Best documentary films of all time.
Please make a list of at least five, and up to ten, of your favorite documentaries of all time. Please double bracket them with two [ and two ] on either side in order to link to the mahalo page.
Some of my favorite ones of late:
Man on Wire -- this film was brilliant and inspiring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAQm514JiVA
Deep Water -- this film deeply impacted me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDs67LfPYPU
Super Size Me -- funny and informative.
Bigger Stronger Faster -- really makes you think about personal freedom
The Kid Stays in the Picture -- my inspiration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys9fYAdgvEk
The King of Kong -- most powerful story ever told... about video games (and man's need to accomplish, well, something).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K7wpatALDQ
http://blogs.theage.com.au/schembri/king.jpg
Hoop Dreams -- the classic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph2Y-epihlk
http://img.skitch.com/20090101-rn52ns93igx42w5ggwj3fqch68.png
big list here: http://www.mahalo.com/Category:Documentaries
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$40 Answers
James Burke of the The Day the Universe Changed and Connections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufWyrUZ6-2c
David Attenborough Plethora of Documentary series', most notably Planet Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81NVuIQbOCk
And Adam Curtis and his documentaries
"The Power of Nightmares"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaLPFayD8FA
and "Century of the Self"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NZy2_pUVek
If your looking for the actual "best documentaries" of all time if you would have to look at the actual numbers are.
1. Fahrenheit 9/11 - $119,114,517
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zf2nCiBJLo
2. Everest - $87,178,599
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSzi4bO8d6w
3. Space Station - $77,093,565
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SON6CT9-xy4
4. March of the Penguins - $77,437,223
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3k-fkOtTDo
5. Mysteries of Egypt - $40,593,286
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i7EZfEnRUo
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
7. Titticut Follies - Frederick Wiseman's "fly-on-the-wall" style revolutionized documentary filmmaking. This depressing account of a mental institution gives no opinions. You just have to watch and imagine yourself there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uig-nqHgmYc
6. Night and Fog - Alain Resnais' 30-minute film captures the emptiness and sadness of the German concentration camps 10 years after their were raided by the allies. The images in this film can never be forgotten and are some of the starkest visual documents of these impacting locations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95RXLNFewQo
5. The Thin Blue Line - Errol Morris combines interviews with cinematic recreations to make a crime come to life. This film discovered the truth of a shooting and exposed the laziness of the police investigation. A gripping thriller and an important milestone in the way a documentary film could impact the public.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9ymTIMAmk
4. Time Indefinite - This one is hard to track down. There aren't even any clips of it on YouTube. Ross McElwee's sequel to the heralded Sherman's March is even better than its well-known predecessor. McElwee is the sole cameraman and his introspective process makes a profound statement on the American family and life in the south.
3. The Man With The Movie Camera - The Russians really knew how to blow your mind back in the 20s. They pretty much invented modern editing. Dziga Vertov's camera explores the Russia of nearly a century ago, contrasting images of the industrial age with people going about their lives. One of the biggest inspirations behind Koyaanisqatsi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZAVMaXdR0k
2. Don't Look Back - Containing some of the best footage of Bob Dylan ever captured, D.A. Pennebaker followed the artist on his tour of England in 1965. Displaying Dylan as equal parts musical genius and mischievous curmudgeon, it is quite simply one of the most entertaining and inviting documentaries ever made. The most famous sequence is probably Dylan's callous interview with a Time Magazine reporter, but the clip I've included is an impromptu acoustic guitar battle between Dylan and pop singer Donovan. Look at Dylan's piercing eyes as he sings "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN6gqot02Zk
1. Gimme Shelter - The Maysles brothers brilliantly document The Rolling Stones in 1969. They have their cameras at just the right spot to catch the brawl between fans and the Hells Angels at the Altamont speedway and capture the best rock band in the world in their prime. Fascinating and invigorating even 40 years later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6IfTTnVqSY
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/
PS - Mahalo answers is clearly kicking butt.
IMDB
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schindler's_List
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Schindler's+List&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
www.schindlerslist.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yYikshdLcw
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$I don't have a video link, but the story is here:
http://bcasports.cstv.com/genrel/042508aaa.html
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$1 . CIA Americas Secret Warriors ( Only Aired once and was forced not to air ) VHS http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/31318-cia-americas-secret-warriors-world-trade-center-bomb-video.htm
2. Cocaine Cowboys 1&2 ( Cant Believe this Happen ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXRJPzVS0GE
3. Solo (Very Sad ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvCt3AVWr2s&feature=fvw
4.The Soviet Story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_3RIuw6CAI
5. Zeitgeist Addendum http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gKX9TWRyfs
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082252/ - The decline of western civilization.
