Review Your Fave/Recent Documentaries

[Babe Ruth]

Lost Fleet of Columbus. (National Geographic. 50 minutes)

Watched this one recently.. Focuses on Columbus' second trip to the New World. The effort to retrieve his ships lost to a hurricane. Some scenes from the (attempted) shipwreck retrieval, combined with historical context & other forensic archeology. Brief, corny recreations (including a CGI fleet of European ships)..
Includes speculation on the diseases/illness that caused rapid demise of the colonists (based on analysis of bone fragments).

Interesting subject matter, but not much to the documentary. Still worth the ride to the library tho -

 

[Jack Straw]

Bobby Fischer Against the World

Even if you’re not into chess, or weren’t around when his championship match against Boris Spassky was as big as Ali vs Frazier, this is an incredibly absorbing film about a genius who eventually succombed to mental illness. Interviews with Fischer himself, people who knew him, from Garry Kasparov to Henry Kissinger. I literally can’t watch this often enough.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Wild Way of the Vikings (PBS Nature). 53 minutes.

Documentary on the Vikings & their relationship w/their natural environment. Viking' hunting and fishing habits, the role that regional animals played in Viking mythology/belief. Lots of nature photography & brief reenactment/recreations. Cool visuals of North Atlantic.. Narrated by (young) Ben Kenobi (McGregor).

I watched it on PBS' website today; pretty good.

 

[kook10]

The Two Killings Of Sam Cooke - Netflix

Re-examines the career and killing of R&B pioneer Sam Cooke. Unfortunately, it really is loose with the conspiracies and innuendo and light on music. It is a shame - I was looking forward to it as I worked at Allen Klein's (who they make a bunch of allegations about) company in college.

 

[John Price]

Lot of good recommendations here, as someone who likes documenatires I'll have to check them out.

Few good ones on Amazon Prime right now including this one on the KC Barbecue "American royal" competition. Pretty good so far and is about an hour long. Goes into how people prepare for the competition as well as the judging for the competition.

Amazon.com: Watch Smoke And Ribbons: A DocQmentary | Prime Video

 

[alko]

No space documentaries movies?

I dont know, if it counts, some years ago i saw Evacuate Earth.

What could be docu.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Mentioned this in the recent movie thread the other day, but I watched Momentum Generation on HBO and absolutely loved it. It's about Kelly Slater and the group of surfers that essentially grew up together on the North Shore of Hawaii. Beyond Slater it's got a deep bench of interesting people who all have their varied paths and relationships. In addition to some stellar cinematography (it's predominately a surfing movie after all), it's a rich portrait of male friendships -- the childish and petty things that cause riffs and process of growing up and realizing where true value lies. That might sound cheesy, but it isn't. I thought it was entertaining and moving. Among the best docs I've seen in a while.

Directed by the Zimbalist brothers who also did The Two Escobars from ESPN's 30 for 30.

 

[kook10]

Soldiers In Hiding - 80s doc about Vietnam vets who couldn't adjust back to society so lived out alone in the woods or mountains.

 

[Desdichado93]

Fav:
Most of David Attenborough's nature documentaries 10/10. No comment needed.

Alice Robert's "Origins of us" and "the incredible human journey" 8,5/10

Alice is a very charismatic presenter and this is two documentary series about the human evolution, very interesting and very informative.
Some might mistake Alice for being just a pretty face but she is very knowledgeable and she has achieved
BSc MB, BCh, a PhD..... not really the ordinary merits of a tv presenter.

Time Team 9/10 (except the last few season without Prof. Mick Aston 7,5/10). One of the greatest fact tv series ever. Just love it.
It presents history of Britain and archaeology in a very available way. A must see.
One of my favourite episodes is when they found lots of intact Roman mosaic in a field.

Latest: Billy Connolly's Tracks across america. 7,5/10
A really nice 3 part documentary where Billy travels by train across the USA. He makes stops and some places and
"mingle" with the locals, talking about the village's/town's/city's history/culture.

 

[Habsfunk]

The Dawn Wall - 9/10
It's been overshadowed by Free Solo, the other landmark climbing documentary that was released last year, but The Dawn Wall is a great documentary. It tells the story of Tommy Caldwell, his rise as a climber, and his multi-year obsession with climbing the Dawn Wall - the last unclimbed big face in Yosemite. The footage of the climb itself is gripping (pun intended) and really captures just how incredibly challenging this feat was to pull off, and the filmmakers also do a great job of telling the story behind it.. The only reason I deducted a point is because I would have liked to have seen a little bit of footage on the logistics of the climb and the support team that Tommy and Kevin Jorgeson live on the wall for 19 days. It's supposed to go up on Netflix in a few days so you'll be able to watch it soon.

 

[chicagoskycam]

Mentioned this in the recent movie thread the other day, but I watched Momentum Generation on HBO and absolutely loved it. It's about Kelly Slater and the group of surfers that essentially grew up together on the North Shore of Hawaii. Beyond Slater it's got a deep bench of interesting people who all have their varied paths and relationships. In addition to some stellar cinematography (it's predominately a surfing movie after all), it's a rich portrait of male friendships -- the childish and petty things that cause riffs and process of growing up and realizing where true value lies. That might sound cheesy, but it isn't. I thought it was entertaining and moving. Among the best docs I've seen in a while.

