Recommend a Documentary!

Every year, 40 international runners descend upon a small town in Tennessee to test their mental and physical limits against the Barkley Marathons. Devised as a mockery of James Earl Ray’s historic prison escape gone awry, the race has seen only 10 finishers in its first 25 years. The race’s co-founder Lazarus Lake is as weird, unpredictable and irresistible a character as the idiosyncratic event he has created. With a secret application process, unknown start time, and treacherous terrain, the Barkley has gained cult-like status with ultra-runners and amateurs alike. This award-winning, oddly inspiring, and wildly funny documentary invites you to the sports world’s most guarded secret; where pain has value, failure is spectacular, and it only costs $1.60.

It's on Youtube.

The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young

"The History of Tetris World Records" (2024) - Summoning Salt, YouTube

Wild Wild Country / Netflix

I watched "The Contestant" on Hulu this week. It was absolutely riveting. I recommended it to a few co-workers and we've been talking about all week! One of my co-workers lived in Japan while the subject of the documentary was "the contestant" and remembers it as much more lighthearted than the documentary presents.

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)-It's about the artists who created iconic album covers in the 20th century for groups like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

Super interesting and definitely inspiring to artists of all kinds!

It's on Netflix right now.

I always recommend Touching the Void... incredible survival story

The Imposter is really good

Going Clear - Scientology Doc, blew my mind

Shake hands with the Devil. About the genocide in Rwanda from the head of un mission at the time. Brilliant documentary and also a brill book.

American Experience: The Donner Party. One of the most haunting films (doc or otherwise) I’ve ever seen. Great story telling, voice acting, and even features music by Harold Budd.

Stevie

Devils Playground

Until the Light Takes Us

The Bridge

H.H. Holmes: Americas First Serial Killer

Yesterday, I rewatched "The Rescue" on Disney+ (I think NatGeo). It's the doc about the kids' soccer team that got trapped in the cave. I'm not a cryer, and I had both eyes going.

The storytelling is brilliant. The way they cut from footage to 1st person retelling is chef's kiss.

There is so, so much more to the story than we knew. For example , when the divers went looking for the kids, they found a whole 2nd set of people that were stranded in the same cave, just much closer to the entrance. When they dove those people out, they knew what would happen if they tried to bring the kids out without anesthesiatising them.

Also? They got the last kids out and packed out the rescuers within literal minutes of the cave flooding to the point that no rescue operation would have been possible.

Another Also? The story about how the first cave diver from the UK got involved - and the domino effect of him bringing in his buddies to do the rescue diving - is straight-up bananas.

I can't say enough about how good the doc is.

Watched Meru recently and thought it was pretty interesting.

I'm teaching a community college course on documentaries, and when we covered poetic documentaries my class of mostly adult males were not impressed with the regular suspects - Koyaanisqatsi or Sans Soleil. Been digging for other examples to show them, but the popular ones are mostly similar to Koyaamisqatsi. Any thoughts? Bonus points if there are any sports related ones, my class loved Hoop Dreams.

Probably been posted before but ...

Netflix. Bob Ross - Happy accidents,betrayal & greed.

His partners pretty much stole his identity on his death bed so his family gets none of the Bob Ross money from any of his art supplies, books,videos or anything with his name on it. 😔

Sixto Rodriguez

Telemarketers

I'm sorry for recommending this one:24 years in captivity... The story of Josef & Elisabeth Fritzl

Honeyland is a gorgeous one from 2023 about a beekeeper in Macedonia. Couldn't recommend it highly enough, a really fascinating look at rural life in a place where technology hasn't really encroached yet.

It's on Max.

Looking for documentaries/docusaries of cults!

I watched "Love Has Won" and it was absolutely fascinating seeing such a bizarre thing take place. Because I enjoyed just how batshit that story was, I then watched Twin Flames, and then The Vow about NXIVM, and Leah Remini's one about Escaping Scientology.

Any other ones I should check out?

Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present

Which documentary has influenced/ been the inspiration for the gypsies / Irish travelers in the movie Snatch?

I've been searching for this for a long time.

When I went to Wikipedia about Irish traveler docs, they all don't seem to fit the timeline.

Basically: I watched a pretty old documentary (maybe early to mid 90s?). following an Irish traveler family for a while.

Then I was like.. wait a minute. This is WAY too close to the portrayal of the Travelers in the movie Snatch. Way too close, and was filmed before Snatch.

Then I remember seeing or reading an article that Guy Ritchie and the Documentary Director are actually connected and it has been a direct inspiration for the movie.

Would love to watch that again.

