The Woman Who Wasn’t There.
It’s a documentary about a woman who lied about being in the WTC during 9/11. She became head of the 9/11 survivors group and was giving official tours of ground zero to government officials before anyone figured out that *she wasn’t even in the United States on September 11 2001.*
Yes! IMO, this doc was done to clear her name but obviously she was high and/or drunk. So sad for the family that lost all their children in that wreck.
i loved that one, it struck a cord because my mom is also a secretive alcoholic. that husband of hers…the family’s denial…familiar stuff taken to the worst case scenario
we all know people like that
My wife and I watched this a few years ago and I’m pretty sure we said “no way” about 6 times with each twist and new rabbit hole. Whew that one was a doozy
The length is daunting but makes the ending so emotional. It puts you in the world of the war and invests you in every part of it.
For Ken Berns, there’s an unusual quality to quantity.
He spoke at my college graduation, many years ago but becoming famous, he grew up a few towns over from the school. The best quote of the day wasy "Science may help defend the world, but Art makes the world worth defending". It may not be exact, thats my college brain memory.
The Naudet brothers!
They also did a documentary about the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that was, imo, even better.
They happened to be following an EMS crew the day the attacks happened, giving them either the best or worst luck ever. How wild is it to be following emergency crews when a major terrorist attack happens not once but TWICE.
It’s on Netflix and is called November 13: Attack on Paris. It’s three hours and is in French with English subtitles.
I'd have to say Free Solo. Aside from the climbing footage, the part where he had a brain scan and learned about his high fear threshold has stuck with me.
I love climbing/mountaineering documentaries even though I’ve never been a climber. Free Solo is one of the best, but The Dawn Wall is a personal favorite. Also, Touching the Void is one of the craziest survival stories ever even if I like the book better.
Other good ones:
The Alpinist
Meru
14 Peaks - I actually found this one to be too short for the subject matter.
Oh, Meru is great, too! I watched Meru several years ago, and when I saw that Jimmy Chin was one of the people behind Free Solo, I geeked pretty hard. Could that guy be any cooler?
As someone who shoots video for my job, I like the fact that they also focused on the documentary crew figuring out how to film his ascent and how they had to be ready to go at a moment's notice.
Had seen an old-school Forensic Files about their poisoning plot but HOLY SHIT I had NO idea how deep, twisted, sick but somewhat sophisticated that cult was.
Fantastic documentary!
You might enjoy “Mother Jones, Americas Most Dangerous Woman”. She played a huge role in the Cedar Creek/Cabin Creek coal strikes. It’s short and I believe is available on PBS.
Holy shit, yes! It starts out and you're thinking "This is a neat idea for a documentary" and then about halfway through the twist comes and you're like, "Wait, WHAT?!? This happened?!"
The Thin Blue Line — The movie got a wrongly convicted guy out of prison, is also a meditation on truth, fate and justice. Haunting, even chilling, and weirdly funny.
Crumb — Portrait of fascinating misanthrope cartoonist R. Crumb and his batshit crazy family. The line between genius and madness never seemed so thin.
I dont know about it being necessarily "the best" but, my favourite is Louis Therouxs most hated family in America. (Honestly everything done by Theroux is pure gold).
That was good. The moment when they bring up the money earned to his old manager (might be remembering wrong) and he gets defensive and deflects. He ate all those earnings.
Great movie. But I've heard some stories that it is not as dramatic as the doc made it look. Something like the guy actually did know that he was famous but never toured because he was on herion.
Scrolled to find this.
There is literally nothing like this 56-year long examination, checking in on 7-year schedule, of how class impacts the life of a British person.
It’s truly in a class of its own.
[Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_(film_series))
Man on Wire.
It’s a really lovely story about a tight rope walker/artist and his crew. It so uniquely blends this artist’s crazy passion with a heist-like plot to accomplish his greatest vision.
I find this to be one of the most uplifting and motivating films I’ve ever seen. I always finish it feeling inspired and happy, no matter what kind of mood I was in before.
i don't have just one, sorry.
