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Recommend some documentaries

does "Into The Wild" count as a documentary? :confused:

hope so cause its brilliant...watch it anyway if you havent seen it. :cool:


ETA- its a docu and its a great film.
Are you talking about the latest Sean Penn film? The one in which Emile Hirsch plays a posh lad who goes off adventuring in Alaska? Or something else?
 
good on yer. Other recommendations are the life stories of Bette Davis, Judy Garland and Joan Crawford - all separate and on youtube (there may be one on the rivalry between Bette davis and Joan Crawford when they were filming 'Whatever happened to Baby Jane?' though. Have a look.

And the serial killers - Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer are well put together, and include interviews with the killers themselves. Spooky.

Lots of people have already seen it, but 'Imagine' by John Lennon is probably my favourite ever documentary.
I've seen the life stories of Bette & Joan and yeh they're really interesting. Was gonna mention 'Imagine' but know Lennon isn't everyone's favorite on urban. I have it on dvd and it still remains one of my favorites.
 
oh, if it aint already been mentioned, there was a very good docu on bbc4 a few weeks back 'black power salute' about the visible Olympic protests by winning black american athletes. Good stuff, may e available on Iplayer
 
I've seen the life stories of Bette & Joan and yeh they're really interesting. Was gonna mention 'Imagine' but know Lennon isn't everyone's favorite on urban. I have it on dvd and it still remains one of my favorites.


Yep. I am always on the hunt for good documentaries on youtube. I am guessing there is probably a good Frida Kahlo one somewhere on there which might be to your taste...will have a scout. just thinking now of some more film star ones....theres a good one on the life of Richard Burton. I know theres a fantastic interview with him and a drunken Liz Taylor where she absolute freaks out hissing at the interviewer when he quizzes Richard Burton on his departure from the theatre to Hollywood....:D.ah yes...Peter Sellers life, thats another good one.

this isnt a documentary but for Peter Sellers fans check out his interview with Parky from the 70's - its just him mimicing really - his impressions of George Formby are unbelievable.

and there was also a brilliant one on Brigitte Bardot's life from the beeb years ago, which i imagine is on youtube - I have it on video.
 
People watch films on YouTube? :eek:

hell yes! I watched 'Dr Strangelove' in about 10 parts the other week. one scene was dubbed badly though, which ruined it a bit for me, but the youtube comments were hilarious

poster 1: 'why the fuck post a film on youtube if we cant hear it properly man???'
poster 2: 'shut the fuck up dumbass, do you know how much dollars it costs to rent this in a video store? three dollars asshole!


:D
 
My Best Fiend - Werner Herzog (brilliant!)

Dig! (about bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols)
 
I watched a fantastic Lenny Bruce doc on youtube last year but can't remember what it's called and just looked for it and can't find it
 
Chris marker stuff is always interesting - doesn't always strictly count as doco though. Pretty accesible Marker:
The Case of the Grinning Cat
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437123/

Harun Farocki is similiar - this is excellent:
Videogram of a Revolution - lost and found, edited and unedited raw footage of the Ceausescu overthrow and how it's been constructed by media(s)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108489/


The Weather Undergound:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343168/
Interesting but does let them off the hook for a lot of shit.

The Cultural Revolution: Mao’s Last Battle and China in Revolution: 1911-1949
Two outstanding docs.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293034/
http://ffh.films.com/id/6339/The_Cultural_Revolution_Maos_Last_Battle.htm

MC5*: A True Testimonial - best music doc i've ever seen.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0333847/

The Patriot Game
http://www.frif.com/cat97/p-s/the_patr.html

The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0334548/

Harlan County U.S.A
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074605/

Workingman's Death
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478331/

Night and fog
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048434/

(Or Shoah if you want the full experience)
 
mmm, but when I'm watching a documentary the picture isn't the important bit unless it's attenborough detailing the fuck-lives of the Lesser Spotted Insect.

agreed. the picture isnt too bad, sometimes it can be pretty good! if its a documentary im not that bothered about its film-makers appeal - having said that, martin scorcese's bob dylan doc is wonderful.
 
Er...why wouldn't it be important? :confused:

well unless it's a nature thing then crystal clarity isn't that important imo. I'm watching to be informed, not to admire the kewl graphics

having said that the political stuff I youtube is usually a blokey at a lectern talking and so the picture makes no odds. If it was nature or history I'd probably want good focus
 
If anyone is curious about Syd Barretts appeal and why so many are obsessed with him, there are some good early floyd docus to be devoured too.

The actual story of Syd's life is pretty compelling for newbies, as are interviews with surviving Floydsters on his demise while he was in the band. The only surviving video interview with him is on all the early floyd documentaries - its from 'Look of the Week' in about 1967 and he blows the minds of the establishment by challenging them with his brilliant insights.

another good documentary worth checking out if you love to hate him, is 'Who the fuck is Pete Doherty?' which attempts to answer that question.
 