Rivers and Tides

Andy Goldsworthy's art is supposed to fall apart. He creates large-scale outdoor sculptures and artworks out of natural materials like mud, wood, ice and stone in an attempt to imbue the physical world with a spiritual, ephemeral element. Director Thomas Riedelsheimer follows Goldsworthy as he constructs his art everywhere from upstate New York to his home village in Scotland, and questions the solitary artist about his inspirations, frustrations and artistic goals.

Harlan County, USA

All Wars Are Bankers Wars

Scrapper aka Of Bombs and Men is incredible. It shows the inside of illegal salvage operations in the Chocolate Mountains military testing range by people living in Slab City. Slab City is a few hours outside of San Diego/LA near the Salton Sea, but feels like it could be on another planet. Really compelling viewing.

OJ: Made in America.

Exit through the gift shop, infamy. Street art docs

Ramen heads. Ramen Doc

These are my favs

Rolling Like Thunder is a great one about train graffiti artists.

Sound and Fury - a documentary about deaf culture. I think it is available on Prime. Really eye-opening and heartfelt. I saw it on PBS a long time ago and it has always stayed with me.

"Innocence Lost", Frontline (PBS). A film that might be utterly shattering of your confidence in human beings to sort through hysteria and paranoia to make rational judgement. Begins with allegations of Satanic Ritual Abuse against a day care owner and his wife, and staff, and a local video rental shop, and gradually reveals how a number of credulous law enforcement officers and social workers badgered and bullied young children into making absurd claims of abuse (including being dropped by helicopter into shark-infested waters) resulting in the personal destruction of numerous innocent people. I believe that eventually all the charges were thrown out but the process was horrifying. I noticed an uncanny resemblance: the expression on the face of the owner of the day care as he was being brought into court as various parents and citizens hurled abuse at him, and, in a different documentary, the face of a Jewish man in Poland visiting Auschwitz as several Polish citizens watching the filming of the documentary commented, "you know, the Jews were kind of asking for it". Impossible to describe that expression: silent astonishment that people could be such monsters? I note also that when first shown the documentary, the citizens of Edenton, where the scandal took place, had no objection to it and regarded it as quite fair and accurate. After it was shown on TV and the public reacted with horror, they changed their minds and denounced it.

Finding Mr. Waterson- it’s the whole story of finding Bill Waterson and a deep dive into Calvin and Hobbes

Just finished a Doc about North Korea on YouTube by DW

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009)

“The film follows Daniel Ellsberg and explores the events leading up to the 1971 publication of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the top-secret military history of the United States' involvement in Vietnam.”

Best Documentary Feature nominee, 2010 Academy Awards

"From one second to the next"

• League of Denial (about nfl covering up CTE)
• Too Big to Fail (about the 2007 economy collapse and the bailouts)
• The Kid Stays in the Picture (the colourful life of Hollywood mogul Robert Evans)
• Broke (ESPN doc about how thousands of millionaire athletes lose their fortunes)
• Jane Fonda in Three Acts (pretty self explanatory)

Frontline: The Age of AIDS

Karts Of Darkness directed by Murray Siple

Too Funny To Fail

Comedy documentary about the failed Dana Carvey Show.

Miriam: Death of a Reality Star (2024) - Detailing the Life and Tragic death of a reality television star. Documentary focuses on Miriam being the main star in a dating TV show, with a major twist

part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow32fEkRbSQ&ab_channel=JohnAylwardTrueCrimeIreland

Part 2:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8xti9s

part 3:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8xtoci

O block in Chicago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPnQbKgotOw

Burden of Dreams - about Herzog’s plagued production of Fitzcarraldo

Anvil Story of Anvil - about Canadian metal legends Anvil

American Movie - about a guy trying to get his indie horror film Coven made.

Any movie by Errol Morris

How to change your mind

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia-A documentary by director Julien Nitzberg, this film focuses on the renowned West Virginia outlaw Jesco White and his eccentric backwoods family. In addition to getting in trouble with the law, the Whites, who live deep within Appalachia, uphold a time-honored dancing style, even as they contend with poverty, drugs and other issues. Alternately humorous and sad, the movie is an unflinching look at life on the criminal margins of rural mountain culture.

Tickled.

Starts as an investigation into a sport called "competitive endurance tickling" and results in a bizarre expose of the people behind it. Very very worth watching.

Crazy Rulers of the World Part 1 - The Men Who Stare At Goats (Jon Ronson)

Part 2

Part 3

Crazy Rulers of the World is a series that investigates what happens when chiefs of the United States intelligence agencies and the army began believing in very strange things. With first-hand access to the leading characters in the story, filmmaker Jon Ronson examines the extraordinary and bizarre national secrets at the core of the war on terror.

