Your favorite documentaries?

[jc87]

I´m a great appreciator of documentaries (about several topics like history, politics, culture, etc...), and i would like to know what are Ubuntuforums user favorites (and which do you recommend to watch for cultural/learning/curiosity purposes), here are some of mine:

Last stand of the 300 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892737/)

Why we fight (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436971/)

The corporation (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379225/)

Super Size Me (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/)

Good copy bad copy (http://www.goodcopybadcopy.net/)

Steal this film (http://www.stealthisfilm.com/)

Revolution OS (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308808/)

Sicko (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386032/)

Bowling for Columbine (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310793/)

Fahrenheit 9/11 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361596/)

(yes i like Michael Moore, dont shoot me for that:))

[hessiess]

most by horision:)

[Palmyra]

You have some great documentaries in there (everything my Michael Moore and Super Size Me), but The Corporation is terrible. It's unbelievably ridiculous. I couldn't even finish it, because it contains everything I hate about corporate critics.

The documentary rails against corporations, and depicts big business as some type of evil. Oh, give me a break...what load of nonsense. I am sick of concern for profit being turned into despicable greed. Sure, we don't want businesses of any size (large or small - but keep in mind The Corporation only bothers with big business, because from their viewpoint, only big business is capable of harm) to be adverserial to its patrons, but please allow a healthy desire to increase profits. As long as nothing unethical or criminal is occuring, their actions do not bother me.

Go ahead and pay the CEO 400 million (as was done with one oil company CEO)....I don't care, as long as it has the approval of the shareholders (and if the shareholders didn't complain, and they now regret it, it's their own fault).

Other than that, you've posted a good list. I would recommend: Giuliani Time (great stuff! ), The Origin of AIDS (very interesting), and Scarface 4 Life (may not be your type of documentary, but I think its great).

Whatever you do, make sure you catch Giuliani Time, but if you don't live in the United States, and you aren't particularly concerned with U.S. politicians, you may not find it interesting.

PS: Michael Moore's stuff is grade-A. Excellent documentaries (yes, he may have factual issues, but the quality is good nonetheless).

[LaRoza]

The March of Penguins -- This is a must see, very well done and quite informative

[tbroderick]

Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034410/)

[ice60]

Super Size Me and Revolution OS are good but the others are rubbish lol sorry,

Death of Yugoslavia is very good
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Death+of+Yugoslavia

Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7466953117096606123

Ice Road Truckers
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/6546

UFO Over Illinois
http://www.veoh.com/static/flash/players/videodetails2.swf?permalinkId=v292114dtFbpYSK&player=videodetails&videoAutoPlay=1&version=4
http://www.veoh.com/static/flash/players/videodetails2.swf?permalinkId=v292122HZfh7X4K&player=videodetails&videoAutoPlay=1&version=4

i just watched this and it's quite good - Aircrash Investigation-British Airways Flight 9
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5620835202130688048
i watch documentaies most days, the ones above are good but i don't know if they're my favourites.

[sw1995]

"Cheap, Fast, and Out of Control" by Errol Morris (and any of his films, for that matter).

"Grizzly Man" by Werner Herzog is stunning, too.

-S

[regomodo]

"the boy whose skin fell off"

This is the most heart-wrenching thing i've ever seen

"War Photographer" (James Nachtwey) is also very, very good.

There is one about apartheid made in the 80's that i've wanted to see but i don't know the name. Anyone? I'm fairly sure it was done by an English guy.

[Obor]

The Century of the Self (http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151&q=the+century+of+the+self&total=1021&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0)
4 parts, by BBC/Adam Curtis

[c5QGz8DN]

Protocols of Zion and Sicko were the last documentaries I saw.
Very revealing.

[jc87]

You have some great documentaries in there (everything my Michael Moore and Super Size Me), but The Corporation is terrible. It's unbelievably ridiculous. I couldn't even finish it, because it contains everything I hate about corporate critics.

The documentary rails against corporations, and depicts big business as some type of evil. Oh, give me a break...what load of nonsense. I am sick of concern for profit being turned into despicable greed. Sure, we don't want businesses of any size (large or small - but keep in mind The Corporation only bothers with big business, because from their viewpoint, only big business is capable of harm) to be adverserial to its patrons, but please allow a healthy desire to increase profits. As long as nothing unethical or criminal is occuring, their actions do not bother me.

