Documentaries I have loved

Note as well that the Jon Ronson Jonathon King docco is on tonight at 10pm Channel Four.

Ah yes, the library scene was comic genius. Without that documentary there would have been no Fast Show, Bob Phlegming et al.

My fave documentary = any about spontaneous combustion, in fact I found out just before Xmas that Magnus's godfather was in my very fave one. What a claim to fame!

What abt any of Nick Broomfield's early docs - up to and including 'The Leader, The Driver, And The Driver's Wife'? Godard's 'History of Cinema' series. The long Arena int. w/Orson Welles; also the Burroughs one. Superb Australian doc I once saw abt a charming cad named Mayor Larry Hand. 'The Life And Times of Harvey Milk'. Any of Herzog recentish documentary films. etc etc

Channel 4 Pull Jonathon King documentary At Last Minute. I'll just have to treat our guests to endless playings of Tarkus.

Vegetarians should bring their own dinner round instead of expecting us (well, Pete) to cook it for them as it invariably involves more hassle (soaking pulses etc.) than anything else ever.

this is the band my band is touring with, mind. There is a lot of vomiting and bodily humor ahead of me.

My favorite Documentaries: Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Brother's Keeper, and most of all, HANDS ON A HARDBODY.

I'm a big Broomfield fan; also any of the Waco docos made by...Mike...shit, fogto his name, the guy who did Waco - Rules of Engagement.

Hm, favorite documentaries? Don't take this the wrong way, but Triumph of the Will -- talk about an exercise in manipulation that makes *no* apologies. You're astounded by the brazenness and then reflect about why they could be so brazen, and you shudder.

I enjoyed Carol Morley's The Alcohol Years.

Yeah, Neil Diamond Parking Lot is spinoff of Heavy Metal Parking Lot, filmed at the same arena a few years later. It's warm and fuzzy, not nearly as good as Heavy Metal Parking Lot. It's hard to top the Judas Priest crowd.

The commander of the unit involved, and the man who ordered the massacre, was on Lt. Col. William Calley. He served one day in prison for his crimes, before Nixon commuted his sentence (or pardoned him, or something). He declined to be interviewed for the programme. One of the most eerie pieces of footage in the whole thing was some long range shots of him walking down some ordinary American high street.

Yeah it does feel like it could use maybe two or three more players followed.

OTOH watched Gunnin For That #1 Spot and though it was totally superficial.

I haven't read the whole thread, but KING OF KONG MUTHAFUCKERS!

If you watch Hoop Dreams, you gotta watch "Recruiters" from Mr. Show. Unless you don't have a sense of humor.

Also, King of Kong was pretty amazing. And I Like Killing Flies.

There were some recent lists posted on the ILF thread for favourite documentaries. I've got a month till I go back to school, so I'd be very interested in running a Favourite Documentary poll if a) there'd be enough voters (25 at least?), and b) the people running music polls don't object. I wouldn't do nominations or campaigning: just send me your list of 10, I'll tabulate the votes and count down the list. Please post any thoughts here--if there's enough interest, I'll proceed.

sounds cool, id participate

maybe allow unranked ballots also if ppl just want to put in for 10 they generally like a lot

sounds like a great idea.

Unranked would be fine. I'd keep it to 10 because, even though I see a lot of documentaries myself, and know that there are other people on the board who do also, I realize that generally people don't. But I think a list of 10 would be relatively easy for most anyone.

yeah that'd be great! always nice to have an excuse to watch lots of documentaries.

I thought this was going to be bumped for Britain Through A Lens: The Documentary Film Mob which was shown on BBC4 tonight. It was pretty good, though didn't really tell me anything I hadn't learned in my A Level Film class.