Oh and the eighties version - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_Western_Civilization_II
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446055/ - The trials of Darryl Hunt
I have seen a lot of documentaries and if you have the time, you should really watch this - http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whentheleveesbroke/
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Why We Fight: Remarkable look into the history, power, and breadth of the military-industrial complex.
Hoop Dreams: Mentioned above
Grizzly Man: Amazing footage of bears in the Alaska wild. Shot from so close the camera man got eaten.
Startup.com: The highs and lows of an internet startup during the first boom. Appeals to my nerdy nostalgia.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Microcosmos. Beautiful and technically astonishing documentary of the lives of little things that live in a field of wildflowers. A nature doc that is never boring, and includes a surprisingly moving (and somehow not cheesy) scene of snail love set to an operatic score.
[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76R2EKEnoJQ ]
Who's Counting? This documentary about Marilyn Waring makes you question the most basic assumptions of economics (and everything else too). If you like political docs, this one takes on complicated issues but explains them in a way that even I can understand (and if you told me before I saw it that I would find a doc about an economic activist fascinating, I would have laughed right in your face).
[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbcWUoIqX6g ]
The Five Obstructions. A unique film. Dogme 95 director Lars von Trier 'assigns' his mentor several filmmaking challenges. Lars takes delight in the role reversal, and also in being a tricky bastard at times, but it's a very moving depiction of their relationship, and it shows (not tells) us how they think of the art form -- film -- that they love (and occasionally hate) so much.
[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKTSJO432kc ]
Some Kind of Monster. I think you have to include at least one rock doc, and this is my favorite (not counting mockumentaries). Watching the members of Metallica go through group therapy to deal with one another (and eventually having ambivalent feelings toward the therapist's presence too) is a weird experience. So is seeing them sincerely work on treating each other better. Yet they don't seem less 'metal' when you're done. Except maybe Kirk. But he's stil awesome musically.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$It is all about the history of the word and why some find it offensive.
The other one I like is The Aristocrats
One hundred superstar comedians tell the same very, VERY dirty, filthy joke--one shared privately by comics since Vaudeville.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I don't know why my photo and clips won't embed properly.
I am trying to fix photographs:
http://www.fourletterfilm.com/images/f--k.jpg
Buy they won't show up. I think I was sabotaged. Or maybe the devs wanted another email from me. Can't figure out why my post went all wonky...
Who Killed the Electric Car (will make you pull your hair out thinking about what SHOULD have been)
Word Wars (about pro Scrabble players)
Warphotographer (Must watch about photographer James Nachtwey)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
AGREED.
1 "Who Killed the Electric Car"
2. "America's Drug War"
3. "The Exodus Decoded"
4. "An Inconvenient Truth"
5. "The Prosecution of Tommy Chong"
Sorry, I think people can find links to these easily enough at You Tube, cluttering up these pages with all those flash applets wastes a lot of bandwidth for the users!
1. An Inconvenient Truth
&
2. Fahrenheit 9/11
---------An Inconvenient Truth----------
Appearances to the contrary, Mr. Guggenheim's movie is not really about Al Gore. It consists mainly of a multimedia presentation on climate change that Mr. Gore has given many times over the last few years, interspersed with interviews and Mr. Gore's voice-over reflections on his life in and out of politics.
I can't think of another movie in which the display of a graph elicited gasps of horror, but when the red lines showing the increasing rates of carbon-dioxide emissions and the corresponding rise in temperatures come on screen, the effect is jolting and chilling. Photographs of receding ice fields and glaciers — consequences of climate change that have already taken place — are as disturbing as speculative maps of submerged coastlines. The news of increased hurricane activity and warming oceans is all the more alarming for being delivered in Mr. Gore's matter-of-fact, scholarly tone.
http://www.rogerwendell.com/images/climatechange/an_inconvenient_truth_by_al_gore.jpg
He speaks of the need to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions as a "moral imperative," and most people who see this movie will do so out of a sense of duty, which seems to me entirely appropriate. Luckily, it happens to be a well-made documentary, edited crisply enough to keep it from feeling like 90 minutes of C-Span and shaped to give Mr. Gore's argument a real sense of drama. As unsettling as it can be, it is also intellectually exhilarating, and, like any good piece of pedagogy, whets the appetite for further study. This is not everything you need to know about global warming: that's the point. But it is a good place to start, and to continue, a process of education that could hardly be more urgent. "An Inconvenient Truth" is a necessary film.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2078944470709189270
-----------Fahrenheit 9/11--------------
Documentarians always have their own points of view, but Moore takes his positions and then guards them with pitbull-like intensity (though with humor as well).