Go ahead and pay the CEO 400 million (as was done with one oil company CEO)....I don't care, as long as it has the approval of the shareholders (and if the shareholders didn't complain, and they now regret it, it's their own fault).

Other than that, you've posted a good list. I would recommend: Giuliani Time (great stuff! ), The Origin of AIDS (very interesting), and Scarface 4 Life (may not be your type of documentary, but I think its great).

Whatever you do, make sure you catch Giuliani Time, but if you don't live in the United States, and you aren't particularly concerned with U.S. politicians, you may not find it interesting.

PS: Michael Moore's stuff is grade-A. Excellent documentaries (yes, he may have factual issues, but the quality is good nonetheless).

I believe capitalism is just a tool, and as any tool has got weakness and strong points, for now is in my opinion the best we have.

By the way the list of documentaries i posted are some of my favorites, but that doesn´t mean i agree at 100% with every single idea/teorie in all of them,, i have my own mind and i draw my own conclusions, i just find them interesting from a self-debate point of view:)

[Polygon]

The March of Penguins -- This is a must see, very well done and quite informative

+1 ... loved the movie as well.

[LaRoza]

+1 ... loved the movie as well.

Watching it makes you feel bad for the birds, thinking about it makes you feel bad for the people filming it.

[ice60]

There is one about apartheid made in the 80's that i've wanted to see but i don't know the name. Anyone? I'm fairly sure it was done by an English guy.
it could be The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife. there's also the followup called His Big White Self. they're by Nick Broomfield, he's a very popular documentay maker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leader%2C_His_Driver_and_the_Driver's_Wife
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Big_White_Self

[PartisanEntity]

I am a big fan of documentaries, I prefer them over movies. I like almost anything by Robert Fisk or John Pilger, Al Jazeera documentaries are great too. My favourite topics are History, Politics, Religion and Social Issues, as well as technology.

[ice60]

Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Al Jazeera and Michael Moore fantastic group lol

Mr Robert, one of our brothers had a dream. He dreamed ... that you were a spiritual person ... this means you are a true Muslim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fisk

and Al Jazeera are kind enough to translate bin Ladin's speeches where we can see bin Ladin talk about his good friend Fisk and how he thinks Fisk has a very balanced view on things lol
http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=7403

with so many people here with far left ideals i feel like some kind of far-right neo-fascist when my views are pretty much middle-ground lol

[Polygon]

Watching it makes you feel bad for the birds, thinking about it makes you feel bad for the people filming it.

if you have the dvd, there is a documentary of making the documentary (lol!) which features the film makers and some of the conditions they had to go through

they frankly almost died because they left to go back to base camp a little too late and ended up getting lost and they had to use GPS magic in order to get back to base camp. Luckily they survived but got frostbite on a fair portion of their faces and stuff.... and had to sit out for two weeks.

[Gremlinzzz]

Sicko by michael moore
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
:guitar:

[jgrabham]

zeitgeist
America: freedom to facism
Supersize me

[Gremlinzzz]

An Inconvenient Truth
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8193899956995109997&q=inconvenient+truth&total=2453&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=7
:guitar:

[-grubby]

does the future is wild count?

[TR82]

12th September 2001. The BBC started showing "The Blue Planet" in primetime on BBC1. I'll never forget the contrast between the terrible news we had all been watching those two days and the beauty of the planet we inhabit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozTlQzzw-8A

[shadowrunner]

The World At War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_world_at_war)

Probably the best documentary on World War 2.

[fuscia]

burden of dreams, about the making of herzog's fitzcarraldo

hearts of darkness, about the making of apocolypse now

i never saw either movie. they both looked like crap, to me, but i love the movies about them.


let's get lost, about chet baker

[jrusso2]

burden of dreams, about the making of herzog's fitzcarraldo

hearts of darkness, about the making of apocolypse now

i never saw either movie. they both looked like crap, to me, but i love the movies about them.


let's get lost, about chet baker

Both of those were great films. Classics

[reyfer]

For All Mankind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind) Just breathtaking

March of the Penguins

Too Hot Not To Handle (http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/toohot/synopsis.html) If after watching this you still think Global Warming is a myth, you're blind, deaf and stupid.

