# Suggested Documentaries **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349 "2009-01-15T00:17:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/21 "2009-01-15T21:27:09Z")
> [@h.sapiens](#): > > My Kid Could Paint That Came in to mention this one. I saw it recently and I’m still undecided about what’s really going on in that family. In short, the movie is about [Marla Olmstead](http://www.marlaolmstead.com/), a four-year-old girl who loved to paint. Her parents’ friend hung one of her paintings in a coffee shop, someone bought it, and seemingly overnight, Marla became an abstract art sensation, selling paintings for tens of thousands of dollars. But is she really a prodigy, or is something else going on? Anyway, interesting movie. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/22 "2009-01-15T21:56:00Z")
**Harlan County U.S.A.** Just watched it last night. I still can not identify the feeling that film gave me. Pride covered with grit and blood? The music and singing was stunning. There is something about being oppressed and toughened that can bring about song. The action on the screen at times seemed more real than my very own living room. Clean Coal. Coal is a lot dirtier than I will ever know. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/23 "2009-01-15T23:14:14Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I’ve never seen that film because of the incestuous politics of the Academy Awards Documentary committee. Is it, in your opinion, a better film than both **Hoop Dreams** and **Crumb**? It doesn’t have to be to be worth watching, but those two films are truly great films, and were beaten by this one. Never having seen it, I realize it’s unfair to judge it solely on that criteria, but I have to say - there are probably a dozen, untainted 1995 documentaries I want to see more - **[The Celluloid Closet](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112651/)**, **[Frank and Ollie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113104/)**, **[Jupiter’s Wife](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110217/)**, etc. They’re all good, but those two had already been mentioned. Ed ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/24 "2009-01-16T03:32:19Z")
I found **[Helvetica](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/)** to be way more fascinating than any documentary about a font had the right to be. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/25 "2009-01-16T16:02:11Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Came in to mention this one. I saw it recently and I’m still undecided about what’s really going on in that family. In short, the movie is about [Marla Olmstead](http://www.marlaolmstead.com/), a four-year-old girl who loved to paint. Her parents’ friend hung one of her paintings in a coffee shop, someone bought it, and seemingly overnight, Marla became an abstract art sensation, selling paintings for tens of thousands of dollars. But is she really a prodigy, or is something else going on? Anyway, interesting movie. I watched this last night. I’m not sure what is going on either, but it was interesting to watch the art dealer waffle back and forth. At first he’s rhapsodizing over Marla. Then, people briefly lost interest in her paintings after a 60 Minutes interview suggested that she didn’t paint them by herself (a video showed her producing a painting that looked nothing like her other work.) So the art dealer tells the camera that he’d never liked modern art anyway and he was pleased to reveal what a scam it all was. He was annoyed that he made less money on his own realistic paintings which took so many more hours to complete than the splatters of paint that pass for modern art. Then Marla’s family released their own video which seemed to show her painting something significant on her own, and the art dealer went back to praising her accomplishments again. And selling her paintings. ---
**Author:** ![brickiebee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@brickiebee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickiebee)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/26 "2009-01-16T16:44:19Z")
Sound and Fury – Deaf culture and different viewpoints on cochlear implants. Fascinating, and I couldn’t stop talking about it. The “How we made this movie” extra on the DVD for Winged Migration really ruined the movie for me. They purposely imprinted all those birds to make the movie, thereby pretty much ruining them for life. ---
**Author:** ![Histrion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/76d3ee/32.png) [@Histrion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Histrion)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/27 "2009-01-16T16:47:48Z")
I’ve heard good things about _The Corporation_. And I’m waiting for _Get Lamp_ to be completed. That’s all I got. ---
**Author:** ![brickiebee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@brickiebee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickiebee)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/28 "2009-01-16T16:56:19Z")
Oh! Oh! Am I really the first? 7 Up 14 Up 21 Up etc. Do not miss this series! Follows British kids (rich and poor) from age 7 up, with a new movie every 7 years. Totally addictive. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/29 "2009-01-16T16:56:31Z")
[Bukowski: Born into This](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342150/) [Cinemania](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281724/) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/30 "2009-01-16T18:35:56Z")
> [@brickiebee](#): > > Oh! Oh! Am I really the first? > > 7 Up > 14 Up > 21 Up > etc. > > Do not miss this series! Follows British kids (rich and poor) from age 7 up, with a new movie every 7 years. Totally addictive. I’m kicking myself for forgetting to mention this wonderful series. I’ve been watching since **28 Up**. I do feel like finding and kicking the ass of the guy who now works for the BBC but refuses to participate in the series. I wonder if he’s ever been in the position of trying to convince someone of the public’s “right to know”. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/31 "2009-01-17T01:49:56Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I’m kicking myself for forgetting to mention this wonderful series. I’ve been watching since **28 Up**. I do feel like finding and kicking the ass of the guy who now works for the BBC but refuses to participate in the series. I wonder if he’s ever been in the position of trying to convince someone of the public’s “right to know”. Agreed. And that one wealthy guy who reappeared to plug Bulgaria, then disappeared again. Twit. We have a DVD set of the series to date. I feel they have a duty to the public to appear. No choice, sort of like being king or queen. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/32 "2009-01-17T02:20:30Z")
I just checked [the Wikipedia page for the Up series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_series). Here’s what it says about Charles Furneaux, the guy who dropped out of the series: > [@](#): > > Charles has worked in journalism in varying capacities over the years, including as a producer for the BBC, and in the making of documentary films, including Touching the Void (2003). He has chosen not to appear in the series after 21 Up, other than with a single photograph in each new film. Let me see if I have this straight. He produces documentaries? That means, he is in the position of asking other people to let cameras into their lives, but has refused to participate in someone else’s documentary about his own life. And it’s not as if he is the sole subject of a documentary, one that would be very intrusive. No, he’s one of a dozen people. And, checking the IMDB page, this twit actually had the nerve to sue Apted to get his bits removed from the DVD release of **49 Up**! It makes me want to go to the UK and do something noteworthy enough that someone would want to make a documentary about me, just so this weasel would be in the position of asking me so I could refuse, just to spite him. If he was a plumber, it would be forgivable. But a producer of documentaries refusing to participate in a documentary? That’s hypocrisy right up there with a vegetarian butcher. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349/33 "2009-01-17T03:50:47Z")
**Street Fight:** Documentary about Corey Booker’s campaign for Mayor of Newark, NJ in 1992. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggested-documentaries/481349.md?page=1)