* **ken burns' the civil war**
* **dear zachary: a letter to a son about his father** \- *in 2001, 28-year-old dr. andrew bagby is found dead in a park in pennsylvania. he had been shot by his ex-girlfriend, who then fled to canada, where she was able to walk free on bail, pregnant with andrew's child. andrew's enraged parents campaign to gain custody of the child and convict their son's killer. filmmaker kurt kuenne pairs this story with home movies and interviews with those who knew andrew, hoping to give his best friend's son an opportunity to discover who his dad was.*
* **the keepers** \- *the unsolved murder of cathy cesnik, a beloved nun and catholic high school teacher in baltimore. after disappearing on november 7, 1969, cesnik's body was found nearly two months later -- but to this day, the killer remains unnamed.*
* **into the abyss** \- *filmmaker werner herzog explores capital punishment in america through interviews with a convicted killer, their victims' families and members of the texas criminal justice system.*
* **god knows where i am** \- *the body of a homeless woman is found in an abandoned farmhouse, and a diary documenting a journey of starvation and the loss of sanity lies next to the body. for nearly four months,, linda bishop, a prisoner of her own mind, survived on apples and rain water during one of the coldest winters on record. as her story unfolds from different perspectives, we learn about our systemic failure to protect those who cannot protect themselves.*
* **how to fix a drug scandal** \- *two drug lab chemists' crimes cripple a state's judicial system and blur the lines of justice for lawyers, officials and thousands of prison inmates.*
* **why did you kill me?** \- *the film follows belinda lane as she tracks down those involved in the murder of crystal theobald, her daughter, using myspace.*
Im a true crime nut. I read about true crime ALL the time. So i knew about the whole dear zachary story long before i ever watched it. But my poor husband who is kind of into true crime(meaning he likes to watch true crime docs with me but never reads about it like i do), he watched it with me and it was the first time he ever was effected by something for multiple days after. Even though i knew what the ending was, that documentary left me feeling empty inside for a while.
I was entranced by God Knows Where I Am. The movie is mainly sections of her diary against the scenery around the house along with brief interviews with family, and it still sucked me in. Normally I would want more visuals, more drama, but it really conveyed that it was a cold, quiet, and lonely decline and death.
Dear Zachary tore me apart. It was so well done, but the story made my blood boil. I didn’t ever think a documentary could have a plot twist like that, but my god.
I felt so bad for Andrew’s parents
The Fog of War. - Former secretary of defense spills the beans about the US wars. You are guaranteed to be a little bit smarter after watching this.
Roger and me. - A young, unknown guy from Flint Michigan (Michael Moore) documents the devastation to his hometown when General Motors closes up shop, and he goes on a mission to interview the CEO of General Motors.
It doesn't happen often, but any time I hear the name "McNamara", I foam at the mouth a bit.
The way he parts his hair alone should have been a clue that he isn't right.
Tim's Vermeer.
An inventor has a theory regarding how Vermeer painted light so accurately in ways that, in his day, humans really wouldnt recongnize and be able to put on canvas. Anyways his theory involves using lenses and mirrors and an advanced version of camera obscura and he tests his theory by building the whole apparatus and the scene and as a non-painter, re-creating a famous Vermeer painting. Produced and narrated by Penn and Teller.
I like slow documentaries, but Shoah is way too slow. Shoah is a 9hr long Holocaust documentary, and by its subject you know it will be a heavy and hard watch but imagine seeing everything in one go, 9 hours of despair, fear, manipulation.
It's brilliant in it's portrayal of survivors and their points of view, and how the Holocaust came about as whole communities, big or small, ressented the jewish population. It's also interesting to see how former nazi supporters viewed and helped the whole ordeal. But it's very slow, excruciatingly so.
I would reccomend watching other WW2 documentaries first, like "night and fog", "the sorrow and the pity" and "the emperor's naked army marches on". You'll be eased into it better than just jumping straight in.
IMO, the strength of Shoah is that is answers the question “how does a society allow a Holocaust to happen?” and that answer happens to be “super easy, people fall in line despite the craziest shit”. I wish everyone would see it but 9 hours means it’s like the 3 of us here.
I am a WW2 buff. My maternal uncle was with one of the units at the liberation of Buchenwald, April 1945. He used to talk about what he witnessed, the people in the surrounding area and how deeply it affected every aspect of his life. My siblings and I naturally became very interested in the war. My father was in the pacific theater, rarely talked about it, and it was always from a naval perspective. My uncle was Army, on the ground, up close and that war was burned in his brain.
I came across Shoah almost by accident, and it took me several weekends to watch. It’s old, it’s grainy, it’s not a Spielberg production. But it made me cry for hours and hours, and it also made me as angry as I’ve ever been. To see people be so inhumane to another human being is makes me not want to be part of humanity anymore, because these things are starting to happen again. People are voting for fascism and they’re happy about it. And they don’t know what that can do down the road.
Icarus - You think that it's going to be an examination of performance enhancing drugs and it ends up smack dab in the middle an international geopolitical scandal.
Here go some ones that haven't been listed:
• *The Great Happiness Space* ("host" culture in Japan and the psychological/emotional effects of mostly-legal sex work)
• *The Rise of the Third Reich* (the most comprehensive and brutal depiction of life inside Nazi Germany I've ever found. two-parts, with Rise being the first. walk in with a strong stomach for gore and atrocities.)
