documentaries that were actually a lot more interesting than you would think.

i have watched a fair few docs on bbc4 that i thought i would find dull to begin with,but actually enjoyed quite a bit,even if i couldn’t understand it properly (looking at you mathematics/physics programs).

some for me (apologies for not remembering the names of them).

fermat’s last theorem (just watched this on i player yesterday,even though i didn’t have a clue about what it was all about,i did find it quite interesting).

the history of the coach trip/caravans/camping e.t.c i found them very interesting actually.

the science of bubbles (not michael jackson’s chimp btw 😉 actually very interesting,everything from understanding the universe to cleaning clothes with just bubble technology.

history of measurement (time/length/weight e.t.c) very interesting to learn how different measurements came into being.

the science of probability. a lot more interesting than i thought it would be,probability and chance are a fundamental part of existence and the creation of the universe.

over to you 🙂

There was a very good one about containerised transport a few years back which sounded dull as ditch water but was actually fascinating. No, really.

the science of probability.

Probability is fascinating because we’re so crap at it!

The Fog of War[/url]. Basically one long interview but absolutely mesmerising stuff. I may have to watch it again tonight.

Pretty much any subject can be interesting when presented from the right perspective.

Something like Werner Herzog’s ‘La Soufrière‘ – which starts out about a man who refuses to leave the island of Guadeloupe as an impending volcanic eruption threatens to obliterate the place. Or ‘Encounters at the End of the World‘, another Herzog film about people living in a community in Antarctica. In fact, lots of Herzog’s films might look uninteresting at first glance to some, but his documentary style is so engaging, deep and human that it’s hard to imagine people not being absorbed by his work. ‘The White Diamond‘, ‘Into the Abyss‘, and ‘Grizzly Man‘ are another few of his that I’d highly recommend.

didn’t werner get shot at with an air rifle whilst being interviewed on the culture show.he said he was used to stuff like that happening 😯

i have to agree that his documentaries are very good.

Came on while I was jetlagged in a US hotel room, and it was far more interesting than it should have been!

Wasn’t there a History of the Motorway on BBC4? That was unexpectedly good.

didn’t werner get shot at with an air rifle whilst being interviewed on the culture show

“Not significant”, apparently.

Lovers Guide.

didn’t werner get shot at with an air rifle whilst being interviewed on the culture show

Mark Kermode interviewing as I recall. I read a later interview with Kermode about it were he expressed his amazement at Herzog’s sang froide.

Herzog is a genius replete with all that entails, driven and difficult, not always accessible but always striving to express his own vision.

The story of the filming of Fitzcarraldo is a fascinating example of what happens when you put two people like that together!

Love Herzog. (Clarification, don’t much care for his non documentary work)

A couple of memorable ones, The King of Kong and Bill Cunningham New York.

+1 for Fog of War and Game Over.

King of Kong is also very good

For Netflix users, “The Flat” is a documentary which opens with the less than gripping tale of a bloke clearing out his deceased grandmother’s flat but turns into a very surprising story about a secret family history.

Interesting thing on “Yesterday” at the moment about reintroducing predators.

I kind of get the wolves killing elks that eat the trees leads to rejuvenation of the trees that the elks were eating. I kind of get reintroducing the Florida panther to Florida to deal with wild feral hogs.

Not so sure I’m on board with brown bears being introduced to the Alps, just because someone thought they could! 😯

Blackfish.

The Fog of War. Basically one long interview but absolutely mesmerising stuff. I may have to watch it again tonight.

This

Also the Donald Rumsfeld film

As much as you want to hate the man, he did put his iwn life in danger when he should have been cowering in a bunker to help save and tend to the wounded when the Pentagon was attacked

Not so sure I’m on board with brown bears being introduced to the Alps, just because someone thought they could!

The story of the filming of Fitzcarraldo is a fascinating example of what happens when you put two people like that together!

Indeed! Burden of Dreams, fantastic. It’s no surprise that he was so single-minded and stubborn with the making of that. It really seemed like he sympathised so deeply with Fitzgerald/Fitzcarraldo, hence, I suppose, the acknowledgement and comparison with the burden of his own dreams. There’s also a lovely scene in there where he rails against the jungle and all of it’s horrors, he’s just so indignant at it and at everyone who sees it only so romantically.

In the early 90s when I was younger and richer I watched a documentary about paint on Sky.It was pretty interesting but I didn’t see it all. I switched it off when I realised that not only was I watching paint dry but I was paying to do so 😀

We watched a thing called “Particle Fever” about the LHC switch-on the other day. I didn’t 100% understand it, but was glad I bothered.

🙂

Hven’t seen it yet but I am looking forward to watchin The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst

Chasing Ice

A recent BBC timewatch documentary about a train crash in Japan. I expected little, it delivered a lot.

Espn have done a bunch of them under the 30 for 30 series. Most are on totally random topics but all have been interesting.
One good one was on the San Francisco earthquake and the effect on the battle of the bay baseball world series that year

The Rumsfeld film was interesting, if only to see how damn slippery a politican can be.

I always like inside the medieval mind on iplayer

One of the most stressful films I’ve ever watched

The greatest story never told, opened my eyes and made me think for sure.

There are ones showing snippets of old home films on bbc. Next one this Sunday bbc2 in Scotland. Annoyingly interesting.

also, everything that Adam Curtis has done

I watched Genration Iron last night about the the competitors preparing for Mr Olympia in 2013. I’m not a body builder of any sort but the back stories, differing characters and their obvious all-encompassing obsession were facinating.