Good call. I know that the whole of The Corporation is up on YouTube because that's where I watched it. I would chuck a link up here but I'm on my iPad so there'll be mobile site nonsense to contend with.

And I second anything by Attenborough. His work on the BBC is simply some of (if not) the finest television ever made.

Before someone else says it: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

Probably my fave doc ever.

Requiem for Detroit is sublime, I always end up mentioning it on the documentary threads. 

This won best documentary at the BAFTAs 6 years back and is one of the best UK docs I've seen. Heartbreaking stuff - this first 10 minutes is worth investing your time in. The rest of it is on Youtube. 


If you can get hold of Anatomy of a Crime then they're sublime. They were on BBC sporadically a few years back. 

Bought this series recently - brilliant if you can get passed his voice. Grates with some. 


Loved The Imposter and Searching for Sugarman recently.

Être et Avoir, oui oui, c'est le plus superfilm, chiennes.

Recent ones I've liked were Dear Zachary and Deep Water. Both of which are worth watching without knowing anything. DZ can be a bit manipulative with the film-making but man, right in all the feels with that one. Same with Deep Water. I was a bit of a mess after watching them one after the other.

No Michael Moore mentioned yet?

I've been watching the BBC3 show People Like Us (not the spoof of the same name) about life in North Manchester. A bit sensationalist (it is BBC3) but pretty good. Also I used to live there so it's part nostalgia trip and part validation for us getting the fuck out of there.

Some great mentions there. Shoah is full of amaze. Heard about it through Gene Siskel. Well worth the time. Another big shout for Hoop Dreams and No Direction Home. Dig! just about sums up the whole hipster problem. One look at what a huge massive dickhead the Brian Jonestown fella and how he sabotaged almost every chance the band had at success, should discount all of those bullshit Dandy Warhols sold out arse. Being acquainted with a fair lot of LA music heads, Dig was received rather harshly. A gut punch to the most affected lifestyle of credibility fetishists.

I would also humbly recommend the American Experience documentaries from PBS. In particular:

Robert E. Lee

The American Civil War was really very recent, and with the divide in America obsessed with many of the same issues, it is interesting to get an insight into the way the South viewed the thing. It's still about slavery, obviously, but there are a lot of weird complexities to the people who were instrumental in it. Especially Robert E. Lee. A more conflicted and fucked up guy it is rare to encounter.

The New York Triangle Fire

I posted this in the Bioshock Infinite thread already but this is a wonderful look at how the worst workplace accident in New York's history altered the assumption that the state had no business interfering in business matters. As relevant as ever.

Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl is excellent.



It can be bought on iTunes, but the American Experience Surviving The Dustbowl is a good stand in.

Can I recommend One Day In September - despite being INCREDIBLY manipulative (hey, you've got the grandson of emeric pressburger making it) it is, as far as I can tell, the first documentary that went for that "thriller"/ fiction feel that's so popular now.

Capturing the Friedmans is pretty amazing.

Capturing the Friedmans is amazing but also intensely difficult to watch at points.

This is Not a Film and This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated are also ace

regmcfly wrote:

Oh and in music documentaries,

Some Kind of Monster is amazing, possibly for all the wrong reasons.

Yeah, it's hilarious. To a certain degree though, fair play for putting their shit honestly on camera. Aerosmith had a similar situation when they got over drugs and their fighting, and it worked. For a couple of decades anyway. I do like Metallica, and I guess what makes it funny is how hard edged their music has been and how fluffy and emotional they are as people. I guess if it was a different band, it wouldn't be so absurd.

Here is a great documentary on LA music which you have probably all seen:

Gimme Shelter is a bit fucked up if you're into that sort of thang

American Movie
Chasing Ghosts
Scratch

ChattinWithChet wrote:

Kubrick would be one of the few people who I could see actually having such outrageously specific hidden meanings in there. Mighty give it a watch. Saw the American cut in the cinema a few months back. So good.

The main one I heard was about tins of food in the bloody freezer bit. They kinda make sense, but in a batshit mental way. Problem being, they just repeat really.