Any fan of Pumping Iron will like Raw Iron – The Making Of Pumping Iron (maybe even more).
Check out: Exit through the gift shop
Twisted doc about street/graffiti artist Banksy. Is it a hoax? not sure who has the last laugh. A must see, lots of cool art!
Oceans An ecological drama/documentary, filmed throughout the globe. Part thriller, part meditation on the vanishing wonders of the sub-aquatic world. Simply Beautiful
It’s been mentioned in this thread, but I want to also say Waco: Rules of Engagement. Oooh, it was so good.
When I was switching channels one day, I came across this near the beginning of the movie, and I was compelled to watch the whole thing, even though I didn’t give a rat’s ass about skateboarding, didn’t know any of the people in it, and just a minute before had no intentions or desire to watch a documentary. When *Lords of Dogtown *came out, I had to see it because I’d seen this. I think this speaks highly for it.
The September Issue (about the production of an issue of Vogue)
Videograms of a Revolution (about the Romanian revolution of '89)
Where Lies Your Hidden Smile? (about the director team Straub & Huillet)
Of Time and the City (a poetic film about Liverpool)
Winnebago Man was mentioned here a while back; not on Netflix yet, but keep an eye out for it.
Same goes for Best Worst Movie . Both of them are great stories about unwitting cultural icons and how they deal with their “fame”.
It was mentioned on the first page of this thread, but here’s another vote for “Capturing the Friedmans”. It’s hard to describe the effectiveness of this doc without giving too much away…let me just say that the skillful way this story unraveled caused me to switch sides at least four or five times. It is definitely not your standard crime or family-dealing-with-crisis story…
I’m also going to pile on Patch’s recommendation for A Fistful of Quarters. My wife is not a video-game fan, and yet we both found it riveting; the trivial ruthlessness of Billy Mitchell is a truly unique kind of villainy.
I agree with the Up series. I was surprised at what they were alike as adults.
That opened last weekend in Bangkok, and we saw it. Very good. I’ve read that Pierce Brosnan narrates an English-language version, but we got the original French version, which is narrated by Jacques Perrin, who was a co-director and the old man on screen. Not that there’s that much dialogue anyway.
The same people made another documentary called Winged Migration (2001), which is also good.