what are the best documentaries you've seen

[IndieSnob]

That was somewhat based on me, since I'm hung like a horse.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Spinal Tap

 

[dirtwrench]

I'm not a big documentary watcher, but was assigned one in college call "Troublesome Creek." Follows an Iowa family through going broke, selling out, trying to find a way to the end of the tunnel.

Having lived thru it as a teen, I damn near punched the teacher for putting me thru it all over again.

 

[John Doe]

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution.

Great doc.

I just started watching that. I'm about six minutes in.

The more I hear about these "Nazis" the less I like them.

 

[lovetoread]

Gates of Heaven (because Errol Morris is a god)
The Imposter (stylistically interesting and good story)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (very amateur shooting/editing, but story is heartbreaking)
New York Doll ('cause New York Dolls and it's an awesome, well-edited/shot story that even non-NYD fans enjoy because of the Mormon angle)

There's tons, but this is all I got now. I like docs.

I cry every time I watch Dear Zachary.

 

[MissMaidenMinx]

Spinal Tap

*laughs* but it goes to eleven.

My favourite animal doco is animals are beautiful people. It's old, made in '78, but it has a great scene of animals getting drunk.
Anatomy for beginners is a great series.

 

[gravyrug]

Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns), about They Might Be Giants.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304081/

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/apocalypse-the-second-world-war/

PRETTY GOOD

 

[MNGuy]

It's not really a documentary, but it gives me a chance to use this link:

http://thafeedback.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/haveaseat-3b.gif

 

[slave_]

Spinal Tap

Weird... I was thinking about Droogs the other day. Freaky.

 

[Byron In Exile]

*laughs* but it goes to eleven.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll7rWiY5obI

 

[Byron In Exile]

Weird... I was thinking about Droogs the other day. Freaky.

You must have created a magnetic thought-wave.

Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary

 

[MJ10]

Fun Fact

Couldn't stand Kill Your Idols. As much of a fan I am of Sonic Youth and bits and pieces of the No-Wave scene, interviewing Karen O (god she's such a fucking joke) and even The Liars (like the band, but they're dipshits) about that scene, well, I couldn't take the stupidity.

Yeah. I like Sonic Youth and Kim Gordon is cool and all, but I am struggling to get what Thurston has to with the punk rock scene in NYC. In the vid he claims to have moved there in 1982-83 (IIRC)--just before the scene became commercialized (there's a wonderful quote by someone about Basquiat that sums up how ridiculous things got in there). For me he'll always be associated with the grunge scene more than the avant-garde--I feel like someone more appropriate should have been interviewed in his place, but David Byrne was obviously out to lunch so...

Fun Fact: For those who haven't seen the film, there is a brief, brief clip in it where Lydia appears to be going down on one of the actors in one of her films. I don't know much about her, but I get the impression she would've enjoyed Lit a lot.

 

[IndieSnob]

Yeah. I like Sonic Youth and Kim Gordon is cool and all, but I am struggling to get what Thurston has to with the punk rock scene in NYC. In the vid he claims to have moved there in 1982-83 (IIRC)--just before the scene became commercialized (there's a wonderful quote by someone about Basquiat that sums up how ridiculous things got in there). For me he'll always be associated with the grunge scene more than the avant-garde--I feel like someone more appropriate should have been interviewed in his place, but David Byrne was obviously out to lunch so...

Fun Fact: For those who haven't seen the film, there is a brief, brief clip in it where Lydia appears to be going down on one of the actors in one of her films. I don't know much about her, but I get the impression she would've enjoyed Lit a lot.

I've ready way too much Sonic Youth shit, it's kind of disturbing.

I think it was about 78 or so when Thurston moved there. He talked a lot about seeing Television, Blondie, Ramones, The Dictators, etc. etc. He was a total punker kid and was running fanzines at the time as well.

I'd associate their 90s period (Goo, Dirty, etc. etc.) with grunge, but not their earlier period. I find it actually hard to classify. That said, their run from 85 to 88 was amazing. Bad Moon Rising, Evol, Sister, than to top it all of Daydream Nation.

Lydia Lunch is pretty interesting. I like a few of the things she's done, but for the most part it's performance art lost on me.

 

[BotanyBoy]

The first hand documenting of the greatest terrorist attack and hostage situation ever to cast it's evil euro trash shadow upon our great nation.

http://jaysanalysis.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/die_hard.jpg

And the hero who saved us all that day....Carl Winslow.

http://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/blogs/lists/AlPowell.jpeg

Bad ass even got his own video game...

http://bogeytime.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/carlonduty.jpeg

 

[trysail]

The U.S. PBS network's NOVA has been broadcasting a very good one the last couple of weeks called Australia: First Four Billion Years. It's a fascinating mixture of geology, paleobiology and paleontology that explores fascinating topics such as the origins of life, the K-T extinction and how Oz ended up with such a bizarre set of creatures.


It was created by and is narrated by Richard Smith who's quite good at explaining these things. I commend it to your attention.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/australia-first-years.html

Program Description

Of all the continents on Earth, none preserves a more spectacular story of our planet's origins than Australia. NOVA's four-part "Australia's First 4 Billion Years" takes viewers on a rollicking adventure from the birth of the Earth to the emergence of the world we know today. With help from host and scientist Richard Smith, we meet titanic dinosaurs and giant kangaroos, sea monsters and prehistoric crustaceans, disappearing mountains and deadly asteroids. Epic in scope, intimate in nature, this is the untold story of the land "down under," the one island continent that has got it all. Join NOVA on the ultimate Outback road trip, an exploration of the history of the planet as seen through the window of the Australian continent.

The marsupial lion is just one of numerous megafauna, or "big animals," that once lived in Australia. All of them are gone, rendered extinct under still mysterious circumstances sometime after humans first arrived on the continent some 50,000 or 60,000 years ago. In this slide show, see evocative illustrations of some of these extinct wonders as they might have appeared when alive, and find out what made them stand out.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/australias-vanished-beasts.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/assets/img/extinction-enigma/image-01-large.jpg​

 

[MadInMadagascar]

I enjoyed the following fascinating documentary

The lost children of
Franco

The history of oil
Robert Newman

Cuba community solution

One about volcanoes and ash being used the identify catastrophic events like ice age.

 

[Biker_Type]

vote for the best is The Dust Bowl by ken burns, makes a difference that my parents grew up in that time and i've heard of it first hand.

funniest is Gasland, just go watch it...and then ask where does he get the fuelk for that clapped out honda he's driving?

 

[gravyrug]

I'm hoping this one gets funded and made:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smogberrytrees/under-the-smogberry-trees-the-true-story-of-dr-dem

Fully funded! WOOT!

Can't wait for this one.

 

[Fata Morgana]

The Auschwitz one was fantastic, if it's the same one I think, Laurence Rees directed? And I watched a brilliant one last month on BBC4 about three brothers and a sister who traced their father's history in the camps.

Trying to find the name of the fucker on Google. Can't remember it.

 

[mercury14]

Meerkats. Anything with meerkats is the best kind of documentary.

 

[Fata Morgana]

The Holocaust and My Father. Dunno if still available on iplayer.

 

[mercury14]

The Holocaust and My Father. Dunno if still available on iplayer.

Meerkat holocaust documentaries.

 

[Byron In Exile]

... and how Oz ended up with such a bizarre set of creatures.

The Australians, or the animals?

 

[gravyrug]

Meerkats. Anything with meerkats is the best kind of documentary.

Saw a really good one on wolverines. Awesome animals.