Moore states his premise and then proceeds to build his case quite effectively. The title is a play on "Fahrenheit 451," the temperature at which paper burns, and a Ray Bradbury novel about a future totalitarian state in which reading and independent thought are banned. Moore's contention is that the present administration in Washington is jamming its policies down the throats of Americans -- and the world -- with little to no regard for the truth; or, at the very least, no room for an open discussion as to the validity of those policies.
http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/20/MPW-10390
Perhaps the most damaging footage shows Bush on September 11, sitting in a Florida classroom for a full seven minutes after he had been told that the second tower had been struck, and that it was clear the horrific events in New York were a terrorist attack, not a tragic accident. Moore lets this moment go on and on: The president of the United States, stone-faced in front of dozens of schoolchildren, doing absolutely nothing, as our nation comes under attack.
Though Moore is the narrator of "Fahrenheit" and appears in the movie, much of the film consists of news footage featuring the president. At times, it can be argued, some of these scenes appear out of context.
In one scene, Bush addresses supporters at a white-tie fundraiser: "This is an impressive crowd -- the haves ... and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite; I call you my base." In another moment, Bush is in the middle of a golf game when he gives an obviously impromptu news conference. "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers," he says. "Now watch this drive." He then proceeds to step back and hit the golf ball.
But the film finds stunning power in the story of Lila Lipscomb, a resident of Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan. Her son is fighting in Iraq; when she is first interviewed, she's a staunch defender of the war and Bush's policies.
But then her son is killed. After his death, she goes through a poignant and deep metamorphosis and becomes staunchly anti-Bush and anti-war.
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zf2nCiBJLo
SOME HONOURABLE MENTIONS--------
1. Hoop Dreams (1994)
2. The Thin Blue Line (198
3. Bowling for Columbine (2002)
4. Spellbound (2002)
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd314/RamsesFlores/spellbound.jpg
5. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
6. Woodstock (1970)
7. Crumb (1994)
8. Gimme Shelter (1970)
9. The Fog of War (2003)
http://www.philipglass.com/img/films/225/the-fog-of-war_225.jpg
10. Roger & Me (1989)
11. Super Size Me (2004)
12. Don't Look Back (1967)
13. Salesman (196
14. Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance (1982)
15. Sherman's March (1986)
16. Grey Gardens (1976)
17. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
18. Born into Brothels (2004)
19. Titicut Follies (1967)
20. Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
21. Night and Fog (1955)
22. Winged Migration (2002)
23. Grizzly Man (2005)
http://www.filmcatcher.com/uploads/img/product/grizzlyman.jpg
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$2/ 911 - Falling man
3/ King of Kong
4/ A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures
5/ National.Geographic - My Brilliant Brain
6/ The Pink Floyd Story - Which One's Pink
7/ Religulous
8/ Zeitgeist I & II
9/ Sick
10/ The Fog Of War
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Burden of Dreams Les Blank's account of Werner Herzog's insane approach to filming "Fitzcarraldo"
Little Dieter Needs to Fly Werner Herzog's moving profile of a former prisoner of war.
SurfWise Fascinating look at a family who drops out of society, lives in a van, and surfs.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Stylistically, Tarnation is mesmerizing.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Absolutely, you must see this. It's about a primary school in northern Uganda that has been relocated due to constant threat of violence from rebels. The school is preparing for and competes in Uganda's national music competition. Northern Uganda is war torn and the kids have gone through immense hardship, and it really makes you think about your own life. Compared to someone who has watched both her parents be murdered, doing your homework isn't such a bad deal after all.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
502 Bad Gateway
The server returned an invalid or incomplete response.
Oh well, here is the list:
1. Status Anxiety
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CERfoDIU2Yw
2. Religulous
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7plD7xzr2q8
3. Jesus Camp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEhaA9BU9as
4. Bowling for Columbine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSn5UEiovxo
5. Fahrenheit 9/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zf2nCiBJLo
6. Visions of the Future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDfwpA-iYnI
7. Steal This Film 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMaE0xBxf6o
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
An Inconvenient Truth
Anne Frank Remembered
Bowling for Columbine
Sicko
The Fog Of War
Stephen Hawking's Universe
Paper Clips
Crumb
Fahrenheit 9/11
When We Were Kings
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I'd also add Jesus Camp, Wordplay, Confessions of a Superhero, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated.
