Best Documentaries

[SaintMort]

What are some of the best documentaries you've ever seen?

For me there's 3 that I really loved:

1) American Hardcore

2) This Film is not Yet Rated

3) Bowling for Columbine

what are some other ones that you liked alot

[Raffine]

Three favorites that immediately come to mind:
American Movie
Grey Gardens
My Best Fiend

OK - Three more:
The Thin Blue Line
Marlene
Super-Size Me

AND:
Gates of Heaven
The Atomic Cafe
Burden of Dreams

And some classics!:
Man of Aran
I am Cuba
Nanook of the North

And ALL of the 70's Sunn Classic Pictures "In Search of..." documentaries involving Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, Chariots of the Gods, Noah's Ark, Historic Jesus, The Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, etc.


               They found it, too!

[The Burgomaster]

These are some of my favorites:

1.  WOODSTOCK

2.  THE ATOMIC CAFE

3.  PUMPING IRON

4.  SCARED STRAIGHT

5.  SUPER SIZE ME

[BeyondTheGrave]

American Hardcore
All three Decline of Western Civilization
Punk Attitude
Metal:A Headbangers Journey

[RCMerchant]

UFO's are REAL (vol.1+2-narrated by Stanton Friedman)
MANSON (1972) d. Lawerence Merrick. not what you might expect
The Fall of Western Civiliztion Pt.1 ( the section on the GERMS and Fear are really amazing!)
Lugosi,the Forgotten King-Hosted by Forrest J. Ackerman
the WORLD at WAR Series from the 70's..usta be on PBS all the time back in the 70's and 80's
GIMME SHELTER-the disasterous concert at Altamont.
Aileen Wournos:Life and Death of a Serial Killer(2002) sad and scary.

[BeyondTheGrave]

GIMME SHELTER is a good one.

[soylentgreen]

- (a second mention here for  ) MY BEST FIEND...definately up there.  I consider it pretty much a bookend with BURDEN OF DREAMS(about FITCARRALDO) and sort of shares the spot with HEARTS OF DARKNESS.
- American Experience's THE DONNER PARTY.
- VISIONS OF LIGHT, the cinematography doc

...and on the long side...
- Burns' THE CIVIL WAR and the six hour LIBERTY!
- the 13 parter WAR AND PEACE IN THE NUCLEAR AGE...the Taj Majal to the m.a.d.ness of the Cold War.

[dean]

I tend to be more of a fan of movie-making docos, so Hearts of Darkness and Lost in La Mancha are two good ones for me.  I also agree that Visions of Light is also a very interesting look at cinematography.

As for recent documentaries, one of the guys at work said he saw "Bra Boys" the other night, an Australian documentary about the infamous Sydney Gang/Surfing group.  It's about a few guys who grew up in a broken home in a bad neighbourhood and how they started a group which was firmly rooted in surfing, whilst some still getting into mischeif/drugs etc.

Seems like a good one, and has gone pretty well in the Box Office here the last couple of weeks.

[Neville]

I'll add this three:

- ENRON. The Smartest Guys in the Room (a documentary on the rise and fall of ENRON)

- Cocaine Cowboys (2006), the story of marijuana and cocaine traffic in Miami during the 70s and 80s. Many criminals that survived that era provide testmonies.

- Expedition: Bismarck (2002). Co-directed by James Cameron, it accounts the last days of the nazi battleship with the halp of survivors and provides amazing underwater footage of its present day condition.

[Mr. DS]

Most recently I liked Supersize Me.  Funny yet thought provoking stuff about fast food, particularly MCDonalds.

[Him]

Michael Moore's stuff is generally the best

Fahrenheit 911
Bowling for Columbine
Roger and Me

[Yaddo 42]

The Fog of War
My Best Fiend
Grizzly Man
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

I can remember The World at War airing on Sunday nights on TBS in the 80s, I'm tempted to buy it. Makes me curious what Ken Burns' The War will be like. I liked The Civil War and Baseball (and I hate the actual sport, so the doc gets extra points for getting me to watch) but I hated his series on jazz music and was underwhelmed by his two parter on Mark Twain. It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about the man or his writing and I'm a journeyman at best when it comes to the life of Twain/Clemens.

[Neville]

How could I forget "Grizzly Man"! That must be the best documentary EVER.

[kumanthong80]

american hollow-children undergroung-high on crack street-dark days

[ulthar]

A few that I've rated 5 stars recently on Netflix:

HELEN OF TROY - Bettany Hughes gives tremendous detail about life in the bronze age

THE TRUE STORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT - re-enactments with (English Translation) reads from major source material

THE REAL OLYMPICS - analysis, discussion and re-enactments of the Olympics in Ancient Greece, as well as the evolution of our modern games.

AMAZING JOURNEYS IMAX - major movement in the animal kingdom

HOW THE EARTH WAS MADE - by far, hands down, the best documentary on the history of the earth I've ever seen, and they lay to rest a whole bunch of BS that is popularly "known" in contemporary "science" but not supported by either fact or logical analysis.

THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK - glimpse into the Darfur genocide and the US government's (non) response to it.

- Expedition: Bismarck (2002). Co-directed by James Cameron, it accounts the last days of the nazi battleship with the halp of survivors and provides amazing underwater footage of its present day condition.

I have not seen that particular one, but other Cameron "documentaries" I have seen are laughably stupid and incredibly pretentious.  He's not as smart as he thinks he is, and some of us "science types" that watch his drivel get a good laugh.

Bob Ballard's under sea exploration/discovery stuff is orders of magnitude better, in my opinion.