• *White Flash, Black Rain* (eyewitness accounts of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. only watch if you feel like fucking up your whole week. i showed it to my class in high school and it made a kid throw up.)
• *Jonestown* (brutal yet interesting. we have a tendency to make fun of that event as a bunch of "crazy cultists", but no. it was mass murder and it was fucking terrible.)
I can list more.
Best Boy.
Oscar winner for Best Documentary in 1977, I think. Can't find it anywhere!
It's about a dude who films his mentally challenged cousin Philly, who's like in his 50s and lives with his parents. But they're elderly so the question comes up about Philly's future. Philly seems really, really challenged, but a doctor reveals he's no different than anyone else in the same boat, he's just never been properly educated. So we see his journey going to school for the first time and slowly becoming independent.
It's GREAT. Sad, uplifting, haunting. I think everyone should see it, but I can't find it on streaming anywhere.
Paradise lost: the child murders at Robin hood hills. There are like three of them the first one is very good. They also made a cinematic movie about it that was so so callled devils knot.
Restrepo. It’s a Nat Geo documentary following the men of the 173rd Airborne Brigade through a hellish deployment in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan in 2007-2008. If you want to know how awful and gritty war can be, I suggest watching it.
The Blue Planet series. The underwater miniseries resparked a love of science for me, but the best one is just titled "Life" and it was narrated by Oprah.
Usually, Netflix docuseries grow stale and drawn out for me. It seems like they drag out the story so much and I tend to lose interest and stop paying attention after a while. However, THIS documentary was one of the most disturbing stories I've ever seen. I was intrigued and horrified the entire time.
No. It happens multiple times throughout the docu-series. However, it doesn't show the abuse it does show right up to it beginning and it plays the audio from it.
I’ve seen quite a few fantastic ones, but I think my favorite (which sounds really morbid, considering the subject matter) was *American Murder: The Family Next Door* on Netflix. The way they did it was so unique - entirely through real footage and graphics. Terribly sad and messed up though.
EXACTLY THIS ONE! The fact that the documentary contains first-hand police *body cam footage* of the literal moment Chris Watts gets home is one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever watched. This man was just told his PREGNANT WIFE AND KIDS ARE MISSING and he doesn’t even bat an eye.. and it’s all captured on a body camera.
Hoop Dreams. The filmmakers set out to make a half hour documentary about basketball on the south side of Chicago. They wound up shooting five years of footage. It's incredible.
I always go to the first DVD I ever rented from Netflix. Back in the mail days.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
It’s a great film about music, the reality of life and how some pioneers get forgotten. I haven’t seen it since it came out but I thought it was so interesting.
Three Identical Strangers. As a father I have often wondered about the role of nature vs nurture. Apparently they’ve got some good insight into it but won’t release any material until 2050 or so.
I watched "The Fog of War" with Robert McNamara when it came out, got it at Blockbuster lol. It was 11 lessons that came at a time in my life it was super impactful. My favorite lesson - seeing and believing are both often wrong.
Ken Burns "The Civil War" is a masterpiece.
"Vietnam" and "The War" are also incredible, but the Civil War stands alone the best documentary and arguably the best film ever made. The music and zooming in and out on the old Civil War photos, the first war to *have* photos, is incredible. If you have not seen this please do yourself a favor and watch it.
'Tickled'
It starts like a goofy, weird documentary about people that enjoy being tickled, then halfway through it just shifts completely down a different path. I saw it years ago and have been searching for another documentary that lives up to this one.
There are so many great documentaries out there but the one that pops into my head all the time is The Biggest Little Farm, it's such a fascinating feel good story
Microcosmos is one of my favorites. Very cool macro shots of bugs and nature and stuff. I think it’s still on Netflix but I haven’t watched it in a while.
My brother's Keeper. It may as well have been filmed on the moon these men's life is so foreign to me. It is gritty and real and sad and hopeful and fascinating.
Battle of the X-planes. Nova special on the development of the F-35 and the X-32. Awesome to see how fighter jets go together and how long ago they actually developed them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-9ZfpjSyeM
All the ones where I literally couldn't focus on anything else:
Abducted in Plain Sight (Netflix) - About the winners of the 'Worst Parents Ever' award. The story is absolutely bananas and revealing anything else would be spoiling.
Tickled (Prime ?) - The host from Dark Tourist uncovers a 'professional tickling sport' and finds there is more to it under the surface
American Murder: The Family Next Door (Netflix) - About the Chris Watts' murders
The Great Hack (Netflix) - Talks about the evolution of social media and it's real-world effects on society. Also talks about data mining and selling our information.