Looking forward to Second Skin as well.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
The ultimate 90s grunge documentary. Killer footage and the story of the whole phenomenon. From the roots and glory days to the fashion and Smells Like Teen Spirit Musac playing in JC Penny!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116589/
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103888/
King of Corn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr5HQrgg9mM
Planet Earth TV Series - Look for the edition narrated by David Attenborough.
Religulous
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB8fPJ6zds8
Baraka - Awesome views from around the world. Watch with a friend, since the lack of narration can stimulate great conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7geZs4qci1M
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
The Secret
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onqme41urM4
What the Bleep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7dhztBnpxg
Google Behind the Screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBNDYggyesc
UFO Documentary of Dan Aykroyd With David Serada http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqEdzBKWAZ4
The life of Albert Einstein
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfDzLzMYs0w
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Who Killed the Electric Car?
March of the Penguins
Planet Earth (great photography)
Jazz (Ken Burns)
Some of Michael Moore's films are entertaining, but too slanted and full of errors to be honestly called documentaries
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Be Here to Love Me - Townes Van Zandt
Director: Margaret Brown
Paradise Lost 1 & 2 - The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Directors: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
chicago 10-
Director: Brett Morgen
The American Ruling Class -
Director: John Kirby
Writer: Lewis Lapham
You're Gonna Miss Me - A film about Roky Erickson
Director: Keven McAlester
Off the Grid: Life On The Mesa
Directors: Jeremy Stulberg - Randy Stulberg
Zeitgeist 1 & 2
Director: Peter Joseph
Murder Of Fred Hampton
Director: Howard Alk
me viewing history, my opinion.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Wow... a documentary about a font. It looks really interesting actually!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL60GEGjj_Q
1) Shoah
2) Fog Of War
3) Baraka
4) The Thin Blue Line
5) Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media
6) The Sorrow and the Pity
7) Les Blank's " A Well-Spent Life" and "Burden of Dreams"
5) Murderball
6) The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
7) Harun Farocki's "Videograms of a Revolution" and "Images of the World and the Inscription of War"
8) Night and Fog
9) The Corporation
10) Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance
11) Triumph of the Will
12) Olympia - Parts 1 & 2
13) The Yes Men Fix The World
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
And I know it's a cliché, but I *do* like Michael Moore: Bowling for Columbine is a particular fave.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$The Straight Story - david lynch film about the man who drove his lawn mower across Iowa - one of the best films of all time IMHO
Life and Debt - stunning documentary of the effects of the WTO on Jamaican farmers
The Agronomist - another all time favorite about Jean Dominique, the corageous leader of Radio Free Haiti during the tumultous 80s, 90s and beyond
The Corporation - required viewing for everyone - end of story.
Rivers and Tides - great documentary about the British artist Andy Goldsworthy
more great documentaries here:
http://documentary.tumblr.com/
and here
http://www.smashingtelly.com
great thread. thanks jason.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Who Killed the Electric Car
Hacking Democracy
When We Left Earth
Helvetica
The Civil War
Special Mention Fake Documentary
CSA: Confederate States of America
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Hey all... Fantastic thread. I'm in a small town in southern Chile, waiting out a rain storm in a hotel and tomorrow I hit the road, a la thumbs. So that's my quick backdrop about this post. You guys threw a lot of good flicks out there and as bored as I was (and wanting to wrap my head around all this as I download a bunch of films for the road ahead), I threw everyone's responses together for something a bit comprehensive. And of course, put my own two sense in on top... not the greatest documentaries ever, but I hold fond memories of watching them... which is what a good doc should do. Without further lamentation on my nerdiness:
Kon-Tiki - A Norwegian's documentation of a raft made and sailed/drifted from Peru to Polynesia to show Polynesian's could be descendants from S. America... oh, and all filmed in 1947!
Cane Toads - A short film from 1988 about the introduction of cane toads to Australia in the 1930s. The documentary is amusing but the cane toads certainly aren't. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mvV8OT-mmE
How Bruce Lee Changed The World (History Channel) - There's a lot out there, but this one blew me away.