Would definitely be up for the poll - a film poll would be a nice change of pace from all the music ones going on, too. Though I'm still sore over the fact that the 1930s one never happened.

i love documentaries but lately (past couple of years) have really not felt compelled to watch them. because so many of them are so damn depressing tbh.
i do want to see the New York Times doc (also likely depressing)

i watched this doc the other day (it came up on netflix) called "Dear Zachary" and i feel like i cried through most it? i wasn't even in a crying mood; it was just incredibly sad and, at the same time felt like it was just one of many stories of a similar vein that could be told, and so, in a weird way was mundane in its almost unbearable sadness. so sadder still! eegh

because so many of them are so damn depressing tbh.

lol, i feel like this says something pretty bad about fiction as escapism and real life as just terribleness from which we should escape.

i would vote in this i guess? i am not v orderly. do we need definitions? are essay films documentaries?, etc?

haha i was going to follow up what i said there with something along the lines of "tbf i find most hollywood comedies depressing too"

There seems to be some interest, so I'll start a thread tomorrow. I think enough people will drift in with votes for 25+.

By essay film (xpost), I guess you mean something like Letter to Jane. I don't know if I'd count that as a documentary myself, but if a couple of people decided that it was and voted for it, fine by me. I found a site with an overview of 100 documentaries that's very good (http://movies.sky.com/gallery-100-best-documentaries), but I notice they list Altman's Tanner '88. Excellent film, but that's just wrong.

Do we get a few weeks or etc. to watch some docs we've been meaning to see?

My only qualifier is that I'd have to have the whole thing finished by the third week of August. I was thinking a two-week window for sending in ballots.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Monde_silence.jpg

my fav documentary

also possibly the least educational one i have ever seen :/

Oof, yes, that list is very inclusive. I mean, if we were to count The War Game and Haxan as documentaries I'd have to put them at the top of my list, but I'm really not convinced that they should count.

Flopson: see Rushmore! No, from what I remember of The War Game and Punishment Park, I wouldn't count them either.

ah, i've never found a copy of the silent world w/subtitles, which mightn't matter greatly but leaves me hanging on. it would be nice to catch a cinema viewing also.

what happens, with these things, do we discuss in the thread & lobby for our choices or do we just dispassionately direct a sealed, sealed e-mail to clemenza

I'm going to start a new thread in a few minutes.

Documentary I thought was okay: One Bright Shining Moment, about George McGovern. It's worshipful, which is never good, even when dealing with someone who inevitably does look like a saint next to Nixon, and the chronology's scrambled up in a way that seemed unnecessary to me. The Eagleton episode is fascinating; if that were to happen today, the media fallout would be incomprehensible. If I could go back and sit glued to the TV for any convention, the Democrats in '72 would be my next choice after '68. Watching the interviewees struggle to understand how they allowed it to happen that McGovern gave his acceptance speech at 1:30 a.m.--a great speech, they all say--is also weirdly compelling. Frank Mankiewicz is funny, and Jim Bouton smokes 'em inside.

Just watched Born Rich, which is about heirs/heiresses in NYC, made by a Johnson & Johnson heir. A perfectly fine and well-meaning film but not especially good or insightful. If being born rich is a compelling topic, this guy failed to tap into whatever makes it so.

oh my god this is so incredible. i haven't seen anything this incredible in a long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfX7XKg71i0

wow! so cool. and so NSFW, so wait until you get home...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJpq7klu_Pc&feature=share

hbo summer doc series has been p good

watched the 1 on marilyn monroe - lots of cool footage; it's dumb 2 have actors read/act her journals but i understand it & it's otherwise well put together

this 1 on public defenders is really good! harbl shd watch it

then gasland 2 is on next week i think? & then theres one on the home invasion murder in ct which took place in the town i grew up in~

just tryna get your "i was in all night watching tv" alibi down huh

otm

I tried to watch the Marilyn one but it made me cringe

The Pussy Riot doc was good tho

oh yea i forgot abt that 1 yea p good

i am in deep love w/ this girlhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Nadezhda_Tolokonnikova_%28Pussy_Riot%29_at_the_Moscow_Tagansky_District_Court_%28crop%29.jpg

she's p rad

There is an excellent '04 Martin Rees science/cosmology series called What We Still Don't Know (all 3 eps on youtube) that are way better than the average Cox type dross.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Newburgh_Sting

^this was v good

The Queen of Versailles is near genius imo

Adam Curtis' The Century of the Self

anyone for Cousin Jules? Quietly devastating, as they say.

