Documentary films to look out for

Seen these recently. All excellent. Recommend me some more.

In the Shadow of the Moon[/url] – The Apollo missions told by the astronauts.

Riding Giants[/url] – Not pr0n. Just a film about the history of surfing with some epic moments.

The Beckoning Silence[/url] – Story/recreation of the second (infamous) attempted ascent of the north face of the Eiger told by Joe Simpson.

Spinal Tap

if you liked riding giants you should see dog town and z boys- same thing but about skateboarding – don’t bother with Lords of dog town – drama based on same story – it’s pish

air guitar nation – story of the air guitar world championships in finland and the first 2 americans to go there – probably only funny if you have a bit of ‘rock knowledge’

lost in La Mancha – story of terry gilliam’s aborted attempt to make don quixote – everything that can go wrong does go wrong

there’s 3 for you

gav

Similar to Dog Town….

Joe Kid on a Stingray. Really good history of BMX.

Man on Wire – really good doc about a frenchman who walked between World Trade Centre Towers on a tight-rope in 70’s. Complete opposite of freestlye-rad-adrenalin-dudes! No whooping or high-fiving throughout.

Rob

Stoked – The Rise and Fall of Gator. Documentary about a legendary ’80s vert skater who went off the rails big time and is now in prison for murder. I know naff all about skateboarding but I really enjoyed it, it’s difficult watching in places but poignant and some of the people interviewed are extremely funny.

On Any Sunday – amazing cheese-tastic overview of motorcycle racing in 70’s USA. I couldn’t care less about motorbikes but the footage is truly gob-smacking, the narration is hilarious and it features Steve McQueen being square-jawed and heroic. There’s also an MTB connection with the first part of the film focussing on Mert Lawwill, who went on to design some of the first MTB suspension forks and downhill bikes for Yeti.

any good climbing ones?

“Red Gold”, about a salmon fishery and a proposed mine in Alaska.

Grizzly Man is another fantastic one, about an excitable amateur naturalist who was determined to protect bears in Alaska, camped there every summer, tried to interact with them, and sadly (although not unpredictably) ended up being killed by one.

I haven’t seen it, but the one about the ruthless battle for the world Donkey Kong championship looks really good too – I think it’s called “King of Kong” or some such.

if you like dogtown and the z-boys check out ‘skateboard kings’ the world in action documentary about the scene from 1978. its on youtube.

there is a uk skate docu called ‘rolling back the years’ that is a bit longwinded but fascinating to see the uk skateparks of the 70’s in their heyday.

also on a skate vein, ‘the man who sould the world’: the steve rocco story is very good. it gives a great incite into the way skating changed in the late 80’s/90’s.

surfing: yes riding giants is very good, i also like dana brown’s ‘step into liquid’. it showcases some aspects of surfing not normally seen such as the guy who vowed to surf every single day for 28yrs thinking it was a luner year, and guys in the gulf of texas riding supertanker wakes.

for a classic uk documentary, dennis mitchell’s ‘quentin crisp’ documentary is probaly my favourite. beutifully shot and quentin is a classic sound-bite a second. you can watch it on you tube.

Not a film but a series – “Seven Wonders of the Industrial World”. One of my favourite TV shows and they’re reshowing it on Nat Geo at the moment. The DVD box set is also on Amazon with every review giving it 5 stars.

“Touching the Void” gets my vote. All the way through it had me thinkning “what would I do in that situation”. Awesome

second ‘touching the void’…very good film version of the book.
even knowing the story it’s a cliffhanger…boom boom!

mines the karrimor waterproof at the back, thanks…

I watched that Who killed the electric car – docco thing – v interesting even for someone who wasn’t interested in the actual electric car thing.
And second that ‘stingray’ one – watched it on the plane and loved it.