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The Greatest Documentaries Of All Time

Started by ThickAndCreamy, July 05, 2009, 10:05:25 PM

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Sony Walkman Prophecies

Anything by Nick Broomfield and Adam Curtis is generally very good.

Broomfield sort of pioneered that whole 'leaving the tape-jams and hovering booms in the final edit' style of docmentary film making. He's also one of the most identifiably *English* filmmakers currently operating imo - he bumbles around, wonders into rooms at the wrong moment, while all the time projecting the deceptive ideal of a man who doesnt have a clue what's he's doing. It goes without saying he works best on Americans.

Adam Curtis by comparison is a mad scientist. He locks himself away with 80 years of pedestrian archive footage of charladies and men playing golf and remixes it into a syd barrett heroin nightmare about devil worship and inter-generational incest in the seychelles.
He's also very English (like Broomfield) but in a different way, he's the other kind of englishman - the well-spoken terrorist in a suit who could pass as the lord of the manor. He's the guy you want pointing the lens at big business and government contractors. Whereas with Broomfield you wouldnt really want to trust him with much more than flaky celebs and people at the edge of society. A market which Theroux seems to have almost entirely monopolised at this point.

Santa's Boyfriend

Quote from: Sony Walkman Prophecies on July 06, 2009, 09:32:47 PM
Anything by Nick Broomfield and Adam Curtis is generally very good.

Kurt and Courtney was one of the worst documentaries I've ever seen.  Inept, sleazy and utterly pointless.  Adam Curtis is very good, but I'm not sure I'd call his work documentary film-making.  His stuff is more like an essay on film.

Just my opinion!

Nik Drou

Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine.

It probably wouldn't qualify as one of the greatest documentaries ever, but it's certainly very interesting. 

It's about the 1997 chess match between Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue, particularly from Kasparov's perspective as bitterness and suspicion begin to set in, and how an ostensibly friendly contest descended into acrimony. The film doesn't so much directly accuse IBM of shenanigans, or Kasparov of baseless paranoia, but does shed light on the level of 'mind games' that were at play, acting as a broad commentary (in my interpretation, at least) on how conspiracy theories thrive in a vacuum of information and where the burden of proof should lie.

The Masked Unit

Quote from: Starlit on July 06, 2009, 04:33:07 PM
I can't remember the title (it may have been something like "Meet The .......s"), but there was a fly on the wall series about Coventry's third largest double glazing company. It was run by a husband and wife team who seemed to believe that they were the greatest business people ever to have lived.
It was on the BBC a couple of years ago.
Not particularly educational, but riveting and hilarious.

Yes!! Did this come out pre or post The Office, because the bloke was pure Brent. Would love to see it again, and there was was a follow up where they tried to break into the French market without speaking one word of French and not having a fucking clue what they were doing.

JPA

I'm almost certain it came after The Office.

lipsink

I like Broomfield's documentaries even though theyre really about him and the actual trouble making the documentaries. It's great watching him have that fight with horrible woman who 'adopted' Aileen Wuornos. And yeah, the way he plays dumb is brilliant.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: JPA on July 07, 2009, 12:38:24 PM
I'm almost certain it came after The Office.

It did. It was called The Armstrongs, and because of the recent success of The Office, many people (myself included) strongly suspected that it must be a piss-take. But it wasn't, it was real. Very funny too, in a laughing-at-deluded-weirdos sort of way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Armstrongs

Although they were real people, running a real company, I wonder how much of it was contrived? That Wikipedia article suggests that the couple were cajoled by the production team (which I'm willing to accept), although that may just be sour grapes after relising that the programme made them look like really, really foolish people.   

EDIT: Hah, reading that page has brought it all flooding back. I'd forgotten all about the Zimbabwean motivational coach, Basil Miene! http://www.basil-mienie.com/

Ignatius_S

Ahem...
Quote from: Ignatius_S on July 06, 2009, 04:46:05 PM
....The Armstrongs. When they did the first episode, they weren't married but had been together for years – quite a few people doubted the subsequent series was real, and it was certainly rather knowing.

The first one (Office Party) was more car crash TV than the subsequent series - and the pair of them (esp. the woman) came across as nasty pieces of work.

The company had a press release about the Office Party broadcast, which crammed in lots of mentiones of The Office and David Brent.