The Institute (streaming on netflix)

xxp

I found Century Of Self quite mindblowing. I'd never heard of Edward Bernays and all that engineering of consent stuff before watching it.

i watched "avenge but one of my two eyes" over the weekend. excellent.

finally saw Harlan County, USA

one of the all-timers obv

morbs otm

harlan county usa is so great, saw it for first time today & cannot stop thinking about it

also thank you to this movie for introducing me to hazel dickens <3

saw Sherpa last night after my brother recommended it a few weeks ago. Quite moving and also quite disgusting how little regard teh sherpas are treated with by the streams of people wanting to get to the top of Everest. Photos of the amount of people trying to climb resembled those of the lines trying to get into the Yukon for the goldrush.

Story of Plastics
saw this last summer and it hasa really scathing view of the continued cosntruction of single use plastics as well as the overly complex mixture of different plastics that go into packaging which make them very difficult to recycle.
Also goes into the whole idea of recycling overseas and what the reality is. They go to some place in Asia to see the effects and the actual process of recycling which is only used on a very small percentage of what is shipped because too much stuf can't be recycled as is. plus things get corrupted with dirt, foodstuffs etc and are therefore not able to be recycled even if they could be when pristine. Mouldy paper attached to plastic also a negative.
& plastic is still pushed by teh fossil fuels concerns. Time for a rethink.
I had seen a different doc on the effects of plastics on wildlife around the Atlantic how birds were flying thousands of miles on food runs only to come back with loads of plastic that wouldn't nourish their kids, how snails were building shells out of plastics and how the salination process of the oceans was being screwed up as plankton were processing plastics instead of their old process. So may have bits of that doc mixed up with bits of this.
BUt one takeaway I had , though possibly something I'd arrived at before, was plastic has been marketed asa disposable material since it was introduced only there is no easy way of disposing of it. Hope that changes soon, I am hearing some indications that there are ways of disposing of plastic underway but not fully established as yet.

I saw several green docs last year about the ecosystem and how things grow in good soil I think these included Soil, Dirt and Growth.
All of which seem to be really good indications of how things should be looked at and why one should move away from the monoculture that has been a farming method during mass production. Because it is detrimental to teh state of the soil that one needs to grow things in.

Tomorrow an English language version of a documentary originally released as Demain
A look into various aspects of systems theory and the work of Joanna Macy.
Has some really interesting things turning up Finland Education system, local area currency, biodiversity and several other things. Worth a watch.

I put off watching Collective on Hulu for weeks, thinking an expose of corruption in Romania couldn't be all that shocking. But it's great as cinema, and pretty appalling as well.

oh, that was on BBC4 recently as part of the Storyville strand, so the pvr picked it up on my season pass. but i've not watched it yet.

it's still available on iplayer here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tpzn

other recent things on the same season pass, the one about the 80 year old mole undercover in the rest home, which was great.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000th7v

and the one about Goebbels's 103 year old secretary which i thought was really short on details but she had such a striking face.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00052bf

just watched Collective. started with a literal sparkler, went big places. but the end was gutting. still 7 months left to watch on iplayer.

(actually, both the ones i mentioned above were up for the documentary oscar, both lost out to the octopus teacher thing)

(both = collective and mole agent, i didn't notice i'd also mentioned Goebbels' secretary)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000kxl0/storyville-united-skates

"When America's last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battles in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture - one that has remained undiscovered by the mainstream for generations, yet has given rise to some of the world's greatest musical talent."

i was reading the jim miller hbo oral history book & shiela nevins talking glowingly about saving pelican 895

it is on max streaming -- very good, beautiful little doc