Favorite Documentary Films

[xaeniac]

I want to make a recent thread about your favorite documentary films as I like to watch this genre. I will list two.

1.) Planet Earth
2.) Senna

 

[zinfamous]

Recently-watched favorite:
A State of Mind

And Anything from Errol Morris is pure win.


Also, off the top of my head: Grizzly Man.

 

[Arkaign]

The Fog of War
Enron : TSGITR

 

[homercles337]

I recently watched TT3D:Closer to the Edge and have recommended it to friends.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1698010/

 

[davmat787]

Restrepo is a must watch documentary in my opinion.

I also very much enjoyed the Human Planet series. Very uplifting and heartwarming.

 

[Zeze]

Don't forget Life if you're gonna mention Planet Earth and Human Planet

PE >>> Life >>>>>>>>>>>> Human Planet

 

[Arcadio]

30 for 30: The Two Escobars.
Inside Job

 

[anxi80]

Touching The Void is really good but the one that sticks out in recent memory is How To Die In Oregon. I watched it awhile back and it still has stuck with me.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Restrepo
Pulling John
Fahrenheit 911

By far the best I have ever seen is The War by Ken Burns and nothing else comes close. This should be viewed by every American history student in America.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Touching the Void
Deep Water
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
The Staircase
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
Street Fight
Overnight
The Thin Blue Line
When We Were Kings

 

[davmat787]

According to my DVR, Inside the Green Berets is on NatGeo tonight @ 8:00PM PST. It is a decent documentary about daily life at Firebase Cobra in Afghanistan. You might want to check it out if you have not seen this one yet. IIRC, some scenes deal with the aspect of winning the hearts and minds, it is not just mindless warfare on video.

 

[clamum]

According to my DVR, Inside the Green Berets is on NatGeo tonight @ 8:00PM PST. It is a decent documentary about daily life at Firebase Cobra in Afghanistan. You might want to check it out if you have not seen this one yet. IIRC, some scenes deal with the aspect of winning the hearts and minds, it is not just mindless warfare on video.

Sweet, I'll probably check that out, thanks!

 

[SSSnail]

Some of my favorites have already been mentioned, but here are some others:

BBC Planet Earth series.
March of the Penguins.
Turtle: The incredible journey.
Surviving the cut.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Just watched Life in a Day with my roommates. I'd recommend it.

 

[thedarkwolf]

King of Kong

 

[Craig234]

There are so many good ones. I'll just mention to great tv series - PBS Frontline and CurrentTV Vanguard (not that many know of the second).

There's also a monthly DVD with documentaries you can subscribe to for about $17 and support independant documentaries, www.ironweedfilms.com.

I like to support what Ironweed is doing, but have been underwhelmed by a lot of the documentaries and suggest the series above.

 

[boomhower]

Senne - That was an awesome movie. I've never been one for documentaries but that thing rocked.

 

[Iron Woode]

I liked the old Civil War documentary.

 

[Perknose]

Say what you wish, but Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will was a majestic, propaganda masterpiece.

I remember thinking our car was going to fall over backwards into the inky black starless void as we drove, baked beyond belief and back, over the Pennrose Ferry Bridge into Philadelphia for the area premier of Woodstock.

I also remember particularly being taken away by The Last Waltz.

I saw Titicut Follies in college when you could only see it in some academically sanctioned setting.

Capturing the Friedmans was a ground-breaking "reality" trip. You got to see a real-life family actually fall apart before your eyes in ways that weren't as transparently provoked and staged in every following TV-based reality series.

Freaks was a 1930's movie, but used real-life pinheads and other circus freaks to tell its gory story.

Obligatory: Reefer Madness. I learned so much from this sobering, straight-forward, never hysterical, cautionary "documentary."

 

[ponyo]

Screening Humanity. My favorite show on TV.

 

[zinfamous]

I also remember particularly being taken away by The Last Waltz.

my favorite music documentary ever. fucking fantastic.

i can't believe I forgot the Up series from David Apted! D:

fucking amazing. Anyone who considers themselves human should watch this series.

 

[zinfamous]

I liked the old Civil War documentary.

Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The War. All of them are titanically awesome scholarly works.

Say what you will about his venture into documentary, but Ken Burns does some amazing work.

 

[arrfep]

I recently watched TT3D:Closer to the Edge and have recommended it to friends.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1698010/

Where??? I've been trying to find a way to watch that since the spring but have been having no luck. Are you in the US?

It's been a while since I've seen a good doc, but I've got a crapload in my Neflix queue. Among them are Senna, Love the Beast, and from Dust to Glory.

 

[jlee1]

Not really "documentary" but Band of Brothers on HBO.
I enjoy ESPN's 30for30 series also.

 

[Rudee]

The most moving documentary is The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off (Jonny Kennedy) You can watch all 5 parts on Youtube. Very gripping, very moving.