Favorite Documentaries?

Cafe Society
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In no particular order…

Best Boy- A family teaches their adult son (who has Down’s Syndrome) to live independantly. As the older sister of a developmentally disabled, autistic woman, I loved finding one movie that didn’t use the disabled as a source of humor or give them magical savant powers.

Kurt and Courtney- Supposedly about trying to find out if Kurt Cobain was murdered. It loses focus early but is worth watching for the people involved. Courtney Love’s father, the underground punk rocker El Duce, Kurt’s best friend Dylan who bought him the shotgun and is visibly high…

Beyond the Mat- A insider look at professional wrestling. Barry Blaustein follows around Terry Funk( the man who refuses to retire), Jake “the Snake” Roberts (former WWF star and current crack addict) and Mick Foley. The reaction of Mick’s wife and children as he goes through a brutal match made me wince.

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Atomic Cafe

Not sure if everyone would consider it a documentary. They took a lot of Cold War footage about the atomic bomb and spliced it together without commentary. The result is hilarious and frightening at the same time.

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Atomic Cafe

Not sure if everyone would consider it a documentary. They took a lot of Cold War footage about the atomic bomb and spliced it together without commentary. The result is hilarious and frightening at the same time.

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My number one favorite documentary is the very first documentary ever made, IIRC: Nanook of the North. An amazing film, and the story of its provenance is just as fascinating. I’d love someone to do a documentary about that. Thin Blue Line has to be second (all this is just off the top of my haven’t-had-any-coffee-yet head). Paradise Lost and its sequel, Paradise Lost: Revelations.

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Atomic Cafe rocks. I wonder if it’s on DVD yet (or ever).

Battle of Brazil is the best “making of a film” documentary I’ve seen in a long while; all about Terry Gilliam’s unorthodox battle with the studios to get them to release his cut of “Brazil.”

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Microcosmos. Hands down the most perfect cinema verite ever.

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I really liked both American Movie and Home Movie. The director has a knack for making you invest in the people portrayed, laughing with them rather than at them. Good stuff.

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Best Boy is an excellent choice. Strong and truly uplifting.

Roger and Me – Michael Moore’s destruction of the corporate mentality. Hilarious and nasty.

Endless Summer – Surfing documentary. Very entertaining and was for many years the documentary with the biggest box office take (it might still be).

Marlene – documentary of interviews with Marlene Dietrich. She refused to be photographed, so the director (Maximilian Schell) showed nothing but archive footage and pictures of her apartment.

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Hoop Dreams was fabulous, but I’d have to give the nod to Crumb.

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Sherman’s March- Hilarious view of the South from the inside.

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Shoah - an unbelievable 9 hours long, yet utterly compelling. The best documentary of the Holocaust ever made.

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When We Were Kings, which I saw just recently, was really amazing and interesting. It’s about the Ali-Foreman “Rumble In The Jungle” bout in Africa.

One that I have on DVD that has quite a hold on me is Trinity And Beyond, the story of the atomic bomb from the first test in New Mexico through the first test in China. Loads and loads of declassified test footage. On the DVD, one of the extras is unaltered footage of one test (Operation Upshot-Knothole, shot Annie, as I recall), complete with the actual sound of a nuclear bomb detonating.

Just last night I saw Leona’s Sister Gerri, a film about the woman pictured in a very famous photograph. Gerri Santoro died in a hotel room in 1964 as a result of a botched illegal abortion, performed by a man with no medical experience using borrowed instruments and a textbook. The picture is horrifying and heartbreaking, but quite graphic, so I doubt the mods want me to link to the photograph. Search for it if you really want to see it.

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Baseball: An American Epic and Lewis and Clark, both by Ken Burns. I find his style of doing these films makes them very easy to watch, and the commentators he uses become more than just commentators. They are personalities and almost friends by the time the film is over.

I also like Burns because he uses these films as an attempt to define America, which I think is important as we go into the 21st Century.

I haven’t seen his treatment of jazz yet, and haven’t seen all of his Civil War film, so I can’t comment on them, but I’m very interested in seeing both.

His brother (can’t remember his name) is also a filmmaker, and did a documentary on New York City, which I caught some of on PBS. Fascinating. Not as well done as KB, but well done all the same, and fascinating.

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Genghis Blues . The story of blind musician Paul Pena, who taught himself Tuvan throat singing, and eventually managed to actually go to Tuva and compete in a throat singing competition there. It is simply an unbelievable story, and well-told to boot. I also really liked the Richard Feynman content, which was unexpected but appreciated.

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I am a big fan of Errol Morris and his documentaries. I am surprised he hasn’t been mentioned; I think he is consistently the best documentary maker out there.

Fast Cheap And Out of Control is my favorite Morris film. It tells the story of a lion tamer, a robotics expert, a topiary gardener, and a naked mole rat scientist. It’s quirkiness is one of it’s charms. Each man has an interesting viewpoint, and fascinating stories to tell. Their apparent differences are highlighted, and their similarities comes through as well. A fun film.

The Thin Blue Line is about a guy who is on death row. Throughout the film he dramatizes the crime to simulate what could have happened according to what people have told him. He also has discussions with different people who prosecuted the case. The film’s arguments for the man on death row are effective. So effective, in fact, that it led to the guy getting a new trial. Not so much fun. But, very engaging.

pat

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Olympiad: yeah, yeah, Nazis, but a GREAT film.
Sherman’s March yeah, yeah, Southernors, but a GREAT film.

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A few I have on DVD:

American Movie: About a 30-year old would-be filmmaker from Menomenee Falls, Wisconsin, and his attempt to make the Great American Horror Film a la Night of the Living Dead. One of the only times I can actually recall slapping my knee because I was laughing so hard.

Powers of Ten, by Ray & Charles Eames: A simple but beautiful film about where exactly we are in the universe.

Kinski: My Best Fiend: Werner Herzog’s portrait of his best friend and mortal enemy, Klaus Kinski.

The Sweetest Sound: The director, Alan Berliner, searches the world for other people named Alan Berliner, and invites them all to his house for dinner.

A couple that are still only on tape:

Sherman’s March, Best Boy and Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, which are mentioned above, and are truly great films.

American Dream by Barbara Koppel. I think it’s a more mature film than her classic, Harlan County, USA – both are worth seeing.

And finally, some that I have only seen in the confines of a small viewing booth in a college library:

Burden of Dreams, Les Blank’s film about the making of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarralodo.

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe: Again by Les Blank (I believe–feel free to correct me), documenting the German director as he boils and consumes one of his boots after losing a bet with Errol Morris. Herzog told Morris that if Morris ever finished his first film, Herzog would eat his shoe. Morris complied, and the result was…

Gates of Heaven. No, not Heaven’s Gate. This one is about pet cemetaries. And it has to be seen.

– CH

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  1. Beyond the Mat. Anyone who has ever critiscized Professional-wrestling as being “dumb” or has said that they aren’t real athletes should have their legs broken and then forced to watch this documentary.

  2. One Day in Spetember. I think I might be the only one here who has seen it since I tried to start a discussion about it a few weeks ago and didn’t get a single reply. It is about the Terrorist attack at the 72 Munich Olympics.

  3. Crumb. Fascinating beyond words.

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A Sense of Loss by Marcel Ophuls. About Northern Ireland. Same guy who did “Hotel Terminus” and “The Sorrow and the Pity.” Heartbreaking.

And another vote for Ghengis Blues. Feynman Lives!
Cyn

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Correct me if the title is wrong, Trekkies(?), about Star Trek conventions and groupies.