Great Documentaries

[cochyn]

Almost anything by Adam Curtis is well worth a watch: The Power of nightmares, The Trap and All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace are all 'fuck me'! doccoes.

[SCOUSE TAPAS]

Just watched one of the best documentaries I have seen.

 

Its called; Jonestown- The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

 

In 1978 over 900 people led by Rev. Jim Jones died in the largest mass murder-suicide in history, at Jonestown, Guyana. The story is told by survivors, Temple defectors, relatives, and journalists.

 

[YOUTUBE]iQYoHiM-Uko[/YOUTUBE]

[memyselfandpie]

Occupation 101 - Israel/Palestine stuff. Quite remarkable that this is going on really.

Lake of Fire - The abortion debate, with crazy religious types.

Bus 174 - Hostage situation on a bus by a grown up Brazilian street-kid.

Before Flying back to the earth - Lithuanian hospital for Kids with leukemia.

The Union: The business behind getting high - Interesting Marijuana debate.

Dark Days - Portrait of the homeless living in the New York Underground.

 

All really good.

[chauncey]

Occupation 101 - Israel/Palestine stuff. Quite remarkable that this is going on really.

Lake of Fire - The abortion debate, with crazy religious types.

Bus 174 - Hostage situation on a bus by a grown up Brazilian street-kid.

Before Flying back to the earth - Lithuanian hospital for Kids with leukemia.

The Union: The business behind getting high - Interesting Marijuana debate.

Dark Days - Portrait of the homeless living in the New York Underground.

 

All really good.

 

This was on BBC2 a few months back. A real eye-opener.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Defamation.

 

A study, amongst other things, of the Jewish organisation in America, the Anti-Defamation League. A group which deals with incidents of "anti-semitism". The documentary is a lot broader than this and also looks at many other issues, including the near hysterical obsession of Israeli Jews that everybody is out to get them and is anti-semitic.

 

It is actually made by a Jewish filmmaker and the underlying theme is whether it is possible to be anti-Israel without being anti-semitic.

 

My write up doesn't go into in half as much detail as it should and I heartily recommend it. I think it's available on Vimeo.

[memyselfandpie]

Bigger, Stronger, Faster - About steroids and particularly America's views on them. Interesting stuff, I didnt think I'd be into this but it was actually really good.

Control Room - About the US invasion of Iraq, particularly from the Arab point of view by way of Al Jazeera, again really good.

When the Levees Broke - Spike Lee's epic about Hurricane Katrina and its impact on New Orleans and the lack of US action. Very good.

[Arl arse]

What in the world are they spraying (Geo-Engineering / Chemtrails)

 

 

Why in the world are they spraying?

 

[I Am The One Who Knocks]

Empire's The Imposter Movie Review

 

Looks like a good documentary-style account...

[memyselfandpie]

Just Melvin, Just Evil - Is one of the most fucked-up things I've ever seen. It's about child molester and suspected murderer Melvin Just and how he prayed on his own kids and step-kids through two different family's, denying it all. The whole thing is just incredible. If you want to watch something that leaves you thinking "Oh...My...God!", this is the one.

[chauncey]

Just Melvin, Just Evil - Is one of the most fucked-up things I've ever seen. It's about child molester and suspected murderer Melvin Just and how he prayed on his own kids and step-kids through two different family's, denying it all. The whole thing is just incredible. If you want to watch something that leaves you thinking "Oh...My...God!", this is the one.

 

Fuck yeah. The matter-of-fact accounts of abuse from the family members were chilling.

 

Another depressing doc is Dreams of a Life - a woman's remains were found in her London flat three years after her (unexplained) death. The film attempts to trace how/why a person can die and nobody give a shit. Of all the documentaries I've been watching lately, this one disturbed me most.

[Trumo]

I Knew It Was You. - 7/10.

 

A documentary about the career of a great actor cut down in his prime by cancer - John Cazale. The run of movies he was in probably constitutes the best 5-film run of any actor ever. Each of them was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and 3 of them won it. The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter. It's hard to think of anybody else to appear in 5 films of that quality on the bounce. Truly brilliant stuff.

 

If you want to see it, the click the link.

[Adebisi]

Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street (full length) - YouTube

 

I watched this last night. It's a good watch. It's not shocking and you're not going to see or hear anything you haven't seen in other films/documentaries on the subject, but fucking hell this one is so 90s it's radical.

