Documentaries- Any good ones out there?

[herr_oberst]

Like flying? The Gossamer Albatross

[dennis in se pa]

Anything by Ken Burns. The Civil War, The West etc. It's amazing the stuff you don't know. Michener's Centennial is sort of like a documentary about development of Colorado.

[gprsh924]

Senna

[craigster59]

Crumb

The Long Way Round

[scottmandue]

If you are into Hawaiian music/dancing/culture

Kumu Hula

Buena Vista Social Club, Ry Cooder goes back to Cuba to find the old musicians that were famous back in the 50's

[Kraftwerk]

Jochen, Portrait of a Rennfarer" (in German, but almost no dialog great soundtrack, Shot in 35mm great 70's racing film, when racing was super-dangerous, BEFORE Senna's generation. Senna is great btw)

"Man on a Wire" (+1 on that see it!)

"A Sunday in Hell" & "Stars and Water Carriers" '70's Tour de France stuff. Great vintage. From when the sport was at its peak imo. Both By Jorgen Leth, Genious

"Little Dieter Needs to Fly" (Herzog at his best. He later re-made the story into a narrative film called Breaking Dawn, which is also great.

The Ecstacy of Wood carver Steiner (another great Herzog with incredible soundtrack by Popoul Vul )

"The Life and Times of Harvey Milk" Won the Doc. award for that year, also later became a bio-pic staring Sean Penn which I have not seen. Either way the story is hard to believe.

"Heats of Darkness" A "Documentary that chronicles how Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now was plagued by extraordinary script, shooting, budget, and casting problems--nearly destroying the life and career of the celebrated director."
The Making of Apocalypse Now is arguably better that the movie, because its REAL. A true epic of the struggle to create, AmaZING!

"To Be and To Have" A film about a tiny town one room school house in rural France. Present day but timeless and heartbreaking stuff.

"Grey Gardens" (1975) 100 min
"An old mother and her middle-aged daughter, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, live their eccentric lives in a filthy, decaying mansion in East Hampton." The Maysles, Brothers (Albert and David) they practically invented the medium of documentary film as we know it. See also "Altamont"

"Cock-Sucker Blues" Rolling Stones Documentary. Never seen it but its on my list, and its not PG13! Hard to locate.



sorry for any mis-spellings, enjoy!

[Kraftwerk]

PS.
Its a broad subject. From Wickapeidia:
See also:

* Animated documentary
* Citizen media
* Concert film
* Dance film
* Docudrama
* Docuempathy film
* Docufiction
* Documentary film festivals
* Documentary mode
* Documentary Practice
* Ethnofiction
* Ethnographic film
* Mockumentary
* Mondo film
* Nature documentary
* Participatory video
* Political Cinema
* Public-access television
* Reality film
* Actuality film
* Rockumentary
* Travel documentary
* Visual anthropology
* Web documentary
* Women's Cinema

[willtel]

Beer Wars Movie

[Head416]

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop - not just a comedy, but actually a good documentary too.

[herr_oberst]

Touching the Void. Epic climbing/survival movie.

[Head416]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

touching the void. Epic climbing/survival movie.

yes!!!!

[vash]

i never start off with the intention of watching a good documentary. i always run across them channel surfing or something.

[RWebb]

by the time we got the Soviet sub up (and only a few pieces) a lot of the stuff was obsolete - still an interesting gambit tho

[chicago_82sc]

Man on Wire.

After the movie was over, you had to pause to realize the Twin Towers aren't there anymore.

[herr_oberst]

^
Not to mention that they weren't even finished when the feat was performed...

I'm glad he did it, I'm glad it was filmed. I remember reading about it when it was news.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

Hulu - Love the Beast - Watch the full movie now.

Love the Beast (2009) - 1 hr. 32 min. - Eric Bana's directorial debut explores the importance of his 25-year-long love affair with his first car - a Ford XB Falcon Coupe - "The Beast." Obsessed with cars and racing since he was a child, Eric takes us on a journey that spans a lifetime and culminates in The Beast's untimely death in one of the world's most dangerous races, the Targa Tasmania. With guidance from three life-long friends as well as other self-confessed petrol heads - Jay Leno, Jeremy Clarkson and Dr. Phil - Eric examines the significance of the bond that is formed around a common passion.

Almost would not know where to start, there are so many good documentaries. My close friend edited this film above, I think that I posted a picture of him with Bana in a Porsche here when they were making it. He has cut many many documentaries.

I'd start with "When We Were Kings", oscar winning film about the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire in 1974. That one is as good as it gets.

[Jim727]

When We Left Earth
In the Shadow of the Moon
Grey Eagles
Victory at Sea
In Search of the Trojan War

[john70t]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

WW2 in HD
Vietnam in HD..

Good place to go broke: Epic Battles Series
Also tons of vintage flying equipment manuals.

[RWebb]

Deliverance & Easy Rider are excellent documentaries about the South

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

You have to see this one... Azorian: The Raising of the K-129

SBS: Documentary - Azorian: The Raising of the K-129

It was shown last year on our SBS channel. I'm not even sure were you could get it from.

For over six years, the wreck of the Soviet submarine “K-129” had lain in the dark abyss and shifting silt of the North Pacific. From its loss in March 1968 until its exposure in March 1974, the world was unaware that the Russians had lost a strategic missile submarine with its three one megaton thermo-nuclear warheads, and two nuclear-tipped torpedoes.
How do you raise a 1700-ton section of a sunken submarine to the surface of the ocean while being watched by a paranoid Soviet intelligence apparatus?
AZORIANTHERAISINGOFTHEK129
The Soviet Government was equally unaware that the US had located and photographedthe wreck and was preparing the largest marine salvage operationin history to raise the K-129.

Project AZORIAN, which was eventually known inaccurately to thegeneral public as “Project Jennifer”, was the CIA’s audacious attempt torecover the K-129 wreck using a specially designed salvage vessel, named theHughes Glomar Explorer.

Representing the most modern missile-carrying submarine then inthe Soviet inventory, the K-129 offered the US a cornucopia of unique intelligencetargets, ranging from nuclear weapons to cryptographic systems andother equipment. But retrieving it required $1.8 billion (in today’s dollars)and more than six years to design and build the equipment that could do theimpossible.

To this day, Project AZORIAN is the deepest salvage operation everattempted and was so far beyond the cutting-edge of 1970s technology thatthe Soviets considered it to be impossible.

A brief flurry of press attention in 1975 resulted in a special presidentialgag order being put in place by then President Gerald Ford. This securityprovision has effectively blocked normal declassification systems andFreedom of Information Act requests to this day.

Finally, however, some mission members and senior engineers ofProject AZORIAN have stepped out of the shadows to help tell this dramaticstory in their own words. Utilising extensive, accurate CGI reconstruction ofthe salvage attempt, plus never before seen film of the actual recovery itself,and based upon contemporaneous documents, AZORIAN: The Raisingof K-129 provides the first factual and documented account of this uniqueevent ever made available outside the confines of US Intelligence agencies.

Thanks for posting this, I read a book about this called "Red Star Rogue" as sort of a follow up to originally learning about this in college. Never knew there was a film out there.