911 - Falling man
A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures
America's Drug War
An Inconvenient Truth
Anne Frank Remembered - http://www.smashingtelly.com
Baraka - Awesome views from around the world. Watch with a friend, since the lack of narration can stimulate great conversation.
Be Here to Love Me - Townes Van Zandt
Bigger Stronger Faster
Born into Brothels (2004)
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Breaking Vegas
Brother's Keeper - A rural community rallies in support of an isolated social outcast. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSn5UEiovxo
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
Burden of Dreams Les Blank's account of Werner Herzog's insane approach to filming Fitzcarraldo
Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Century of the Self
chicago 10-
Confessions of a Superhero
Crumb (1994)
CSA: Confederate States of America
David Attenborough Plethora of Documentary series', most notably Planet Earth
Deep Water -- this film deeply impacted me.
Devils Playground
Don't Look Back (1967)
Einstein And Eddington
Empire of the city - Ring of Power
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Everest - $87,178,599
Fahrenheit 9/11
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. Errol Morris looks at four brilliant and wacky people whose science and technology are blurring the boundaries among human, animal, and machine in differeny but fascinating ways.
Fog Of War
Gimme Shelter - The Maysles brothers brilliantly document The Rolling Stones in 1969. They have their cameras at just the right spot to catch the brawl between fans and the Hells Angels at the Altamont speedway and capture the best rock band in the world in their prime. Fascinating and invigorating even 40 years later.
Gimme Shelter (1970) - Containing some of the best footage of Bob Dylan ever captured, D.A. Pennebaker followed the artist on his tour of England in 1965. Displaying Dylan as equal parts musical genius and mischievous curmudgeon, it is quite simply one of the most entertaining and inviting documentaries ever made. The most famous sequence is probably Dylan's callous interview with a Time Magazine reporter, but the clip I've included is an impromptu acoustic guitar battle between Dylan and pop singer Donovan. Look at Dylan's piercing eyes as he sings It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
Google Behind the Screen
Grey Gardens (1976)
Grey Gardens my favorite film of all time (not just documentary). Disturbing yet life affirming story of a daughter still living with mom after age 50.
Grizzly Man (2005) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN6gqot02Zk
Hacking Democracy
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
Harun Farocki's Videograms of a Revolution and Images of the World and the Inscription of War - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSzi4bO8d6w
Helvetica - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zf2nCiBJLo
Holographic Film - NEW Holographic Film, Super Projection Transparent film, front & rear view
Hoop Dreams: Mentioned above - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6IfTTnVqSY
I once saw a documentary describing what Atlanta real estate mogul Tom Cousins did with the East Lake Meadows ghetto, turning the neighborhood into a thriving golf-inclusive community.
I think Street Fight is great. If you like political documentaries you have to see this one!
I.O.U.S.A is one that often gets overlooked
James Burke of the The Day the Universe Changed and Connections
Jazz (Ken Burns)
Jesus Camp
Jesus Camp
King of Corn
King of Kong
Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL60GEGjj_Q
Kurt Cobain: About a Son - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph2Y-epihlk
Les Blank's A Well-Spent Life and Burden of Dreams
Life and Debt - stunning documentary of the effects of the WTO on Jamaican farmers
Little Dieter Needs to Fly Werner Herzog's moving profile of a former prisoner of war.
Man on Wire
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media
March of the Penguins
Microcosmos - Beautiful and technically astonishing documentary of the lives of little things that live in a field of wildflowers. A nature doc that is never boring, and includes a surprisingly moving (and somehow not cheesy) scene of snail love set to an operatic score.
Murder Of Fred Hampton
Murderball
Mysteries of Egypt - $40,593,286
National.Geographic - My Brilliant Brain
Night and Fog
Off the Grid: Life On The Mesa
Oh and the eighties version - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_Western_Civilization_II - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufWyrUZ6-2c
Olympia - Parts 1 & 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEhaA9BU9as
Paper Clips
Paradise Lost 1 & 2 - The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Planet Earth (great photography)
Poto and Cabengo - about 2 twin girls who develop and speak their own language, get their 15min of fame and a study of what happens when one becomes the object of worldwide attention, if ever so briefly.