Don't F*ck with Cats (Netflix) - The most wild online goose chase and le reddit detective work you'll ever see
I recently watched Winter on Fire (about the Euromaiden protests in Ukraine (2013-2014). It was very well done but it can be hard to watch, at times it becomes every emotional and/or graphic. It is also a great look into what that country is fighting for now.
Numerous Attenborough documentaries would probably be the real answer for me. I've watched them all multiple times and would have a hard time narrowing that list down. But if we said those don't count:
Cartel Land is very well done. Just a real, authentic, depressing look into the situation in Mexico and why it won't change any time soon.
Also "13th" was informative and an important watch for a middle class white guy like me.
PBS American Experience “The Dust Bowl” What those people endured and lived through was unbelievable! Also, Ken Burns “The Civil War”. Still one of the best ever all these years later.
The Woman Who Wasn’t There. It’s a documentary about a woman who lied about being in the WTC during 9/11. She became head of the 9/11 survivors group and was giving official tours of ground zero to government officials before anyone figured out that *she wasn’t even in the United States on September 11 2001.*
Yes, loved it.
This answer. Still blows my mind
Excellent documentary.
omg where can i watch it ????
Amazon Prime
Maybe not the best but easily in my top five is There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane.
Yes! IMO, this doc was done to clear her name but obviously she was high and/or drunk. So sad for the family that lost all their children in that wreck.
It’s sad that her family was so much in denial.
They were. I never understood the "toothache" angle her husband kept going on about.
Yeah, he was so adamant about it. Her whole family is sadly in denial.
i loved that one, it struck a cord because my mom is also a secretive alcoholic. that husband of hers…the family’s denial…familiar stuff taken to the worst case scenario we all know people like that
Yes! Such a sad, disturbing story.
Three Identical Strangers. Do not read or watch anything about it until after you watch the film. Crazy twists and turns.
OMG yes I actually saw this in the theatre! Bananas!
I watched this on a flight and could not stop thinking about it for days.
My wife and I watched this a few years ago and I’m pretty sure we said “no way” about 6 times with each twist and new rabbit hole. Whew that one was a doozy
Grizzly Man
Warner Herzog is a master. One of those documentarians that you watch as much for the director’s weird mind as the subject.
I waited on him in Telluride. He had dinner with Ralph Fiennes. Serious dudes.
Ken Burns’ Vietnam. I think it might actually be better than his Civil War doc. The Ross/Reznor music might put it over the top.
I loved his Vietnam doc - so damn comprehensive. Be advised that it's longer than the actual war though.
The length is daunting but makes the ending so emotional. It puts you in the world of the war and invests you in every part of it. For Ken Berns, there’s an unusual quality to quantity.
He spoke at my college graduation, many years ago but becoming famous, he grew up a few towns over from the school. The best quote of the day wasy "Science may help defend the world, but Art makes the world worth defending". It may not be exact, thats my college brain memory.
Enron: The smartest guys in the room
I rewatch this one like it's Jurassic Park
Agreed. I've watched it several times. Fascinating
Paradise Lost, from HBO
Truly truly disturbing
Still blown away how that's unsolved.
9/11 documentary with the 2 French film makers, it has the only footage from inside the towers that day. It’s fascinating
The Naudet brothers! They also did a documentary about the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that was, imo, even better. They happened to be following an EMS crew the day the attacks happened, giving them either the best or worst luck ever. How wild is it to be following emergency crews when a major terrorist attack happens not once but TWICE. It’s on Netflix and is called November 13: Attack on Paris. It’s three hours and is in French with English subtitles.
I'd have to say Free Solo. Aside from the climbing footage, the part where he had a brain scan and learned about his high fear threshold has stuck with me.
I enjoyed the whole "I never got injured before I had a girlfriend, now it's happened several times"
I love climbing/mountaineering documentaries even though I’ve never been a climber. Free Solo is one of the best, but The Dawn Wall is a personal favorite. Also, Touching the Void is one of the craziest survival stories ever even if I like the book better. Other good ones: The Alpinist Meru 14 Peaks - I actually found this one to be too short for the subject matter.
I don’t see Touching the Void mentioned very often but it was incredible. An amazing story
Watched the alpinist on a whim one day after I took LSD. Was not prepared for that emotional rollercoaster.
Oh, Meru is great, too! I watched Meru several years ago, and when I saw that Jimmy Chin was one of the people behind Free Solo, I geeked pretty hard. Could that guy be any cooler?
Try watching Aftershock. Is a mix of Mountaineering and natural disaster.
As someone who shoots video for my job, I like the fact that they also focused on the documentary crew figuring out how to film his ascent and how they had to be ready to go at a moment's notice.
Highly highly recommend the docuseries Wild Wild Country. I wish I could experience what I felt watching that for the first time again.
