Documentary fans: What documentaries do you recommend

Cafe Society
41

American Dream was directed by Barbara Kopple, who also did Harlan County U.S.A. It’s about a bitterly divisive strike at a Hormel plant in Minnesota. Very engaging but sad.

Convention is a recent documentary about the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. It follows several reporters covering the convention, several city officials trying to keep things running behind the scenes, and several protestors trying to disrupt the show. Very interesting.

A Year with the Queen is a great look at how the Queen does her job, and the hundreds of people who help with everything from preparing food, arranging flowers, planning events, sending out invitations, etc. Anyone interested in the British monarchy should see this.

The Jonathan Demme-produced documentary Mandela is amazing, and a favorite of mine. It tells Nelson Mandela’s story eloquently and stirringly. I had tears in my eyes to see him released, forgiving those who jailed him and rising to lead his country.

Garbo the Spy is a funny, intriguing look at a notorious double agent during WWII who, under the guidance of MI6, fed the Nazis massive quantities of false info and helped sustain the deception as to just where the D-Day landing would be. He was, it’s thought, the only man to be decorated by both King George VI and Adolf Hitler for his wartime service. The movie’s not perfect, and left me with several questions, but is still very much worth a look.

Richard Brookhiser’s Rediscovering George Washington is a wry, funny, intriguing look at a great American, debunking the legends but also showing us how amazing a human being Washington really was.

Ken Burns’s PBS documentary series The Civil War is simply a masterpiece. Many of his other films are very good, too.

I enthusiastically second (or third) the earlier recommendations of Spellbound, Atomic Cafe, Roger & Me, Heart of Darkness and Cosmos.

42

Anything by Adam Curtis (many are on Google/You tube etc if you search)

Specifically

Century of the Self
The Power of Nightmares (if you only see one , see this one)
The Trap

43

Also forgot:

The War Room and Maxed Out.

Also also: …So Goes the Nation isn’t too bad.

44

Deep Water an amateur yachtsman’s descent into his own personal heart of darkness.

45

I haven’t seen much of him, but The American Future: A History was excellent.

46

My Kid Could Paint That is specifically about a 4 year old abstract expressionist, and more broadly about the general public’s perception of modern and non-representational art.

47

Lots of great ones listed above! Two I haven’t seen mentioned so far:

Startup.Com – An internet startup crashes and burns in slow motion. Maybe avoid it if you don’t like schadenfreude.

When Two Won’t Do – A very interesting film about polyamory, including the experience of the two filmmakers. Thoughtful, funny, and poignant.

48

I’ll just throw my support behind **The Bridge **and The Power Of Nightmares, and add Man On Wire into the mix.

49

The most fascinating grumpy old cook ever is found in I Like Killing Flies. It’s still available on Netflix’s Watch Instantly pages.

50

I can recommend The End of the Line, which discusses the way humanity’s overfishing the oceans, and an oldie-but-goodie Hoop Dreams.

51

A Man Named Pearl, about a man who spends hours painstakingly trimming and cultivating extensive shapes and elaborate designs in trees, hedges, etc.

The Fog of War, Deliver us From Evil, Why we Fight, Bigger Stronger Faster also come to mind.

52

oh I allmost forgot the greatest Doc of alltimes

The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters

53

Most of my favorites have been listed, but I have 2 more that were pretty good:

“This Film Not Yet Rated” - about the MPAA ratings system, very interesting.

“Ken Burns - Baseball” - Ken Burns documentary on the history of Baseball. A must see for any baseball fan.

MtM

54

“The Shock of the New” by Robert Hughes
Art & the Century of Change.

Compelling view of 20th Century Art, culture. and History.

55

The pool scene from Decline and Fall of Western Civilization Part 2
The Dancing Outlaw explains what happens when breakfast is not to his liking.

56

heres another batch of really good ones:

The Kid Stays in the picture On legendary Paramount pictures producer Robert Evans, this cat had some crazy life. very nice editing. Based on his autobiography

Cocaine Cowboys ttjhe true story of how Miami became the drug, murder and cash capital of the US, told by the people who made it all happen. The best drug doc IMO. There is also a sequel that is also worth checking out.

Confessions of a superhero Fun and sad doc about people making their living as cartoon characters on the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard.

The Workshop Rather creepy hippie-alien-nudity-sex-camp somewhere out in California. Lots of nudity is to be expected

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia Amazing doc by Johnny Knoxville (of Jackass fame) about the eccentric redneck-family White. Starring Jesco White from Dancer Outlaw.YEE-HAAW

Talhotblond (sic!) True story of a love triangle that takes place entirely online. Lies lead to murder in real life. INSANE

Paradise lost 1: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Paradise lost 2: Revelations
A must see if you somehow managed to missed these.3 teenagers are accused of a horrific crime of killing three children, supposedly as a result of involvement in Satanism. Things turn out to be more complex than initial appearances and this film presents the real-life courtroom drama to the viewer, as it unfolds. Another sequel is currently in production.

**Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. ** An Errol Morris classic. documentary about Fred Leuchter, an engineer who became an expert on execution devices and was later hired by revisionist historian Ernst Zundel to “prove” that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. Other things about this man: he drinks about 60 cups of coffee and smokes 6 packs of ciggarets a day. This man is arguably the biggest piece of work I have ever seen.

White Light/Black Rain Great HBO doc on hiroshima. first-hand accounts from those who survived and whose lives were forever changed by the atomic bomb.

Exit through the Gift Shop New doc. About the infamous graffiti artist Banksy whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank.

57

Dogtown and Z Boys the birth and evolution of modern skating in the drained swimming pools of Southern California. Beautiful pice of work.

The Trials Of Henry Kissinger Based on Hitchens book.thoughtful re-examination of Kissingers career. Kissinger is depicted as sly, manipulative Machiavellian figure that even his former aides speak out against.

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired Very insightful doc about the infamous Polanski case.

58

[QUOTE=Tangent;12598715Crumb - I second Siam Sam’s recommendation. I knew nothing about the subject beforehand, but I found this film really captivating.[/QUOTE]

I recall reading a follow-up article years afterward. Crumb really did end up moving his family to France and seemed quite happy there.

59

I second the mentions of Errol Morris’ films. And The King of Kong.

Werner Herzog’s In the land of Silence and Darkness and Burden of Dreams are both wonderful. The first is about people who are both deaf and blind, the second about the filming og Fitzcarraldo. I much prefer it to Mein Liebster Fiend.

Michael Glawogger: Workingman’s Death.

Geyrhalter: Our Daily Bread about food production in the EU.

Ulrich Seidl has made some great ones too:
Jesus, You know
State of the Nation (with other parts by compatriots Michael Glawogger and Michael Haneke.
Last but not least: **Tierische Liebe / Animal Love ** (not about beastiality). Herzog said “Never have I looked so directly into hell”.

Hmm. So many Austrians. Weird.

Also: Anders Østergaard’s Burma VJ about the 2007 rebellion in Burma.

Janus Metz’s: Armadillo that follows a group of Danish soldiers during their 6-month stint in Afghanistan.

60

I too have to chime in to recommend Errol Morris, specifically Gates of Heaven. Also, as far as musical documentaries go, Be Here to Love Me, about Townes Van Zandt, is excellent.

Not exactly conventional documentaries, but Bruce Brown’s *The Endless Summer *and On Any Sunday are very entertaining films, if you can handle his goofy-at-times narration.