# 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:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/61 "2003-02-08T00:54:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hrhomer \* > \*\*Wasn’t that Ric _Burns_, brother of Ken Burns? > > hrh \*\* Good Lord, yes! That’s what I thought I typed. I’m kinda dumb, ain’t I? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/62 "2003-02-08T01:10:51Z")
If the BBC’s _Collision Course_ ever comes out on DVD, I might buy it. That was a hell of a series, especially the episode on the train crash. Yet another vote for _Crumb_, while I’m at it. ---
**Author:** ![Tblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tblue)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/63 "2003-02-08T06:32:38Z")
And I’ll second for Genghis Blues 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/64 "2003-02-08T09:08:24Z")
I really like Burden of Dreams by Les Blank. It’s about the making of the movie Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog. It’s similar to Hearts of Darkness in that it’s about a movie project in the tropics in which everything goes wrong. Herzog is crazier than Coppola, though, and it really comes through in this documentary. Another favorite of mine is Wild Wheels by Harrod Blank, Les Blank’s son. It’s about people who make and drive art cars. This is a fun movie - it’s not “heavy” like most documentaries. ---
**Author:** ![lonelocust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/73ab20/32.png) [@lonelocust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonelocust)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/65 "2003-02-08T19:59:26Z")
Anything by Erroll Morris. Shoah Dancing Outlaw ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097/66 "2003-02-08T20:45:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jackelope \* > \*\*Anyone else see [Genghis Blues](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0187859)? That was terrific. I’d also recommend [Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0108323) and > [Radio Bikini](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093817); I love documentaries, but these are about my only recommmendations that aren’t already listed here. Oh, I will second [Fast, Cheap & Out of Control](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0119107), which I rank among the top five films of the 90s. \*\* I third, fourth and fifth “Fast, Cheap and Out of Control”!!! I thought my friends and I were the only ones in the world, practically, who had seen that wonderful movie - a documentary which quite literally _forces_ you to think, not by beating you over the head with any message, but by giving you four seemingly unconnected odd pursuits and _not telling you what connects them_. Every one of my friends had a different theory … all quite compelling, but none definitive. Absolutely wonderful and unique. I loved the Naked African Mole Rats - they must be the strangest creatures on earth. A cold-blooded mammal which lives like a social insect in burrows underground - blind and hairless, but can chew through solid concrete - very, very wierd. And the insectoid robots were very interesting as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-documentaries/153097.md?page=3)