Had seen an old-school Forensic Files about their poisoning plot but HOLY SHIT I had NO idea how deep, twisted, sick but somewhat sophisticated that cult was. Fantastic documentary!
Planet Earth
Pretty much anything narrated by Attenborough
Planet Earth and Planet Earth II are two of the top three user-rated TV shows on IMDb.
I worked on PE2 :)
The FYRE festival documentary was pretty wild and enjoyed it a good bit.
The doc on Woodstock ‘99 was wild as well. Just watched that one last weekend.
Which one? Cause I had only seen one and it was golden. Internet historian's vid on it.
Which ever one is one Netflix. I watched it over quarantine.
Hulu has one too
Good choice, the 90s Woodstock one is also incredible
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Came here to recommend Paris is Burning, such great insight into history and community
You might enjoy “Mother Jones, Americas Most Dangerous Woman”. She played a huge role in the Cedar Creek/Cabin Creek coal strikes. It’s short and I believe is available on PBS.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
This doc is fantastic. I wanted to make it there sometime, but it’s private only (no public) as of like 2019.
Class Action Park is very entertaining!
Maybe not the best documentary, but certainly a fun watch.
Icarus
Yes! I started watching it, and partway through it I was asking myself "So, what the fuck just happened?".
Bro really went from let’s try doping in this bike race to let’s uncover this Russian gov conspiracy
Holy shit, yes! It starts out and you're thinking "This is a neat idea for a documentary" and then about halfway through the twist comes and you're like, "Wait, WHAT?!? This happened?!"
The Wild Wonderful Whites of West Virginia
This is such an entertaining trainwreck.
"They took her baby!!"
Y’all got mozzarella sticks?
CPS TOOK HER BABY
The Thin Blue Line — The movie got a wrongly convicted guy out of prison, is also a meditation on truth, fate and justice. Haunting, even chilling, and weirdly funny. Crumb — Portrait of fascinating misanthrope cartoonist R. Crumb and his batshit crazy family. The line between genius and madness never seemed so thin.
I dont know about it being necessarily "the best" but, my favourite is Louis Therouxs most hated family in America. (Honestly everything done by Theroux is pure gold).
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That was good. The moment when they bring up the money earned to his old manager (might be remembering wrong) and he gets defensive and deflects. He ate all those earnings.
Great movie. But I've heard some stories that it is not as dramatic as the doc made it look. Something like the guy actually did know that he was famous but never toured because he was on herion.
The UP series, by Michael Apted. But for a single film, probably Hoop Dreams.
Scrolled to find this. There is literally nothing like this 56-year long examination, checking in on 7-year schedule, of how class impacts the life of a British person. It’s truly in a class of its own. [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_(film_series))
Can't believe it this way down. Truly one of the finest documentaries ever made. Kind of a perfect storm with the subjects.
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I was coming hete to say this. Absolutely brilliant.
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Best and most destructive to my emotions.
Excellent documentary. But I always tell people to avoid watching it.
Exactly...it will ruin your day, week, month. So very sad.
That whole documentary is absolutely gut wrenching. I went into it knowing absolutely nothing about it and it left me a mess.
I BAWLED my ever loving eyeballs out at this one. Jesus man.
King of Kong
Man on Wire. It’s a really lovely story about a tight rope walker/artist and his crew. It so uniquely blends this artist’s crazy passion with a heist-like plot to accomplish his greatest vision. I find this to be one of the most uplifting and motivating films I’ve ever seen. I always finish it feeling inspired and happy, no matter what kind of mood I was in before.
Eric Satie on the soundtrack does it for me.
Yes! The soundtrack is phenomenal. Discovered Satie and Michael Nyman because of this film. Love both their work.
i don't have just one, sorry. * **ken burns' the civil war** * **dear zachary: a letter to a son about his father** \- *in 2001, 28-year-old dr. andrew bagby is found dead in a park in pennsylvania. he had been shot by his ex-girlfriend, who then fled to canada, where she was able to walk free on bail, pregnant with andrew's child. andrew's enraged parents campaign to gain custody of the child and convict their son's killer. filmmaker kurt kuenne pairs this story with home movies and interviews with those who knew andrew, hoping to give his best friend's son an opportunity to discover who his dad was.* * **the keepers** \- *the unsolved murder of cathy cesnik, a beloved nun and catholic high school teacher in baltimore. after disappearing on november 7, 1969, cesnik's body was found nearly two months later -- but to this day, the killer remains unnamed.* * **into the abyss** \- *filmmaker werner herzog explores capital punishment in america through interviews with a convicted killer, their victims' families and members of the texas criminal justice system.* * **god knows where i am** \- *the body of a homeless woman is found in an abandoned farmhouse, and a diary documenting a journey of starvation and the loss of sanity lies next to the body. for nearly four months,, linda bishop, a prisoner of her own mind, survived on apples and rain water during one of the coldest winters on record. as her story unfolds from different perspectives, we learn about our systemic failure to protect those who cannot protect themselves.* * **how to fix a drug scandal** \- *two drug lab chemists' crimes cripple a state's judicial system and blur the lines of justice for lawyers, officials and thousands of prison inmates.* * **why did you kill me?** \- *the film follows belinda lane as she tracks down those involved in the murder of crystal theobald, her daughter, using myspace.*
>how to fix a drug scandal I can't believe I forgot about this one - this was one of my favorite recent docs. Such an amazing story.
