Recommend me a documentary
- Thread starter imagineak
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Well, CBC is making a 4 episode documentary called Wild Canada, so if you like nature you should check it out. Of course only the first part has been released so far.
EDIT: I'd also recommend the tales of the gun series, which is about the history of guns, manufacturers, etc but I'm not sure if you'd like it since you mentioned preferring history documentaries "before human kind started destroying our planet"
EDIT: I'd also recommend the tales of the gun series, which is about the history of guns, manufacturers, etc but I'm not sure if you'd like it since you mentioned preferring history documentaries "before human kind started destroying our planet"
If you're into Nature documentaries, anything by David Attenborough. He's kind of regarded as national treasure in the UK, and given the understated quality of most of his documentaries, it's well deserved.
Planet Earth is probably the broadest in scope, but the various 'Life of' series go into more detail.
There are clips on youtube if you want to 'try before you buy'.
Edit; for space stuff; 'From the Earth to the Moon', 'The Right Stuff (1983)', 'Apollo 13'.
Military stuff wasn't specifically mentioned in your OP, but 'Band of Brothers' is one of the best war dramatisations ever made, and it's sequel 'The Pacific' is also well regarded.
Planet Earth is probably the broadest in scope, but the various 'Life of' series go into more detail.
There are clips on youtube if you want to 'try before you buy'.
Edit; for space stuff; 'From the Earth to the Moon', 'The Right Stuff (1983)', 'Apollo 13'.
Military stuff wasn't specifically mentioned in your OP, but 'Band of Brothers' is one of the best war dramatisations ever made, and it's sequel 'The Pacific' is also well regarded.
Just about every documentary I've seen was on Netflix, but don't let that fool you; Netflix has some pretty great documentaries. Fair warning, I have pretty broad tastes when it comes to movies:
*EDIT* I see your location is listed as Croatia. This suggestion might be "too close to home" for you, but I recently saw Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, which is about a criminal organization which Interpol named The Pink Panthers. It spends a lot of time revisiting history, but it was still a good documentary.
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles - The subject of this one is so strange. It's very compelling.
Kumare - A man purposely misrepresents himself as a spiritual leader and teacher, intent on teaching an important lesson to his followers.
Blackfish - Pretty much 'Seaworld is run by assholes'.
Religulous - Bill Maher sounds like an insufferable, condescending dick no matter what he says and you almost feel bad for religion. It's worth a watch though.
Love the Beast - This documentary follows Eric Bana (yes, that guy [http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2009/11/13/1258140276906/Eric-Bana-and-his-car-001.jpg]) and is about his own obsession with one specific car, as well as rally driving. He seems like a super nice guy, the handsome bastard. This film is way better than I expected.
Exit Through the Gift Shop - This involves Banksy believe it or not. This one's almost too strange to be believed.
Whores' Glory - Thailand, Bangladesh, and Mexico. Very depressing, but...no, I have nothing further to say about this one.
Super High Me - I watched this after accidentally finding comedian Doug Benson's YouTube show where he gets high with famous people. Even though I no longer partake of anything, I still enjoyed this one.
Objectified - A film about industrial design, including the Apple designer, Jonathan Ive
Reindeer Spotting - About a group of drug addicts in Scandinavia.
Honorable Mentions:
Deceptive Practice - Ricky Jay (if you saw him you might go 'Oh, that guy') talks about his magic trick mentors. It's a good look back at the history of illusionists.
The Art of the Steal - This follows the near-priceless art collection of the late Dr. Albert Barnes and the efforts to protect it.
Tell Me and I Will Forget - About paramedics in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Feast of Death: James Ellroy - Author James Ellroy talks about the murder of his own mother and how that compelled him to become a crime novelist. The fact that it's about real-life murders makes it somewhat harrowing.
Food Inc. - This one's almost a classic now. The facts may be debatable, but it's worth watching.
*EDIT* I see your location is listed as Croatia. This suggestion might be "too close to home" for you, but I recently saw Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, which is about a criminal organization which Interpol named The Pink Panthers. It spends a lot of time revisiting history, but it was still a good documentary.
My suggestion? "Winged Migration". It's a beautiful doc about, you guessed it, migrating birds.
