[Closed] Favourite documentaries - what's your's?

Pump up the volume.

Anything by Kevin Macdonald (eg Touching the Void or One day in September)

Man on a Wire

Bus 174 (note this is one is almost too long but the care attention and research that went it to it make it a must see)

Bear with me on this - and relevant today - but Clarkson made a documentary about the Victoria Cross that was absorbing.

athgray - Member
Series years ago on the History Channel about the American Civil War.

Ken Burns one? Most of his series are cracking see also 'The West' and 'The Dustbowl'

Couple of my favourites are:

Burma VJ - trailer

How Vietnam was Lost - whole thing

Pretty much any Adam Curtis ones

On Any Sunday.

A recent one and about bikes... plus actually really interesting.

RYOKOU - About Aussie track racer Shane Perkins and Japanese Keirin racing.

enjoyed this the 1st time round, looks like its getting (or has been) re-released

In S.R. Bindler’s 1997 cult classic, Hands On a Hardbody, two dozen small-town Texans compete for a brand-new “Hardbody” pickup truck at a local car dealership. The event is a contest of endurance and sleep-deprivation—whoever can remain standing the longest with one hand on the truck will get to drive it home. Capturing several days of lunacy, laughter, struggle and heartbreak, Hands On a Hardbody is more than a documentary about winning a truck. It is a remarkable study of competition, camaraderie, faith and determination—the ultimate human drama.

Style Wars is a classic

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Scratch
Some Kind of Monster
Hoop Dreams
Dogtown and Z Boys
Bones Brigade

Lots of good stuff on Storyville - really enjoyed this one.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/may/25/storyville-shooting-robert-king-review

Was a bit disappointed by Senna.

Bear with me on this - and relevant today - but Clarkson made a documentary about the Victoria Cross that was absorbing.

Second the Storyville suggestion, there's usually always a good one to be found on the iplayer.

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis ]Adam Curtis[/url] can not be beat for sheer vision and editorial genius.

I loved his multi-part documentary, 'The Power of Nightmares', but his '[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of_Loving_Grace_(TV_series) ]All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace[/url]' surpasses even his own high standards.

Then, of course, there is the sublime Werner Herzog...

Hot out of the editing room

Shaun Ryder on UFOs - sorted

"One day in September " about the Hostage siege at the Munich Olympus is pretty incredible

+1 to Scratch

Dark Days
Buena Vista Social Club
Chasing Legends
Fire in Babylon

edit and Exit Through the Gift Shop

I'm struggling to think of a bad documentary to be fair.

Senna, TT3D, Man on wire, Bowling for columbine, all of the Werner Herzog ones I've seen...

can we class coffee and cigarettes as a documentary, just so I can mention it.

Gents ... where do you get these from? Youtube ?? Anywhere else???

These will be great for the long slow hours on the turbo/trainer road over the winter.

Talking of which, may I add to our list a couple of roadie docs

A Sunday in Hell

and

Stars and Watercarries

Hmmm..
I'd say anything that has these subjects in and I'll either record or watch..
Egypt
Asia Major
North Africa
The Americas
Space
Art
Art History
Design
That stuff that Coxy does best
Engineering
Transport
Sociology
Any thing that Dr Lucy Worsleys doing
In the main BBC4 outputs and occasionally BBC2

I don't think I have a favorite but "Cry Free Town" is very good, but upsetting.

@Rosey Yes! Theres a good one about the hour record too, can't remember what that one's called but it's on youtube too.

Edit - the impossible hour.

Exit Through The Gift Shop +1
Man On Wire +1
Dark Days +1
I would like to add "The Endless Summer" to the mix.

Some excellent suggestions here.

For fans of all things pithy, Etre et Avoir is very good - it's about the relationship between a teacher and his pupils in a rural French school.

'Chorlton and the Wheelies'

In addition to the above, 'Capturing the Friedmans'. It's about a family dissolving in the midst of allegations of child abuse by the father and the accompanying media frenzy. It largely stitched together out of their own home movie footage.

I've never been wrong-footed so many times by a single film. Just as you're settling on a particular perspective, there's another revelation that catapults you across to the opposite view.

Alone in the Wilderness, about building a log cabin by hand in Alaska, then living in it. Simple and beautiful. Available on the Tuuube

Seconded, and yes, very relevant - I shall re-watch tonight.

The documentary about the first attempts at scaling the eiger north face. Fantastic.

Shameless plug.

Whores' Glory - for my Mrs there is no longer desire to watch Pretty Woman again. Ever.

Not really a favourite, but quite an important documentary

Operation Solstice - The Battle of the Beanfield

You've been trumped .

The story of Donald Trump building his golf courses in Northern Scotland and riding roughshod over all and sundry in the process . What an a-hole that man is . The Scottish parliament don't come out of it looking too good either .

Seven Wonders.

Netflix or LoveFilm any good for documentaries these days? They were rubbish a few years ago.

Touching The Void.

Quite a few on Netflix at the mo - not sure if some are US only.

Bicycle Dreams is good. Follows the Race Across America.

The Cove - about dolphin hunting in Japan
Blackfish - about captive orcas in Seaworld

Another vote for On any Sunday

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Any_Sunday

I watched it in the early seventies at the cinema when I was a child, then chanced on it again on the telly a few years ago and was instantly transported back to a time that filled me with nostalgia and melancholy and a kind of intense memory that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

Poignant, powerful, entertaining and a real picture of a period in time that has gone, yet still lingers.

Just a brilliant, brilliant film.

Cheers for all the suggestions,I've seen quite a few but most of them I haven't even heard of so plenty to keep me busy for the next few weeks.
The World at War,is that the one from the 70's? Think I bought the boxset for the father in law one Christmas - might have to ask for it back 😀

Dogtown and ZBoys, Bones Brigade, the man who souled the world,

Searching for Sugarman and Like Water..Interesting characters.