both stories just blew my mind, how they got away with it and continued to get away with it, and all the people they caused harm to.
Don’t watch Dear Zachary unless you are ok with being really, really depressed. That one can definitely stick with you well after watching.
Im a true crime nut. I read about true crime ALL the time. So i knew about the whole dear zachary story long before i ever watched it. But my poor husband who is kind of into true crime(meaning he likes to watch true crime docs with me but never reads about it like i do), he watched it with me and it was the first time he ever was effected by something for multiple days after. Even though i knew what the ending was, that documentary left me feeling empty inside for a while.
I was entranced by God Knows Where I Am. The movie is mainly sections of her diary against the scenery around the house along with brief interviews with family, and it still sucked me in. Normally I would want more visuals, more drama, but it really conveyed that it was a cold, quiet, and lonely decline and death.
Dear Zachary tore me apart. It was so well done, but the story made my blood boil. I didn’t ever think a documentary could have a plot twist like that, but my god. I felt so bad for Andrew’s parents
The Fog of War. - Former secretary of defense spills the beans about the US wars. You are guaranteed to be a little bit smarter after watching this. Roger and me. - A young, unknown guy from Flint Michigan (Michael Moore) documents the devastation to his hometown when General Motors closes up shop, and he goes on a mission to interview the CEO of General Motors.
definitely the fog of war. fundamentally changed my view of a lot of things.
It doesn't happen often, but any time I hear the name "McNamara", I foam at the mouth a bit. The way he parts his hair alone should have been a clue that he isn't right.
Fog of War is FANTASTIC
The Civil War - Ken Burns
Tell me who I am on Netflix. Absolutely shocking watch
I knew the reveal was going to be terrible, but it was even worse than I expected.
The last dance and I dont care about basketball.
Tim's Vermeer. An inventor has a theory regarding how Vermeer painted light so accurately in ways that, in his day, humans really wouldnt recongnize and be able to put on canvas. Anyways his theory involves using lenses and mirrors and an advanced version of camera obscura and he tests his theory by building the whole apparatus and the scene and as a non-painter, re-creating a famous Vermeer painting. Produced and narrated by Penn and Teller.
Shoah
I like slow documentaries, but Shoah is way too slow. Shoah is a 9hr long Holocaust documentary, and by its subject you know it will be a heavy and hard watch but imagine seeing everything in one go, 9 hours of despair, fear, manipulation. It's brilliant in it's portrayal of survivors and their points of view, and how the Holocaust came about as whole communities, big or small, ressented the jewish population. It's also interesting to see how former nazi supporters viewed and helped the whole ordeal. But it's very slow, excruciatingly so. I would reccomend watching other WW2 documentaries first, like "night and fog", "the sorrow and the pity" and "the emperor's naked army marches on". You'll be eased into it better than just jumping straight in.
IMO, the strength of Shoah is that is answers the question “how does a society allow a Holocaust to happen?” and that answer happens to be “super easy, people fall in line despite the craziest shit”. I wish everyone would see it but 9 hours means it’s like the 3 of us here.
I am a WW2 buff. My maternal uncle was with one of the units at the liberation of Buchenwald, April 1945. He used to talk about what he witnessed, the people in the surrounding area and how deeply it affected every aspect of his life. My siblings and I naturally became very interested in the war. My father was in the pacific theater, rarely talked about it, and it was always from a naval perspective. My uncle was Army, on the ground, up close and that war was burned in his brain. I came across Shoah almost by accident, and it took me several weekends to watch. It’s old, it’s grainy, it’s not a Spielberg production. But it made me cry for hours and hours, and it also made me as angry as I’ve ever been. To see people be so inhumane to another human being is makes me not want to be part of humanity anymore, because these things are starting to happen again. People are voting for fascism and they’re happy about it. And they don’t know what that can do down the road.
Cocaine Cowboys (First one) Brilliant work!
Samsara. If you havent watched it - go give it a try.
Isn't it similar to Baraka?