 

A lad my best mate went to school with is supposedly got into heroin a few years ago, when I met him he didn't look too much different from your usual drug taking, 20-something lad. Apparently in school he always had the latest clothes, consoles and stuff, basically coming from a well off family, but eventually he found out the man he thought was his dad actually wasn't. Legend has it he met his real dad through shooting up.

 

I don't like to judge or even think about it too much, but I do remember a few months ago winding up back up at a house that this guy was staying at. There were about 12-15 people there, relaxed atmosphere, everyone was either mashed or drugged up. There was a knock on the door, which no one seemed to acknowledge, but I got up and answered it and there was some kid standing there, must have been 16 at most. He looked like freezing cold shit and looked like he'd fished his clothes out of a bin. Anyway he asked for this lad and in he came. The lad went upstairs, brought something down, they exchanged money and whatever it was and off the lad went.

 

No one else seemed to be bothered but it bothered me and I made an excuse for me and my mate to leave. My mate thinks I was just being paranoid but when you're in a room full of people and drugs are been passed around freely, what would you be selling to a young lad that you wouldn't want a room full of people, who are fucked themselves, to see?

 

I also remember many moons ago when I was a teenager we'd have to go up to the woods or sneak into an abandoned building to get stoned. There'd be used needles all over the place. I recall there was a bus-shelter and behind it a fence which contained a field with bushes you could crawl into, sort of like a little den. They were also filled to discarded needles. As a kid I suppose you don't think much of it, but as you get older you realise the so called "quiet little village" you grew up in, is just another shit-nest of place.

[Dan]

Watched a doc on animal planet called Mermaids: The body found.

 

What the fuck am I after watching?

 

Im still scratching my head now

[JagSquared]

I Knew It Was You. - 7/10.

 

A documentary about the career of a great actor cut down in his prime by cancer - John Cazale. The run of movies he was in probably constitutes the best 5-film run of any actor ever. Each of them was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and 3 of them won it. The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter. It's hard to think of anybody else to appear in 5 films of that quality on the bounce. Truly brilliant stuff.

 

If you want to see it, the click the link.

 

I had no idea about him. Crazy, a fantastic run and a massive shame.

[Brownie]

This is a ridculously geeky thing to say and is proof of me getting old but i'm fascinated about the London Underground - does anyone know of a good documentary about it?

[Guest davelfc]

Don't know about a documentary but

 

London Underground History - Disused Stations on London's Underground

[Brownie]

Cheers Dave, will take a look at that with a cuppa and slippers on. Werthers, anyone?

[RedKnight]

ESPN's 30 for 30 series. Just watched one on Bo Jackson; what a man.

[DooooodekNo5]

Touching the void ,Great watch.

 

2 British mountaineers go to the Peruvian Andes to climb the west face of the Siula Grande , a really tough climb , never been climbed before.

 

Real emotional story , amazing how determined and capable a human can be when his life is on the line.

 

Theres also a quality documentary on K2 which i forget the name of , some of the videos on youtube take the breath away , especially the bottleneck just below the summit.

[chauncey]

This is a ridculously geeky thing to say and is proof of me getting old but i'm fascinated about the London Underground - does anyone know of a good documentary about it?

 

Discovery Super Structures - The London Underground - YouTube

 

There was a BBC2 series about the underground earlier this year which I enjoyed but that was more fly-on-the-wall than documentary:

 

BBC Two - The Tube - Episode guide

[VladimirIlyich]

Touching the void ' date='Great watch.

 

2 British mountaineers go to the Peruvian Andes to climb the west face of the Siula Grande , a really tough climb , never been climbed before.

 

Real emotional story , amazing how determined and capable a human can be when his life is on the line.

 

Theres also a quality documentary on K2 which i forget the name of , some of the videos on youtube take the breath away , especially the bottleneck just below the summit.[/quote']

 

i recommend this too.

[amli]

Micheal Palin's travel series have always been tops for me.

[Trumo]

They are showing a superb doc about Hiroshima on the Military History channel right now, channel 236 if you have Virgin Media (I don't know what channel on Sky). We all know at least a little bit about what happened, but it still always leaves you staggered at just how fucking evil mankind can be sometimes.

[loadsoftrophies]

Watched the one about Donkey Kong the other night, great stuff. The nerds in it are hilarious, well worth a watch especially for the slimy fella who claims to be the King of Donkey Kong.

[Newport]

Downloaded this docu which has just been shown on Showtime in America. It's called Sexy Baby and it's about how sexualised society has become in the cyber age. Some really disturbing stuff about how it is to be a child/teenager growing up these days.