Directed by the Zimbalist brothers who also did The Two Escobars from ESPN's 30 for 30.

Watched this, fairly interesting.

 

[Babe Ruth]

The Real Garden of Eden (51 minute episode from Bible's Buried Secrets docu-series).

I'm interested in different interpretations of the creation account(s) in Genesis.
In this episode a Biblical professor (or maybe archeologist, can't remember) explains her theory on the Garden of Eden as a historical (not mystical) location.. that's physical features were morphed/mythologized in Genesis.
I don't subscribe to her theory, but thought it was worth a fair hearing. Decent documentary.. Series is currently on Netflix.

 

[Babe Ruth]

The Last Resort (2018)

Documentary that kind of cobbles together two elements of a Miami story. First part of the documentary focuses on the history of Miami as a developing city.. and how it became a popular destination for Jewish retirees. Then showcases photographs, & personal tragedy, of a photographer who was documenting Miami's Jewish retiree culture (during the late 70s).
Lots of cool, still photos.. and succinct Miami history lesson. Not bad..
(On Netflix)

 

[Unholy Diver]

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth -

About the construction and and then destruction of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St Louis, a sad social commentary of some of the racial and socioeconomic issues that were rampant in post war America.

Adding to this it was later learned that the US Gov't had been using Pruitt-Igoe as a testing ground by spraying chemical agents onto the property and its residents during the Cold War.

A sad story and not one to be proud of as an American

 

[Osprey]

These aren't exactly documentaries, but this seems like the most suitable place to mention them.

I just ran across these stellar YouTube videos that show minute by minute how several famous battles, most from the Pacific theater of WWII, went down. They're like nothing that I've seen before, but have wished that documentaries could be more like. They do a better job of describing what actually happened than so many actual documentaries that are longer.

If you like WWII history, especially the battles in the Pacific, give these a watch.






(That last one is the coup de grace and shouldn't be missed. I'm looking forward to Part 2).

 

[RobBrown4PM]

PBS Battlefield (WW2) and PBS Battlefield Vietnam. Both are excellent series which go into insane detail about the logistics, economics and all the underlying issues of the two wars.you can find both on YouTube.

 

[peate]

BBC's Earth from Space. Amazing high def images from space. It's a bit spooky how close they can get.

BBC One - Earth from Space, Series 1, A New Perspective

 

[chicagoskycam]

These aren't exactly documentaries, but this seems like the most suitable place to mention them.

I just ran across these stellar YouTube videos that show minute by minute how several famous battles, most from Pacific theater of WWII, went down. They're like nothing that I've seen before, but have wished that documentaries could be more like. They do a better job of describing what actually happened than so many actual documentaries that are longer.

If you like WWII history, especially the battles in the Pacific, give these a watch.
.

Whenever I watch war docs I really need the visuals like this and you are correct, often they are missing. WWII in color is pretty good about showing the troop and boat/armour movements with strategies. It's long and depicts so many aspects of WWII.

 

[chicagoskycam]

The Dawn Wall - 9/10
It's been overshadowed by Free Solo, the other landmark climbing documentary that was released last year, but The Dawn Wall is a great documentary. It tells the story of Tommy Caldwell, his rise as a climber, and his multi-year obsession with climbing the Dawn Wall - the last unclimbed big face in Yosemite. The footage of the climb itself is gripping (pun intended) and really captures just how incredibly challenging this feat was to pull off, and the filmmakers also do a great job of telling the story behind it.. The only reason I deducted a point is because I would have liked to have seen a little bit of footage on the logistics of the climb and the support team that Tommy and Kevin Jorgeson live on the wall for 19 days. It's supposed to go up on Netflix in a few days so you'll be able to watch it soon.

The are both good but Free Solo, man this guy is just pushing it. Some of the stuff left out of Solo is how he hid food and water in on his path but critters would get to them.

 

[MAHJ71]

Murder Mountain - 5/10

Starts off interesting, but drags big time about half way through. Saw it through to the end (6 epsiodes) but felt pretty disappointed with it.

 

[Babe Ruth]

The Source Family.

Documentary on an early '70s hippie cult. It was interesting, and the group took lots of photos & home movies, so it's a lot of first hand footage..
I watched it on an obscure over-the-air channel, but it's available online for free.

 

[Stylizer1]

Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men

9/10

 

[bobbythebrain]

Overnight(2003)

Watching that idiot implode was awesome

 

[Ben Grimm]

Ken Burns' Baseball 9/10

It's the definitive history of America's National Pastime. It was still free on Amazon the last time I checked.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Ken Burns' Baseball 9/10
It's the definitive history of America's National Pastime. It was still free on Amazon the last time I checked.

yeah.. Baseball is my favorite Burns' docu-series. My opinion, I think it has/will have more lasting value that his overesteemed The Civil War.