Favorite Documentaries
 

I was not able to find a thread covering this topic, sorry if this is a repeat.

I’m a sucker for a good documentary, it's probably my favorite genre. I need some new suggestions. For a few points of reference, here are some of my favorites:

“Fast, Cheap and Out Of Control”
Apted’s “Up” series
“Hoop Dreams”
“Dogtown and Z-Boys”
“Scratch”
“When we Were Kings”
“Burden of Dreams”
“Hearts of Darkness”
“Cane Toads”
“Style Wars” (soon to be released on DVD, YES!!!)

What am I missing?

Ditto for "Hearts of Darkness" and add "Paradise Lost" to the list (where's the DVD for both of them?)
Also: "The Beatles: Anthology" and Burn's "Civil War"

New York

I cannot recommend this film enough.

<b>ATOMIC CAFE</b>

American Movie

I came very close to buying this, but it is awfully expensive. Is it truly worth 125 bucks? Does it have replay value? For that price, I'll want to watch it at least 5 times.

I recieved it as a Christmas gift, and after watching it, I can say that it is worth the money. It is truly a fascinating look at the history of what is undeniably the most important and influential city in the history of the world. Do a price search, because you'll probably be able to find it closer to $100

DDD has it for $100.74

:)

Yes

yes

yes

yes

:up:

Ken Burns' Baseball - I received it for Xmas (I didn't even ask for it because of the price, but my wonderful wife remembered me saying I wanted it one time at BB). I am watching it for the first time in several years and am halfway through it - I absolutely love it! Ken Burns' has an amazing talent and you can see his passion for his project throughout the film.

I also love:

Hoop Dreams
Dogtown and Z-Boys

Bowling for Columbine
Roger & Me
American Movie
Keep the River on Your Right
General Idi Amin Dada
Salesman
Grey Gardens
The Trials of Henry Kissenger
Frontline's "The Farmer's Wife" - simply enthralling, though not on video as far as i know.

[sits back and waits for pants to come in and bash BfC ;)]

A great one that just came out: Rivers and Tides

It's about this artist who makes all his art out of organic material that is impermanent. He'll make a sculpture out of icecycles and then they all melt. Or he'll sculpt something during low tide and when high tide comes it's washed away. It's a great doc and fascinating to watch him work.

Does anyone own "Tokyo Olympiad"? It looks pretty good...

Tokyo Olympiad is superb. I highly recomend it.

Is Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould considered a documentary? I would consider it one. I love this film - a really great work about maybe the greatest musician of the 20th Century.

Battle over Citizen Kane . . . I don't watch too many documentaries though.

Scratch is incredible.

I'd recommend Dark Days...very moving and interesting with a great score by DJ Shadow.

American Movie -- tons of great extras, including Coven, on this disc

Crumb -- one of the best docs of all time

Cane Toads -- still haven’t seen it but heard interesting things

Trekkies -- great fun

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. -- Errol Morris rules

Nanook of the North -- started it all

Man With the Movie Camera -- seminal

Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Super masochist -- sick but poignant, reminds me of Crumb

Salesman -- Mamet took a lot of stuff from here for Glengarry Glen Ross

Grey Gardens -- Maysles brothers rule

Night and Fog -- can be found on the Short: 3, Authority disc also coming out on Criterion soon

One Day in September

Triumph of the Will

Dark Days

Beyond the Mat

My Best Fiend

Fishing with John -- mock documentary of the highest order

4 Little Girls -- should have won the Academy Award

Hands on a Hard Body -- don’t like this one much, but everyone else seems to

The Eyes of Tammy Faye -- great flick

I've been very happy with most of the documentaries released by Docurama.

Oh -- forgot Southern Comfort, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, Nick Broomfield's films (guilty pleasure), etc.

Gimme Shelter

Trinty and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb movie
and don't forget to wear your 3D glasses
for phoney 3D.

Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost: Revelations
Dialogues with Madwomen

bowling for columbine

Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey
Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey
In Memoriam - NYC 9/11/01
Scratch

Lots of good ones mentioned already; I'll add these:

Shoah
Koyaanisqatsi
The Sorrow and the Pity
Me & Isaac Newton
The Last Days
Say Amen, Somebody
Swimming to Cambodia
WTC the first 24 hours
Baraka
The Long Way Home

Hearts & Minds
General Idi Imin Dada
Berkley in the Sixties
American Movie
Beyond the Mat
Atomic Cafe
Rosie the Riveter

And although I absolutely love Koyannisqatsi, I wouldn't classify it as a documentary. It's really a unique film.

I am trying to break your heart
Meeting People is Easy

I love all of errol morris's documentaries:

Vernon, Florida
Gates of Heaven
Thin Blue Line
Mr. Death
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control

I haven't seen his Brief History of Time though.

Also Hoop Dreams, American Movie, Hearts of Darnkess, Crumb, both the Paradise Lost films...i'm sure there are others i can't think of.

hearts of darkness
meeting people is easy
battle for citizen kane
gimme shelter

i really want to get the frank lloyd wright one.

The Kid Stays in the Picture
Alexi and the Spring
Promises
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
The Ghost of Roger Casement (Festival screening)
Hoop Dreams
Visions of Light
Trembling Before G-D
Cousin Bobby

There was a fave doc thread not too long ago. Wonder what happened to it?

In no order:
Best Boy (1979)
Streetwise (1984)
Scared Straight (1978)
Waterwalker (1984)
The Killing of America (1981)
Life Without Death (2000)
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1990)
Hearts of Darkness: Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1993)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance (2002)
Winter Soldier (1971)
Gizmo (1977)
Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
Lessons in Darkness (1992)
Roger & Me (1989)
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Promises (2001)
Offspring (2002)
Chavez: Inside the Coup (2003)
Return to Kandahar (2003)
Warrendale (1967)
A Married Couple (1969)
High School (1968)
Titicut Follies (1967)
Salesman (1969)
Man With a Movie Camera (1929)
Memory of the Camps
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Interviews With My Lai Veterans (1971)
The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2002)
Hearts and Minds (1974)
Lodz Ghetto (1988)
Shtetl (1993)

Streetwise and Gizmo, absolutely. I wish we had DVDs. Has anyone else seen First Contact? It's basically amateur footage of a group of Australians, brothers, gold-hunting in the New Guinea highlands in the 1930s. They run into primitive people who were previously uncontacted by "civilization." Some believed the Aussies, being white, were ghosts.

I was lucky enough to track down a laserdisc of Streetwise in the mid '90s, so I'm not hurtin' for a DVD. I wish Bell would film an update; I'd like to know where some of these kids are today. The film has a very moving Tom Waits score.

4 Little Girls is an amazing documentary...

Yep, I've got the Streetwise LD, and an old VHS of Gizmo. I remember a magazine article, possibly Life, with a story on Rat & company. Rat was carrying a .45 around, not a very good indicator for Rat's future.

Is that the Life article of '83 that inspired the film, or a follow-up? Rat was the most charismatic and memorable of the kids.

Gizmo I haven't seen in ages. I remember it being hilarious and having a splendid score.

I don't remember, except that Rat looked about the same age as in the film. I expect it was the former.

Errol Morris is my favorite filmmaker - hands down.

I really want to see Grey Gardens - but can't find a copy anywhere. I've scoured local video stores and NetFlix doesn't have it. Seen it? Recommend it?

I just saw this one the other night and it is interesting. The docudrama The Legend of Ron Jeromy.

hearts & Minds
Dark Days
Crumb
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
qatsi trilogy

and a good recent one

Winged Migration

Ambush In Mogadishu :up:

A lot of the post 9/11 documentaries were excellent. I saw one (cant think of the name) about the architect who built the towers and how they were not designed to have a jumbo jet crash into them (duh?). He felt really guilty it was very sad