Documentary-Fi

The "Planet Earth" and "Life" series are both incredible, especially on blu-ray. The picture is just stunning and the information from both of these is breath taking. "The Blue Planet" is also a great one I recently bought. All are narrated by David Attenborough.

try Blue Planet and South Pacific

the BBC has done a whole bunch of stuff and they do them far better than anyone else.  mostly because they can throw huge amounts of money into them and dont need to make a profitable return on them.  who else can do "oooh lets do such and such, what do you mean we cant because there isnt a 1080 60fps underwater camera in existence.  well we'll just have to make one then wont we"

I spent last summer partying, working and watching documentaries (and the occasional sleep now and then). Here's pretty much all I watched:

I think most of them were worth watching but I'll rate them out of five stars (not just quality, but interest):

Zeitgeist: Moving Forward **** <-- Interesting view on modern society and the monetary system, mostly monologue from various professors along with information from various studies. Very well presented.

The King of Kong ***** <-- Great akward geekines

Darkon *** <-- An insight into live roleplaying

Reindeerspotting ***** <-- Finnish drug documentary made by a junkie, very good insight into the life of north Finnish drug addicts

Jim Jones **** <-- Cult that made one of the largest mass suicides in history, need to say more?

Lake of Fire ****  <-- Discussion on matters of abortion, very unbiased imo

Fog of War - 11 Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara **** <-- great insight into modern american wars

Dark Days ***** <-- A documetary of the lives of people living underground in New York, soundtrack by Dj Shadow

Encounters at the End of the World **** <-- A documentary of the people living at the South Pole

Touching the Void ***** <-- Incredible story of two mountain climbers

Dear Zachary - A Letter to a son about his father *****  <-- Almost a must see IMO, wont spoil but very good story..

Capturing the Friedmans **** <-- A great story as well

The Cove **** <-- Will make anyone a dolphin activist

The Corporation **** <-- A social psychological view of a corporation as a person (as it is one legally)

The Union **** <-- Interesting view on Kannabis legislation (mostly legalization biased though)

Jesus Camp **** <-- Interesting view on American Evangelists (from a somewhat neutral POV)

I'm very much enjoying the BBC's Human Planet series at the moment. It's a fascinating look at how humans live in different environments.

in the vein of King of Kong (which was awesome) you might try Word Wars.  a movie about national

scrabble tournaments.   also Winnebago Man.  these aren't on the side of history docs, rather quirky/funny

docs.  but very good.

Don't want this thread to die :)

One of my favorite documentaries is Ric Burns 8 DVD set of New York. It delves into the fascinating history of the city.  I especially enjoyed watching it after a New York trip.

It is available at Netflix, Amazon.com and I even saw it at my public library.

http://www.amazon.com/New-York-Ric-Burns/dp/B000BITUF2

I love documentaries. Lets just pop a few out of my head and get the ratings up tommorow. Though all of the following are great.

Crude

Hoop Dreams

The Thin Blue Line

Food Inc.

Food Matters (a bit skewed though. I wouldn't trust it for facts).

Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room

Exit through the gift shop

127 hours

Examined Life

180 South

No End in Sight
Hearts and MInds

That's all I could think of for now.

It's barely a documentary - perhaps more of a biographical news short - but this made me reconsider entirely buying a new pair of headphones that I really shouldn't be spending the money on right now...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1378237514624

I bought the Victory at Sea set 2 years ago, it's great. I remember watching the TV show with my Dad (yes, in 1952). Richard Rodgers composed the music for the show, it's available on CD.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik 

I recently got a new HDTV (first TV since '99 ) and have been catching up on a lot of movies and video content.

Yesterday, I found a DVD set of all 26 episodes of Victory at Sea, (the 1952 NBC series) at Wal-Mart for $5. About 11.5 hours of material and I've been totally engrossed.

Since there are a lot of movie watchers here, I figured a thread on documentaries would be interesting.

If you've seen a good documentary, please tell us. I love all sorts of movies, but documentaries are always a favorite. So let's have a discussion and recommendations here.

By the way, Victory at Sea is terrific. If you can find it for $5, pick it up. I'm about a third of the way in and can't wait to see the rest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackbeardBen 

It's barely a documentary - perhaps more of a biographical news short - but this made me reconsider entirely buying a new pair of headphones that I really shouldn't be spending the money on right now...

 

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1378237514624

I don't want to watch it.... 

Here's one I can recommend, the 2007 BBC series Plant Earth. The comp[lete 5 disc set can be had from Amazon for $22.00.