Essential documentaries to watch

[Inarticulate_Underachiever]

Seeing as documentaries are pretty much the only reason to own a TV these days I have created this thread to compile all the ones that are essential viewing, so get posting.

If anybody is thinking about saying Zeitgeist please GTFO my thread.

 

[Kwaren]

Well I was going to say Zeitgeist but since you have so rudely asked not to, I would have to say "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

 

[Casual Shinji]

I saw a documentary about witch persecution in Nigeria. Creepy shit! Don't remeber the title, though.

 

[Layz92]

Anything by Louis Theroux.

Indeed anything Louis Theroux does is awesome. I have watched most of the Weird Weekends series of his and it is extremely interesting. For anyone who doesn't know he goes to places in person and does a sought of "behind the scenes" of a particular group or industry. Like he investigates the porn industry in one episode and it answers all the questions you would be curious about like how hard is it to get a agent to represent you and get that big break or seeing if actors are afraid of being type cast. I've watched quite a few others like th police one in America but I can not remember the name of that particular series.

Zeitgeist is essentially "why and how are we getting screwed by banks" from what little I bothered watching of it.

 

[rex922]

Well I was going to say Zeitgeist but since you have so rudely asked not to, I would have to say "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

I will second this comment
the gods must be crazy is excellent

 

[C.G.B.S]

I liked "Who Killed the Electric Car" & "How Arnold Won the West".

 

[Inarticulate_Underachiever]

Louis Theroux is very much win.

As is anything by Adam Curtis.

 

[octafish]

This is Modern Art by Matthew Collings was good if a little old now. I like his style and would recommend anything he puts his hand to.

I liked Ken Burns Jazz and Civil War I haven't seen his other ones- Baseball and whatnot.

I'd recommend The Blue Planet by David Attenborough because I like underwater photography.

Some Kind of Monster is just freakin' hilarious, so much Hubris.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil is the opposite of Some Kind of Monster, it is really sweet.

Hearts of Darkness is some scary shit. I think this interesting especially if you like Apocalypse Now.

Not Quite Hollywood about the Australian Film Industry in the 70's and 80's is good. I don't know if there is much of distribution outside Australia though.

The Gods must be Crazy huh? In response to that I'll say This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman and Star Wars.

 

[PurpleSky]

OH MY GAAAWD THE ONE ABOUT THE greatest boxing match OF ALL TIME


Sorry I don't know what it's called precisely,it's pretty old*EDIT* When We Where Kings*EDIT*.Never thought a boxing match could change the way I look at the world.

And I don't even like boxing.

 

[octafish]

OH MY GAAAWD THE ONE ABOUT THE greatst boxing match OF ALL TIME

Crap I forgot about When We Were Kings, by all accounts the Tyson one is good too.

 

[AbyssalSanhedrin]

Planet Earth. If you've not watched it yet, then go out, buy the box set, and prepare for some of the greatest images of the natural world you will ever see. And it has David Attenborough.

In fact it's hard to go wrong with anything that has BBC and David Attenborough involved, Blue Planet being my personal favourite. I must have watched every episode of that show 10+ times. Hypnotically fascinating.

 

[PurpleSky]

OH MY GAAAWD THE ONE ABOUT THE greatst boxing match OF ALL TIME

Crap I forgot about When We Were Kings, by all accounts the Tyson one is good too.

Thank you!You are awesome!

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Carl Sagan's Cosmos, I dare you to watch it and not be amazed.

 

[Spacelord]

Carl Sagan's Cosmos, I dare you to watch it and not be amazed.

Good choice.

My two cents: American Pimp and Deborah, 13: Servant of God. Both honest, respectful and in-depth reports on the world of pimps and religious fundamentalism in Great Britain, respectively.

 

[bleh002]

I like watching documentaries too. And I agree with your decision about Zeitgeist. I mostly like documentaries that focus on people and are a little lighthearted. So things like:

King of Kong
Spellbound
Wordplay
Word Wars
Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine
Man on a Wire

I also like Planet Earth and The Blue Planet as has been mentioned already.

 

[Plinglebob]

The top of my list is Enron - The Smartest Guys In The Room. Its about the collapse of Enron and explains a lot of the business and accounts practices that go on in a way thats easy to understand if you're a Layman as well as being a well told story.

After this, I'd recommend "The Power of Nightmares" and "The Trap - What Happened To Our Freedom" both by Adam Curtis. They're both interesting, though can feel a little conspiracy theorist at times.

If you like History and haven't watched "The World at War", hang your head in shame while ordering it from Amazon. In my opinion, its a documentry thats the benchmark for everything else. In depth, informative and sheds light on areas of the War that are often overlooked. After this, watch Simon Schama's "A History of Britain". Everything you could possibly want to know about British History in 15 episodes.

The last one would be "When the Levees Broke" about the New Orleans flood. A few too many personal stories for my taste, but still well worth watching just to hear first hand what happened.