Oh, and I almost forgot "Evidence: The Case for NASA's UFOs"

[jviscosi]

Darwin's Nightmare (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424024/). Ostensibly it's about the devastation of native Lake Victoria fish by the Nile perch, but really, it's not.

I'm also a big fan of Winged Migration (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301727/).

[Palmyra]

Ice Road Truckers
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/6546


Ice Road Truckers is not a documentary. It's a series on History Channel.

[multifaceted]

The Universe on History rules!

Anything about astronomy is a mind blower.

[Chickencha]

There are some great documentaries listed above, but here are a few I've enjoyed and haven't seen mentioned:

American Movie (http://imdb.com/title/tt0181288/)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (http://imdb.com/title/tt0436231/)
Jesus Camp (http://imdb.com/title/tt0486358/)
The King of Kong (http://imdb.com/title/tt0923752/) (Not out on DVD yet, but you could maybe still see it in theaters if you're lucky)

[jviscosi]

Ice Road Truckers
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/6546


Edo van Belkom has a good story about ice road trucking in his short story collection Death Drives a Semi (http://www.amazon.com/Death-Drives-Semi-Horror-Stories/dp/1550822144). In fact my first thought when I saw the ads for the series was, "I wonder if Edo is getting a cut." ;-)

[fuscia]

The World At War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_world_at_war)

Probably the best documentary on World War 2.

+1 to that. olivier's narration pushes it over the top.

edit: another one is the 10,000 day war (vietnam), narrated by richard basehart.

[ice60]

Ice Road Truckers is not a documentary. It's a series on History Channel.
if Michael Moore can be included then so can Ice Road Truckers. a documentary has to be fact-based. i'm sure Moore himself admits he uses a lot of artistic license with his editing, making things look like one take when in fact it's lots of edits stuck together!!


Edo van Belkom has a good story about ice road trucking in his short story collection Death Drives a Semi (http://www.amazon.com/Death-Drives-Semi-Horror-Stories/dp/1550822144). In fact my first thought when I saw the ads for the series was, "I wonder if Edo is getting a cut." ;-)
nice, i'll have a look.

[urukrama]

Into Great Silence (http://www.diegrossestille.de/english/) (Die grosse stille) of Philip Groening.

Probably the very best documentary I have ever seen, about the Carthusian monks in the Alps. Verry impressive. From the website:


Silence. Repitition. Rhythm. The film is an austere, next to silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form. No music except the chants in the monastery, no interviews, no commentaries, no extra material.

Changing of time, seasons, and the ever repeated elements of the day, of the prayer. A film to become a monastery, rather than depict one. A film about awareness, absolute presence, and the life of men who devoted their lifetimes to god in the purest form.

[MLCT]

Adam Curtis (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis) has already received one mention - I would add another for him. Most of his work is very thought provoking, his latest - The Trap - What Happened to our Dream of Freedom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_%28television_documentary_series%29) - is something that can be watched 3 or 4 times and still extract new thoughts out of.

The very highest mention must also go to The Ascent of Man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Man) by Jacob Bronowski. Bronowski goes deeper than just the "storyline" of the development of man - he looked into the soul of humanity. He doesn't so much talk about how we developed - but why. It is a personal essay, and it has dated a little since its filming in 1973 - but the connections he makes about why we are what we are are no less relevent. It is a shame we don't have people of his core soundness and stature on TV today in the sciences.

[spacegypsy]

Punishment Park (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067633/)

La Commune de Paris
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257497/)
Steal this Film (http://www.stealthisfilm.com/)

are some of my favorites.

[dimedragger]

Trinity and Beyond (http://imdb.com/title/tt0114728/) The Atomic Bomb Movie

[ice60]

Trinity and Beyond (http://imdb.com/title/tt0114728/) The Atomic Bomb Movie
i just watched it, it's really funny because it shows america blowing up everything they look at then making china and russia look like the bad guys (which of course they are unless you're a commie (i know there's a few about here)) /me ducks lol

russia broke some agreement so the US went and tested 100 more nuclear bombs lol still, i liked it :)

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Youtube Video Resizer for opera
http://userstyles.org/styles/3180
this is how to install userjs scripts (just make a directory to put the scripts in then show opera where it is) -
http://userjs.org/help/installation

YouTube Resizer for firefox
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/3975
install the greasemonkey extension first, then click where it says 'Install this script'