Good Documentaries
I recently saw and I can't believe I haven't seen it yet was one film called Africa Addio (1966) About the strife in Colonial Africa during 1960's. Really visceral and horrific (Animals and People a slaughtered on camera, and a lot of dead bodies) but also beautiful at other times, Africa is a gorgeous continent. The balls on these Italian film makers had that made it, I don't think you could see something like that made again. Great Great stuff, and it's on youtube.
I'm a big fan of music documentaries too. A few recent ones I saw that were good were Pump Up The Volume: A History of House Music (2001), Tom Petty and Heartbreakers one is Runnin Down a Dream (2007) and ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas (2019)
Any good ones one you've guys seen that would put on your must watch list?
Comments
last commentThe Tom Petty one was good but was way too long. I watched about 90 minutes and there was still hours to go.
First couple episodes of Berlin 1945 on Netflix were really good.
I watched lesbian porn last night. Does that count ?
If you like documentaries, I recommend a streaming service called Wondrium ( formerly Great Courses Plus ). Most recently, I’ve seen multi part series on the history of Egypt, Gnosticism, and a tour of Greece.
Anything Ken Burns did for PBS: Baseball, Vietnam War, Hemingway, etc. - there are so many and they're all excellent.
Operation Odessa: not sure where it's streaming now, but if you can find it, watch it. It's a fascinating story about Florida strip clubs, cocaine, a guy called Tarzan, Pablo Escobar, and going to Russia to buy old Soviet military helicopters and submarines for the cartels.
youtu.be
The Russian Five: again not entirely sure where it's streaming right now, but they play it sometimes on NBC Sports and NHL Network. It's about how the Red Wings got the Russian players to defect (hint: lots of money to players, bribing doctors, etc.), finally got them all together to play on one line, and the road to the Stanley Cup. It was super interesting.
youtu.be
And then of course there are always the two HBO Docudramas: Band of Brothers and Chernobyl, the two best things HBO has ever done.
Manufacturing Consent (1992)
The documentary presents and illustrates the propaganda model thesis that corporate media, as profit-driven institutions, tend to serve and further the agendas and interests of dominant, elite groups in society
Canadian filmmakers Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick expand the analysis of political economy and mass media presented in The book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media a 1988 book Noam Chomsky wrote with Edward S. Herman.
Addio africa is a sensationalist racist look at the anti Colonial struggle. It praises apartheid in South Africa while portraying the rest of the continent as chaos due to a lack of white rule.
I like Michael Moore documentaries. Space documentaries
Having been there, I thought "Restrepo" by Sebastian Junger was pretty accurate on the war in Afghanistan
Band of Brothers for sure and in the same vein, the Ted Turner "Gettysburg" production. Just an amazing piece of work. Looking forward to Ken Burns "Ali" as well.
Icarus is a really good one about biking and drugs which takes a dramatic turn.
Watch the documentary on the band RUSH. It was good and I’ve watched it several times, although I am not a psychotic fan like most Rush fans are.
Cocaine Cowboys - about guys running coke in Miami in the early 80s.
“about guys running coke in Miami in the early 80’s”
Which is a nice segue to one if the best sports documentaries ever
ESPN 30 for 30 “”The U” about the rise of the University of Miami football program.
It’s as much sociology as sports. Sports. Crime. Drugs. Race.
I don't think I'd count Band of Brothers as a documentary. That was more an adaptation of a collective memoir (i.e. based on a true story).
American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980–1986
Great doc on the bands and scenes of that era.
The Frank Zapa doc on Hulu was really good too. Can't say i knew a ton of his music but he was an interesting guy.