boredsilly

So as the title askes could you all suggest some documentaries that focus on people who give themselves totally to something? Like War Words (the Scrabble competition documentary) or Spellbound (the spelling bee doc).

There is just something fascinating about these peoples lives to me. The drive they have to be the best and how the sacrifice...pretty much normal healthy lives to do so, it's just really interesting.

Docs I would be interested in are ones that have to do with people trying to excel at the mundane (board games, video games, stuff like table tennis, or anything else that you may think would be of interest). I'm not opposed to docs that deal with sports, but I would like for them to be a little less traditional. Like not baseball, football, or basketball - but swimming, bicycling, table tennis, pool, olympic sports, etc.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Pointyskull

If you really want a "little less traditional", I can't recommend this one enough:
Off The Charts: The Song-Poem Story

Richard Malloy

I can't tell if you're just looking for non traditional "sports" passions, or simply passions of many varieties. If, for example, you'd be interested in a documentary exploring the personal passions of a topiary gardener, a lion tamer, a mole-rat scientist, and a robotic engineer, then I'd recommend Errol Morris' "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control".

DVD review here: http://www.dvdfile.com/software/revi...ofcontrol.html

boredsilly

Well I like the competition aspect of the things I specified in the OP, but that doc sounds right up my alley. Thanks for pointing it out.

Richard Malloy

Also, Criterion's upcoming "Hoop Dreams" release might fit your bill!

sfsdfd

Moving to Movie Talk Forum.

- David Stein

bboisvert

Hands on a Hardbody sounds like it fits your criteria.

legend42

Definitely check out the recent doc Riding Giants, which chronicles the history of big wave surfing, featuring interviews with many of the sport's varied personalities and tons of great footage. It really captures the passion without devolving into cliche.

And as far as unhealthy obsession goes, Cinemania is an intersting one. It explores the lives of some seriously committed film geeks. It's either good for a laugh, or a frightening mirror- depending on where you're at in your own life.

boredsilly

Funny you should mention Riding Giants as its on the way to me now now via netflix. I will definately check out Cinemania (had made a not to check it out a while ago but forgot too). Sounds kind of like it's in the same vein of Trekkies and Trekkies 2 yeah?

BBO I've seen Hands on a Hardbody before. Good stuff.

legend42

The tone is less self-aware than those, and there's a curious lack of context (e.g. no interviews with friends and relatives of the subjects). But otherwise, yeah. It's definitely worth seeing, as if you have even an ounce of cinephilia in your blood, a lot of moments will ring true.

Abob Teff

More of a psuedo-documentary (as it re-enacts the events, using both actors and the guys who were there), but check out "Touching the Void" (mountain climbing). The film is pretty riveting, but of even more interest is the documentary on the disc going behind the scenes when the two climbers returned to the mountain to film the movie.

Another kind of off-track one is "Devil's Playground." When an Amish boy or girl turns 16 they are sent into the outside world as a test of their faith . . . they either reject the outside world and return with strenghtened faith, or they embrace the world and leave their old life. However, the events and stories are FAR from what you would expect . . .

boredsilly

That sounds terribly interesting. Throwing that to the top of my queueueue.