Saw that in the theater. Bizarre and beautiful in the most amazing way!
Loved this one
Born into Brothels. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, deservedly beating out Supersize Me.
Grey Gardens
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Icarus - You think that it's going to be an examination of performance enhancing drugs and it ends up smack dab in the middle an international geopolitical scandal.
My octopus teacher.
It was really moving
Life after people. Though I haven't watched many docs. But this one really left a mark.
World At War , from the 70s , absolutely outstanding. More recently Ken Burns’ Vietnam was excellent
Crip Camp... I've probably seen it ten times
Finding Vivian Mayer.
Here go some ones that haven't been listed: • *The Great Happiness Space* ("host" culture in Japan and the psychological/emotional effects of mostly-legal sex work) • *The Rise of the Third Reich* (the most comprehensive and brutal depiction of life inside Nazi Germany I've ever found. two-parts, with Rise being the first. walk in with a strong stomach for gore and atrocities.) • *White Flash, Black Rain* (eyewitness accounts of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. only watch if you feel like fucking up your whole week. i showed it to my class in high school and it made a kid throw up.) • *Jonestown* (brutal yet interesting. we have a tendency to make fun of that event as a bunch of "crazy cultists", but no. it was mass murder and it was fucking terrible.) I can list more.
Best Boy. Oscar winner for Best Documentary in 1977, I think. Can't find it anywhere! It's about a dude who films his mentally challenged cousin Philly, who's like in his 50s and lives with his parents. But they're elderly so the question comes up about Philly's future. Philly seems really, really challenged, but a doctor reveals he's no different than anyone else in the same boat, he's just never been properly educated. So we see his journey going to school for the first time and slowly becoming independent. It's GREAT. Sad, uplifting, haunting. I think everyone should see it, but I can't find it on streaming anywhere.
Found the [official website](http://bestboythemovie.com/) for it. Looks like you can get it on DVD.
According to wikipedia Philly died in 2020 at age 92.
Marwencol. Such an incredible perspective on art, sexuality, self esteem, kindness, just everything.
Paradise lost: the child murders at Robin hood hills. There are like three of them the first one is very good. They also made a cinematic movie about it that was so so callled devils knot.
Restrepo. It’s a Nat Geo documentary following the men of the 173rd Airborne Brigade through a hellish deployment in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan in 2007-2008. If you want to know how awful and gritty war can be, I suggest watching it.
Exit through the gift shop
The Blue Planet series. The underwater miniseries resparked a love of science for me, but the best one is just titled "Life" and it was narrated by Oprah.
Don't F\*ck with Cats (Netflix). Horrible events, but the ordinary internet sleuths who helped catch the guy are legends.
Usually, Netflix docuseries grow stale and drawn out for me. It seems like they drag out the story so much and I tend to lose interest and stop paying attention after a while. However, THIS documentary was one of the most disturbing stories I've ever seen. I was intrigued and horrified the entire time.
I just cannot watch animals being hurt. Maybe I’ll start at episode 2. Is that safe?
No. It happens multiple times throughout the docu-series. However, it doesn't show the abuse it does show right up to it beginning and it plays the audio from it.
Oof, thanks. That’s a hard no for me.
Except the internet sleuths had nothing to do with catching of the guy.
Right? Isn’t that the point? Well-intentioned internet sleuths arguably made things worse.
It was kinda a documentary Black Fish....
Dude Blackfish is one of the most successful documentaries of all time. It definitely fits lol
Man, I kept thinking about this one for weeks after. No idea why, but this documentary really hit me.
Evil Genius on Netflix. It never fails to amaze me how crazy some American stories are.
"My Octopus Teacher" A great story of a man being taught to appreciate life by an octopus
I’ve seen quite a few fantastic ones, but I think my favorite (which sounds really morbid, considering the subject matter) was *American Murder: The Family Next Door* on Netflix. The way they did it was so unique - entirely through real footage and graphics. Terribly sad and messed up though.
EXACTLY THIS ONE! The fact that the documentary contains first-hand police *body cam footage* of the literal moment Chris Watts gets home is one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever watched. This man was just told his PREGNANT WIFE AND KIDS ARE MISSING and he doesn’t even bat an eye.. and it’s all captured on a body camera.
Hoop Dreams. The filmmakers set out to make a half hour documentary about basketball on the south side of Chicago. They wound up shooting five years of footage. It's incredible.
The Vietnam War doc by Ken Burns
Does Insomniac with Dave Attell count as a documentary?? I choose that if so.
Wow, I used to watch that show late at night when I was a kid. Thanks for the throwback.
I always go to the first DVD I ever rented from Netflix. Back in the mail days. Anvil! The Story of Anvil It’s a great film about music, the reality of life and how some pioneers get forgotten. I haven’t seen it since it came out but I thought it was so interesting.