Trailer:
Trailer:
I highly recommend a documentary called tabloid. You can watch it instantly on netflix and the story told is so funny it's almost hard to believe.
Well this is a bit weird and it has to do with history, but my personal favorite documentary is King of Kong: A Fistful of Quartersimagineak said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Kong:_A_Fistful_of_Quarters
It's the story of a man's quest to hold the all time world record at the old Donkey Kong arcade game. It's a really, REALLY great watch as it's a piece of "weird history".
Cosmos is an absolute must-watch under any circumstance. It's one of the few science documentaries that have almost awed me to tears, In the Shadow of the Moon being another, which I also heartily recommend.
Anything David Attenborough has had a hand in is pretty much gold. I'd recommend all of it.
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives is a great medieval history series that focusses more on how medieval society worked rather than the battles that most others focus on and dispels a lot of the myths surrounding the various facets of medieval life. It's a great watch, due in no small part to Terry Jones' flawless presentation and the very Pythonesque quality he brings to it.
Anything David Attenborough has had a hand in is pretty much gold. I'd recommend all of it.
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives is a great medieval history series that focusses more on how medieval society worked rather than the battles that most others focus on and dispels a lot of the myths surrounding the various facets of medieval life. It's a great watch, due in no small part to Terry Jones' flawless presentation and the very Pythonesque quality he brings to it.
The People vs George Lucas is great. Just watched it a few weeks ago. Really sheds a lot of light on things I did not know about star wars and it puts so many of the grievances of hardcore star wars fans in perspective.
Magic Trip: Ken Kelsey's Search for a Kool Place - If you want novel and weird that's about as well as you can do. Follows the most well known non-musically inclined hippies on a trip around America. They filmed much of the experience from just driving around to the times they were tripping. I know it may be a modern history, but it is a very interesting study of the time period and state of mind.
If you haven't seen Black Fish yet, you really should. Its a brilliant documentary about orcas (killer whales) in captivity, specifically Tilikum, the orca who killed the trainer at Sea World a few years back. I can assure you you will walk away with a new found appreciation for orcas. I spent the entier day after just reserching orcas after I watched it.
Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" is very good. Waltz For Bashir is also a terrific animated documentary.
In a day or 2 Valve is releasing a documentary on Steam called Free To Play which follows 3 players (Dendi, Fear and HyHy for those interested) as they progress through The International tournament. If your into Dota or games (especially pro gaming) in general then that's probably gonna be worth a watch. Plus it's free, though you can pay and get some Dota items if you want, though obviously that depends if you play Dota or not.imagineak said:
Well, for military history I would recommend The First World War. It is the best military history documentary I have ever watched. The vast majority of history documentaries are just awful (full of factual inaccuracies, overstatements and the like), but this one is great. The whole thing is on YouTube actually if you just searched "The First World War Part 1."
Well, besides my two favorite documentaries already mentioned (Super High Me; The King of Kong) as well as the one I choose not to recommend since I haven't met a single person who hasn't heard and/or seen it at least once in their life (Super Size Me), I would have to go with the documentary Wordplay... It's about crossword puzzles (mainly the one in the New Your Times) as well as one of the biggest crossword tournaments in the US, specifically on certain contestants of that year's particular event...
Also, Indie Game: The Movie is basically how difficult making an "indie game" can really be... (Despite what you [still] might think about Phil Fish [at this point], this is still a pretty good documentary overall...)
Also, Indie Game: The Movie is basically how difficult making an "indie game" can really be... (Despite what you [still] might think about Phil Fish [at this point], this is still a pretty good documentary overall...)
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices. If everyone saw this, maybe our capitalist market would balance itself out.
The new Cosmos series is really good so far, minus a small controversy about a FOX affiliate in Oklahoma trimming the parts about evolution. I'll be watching it every week.
The new Cosmos series is really good so far, minus a small controversy about a FOX affiliate in Oklahoma trimming the parts about evolution. I'll be watching it every week.
I was gonna say this, but ninja'd.OneCatch said:
Yeah, anything Sir David Attenborough ever did. You can't go wrong with a magnificent devout to Mother Nature like him. :3