Sony Walkman Prophecies

80 blocks from tiffany's

This isnt exactly a great documentary, but its a really cool snapshot of life in the Bronx in the 70s. This was a couple of years before hiphop kicked off so everyone sort of looks like theyre stuck in cultural limbo - waiting for kool herc and fab freddy to show up so they can finally take off their ridiculous luftwaffe helmets and studded waist-coats and get down to some proper music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFeqKAIHAYw&feature=related

ThickAndCreamy

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'

The greatest in depth documentary I have ever seen on the actual holocaust (not the build up to it). The BBC really make incredibly documentaries, and shows like this to me give great reason to make it publically funded. It's incredibly in depth, fascinating and has numerous interviews with many prominent Jews (including escapees).

It's just incredible really, the re-enacted dramatisation of events aren't fictional. Every sentence spoken was originally uttered during the 1940's, and the level of intricate details are truly astounding. It will reduce you to tears and leave you feeling almost indescribably depressed at points I must warn, but that's just the telltale sign of it being so brilliant.

The amount of knowledge gained from it is also quite insightful, and it's very depressing to see the UK and US's indifference towards Jews, and how they helped to prolong and worsen the actual holocaust at points. It's good to see a documentary that realises it wasn't simply Germany that was anti-semitic, virtually the entirety of the civilised western world was.

Jemble Fred

Here's an interesting thought – A) Why was every single documentary created under the 'Arena' name so damn good? And B) Why was the series cancelled?

I particularly liked the Arena docs on the Beano and the Dandy – oh, and Just A Minute. They were artfully directed in a manner that you very rarely see in TV documentaries these days.

El Unicornio, mang

Yeah they were always good, one of my favourite show intros too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzlvt3_0TRM

Ditto Panorama

Jemble Fred

Arena docs always just seemed to so effortlessly take the viewer on a journey, and surprise you at every turn. They were more like Bagpuss dreams than typical TV documentaries, and it seemed to be in the series' remit to present everything in the most unexpected, often humorous way. That neon boat always presages quality, to me.

El Unicornio, mang

I'm always slightly disappointed when I watch the DVD version of the Kubrick Shining documentary (as opposed to the one I taped off telly years ago) as it doesn't have the Arena intro. Seems like a trivial thing but those twenty seconds of that image and that Brian Eno music really sets up the atmosphere nicely.

uesugi_proagon

'The Hamster Factor', 'Dig!', 'Capturing The Friedmans', 'Will The Real Peter Sellers Please Stand Up', 'King Of Kong', 'Anvil', 'Religulous', 'Lost In La Mancha', 'The Beatles Anthology - Director's Cut', 'American Movie', 'The Fearless Freaks'.

'The Two Coreys' would be on this list if they'd used Feldman's 'Honesty' for the soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cylUp7cRU7s.

Famous Mortimer

I'll give Jandek On Corwood some props. I don't think you need to be a fan of the man's music to appreciate his tale, and the people they choose to interview are great, I think.

Completely agree with lipsink, too. Broomfield's documentaries are great, especially the Aileen Wuornos one. He does a great balancing job between telling a story and telling the story of telling the story, if that makes sense. I'm not sure about the Kurt and Courtney / Tupac and Biggie ones, I think he was getting a bit too full of himself for a little while there, but he's made so many great ones I can't really complain.

Any recommendations on other Herzog documentaries? I have a box set and will one day sit down with a fine cigar and watch "Fata Morgana".

Sony Walkman Prophecies

Quote from: Jemble Fred on July 07, 2009, 04:19:13 PM
Here's an interesting thought – A) Why was every single documentary created under the 'Arena' name so damn good? And B) Why was the series cancelled?

I particularly liked the Arena docs on the Beano and the Dandy – oh, and Just A Minute. They were artfully directed in a manner that you very rarely see in TV documentaries these days.

Good point. I watched the Arena documentary on Kurt Vonnegut the other day; it was incredible, early 80s so it was all filmed on 16mm. They even got some fairly well known actors to re-enact scenes from his books around New York, real labour of love.
British documentaries definitely arent what they used to be. I dont think we can safely say that we make the 'best in the world' anymore. the decent stuff we do still make seems to be largely made by indepedents now.

Don_Preston

Is Cracked Actor, the documentary on the Diamond Dogs era Bowie while he was coked up in America, part of the Arena series? That's a fascinating glimpse into stardom, never the less.

ThickAndCreamy

Quote from: Sony Walkman Prophecies on July 07, 2009, 08:00:05 PM
British documentaries definitely arent what they used to be. I dont think we can safely say that we make the 'best in the world' anymore. the decent stuff we do still make seems to be largely made by indepedents now.
It's nice to see someone forgetting the BBC has produced an incredible array of documentaries in the last 9 years. BBC Four alone shows such a mass of new wonderful documentaries.

