Documentaries on films what are some good ones

[Jack Slater]

I've watched some good doc on films such as John Carpenter's The Thing, The Making of The Shining and Plan 9 From Outer Space(a whole film was devoted to it) etc. What I was wondering was what are some of your favorities maybe even some of the shorter docs on DVD that may only have a running time of 15 mins. Thanks.

[Vik]

American Grindhouse is an awesome film documentary. And there's a great one about the Social Network on the double disc DVD version.

[Hammock Rider]

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse.   It's about the making of Apocalypse Now, filmed during the actual making of the movie. Wow. It's a miracle Apocalypse Now was ever made. It was over budget, over the time line, Martin Sheen had a heart attack while filming and the Filipino Army, which lent it's soldiers and equipment to the production, was called off set often to fight in a war! In my opinion thie story of making the movie is even better than the movie itself.

[Jack Slater]

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse.   It's about the making of Apocalypse Now, filmed during the actual making of the movie. Wow. It's a miracle Apocalypse Now was ever made. It was over budget, over the time line, Martin Sheen had a heart attack while filming and the Filipino Army, which lent it's soldiers and equipment to the production, was called off set often to fight in a war! In my opinion thie story of making the movie is even better than the movie itself.

OOooo that was a great making of doc. One part I remember very well is when Coppola is sitting on a raft or something and he's talking to the camera quite honestly, candid and straight faced and say:

"too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane. This movie I'm making is not in the tradition of the great Max Ophoels or David Lean even, This movie was made in the tradition of Irwin Allen."

It automatically made me think of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure in a world turned upside down. The end result was quite frankly nothing of the sort. Apocalypse Now is a tremendous film. I think he was simply exhausted. Dealing with things at that point he never even considered or had crossed his mind.

American Grindhouse I'll have to check that out, thanks.

[The Burgomaster]

One of my favorites is a 2-hour documentary that came with the PLANET OF THE APES DVD boxed set.  It covers all 5 movies in the original series.

Over the weekend, I dug out my DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY DVD.  There's a pretty good "making of" feature on the disc that includes interviews from a few years ago with Susan George, Peter Fonda, and director John Hough.  Susan George said her agent told her not to take a percentage of the movie . . . she should just negotiate a salary and "take the money and run."  Fonda took a percentage (and the movie ended up grossing $30 million).  Susan George said Fonda probably made enough money so that he would never need to work again.  Fonda also said he did "very well."

[voltron]

This isn't a documentary film, but here in Canada there is a show called On Screen which has done really nice "mini docs" on Black Christmas and Cronenberg's Shivers which are always a good watch.

[Nightowl]

Never Sleep Again:The Elm Street Legacy. With over 4 hours of material, I cant think of doc that comes any closer to covering everything about the NOES franchise. If your a fan of NOES, it dont get any better than this 

Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film. Good doc about the history of the slasher genre

[Mr. DS]

Best Worst Movie - all about Troll 2 made by the people who starred in it.

[dean]

Two recent documentaries produced here are well worth a look:

Not quite Hollywood and machete maidens.

I posted a thread about both if you do a forum search but basically NQH is about b-movies made in Australia in the 70s and 80s. Films like mad max etc, back in the day where safety standards didn't exist. It's a lot of fun to watch and has some great interviews and stories from the making of many different films.

The 'sequel' machete maidens focuses on films made in south east Asia around the same time, with a similar style and focus. Films like 'for your height only' and other exploitation films made in those countries and has interviews with people like pam Grier, Roger corman and others.

Both highly entertaining and very much recommended.

[bob]

The Plan 9 documentry was interesting and unexpected when I purchased the Ed Wood classic

[HappyGilmore]

Halloween: The Inside Story and 25 Years of Terror are decent documentaries about Halloween.

His Name Was Jason is a decent two-disc set about the Friday the 13th series.

Snowball Effect- a documentary included in the 3-Disc Clerks tenth anniversary.  A decent doc recounting the inception, filming and distribution of Clerks.

[Jack Slater]

Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film. Good doc about the history of the slasher genre

Well produced yet a little disjointed documentary on slasher films. Would have love for them to go more in depth and detail into the begins of the genre and how it was formed. Psycho is represent no doubt but not much if anything espically on the Italy Horror films such as Bay of Blood in particular and directors Dario Agrento and Mario Bava. True all do get a nod but not much of anything else. Black Christmas sees a few images which I thought wasn't right should have been represented more so IMO. I loved the J.Lee Thompson part where the producer tells the story that Thomspon wanted more blood, I thought that was hilarious. Also the Brief part about Silence of the Lambs somewhat reviving the genre and people not wanting to recognize it as a horror film. I thought was very well said.

This isn't a documentary film, but here in Canada there is a show called On Screen which has done really nice "mini docs" on Black Christmas and Cronenberg's Shivers which are always a good watch.

I was able to catch the Shivers doc it very good little documenmtary. I couldn't find Black Christmas doc unfortunately. I would like to have.

Thanks for the recommendations.

[AndyC]

Just watched Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film. Pretty good movie. It goes from early black and white films to the present day, looking at the various trends and putting them in historical context. Lance Henriksen narrates, and it is full of movie clips and interviews with people like Roger Corman, George Romero, Joe Dante, John Carpenter, etc. To its credit, the film delves pretty deeply into the genre, highlighting not just the obvious examples, but also some more obscure films, and looking at them from the perspective of the horror directors and film historians interviewed. Some interesting insights.

[Nightowl]

Two recent documentaries produced here are well worth a look:

Not quite Hollywood and machete maidens.

I posted a thread about both if you do a forum search but basically NQH is about b-movies made in Australia in the 70s and 80s. Films like mad max etc, back in the day where safety standards didn't exist. It's a lot of fun to watch and has some great interviews and stories from the making of many different films.

The 'sequel' machete maidens focuses on films made in south east Asia around the same time, with a similar style and focus. Films like 'for your height only' and other exploitation films made in those countries and has interviews with people like pam Grier, Roger corman and others.

Both highly entertaining and very much recommended.

Not Quite Hollywood is really good. I've seen maybe a handful of Ozploitation films, so i'm pretty new to the genre and this doc takes you through the history of it. Good watch.

Baadasssss Cinema - A Bold Look at 70's Blaxploitation -A documentary on the history of blaxploitation movies. If your new to the genre, it's definitely worth a look.

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession-This isn't about a movie but rather a movie channel so, thought I'd recommend it anyway.

A Decade Under the Influence-Good documentary about 1970's film making

[crackers]

Midnight Movies is really good.