Lots of good leads here, thanks all.

As a punt, are there any good documentaries on the troubles in the Balkans? I'm a fan of more political documentaries, as I'm interested in the subject and it's far more pleasant to sit down on the sofa and watch one with a beer than read or watch it on the PC (I do enough of both at work)
 
Lots of good leads here, thanks all.

As a punt, are there any good documentaries on the troubles in the Balkans? I'm a fan of more political documentaries, as I'm interested in the subject and it's far more pleasant to sit down on the sofa and watch one with a beer than read or watch it on the PC (I do enough of both at work)

The Death of a Nation is what your after.
 
The Death of a Nation is what your after.

I've got a book by Silber and Little of that name (well, prefixed by Yugoslavia), is it the same people? I gather Little is a Beeb correspondent.

For some reason, I seem to find a film about Timor of the same name.
 
I saw Confederate States of America, which was unimpressive - I found it pretty clumsy - and perhaps an unfortunate introduction to Spike Lee in a documentary sense.

CSA is not really a documentary, though. It's an alternate history spoof. I rather enjoyed it.

Anyhow, some suggestions:

Joy Division - I accidentally got this 2007 documentary about the band instead of the 2006 feature film, but it was rather enjoyable all the same. Slickly put together, talking heads, opens with a quotation from 'All That Is Solid Melts Into Air', interesting contextual material.

Adam Curtis's docmentary series (eg Pandora's Box, The Power Of Nightmares, The Trap, The Mayfair Set, The Century Of The Self) are generally very compelling, though he does tend to retread the same ideas, events and people in them.

I saw a very absorbing 2006 documentary about the Spanish Civil War, which focuses on Ethel MacDonald, a young Scottish woman who travelled to Spain to become part of the revolution. It was called An Anarchist's Story, and was directed by Mark Littlewood and produced by Pelicula Films for BBC Scotland, though I cannot find it on IMDb.

Sean Langan's films - like Dispatches: Meeting The Taleban[/i], Dispatches: Fighting The Taliban and Travels With A Gringo - are rather personable.

If we are stretching into docudrama, 1990's Shoot To Kill is an interesting look at the E4A/SAS shootings in 1980s Northern Ireland, directed by Peter Kosminsky. Who Bombed Birmingham?, from the same year, looks at the IRA's Birmingham bombings, and the arrest and conviction of six innocents.
 
CSA is not really a documentary, though. It's an alternate history spoof. I rather enjoyed it.

Anyhow, some suggestions:

Joy Division - I accidentally got this 2007 documentary about the band instead of the 2006 feature film, but it was rather enjoyable all the same. Slickly put together, talking heads, opens with a quotation from 'All That Is Solid Melts Into Air', interesting contextual material.

Adam Curtis's docmentary series (eg Pandora's Box, The Power Of Nightmares, The Trap, The Mayfair Set, The Century Of The Self) are generally very compelling, though he does tend to retread the same ideas, events and people in them.

I saw a very absorbing 2006 documentary about the Spanish Civil War, which focuses on Ethel MacDonald, a young Scottish woman who travelled to Spain to become part of the revolution. It was called An Anarchist's Story, and was directed by Mark Littlewood and produced by Pelicula Films for BBC Scotland, though I cannot find it on IMDb.

Sean Langan's films - like Dispatches: Meeting The Taleban[/i], Dispatches: Fighting The Taliban and Travels With A Gringo - are rather personable.
If we are stretching into docudrama, 1990's Shoot To Kill is an interesting look at the E4A/SAS shootings in 1980s Northern Ireland, directed by Peter Kosminsky. Who Bombed Birmingham?, from the same year, looks at the IRA's Birmingham bombings, and the arrest and conviction of six innocents.

To be honest, alternative histories should at least be viable - CSA seemed just to transpose the condition of blacks in 1850s' era south America to the present time.

Cheers for the others, I'm assembling a lovefilm list and most of those will be on it.
 
Lots of good leads here, thanks all.

As a punt, are there any good documentaries on the troubles in the Balkans? I'm a fan of more political documentaries, as I'm interested in the subject and it's far more pleasant to sit down on the sofa and watch one with a beer than read or watch it on the PC (I do enough of both at work)
Try Nerma's story:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/ witness/2008/05/2008615165926187192.html

Or these other Witness programmes:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/ witness/2008/07/20087179935782357.html

Saw this one recently:



About Nauru, which was once a wealthy nation due to phosphate mining, but it ran out (well, the easily accessible stuff). And because lots of land was turned over to the mining, the once food self-sufficient island now relies on imports, which means it's very expensive to buy even the basics.

Shooting the messenger, about the targeting of journalists and media workers:

 
Today I watched Operation Homecoming. It is a film in which US soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan talk about their experiences, share their thoughts on life, and have their writing on the war read out. It is far less flagwaving than that might make it sound.
 
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