The BBC still does make truly incredible documentaries, they just get overlooked.

Sony Walkman Prophecies

There's still some good ones (the Dangerous Knowledge mini-series being a recent standout for me) but there's ALOT of crap about these days. I think this is probably due to the sheer number of documentaries being pumped out right now; you can turn on the tv and see a documentary any day of the week at this point. But you'll forget most of them forever within a couple of hours.

ThickAndCreamy

With more channels there is inevitably going to be more crap television, it doesn't make it a justification for how documentaries have gotten worse though. The BBC's creation of BBC4 has led to a huge amount of decent, low budget documentaries being made. BBC2 also still has a large array of great documentaries on history, science, nature, travel etc.

For any other channels though, I cannot argue they are awful. ITV just don't bother making real documentaries 99% of the time it seems, they just create a challenge or something very wacky.

Tokyo Sexwhale

This "Beatles Anthology- Director's Cut" is presumably the boxset version, yes?  If so, it's essential for anyone who doesn't hate The Beatles.

I also enjoyed Simon Schama's "A History of Britain" which did an excellent job of telling the broad story of these islands "kings, bishops and wars", but fleshing it out with social history.

The very recent "South Pacific" was beautiful to look at, and explored how these isolated patches of earth manage to support life.  Given rising sea levels, it's probably a sight that will be gone in a hundred years or so.


Santa's Boyfriend

For anyone interested in WW2, I'd strongly recommend Nazis - A Warning From History, as it clearly and concisely explains exactly how Germany descended into fascism, and by doing so makes it clear that it could conceivably happen anywhere.  A brilliant insight into exactly what Hitler's Germany was, both on the surface and underneath.

Serge

Quote from: Don_Preston on July 07, 2009, 08:06:17 PM
Is Cracked Actor, the documentary on the Diamond Dogs era Bowie while he was coked up in America, part of the Arena series? That's a fascinating glimpse into stardom, never the less.

Can't believe that's not had a DVD release yet. There's a pretty good DVD documentary about the making of the Berlin Trilogy, with pretty much zero contribution from Bowie or indeed anyone involved in the making of it, but still for all that, worth checking out.

I remember the Arena documentary about the Stones from the late '80s, '25x5', which was pretty good too.


the midnight watch baboon

The recent BBC South Pacific docu was good, some amazing shots, including; the first Hi-Def super-slo-mo inside a huge wave; a group of SCUBA tourists witnessing their guide handfeeding a 5 metre tiger shark, and some modern tribesmen assembling and jumping off a home-made bungee station, using vine as the rope.

There was an interesting show about that US savings swindler guy, Bill Madhof? on BBC last Sunday too.

thank you for enduring my 2nd rate punctuation

Neville Chamberlain

Quote from: biggytitbo on July 06, 2009, 06:09:35 PM
Blind Watchmaker
If you're into Dawkins this is the one to get, before he disappeared up his own arse.

A great documentary indeed! But when did he disappear up his own arse?!?

As for documentaries, Planet Earth, the late great Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Man on Wire and One Day In September (all of which have been mentioned here already, I think!) are the best documentaries I've seen.

Also, on a musical note, We Jam Econo, which tells the story of the Minutemen with the very affable Mike Watt is also superb by any standards and not just because The Minutemen are one of the best bands to have ever walked this earth. The Can DVD was good too, as was The Day The Country Died.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Neville Chamberlain on July 08, 2009, 09:32:32 AM
A great documentary indeed! But when did he disappear up his own arse?!?
That means "when he started saying things I disagree with".

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Serge on July 08, 2009, 12:21:11 AM
I remember the Arena documentary about the Stones from the late '80s, '25x5', which was pretty good too.

That's superb. I've got it on VHS somewhere. Again, no DVD release for some reason. One that is available on DVD, though, is Arena's superb feature-length Peter Sellers doc compiled entirely from his own home movies. That's a perfect example of an Arena doc which has a pacing and atmosphere all of its own. It just feels different to your average biographical documentary (being almost entirely made up of flickering home movie footage obviously helps), and has a really immersive, compelling, melancholy quality.   

PaulTMA

Quote from: Serge on July 08, 2009, 12:21:11 AM
Can't believe that's not had a DVD release yet. There's a pretty good DVD documentary about the making of the Berlin Trilogy, with pretty much zero contribution from Bowie or indeed anyone involved in the making of it, but still for all that, worth checking out.

What's the title of this - is this is the one made by the same people who produced the lengthy 'Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution' DVD?