life-of documentary ever made (although i do like the **7up series** from Britain a lot too) **The Eyes of Tammy-Faye** - brilliantly done; quite a sympathetic portryal of a very odd person **Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy** - excellent look at Indonesia’s atrocies in East Timor and the complicity of western governments **Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media** - a good introduction to the thought of an important twentieth century thinker **Canetoads: An Unnatural History** - absolutely fucking hilarious; a good insight into the stranger side of Australians (or Queenslanders, anyway) **Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.** - fascinating account of an engineer and execution equipment designer who attempted to refute the idea that there were gas chambers at Auschwitz, and his subsequent decline into notoriety and then obscurity [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097.md?page=3)