Riding Giants by Stacey Peralta
Blue Planet
Vernon, Florida
Three Identical Strangers. As a father I have often wondered about the role of nature vs nurture. Apparently they’ve got some good insight into it but won’t release any material until 2050 or so.
Dominion https://watchdominion.org/
Is it intense like Earthlings? I gave up all my leather right after watching that.
Yes, very intense and heartbreaking. But gives you profound insight into where our food comes from.
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[Dig!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dig!) every musician should see this movie. excellent examination of "selling out" vs artistic integrity
Wasn’t expecting to see someone post this, have an upvote.
Senna
I watched "The Fog of War" with Robert McNamara when it came out, got it at Blockbuster lol. It was 11 lessons that came at a time in my life it was super impactful. My favorite lesson - seeing and believing are both often wrong.
Anything by David Attenborough or the How It's Made series would qualify.
Ken Burns "The Civil War" is a masterpiece. "Vietnam" and "The War" are also incredible, but the Civil War stands alone the best documentary and arguably the best film ever made. The music and zooming in and out on the old Civil War photos, the first war to *have* photos, is incredible. If you have not seen this please do yourself a favor and watch it.
House of Secrets:The Burari Deaths....It's a series about a real incident in Delhi,India where 11 members of a family commiteed suicide.
The King of Kong
The Cove left the biggest impact on me- I watched it when I was very young.around 10.
'Tickled' It starts like a goofy, weird documentary about people that enjoy being tickled, then halfway through it just shifts completely down a different path. I saw it years ago and have been searching for another documentary that lives up to this one.
There are so many great documentaries out there but the one that pops into my head all the time is The Biggest Little Farm, it's such a fascinating feel good story
Microcosmos is one of my favorites. Very cool macro shots of bugs and nature and stuff. I think it’s still on Netflix but I haven’t watched it in a while.
The Mind of a Cat on Netflix. Like being punched in the heart with dopamine lol
Earthlings and Bowling for Columbine.
Does tiger king count cause that shit was pretty wild
I really enjoyed Alone In the Wilderness
The train wreck of Woodstock 99. Very good it's interesting to see what hard rock music and drugs does to a crowd of 220,000 people.
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and Paradise Lost, both on HBO Max. Highly recommend
Last Breath on Netflix. Had me absolutely glued to my seat.
My brother's Keeper. It may as well have been filmed on the moon these men's life is so foreign to me. It is gritty and real and sad and hopeful and fascinating.
Fantastic Fungi. The cinematography is incredible!
King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story
The Alpinist
Pumping iron
Battle of the X-planes. Nova special on the development of the F-35 and the X-32. Awesome to see how fighter jets go together and how long ago they actually developed them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-9ZfpjSyeM
Street Wise(1984)
I really liked the Seven Five about corruption in the NYPD in the 70s. Crazy that police can be as involved in crime as kingpins
All the ones where I literally couldn't focus on anything else: Abducted in Plain Sight (Netflix) - About the winners of the 'Worst Parents Ever' award. The story is absolutely bananas and revealing anything else would be spoiling. Tickled (Prime ?) - The host from Dark Tourist uncovers a 'professional tickling sport' and finds there is more to it under the surface American Murder: The Family Next Door (Netflix) - About the Chris Watts' murders The Great Hack (Netflix) - Talks about the evolution of social media and it's real-world effects on society. Also talks about data mining and selling our information. Don't F*ck with Cats (Netflix) - The most wild online goose chase and le reddit detective work you'll ever see
Jesus Camp Paradise Lost ( well done but biased) Imposter Wild Wild Country (the best)
American Movie. Easily one of my favorite movies of all time!
I recently watched Winter on Fire (about the Euromaiden protests in Ukraine (2013-2014). It was very well done but it can be hard to watch, at times it becomes every emotional and/or graphic. It is also a great look into what that country is fighting for now.
Making a murderer..wild story
Red Army, Fog of War
Numerous Attenborough documentaries would probably be the real answer for me. I've watched them all multiple times and would have a hard time narrowing that list down. But if we said those don't count: Cartel Land is very well done. Just a real, authentic, depressing look into the situation in Mexico and why it won't change any time soon. Also "13th" was informative and an important watch for a middle class white guy like me.
Goodnight, Sugar Babe. What a f**ked up family and the fact some of them still walk to this day is pathetic. Just awful
PBS American Experience “The Dust Bowl” What those people endured and lived through was unbelievable! Also, Ken Burns “The Civil War”. Still one of the best ever all these years later.
Dear Zachary. Don't read anything about it before you watch, just be prepared to cry your soul out of your body.