Favorite Documentaries
I, too, want to see TO BE READ AFTER MY DEATH.
Also, for the guy who liked that 2Pac and BIG doc… try out TUPAC: RESURRECTION. Narrated by 2Pac himself by using different sound clips from past interviews.
The Weather Underground (2002), by the way, is a fascinating movie.
“A Beautiful Mind” – about the John Forbes Nash Jr., mathematical genius struggled by paranoid schizophrenia.
“Ray” – documentary about the blind blues legend Ray Charles.
Check out John Schlesinger’s 1959 short, Terminus, a ‘day in the life’ of London’s Waterloo Station. Crisp, observant and rather nostalgic too.
I don’t know if I liked Jesus Camp, but it was definitely one that stayed with me a while.
“The Fog of War” – Robert McNamara, a person heavily involved in the US administration leading up to the Vietnam War, gives the accounts of his life in a lively fashion.
The PBS Frontline doc “HEAT” (about energy usage) is well made (actually, most Frontline docs are well-made, and free to watch at www.pbs.org)
this may seem odd since i’m not a mtv fan in any fashion or form
but i felt the mtv documentary steve-o: demise and rise was done very well
almost painful to watch someone ruin their life to such a large degree due to drug and alcohol addiction but i found myself thoroughly compelled throughout.
“Joy Division” & “Crumb”
David Lynch’s interview project.
interviewproject.davidlynch.com
Some of my favourites are Overnight, Outrage, Bowling For Columbine, & Fahrenheit 9/11.
Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan
As brilliant and moving as any documentary I’ve ever seen.
American Movie
Crumb
Hoop Dreams
Grey Gardens
King of Kong
Gonzo
Man on Wire
Dear Zachary
“The Devil’s Miner” (children miners in Bolivia – latest favorite!)
“Ghosts of Cité Soleil” (on Haiti gangland)
“It’s all true” (on Orson Welles lost Brazillian film)
“It Felt Like a Kiss” (Adam Curtis on the secret history of USA)
“Century of the Self” (Adam Curtis on mass psychology and manipulation)
“The Corporation” (the evil corporations do)
“The End of Suburbia” (the oil crunch)
“The World According to Monsanto” (biotech nightmare)
“Zeitgeist” (you are being lied to)
“Style Wars” (essential take on grafitti and hiphop culture)
“Modulations” (history of electronic music)
“Dub Echoes” (the riddim that took the world)
“Lessons in Darkness” (Herzog finds beauty in hell)
“Baraka” (the most beatifull imagery of our would)
“Home” (the world from above)
“Loose Change 911” (the questions that won’t stop)
“Notícias de uma Guerra Particular” (about Rio gangland)
FAHRENHEIT 911 (JUST KIDDING)
Les Maitres Fous
Sans Soleil
Grey Gardens
Demon Lover Diary
‘’Chronicle of a Summer’’ Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin
‘’High School’’ Frederick Wiseman
‘’Basic Training’’ Frederick Wiseman
‘’Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?" Pedro Costa and Thierry Lounas
’’Italianamerican’’ Martin Scorsese
‘’Il Mio Viaggio in Italia’’ Martin Scorsese
‘’Les statues meurent aussi!" Alain Resnais/Chris Marker/Ghislain Cloquet
’’Toute le Memoire de la Monde’’ Alain Resnais
‘’Nuit et brouillard’’ Alain Resnais
‘’Listen to Britain’’ Humphrey Jennings
‘’A Diary for Timothy’’ Humphrey Jennings
‘’Let There Be Light’’ John Huston
‘’Gimme Shelter’’ Albert and David Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin
What about Godard’s SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, aka the truncated ONE PLUS ONE? Can we call that a documentary? Does it matter (to distinguish between documentary and something else)?
Cronick, I’m glad you mentioned “End of Suburbia” from Canada. I saw that several years ago. Despite being rather verbose, it held my attention very deeply the entire way and made its point clearly without coming across as patronising or hysterical. Sometimes, ecologically aware documentaries lack a bit of snap, yet this one moved quite well.
I would be remiss not to mention a few others…
“Religulous”
Caught me totally off-guard with how hilarious it was. I hasten to say, I don’t watch Bill Maher on television (I actually watch relatively little television). A film buff’s delight with its myriad clips from other films. Also, it was incredibly perceptive. People who accuse it of aiming for “easy targets” miss the point: religion IS an easy target, positively ridiculous. The fact so many people SUBSCRIBE to a god-belief is mystifying. So if you think these silly beliefs are easy targets for Bill’s cutting wit, just remember, he’s only reporting what he sees. Don’t shoot the messenger.