Part 1 — The Men Who Stare At Goats Uncovers the army and intelligence services involvement with paranormal activities such as ‘mind reading,’ out of body experiences and ‘thought-death’ experiments carried out on goats at Fort Bragg.

Part 2 — Funny Torture How New Age spirituality and the movement of the 1980s influenced interrogation and torture at Guantánamo Bay and in Iraq.

Part 3 — Psychic Footsoldiers Final programme looks into the military’s involvement with “remote viewing” and “mind control” experiments, the history of such going back to secret programs CIA, such as MKULTRA.

The Thin Blue Line:

The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 American documentary film by Errol Morris, about the trial and conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the 1976 shooting of Dallas police officer Robert W. Wood. Morris became interested in the case while doing research for a film about Dr. James Grigson, a psychiatrist known in Texas as "Dr. Death" for testifying with "100 percent certainty" of a defendant's recidivism in many trials, including that of Randall Adams. The film centers around the "inconsistencies, incongruities and loose ends" of the case, and Morris, through his investigation, not only comes to a different conclusion, but actually obtains an admission of Adams' innocence by the original suspect of the case, David Harris. The "thin blue line" in the title "refers to what Mr. Morris feels is an ironic, mythical image of a protective policeman on the other side of anarchy".

Streetwise 1984

Anyone have recommendations for docs about moviemaking /filmmaking ?

To be watched in this sequence. In honor of the recent "bears" debate

1. Grizzly Man. Because it's a gut punch.

2. Project Grizzly. Because its interesting, and a pick me up from Grizzly man.

3. Cocaine Bear Because it may not be a documnetary, but it's kinda-sorta based on a true story, and it's hilarious.

Capturing the Friedmans, not the easiest watch but brilliant doc

3 Identiical Strangers

I Think we're Alone Now

Last Stop at Larramah

Finders Keepers

David Farrier's 'Mr Organ' is crazy. As is his other work 'Tickled'

Ice man- about ahit man who dgaf

grizzly man- about a dumb man who thought he could befriend a bear

Fire in the sky... oh wait thse are movies lmao ok theirs docs on ice man I've seen it, he's talking from prison Also their is a doc on fire in the sky as well but I obviously suck at names

Grizzly Man remains one of the best and most interesting docs in my opinion.

The subject matter and Werner Herzog combined are a winning combo.

The Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.

I’ve been watching docs since the early 90’s and nothing beats it.

Rize

Documentary about the advent of clowning and crumping (the dance) in LA in the 90s.

This is one of the most powerful dance documentaries you'll ever see, and whilst crumping made it into popular dance culture, it still lacks the rawness and absolute power of what you'll see in this documentary. Absolutely love it.

The hundred foot wave.

Awesome documentary about garett mcnamara and the story of how nazare became one of the best big wave surfing spots in the world.

Man on wire

The story of the man who decided to tight rope between the twin towers in new york (illegally). Fascinating.

Can anybody recommend documentaries with the same vibe as Welcome to Wrexham? I don't care if it's sports related or not, but I like how it makes me care about the subjects. I'm also not interested in anything overwhelmingly sad. Moments of sadness fine, but shouldn't be the whole thing.

i want a recommendations about great people

his life, his training and etc

what I have in mind when I say it is people like David Goggins, Navy Seals, elite athletes, big entrepreneurs, people who made big things and etc

thanks in advance

I need a recommendation for a documentary about Maya Angelou. Her life, her poetry, her influence - whatever. I'm teaching a unit on Maya Angelou's poetry, and I'd love to have a documentary as an easy backup lesson, but I can't find anything online. It seems insane to me that such a prominent artist wouldn't have a documentary made about her at some point.

I’m looking for a documentary that explains how the global monetary system works, how sovereign debt and inflation work, and the value of assets in preserving value that isn’t conspiracy oriented. Any suggestions? Doesn’t have to cover every single topic!

Has anybody seen a good documentary about the rise of in-game advertising in videogames??

The End of Time (2012)

A documentary that produces a meditative experience with its imagery and stillness, while leaving you contemplating "What is time". I recently reviewed it on a podcast at 24:20m.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/32YF6Km4CI02FRcAMEG2TN?si=71d39581624d4e35

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-anthrotographer/id1650295801?i=1000655867648

We talk about documentaries often on this podcast, as well as film in general, music, books, history, philosophy, etc. Please give it a listen and if you do let me know what you think. Would love some feedback on what works and what could be better.

Mammals from BBC, especially the behind the scenes segments on Fennec foxes.

Paint Drying - by Charlie Shackleton, it's an absolute masterpiece of a documentary!

10 full exciting hours of life-changing cinematic wonders. I've watched it 23 times already 🥰