Religulous
Revolution OS - http://www.revolution-os.com/
Rivers and Tides - great documentary about the British artist Andy Goldsworthy
Roger & Me (1989) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAQm514JiVA
Salesman (196
Sherman's March (1986)
Shoah - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3k-fkOtTDo
Sick - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76R2EKEnoJQ
Sicko - http://documentary.tumblr.com/
sixhoursago
Some Kind of Monster. - I think you have to include at least one rock doc, and this is my favorite (not counting mockumentaries). Watching the members of Metallica go through group therapy to deal with one another (and eventually having ambivalent feelings toward the therapist's presence too) is a weird experience. So is seeing them sincerely work on treating each other better. Yet they don't seem less 'metal' when you're done. Except maybe Kirk. But he's stil awesome musically.
Space Station - $77,093,565
Special Mention Fake Documentary
Spellbound (2002)
Startup.com: The highs and lows of an internet startup during the first boom. Appeals to my nerdy nostalgia.
Status Anxiety
Steal This Film 2
Stephen Hawking's Universe
Super Size Me
SurfWise Fascinating look at a family who drops out of society, lives in a van, and surfs.
The Agronomist - another all time favorite about Jean Dominique, the corageous leader of Radio Free Haiti during the tumultous 80s, 90s and beyond
The American Ruling Class -
The Aristocrats
The Civil War - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7plD7xzr2q8
The Corporation
The Corporation - required viewing for everyone - end of story. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB8fPJ6zds8
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
The Exodus Decoded
The Five Obstructions. A unique film. Dogme 95 director Lars von Trier 'assigns' his mentor several filmmaking challenges. Lars takes delight in the role reversal, and also in being a tricky bastard at times, but it's a very moving depiction of their relationship, and it shows (not tells) us how they think of the art form -- film -- that they love (and occasionally hate) so much.
The Fog of War (2003)
The Kid Stays in the Picture -- my inspiration
The King of Kong
The life of Albert Einstein
The Man With The Movie Camera - The Russians really knew how to blow your mind back in the 20s. They pretty much invented modern editing. Dziga Vertov's camera explores the Russia of nearly a century ago, contrasting images of the industrial age with people going about their lives. One of the biggest inspirations behind Koyaanisqatsi.
The Pink Floyd Story - Which One's Pink - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SON6CT9-xy4
The Power of Nightmares
The Prosecution of Tommy Chong
The Secret
The Smartest Guys in the Room (about Enron) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CERfoDIU2Yw
The Sorrow and the Pity - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMaE0xBxf6o
The Straight Story - david lynch film about the man who drove his lawn mower across Iowa - one of the best films of all time IMHO
The Thin Blue Line - Errol Morris combines interviews with cinematic recreations to make a crime come to life. This film discovered the truth of a shooting and exposed the laziness of the police investigation. A gripping thriller and an important milestone in the way a documentary film could impact the public.
The Times of Harvey Milk
The War Room: The story of the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign that made James Carville and George Stephanopoulos famous.
The Yes Men Fix The World
This Film Is Not Yet Rated.
Time Indefinite - This one is hard to track down. There aren't even any clips of it on YouTube. Ross McElwee's sequel to the heralded Sherman's March is even better than its well-known predecessor. McElwee is the sole cameraman and his introspective process makes a profound statement on the American family and life in the south.
Titicut Follies (1967)
Triumph of the Nerds
Triumph of the Will
UFO Documentary of Dan Aykroyd With David Serada http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqEdzBKWAZ4 - [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKTSJO432kc
Visions of the Future
Waltz With Bashir
What the Bleep
When The Levees Broke - http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whentheleveesbroke/
When We Left Earth - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys9fYAdgvEk
When We Were Kings
Who Killed the Electric Car - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K7wpatALDQ
Who's Counting? This documentary about Marilyn Waring makes you question the most basic assumptions of economics (and everything else too). If you like political docs, this one takes on complicated issues but explains them in a way that even I can understand (and if you told me before I saw it that I would find a doc about an economic activist fascinating, I would have laughed right in your face).
Why We Fight: Remarkable look into the history, power, and breadth of the military-industrial complex. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaLPFayD8FA
Winged Migration (2002)
Woodstock (1970) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onqme41urM4
Wordplay
Write Screenplays Fast Download the step-by-step guide to writing a screenplay in 10 days!
Writer: Lewis Lapham
You're Gonna Miss Me - A film about Roky Erickson - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9ymTIMAmk
Zeitgeist 1 & 2
Zeitgeist I & II
Food Matters , The life of Budhha , Baraka , and the Future of Food
interesting docs can be watched here http://www.humanrestore.com
I am great fan of Documentary Films and I am glad to find www.docshit.com . It's so clean without ads and very very nice collection. They update the website quite often with new documentaries all the time!