“Viva Zapatero!”
Sabina Guzzanti has her political satire television show canned after one episode. Well, she made fun of Prime Minister Berlusconi, didn’t she? Sabina explores the link between the government and its overwhelming influence over supposedly free media, not too mention Berlusconi’s paranoia over his own public image. There is an excellent unedited scene where Sabina confronts one of the parliamentarians and grills his guts over the government’s dishonesty. Unlike Michael Moore, Sabina never gives us the pseudo pleasantries and attacks her targets like Oprah Winfrey hitting the buffet table. Mostly in Italian, with some portions in English, with English subtitles.
“Beyond The Mat”
If you’ve seen and enjoyed “The Wrestler”, you owe it to yourself to experience the real story of real wrestlers, young and old, famous and infamous. Featured wrestlers include Mick Foley, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (relatively briefly, mind you), Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts and Terry Funk. Oh yeah, you can’t go past Dennis Stamp bouncing on his trampoline with a pair of hand held weights (this guy is a big running joke for wrestling fans on the internet who have seen the film). Hilarious, disturbing, fascinating.
Baraka
One Man in the Band
Zanzibar Musial Club
Seven Ages of Rock
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (by far the best I have seen)
Scratch
The Perverts Guide To Cinema
The Collected work of John Pilger
The Road to Guantanamo
The World at War
There are loads and loads of documentaries on here http://freedocumentaries.org/
I really want to see The Sorrow and the Pity and Shoa
I watched American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein the other day in the wake of the Israeli state being the massive prick that it is again, that was a very good documentary.
Dont Look Back. Easily. I’m not even that much of a Bob Dylan fan, but something about this movie makes me watch it over and over again. I think it’s the bracing honesty. Anyone who doubts that a documentary can be objective should see this.
Also:
The Fog of War
Man on Wire
Would very much like to see Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera
Well, just by the very nature of the art a film can’t be objective. I haven’t seen Don’t Look Back and don’t really know anything about it (beyond the obvious) but if it left out a single piece of information about Dylan’s tour (which it had to because it condensed months of touring into 90 some odd minutes) it’s not objective, by definition.
Any documentary that claims to be completely ‘objective’ is a documentary that fails; simple as that.
Wiseman, and Wang Bing are two of the greatest documentary filmmakers… hell they’re two of the greatest filmmakers to ever live. Period.
Salesman
Crumb
this film is not yet rated
Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
The World of Jacques Demy
My Best Fiend
Buddha’s Lost Children
Lessons of Darkness
Soldiers of Conscience
I SURRENDER, DEAR,
Can’t be objective? Maybe not. I see your point and have deliberated it long before. It comes close. Pennebaker had to choose what was shown in the editing process and narrow the runtime down to 96 minutes, thus eliminating a good deal more footage. But watch it and tell me if what Pennebaker captured and assembled didn’t judge his subject and leave the viewer to decide what they think of Dylan. It popularized the “verite” documentary style and revolutionized the concert film. There is no narrator, no camera-subject interviews and no title cards (aside from obligitory credits). You’re left to decipher everything yourself. The access Pennebaker had to capure his subject in such a complex way is amazing: Dylan can be asshole, playing mind games with reporters, letting his groupies loose upon themselves and enjoying it, being intolerant to other people (get a load of how much of a prick Albert Grossman was). He is also shown socializing with fans, stressed out by fame and in some great music performances. I kind of like to define a good documentary as capturing the complexity and feeling of a subject, because no real truth is objective anyway.
Deliver Us From Evil
For All Mankind
Lost in La Mancha
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Definitely agree with Robert on Bus174
The Bridge by Eric Steel (Golden Gate Bridge suicides)
Control Room by Jehane Noujaim
Check out her talk on TED
http://www.ted.com/talks/jehane_noujaim_inspires_a_global_day_of_film.html
Really inspiring!!
Tyler Aikens
“A” and “A2”, from Japan, inside looks at the Aum cult whose leader was responsible for a serin gas attach in Tokyo’s subways.
“The Revolution Will Be Televised” about the US backed coup on Hugo Chavez.
And, of course, “Zeitgeist”.
“Collapse” wasn’t bad either, but rather boring.