Documentary Recomendation Thread

[tigermaskxxxvii]

I have seen more than my fair share of documentaries. Amongst some of my favorites:

-All three of the Paradise Lost documentaries on the West Memphis Three murder trials and the nearly two decade long aftermath of said trials (West of Memphis, also about the triple murder is pretty good too).

-This Film is Not Yet Rated (about the MPAA).

-American: The Bill Hicks Story.

-When Stand Up Stood Out (Boston comedy in the 1980's)

-Comedian (Seinfeld documentary)

-Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell The Truth

-Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

-American Hardcore (1980's hardcore punk scene).

-Metal: A Headbanger's Journey.

Amongst a whole slew of others. But there are three documentaries I was planning on checking and was curious if anyone here as seen and what their thoughts were on:

The Thin Blue Line- Documentary by Errol Flynn about Randall Dale Adams, who was accused of murdering a Dallas police officer in a road side shooting that it is believed he was wrongly accused of.

Band in D.C.- Documentary about Rasta punk rock band The Bad Brains. Title is a pun on their song "Banned in D.C." I was just curious as to how thorough the doc is. By which I mean, do they gloss over how a lot of the behavior by members of the Bad Brains (such as frontman H.R.'s homophobic meltdown while hanging out with the Big Boys' gay frontman Randy "Biscuits" Turner while on tour in Texas) are mentioned. Or is it just your over simplistic "Bad Brains were great, but just never got their due because they were ahead of their time" vanity projects?

Brother's Keeper- film about a murder in rural Munsville, New York. Directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (directors of the Paradise Lost trilogy of docs and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster).

Feel free to post about your own favorite documentaries

[Sephiroth]

The Smartest Guys in the Room-about Enron.

[Deleted]

The Bridge--about suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge

[Beets by Schrute]

Mitt- regardless of how you vote, this is a great behind the scenes look of what running for President is like

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

Countdown to Zero- It is about the Nuclear Arms Race
Exit Through The Gift Shop

[Amazing Kitsune]

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (A tremendous story with an amazing heel. It's also about Donkey Kong)

Beyond the Mat (We're on a wrestling forum and it's a great documentary)

[pegasuswarrior]

If you like mind effs:
*
The Institute
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of Toynbee Tiles
The Woman Who Wasn't There
(And not so much a mind eff, but intriguing storytelling) Marwencoll


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Documentaries are all so staged anyway these days (yep, been a long time since I've seen a "real" one) but all of the above were highly entertaining and did enough to get a hair-raising reaction out of me.

Would love to hear if anyone has any that are the same caliber as the ones listed above.

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King of Kong I loved too. But that film made me a Weibe hater. I find myself incapable of talking about that film because of everyone falling for that Mary Sue routine/narrative slant. Billy Mitchell is my favorite documentary "character" of all time. The best story in the entire world is one not often told: it's what Mitchell did the exact day that documentary was released. Best heel move of all time. The stuff true legends are made of.

As far as straightforward documentaries without much of an agenda, check out Spellbound. Gripping stuff.

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*
The Institute --it's about a 3-year long social experiment/game/mind eff/mystery/no one knows what the eff this is -- a majorly good trip


Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of Toynbee Tiles -- these weird weird tiles have been seen on the streets of Philadelphia; a cryptic set of messages; but it's not just in Philly that they've been found; how far deep does the rabbit hole go?

The Woman Who Wasn't There -- amazing account of a non-violent crime at its best; creepy on all kinds of levels; 9/11 related,but it's not political or anything like that really; I keep it vague on purpose because the less you know, the better (film does a great job of pacing and slowly getting deeper into the story); if you don't know about it already, it's worth finding out the way this story reveals it


(And not so much a mind eff, but intriguing storytelling) Marwencol -- a man makes action figures, photographs them, and makes stories out of them that are pretty interesting; psychological insight ensues

[Raskovnik]

I Think We're Alone Now, which is about an autistic man and a MtF transgendered woman who are both obsessed with 1-hit wonder pop artist Tiffany.

[Sephiroth]

Pumping Iron-great look into bodybuilding, much younger Ahnold

[Hit Girl]

Blackfish, The Invisible War, Kurt and Courtney, and practically everything Michael Moore has done.

[bob]

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Gates of Heaven

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

The Thin Blue Line deserves its accolades. Unforgivable Blackness is a good one too, it's both a boxing story as well as a fascinating and somewhat scary look at America at the dawn of the 20th century.

Also there's The Filth And The Fury, the Sex Pistols from their own P.O.V.

[Sir Woodrow]

Not Quite Hollywood, the doco about the Australian exploitation movies of the 70's & 80's.

In fact, I also enjoyed Mark Hartley's two other documentaries, Machete Maidens Unleashed, all about movies made in the Philippines & Electric Boogaloo, about Golan Globus & Cannon Pictures

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Loved "Resurrect Dead" but found the story about the main 'researcher' of the Toynbee Tiles more interesting than the mystery of the tiles itself.

[rapidfire187]

Just wanted to mention to other users that may not have seen it; you need to watch the Paradise Lost series. The whole thing is a roller coaster.

As for the OP asking for suggestions, check out Indy Game: The Movie. I think it's still on Netflix.

Also, the hallucinogens episode of Drugs, Inc is incredible. It's on Netflix. Watch it!

[Urethra Franklin]

Room 237. A look at the myriad conspiracy theories surrounding Kubrick and the making of the Shining.

[Deleted]

urbanzied
objectified

2 documentaries that take a very cool look at how are cities/towns are built and how the things we used are engineered.

[KStrick]

Fat Head - a documentary I saw on Netflix about the many problems of 'Supersize Me', and their beliefs on modern obesity in America, Europe, and across the globe.

Michael Moore Hates America - It starts off with the narrator trying to get Michael Moore to do a sit-down interview, which Michael backs out of at every exchange. He then goes into how Moore misleads and outright lies in all of his media. Discusses how Moore changed documentaries from being neutral and informative to hit pieces. Not the BEST, but far better than most documentaries I've been forced to watch with my pseudo-intellectual friends.

Penn and Teller's Bullshit. While not a documentary, I'm a fan of "everything you know is wrong" sorts of stuff. Add John Stossel's books "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity" and "Get the Shovel".

Through a Dog's Eyes. About service dogs. Great, great documentary.

[thegame415]

Young at Heart

Made me realize that you're only as old as you make yourself feel.

[mattperiolat]

Hoop Dreams

Jesus Camp

Those are my top two.