Interesting documentaries
 

I watched David LaChapelle's "RIZE" (2004) last night.

It documents an evolving style of dance and exceptionally positive youth movement, rooted in South Central Los Angeles. Prefaced with a disclaimer that none of the dance footage has been sped up, "Rize‚" uses no voice over narration, opting instead to let the dancers and community speak for themselves. Juxtaposed with this are stunningly shot dance sequences, including stylized music video segments, a championship battle between Krumpers and Clowns, and much dancing in the streets of South Central LA.

I didn't know anything about this and really enjoyed it.

Any other good doc's?

nice thread.

i liked: touching the void, capturing the freidmans (although it left me somewhat confused), i also really liked and was moved by the one about the guy on death row. unbelievable stuff. also liked the one about aileen wuornos.

"Why We Fight" from the BBC Storyville series seems really interesting... I haven't seen it yet though...

the world at war was also really good.

I caught the arse end of a Patty Hearst doco the other week. It was fantastic. I'd really like it if they showed a rerun.

docs:

Stoked: Rise and Fall Of Gator - documents the 80's skateboarder Mark ''Gator'' Rogowski form his prime to his fall into oblivion,drugs and homicide.
Interviews with all the old school legends including: Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Jason Jesse and many others.

Step Into Blue - a must for any surfer or fan of the ocean, documents the craze of ''Big'' wave surfing, Tow in surfing, and just surfing in general. Seriously the waves these guys catch are ridiculously big.

Dogtown and The Z-Boys - This is the documentary that spawned the hollywood imitation. So, in this you get the actualk people telling about it and the actual fottage and photos, a lot of good history for any young skaters or just new skaters that want some knowledge on how skating came to be what it is today.

thats it for now....

I've got dogtown. It's one hell of a good docu!
I saw some footage of surfers on killer waves in Hawaii a while back. Man! those guys are nuts! Surfing inches above razor sharp coral. You gotta have balls to ride those babies. I'm not a surfer myself, but I suppose you need a coral reef under ya to get such a powerful backwash and wave height?

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991).
The making of Apocalypse Now is brilliant.
How Martin Sheen had a heart attack on the set, Hopper on LSD, Coppola putting his house on the line to finance his movie and Brando a payment of $1 million upfront before even thinking of coming to the set. He eventually arrived 1-2 weeks later with an arrogant look on his face and in a bad mood. Ha!

dark days was also very good and had a very good soundtrack.

Dark Days was pretty great.
I really want to see this one that's currently running called "Who Killed The Electric Car?" Sounds like it will be interesting.

I also thought "Brother's Keeper" was really good.

I heard that "Who Killed the Electric Car?" one is supposed to be a bit on the pompous side. I still want to see it though.

As I am currently obsessed with Werner Herzog I feel I have to recommend any of his documentaries even the ones I haven't seen. My Best Fiend is a must see though.

Also, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara by Errol Morris is pretty fascinating stuff.

Also, I must plug my friends documentary Brand New World also. See here:
www.brandnewworld.org.uk

Rize was a very cool documentary.

I love documentary films. here are some that I really dug a lot.

Ghengis Blues is about a blind, down and out blues singer named Paul pena who one day hears Tuvan throat singing on his shortwave readio, and over time teaches himself to sing that way. he hooks up with some people who want to take him to tuva to meet the throat singers. it is a very good film, and sad.


I know a lot of people have issues with Michael Moore, but this, his forst documentary about trying to meet with the head of ford or GM or some shit like that is fucking great.

This is the single funniest documentary I have ever seen. Vernon Floida, by the same guy who did fast loose and out of control and A Brief History of Time (another great docu about Stephen Hawking, the physicist) details the small town of Vernon Florida and the eccentric and wacked out people that livre there. Some of th funniest lines I have ever heard. Gibby haynes himself said it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

absolutely.
apparently "the aristocrats" is a documentary.

i thought the surfing documentary was called step into liquid. maybe there's two. anyways step into liquid was pretty tight. i watched it with my dad cause he used to surf everyday in brazil. he wouldn't stop describing how amazing the feeling was to be inside the curl of a wave.

Has anyone seen that Henry Darger one? I really wanted to see that but missed it when it was on at the local arthouse.

The Last Waltz [1978]
Directed by Martin Scorsese

One of the most influential rock groups of all time, The Band, puts on one final concert in 1976. Some of The Band's friends -- Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young -- show up for the ride. Interviews and studio sessions are mixed in with concert footage.

 

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
Directed by Jan Harlan

The career and life of Stanley Kubrick is explored through pictures, clips from his films, his old home movies, comments from his colleagues and a narration by Tom Cruise.

I really enjoyed this one!

 

The Weather Underground (2002)
Directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel

The remarkable story of The Weather Underground, radical activists of the 1970s, and of radical politics at its best and most disastrous.

These guys started of with good intentions...

fuckin a man
in the realms of the unreal is an amazing film
i want so bad to be like darger and be inspired so much but something
great film
how to draw a bunny is really great too
documentaries on recluses are always fun
watch JANDEK ON CORWOOD

this one is mad genius as well. GREAt documentary

you said it man
crumb is great
ive watched it 8 times
seriously!
everytime i watch it i get back into old ragtime music haha
that and ghostworld do it

That was on tv here lastnite. It was great. I also liked the fact that a majority of them didn't even serve time due to the Polices carelessness in finding them. SBS in Australia have a docoumentary special every Tuesday nite. The other week it was a Patty Hearst doco which I mentioned above. If you like(d) The Weather Underground, I suggest you see it if you haven't already. Next week it's a Charles Bukowski doco. Looking forward to that, too.

Here are two some of you may have interest in:

the blue planet series is cool. they get some amazing shots.

I love any doc that follows around fucked up people.

Some very interesting docu's I haven't seen yet. In the realms of the unreal looks very cool.

Waco: Rules Of Engagement is absolutely essential

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)
Directed by Martin Scorsese & Michael Henry Wilson.

Despite its nearly four-hour running time, this is a uniquely personal look at movies from one of the late 20th century's great directors and film historians. The film consists of head & shoulder shots of Scorsese speaking into the camera for a minute or two, followed by 10-15 minutes of film clips with Scorsese voice-over. Scorsese approaches the films in terms of how they affected him as a director foremost and as a storyteller/film fan second. Segments include "The Director as Smuggler," "The Director as Iconoclast", and so on. The Journey begins with silent masters like D.W. Griffith and ends in 1969 - when Scorsese began to make films; as he says in closing, "I wouldn't feel right commenting on myself or my contemporaries."

Touching the Void was a really good film.
Empire of Dreams (covers the making of the first trilogy of Star Wars)
I saw a bit of a movie called Trekkies (about Star Trek geeks) and it was pretty hilarious

tribe is a fantastic documentary series



I think you can get some video clips on the bbc "tribe" minisite
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/
you can download the first series here
http://www2.digitaldistractions.org:...=documentaries plus a lot ray mears series too




definitely my favourite feature length doc, like watching a real life spinal tap for films




I'm very surprised louis theroux hasnt been mentioned yet, his documentaries are always so entertaining and sometimes quite scary, particularily the one with the nazis and the one with the black nationalists who tried to claim that all of history's greatest people were black

also
The artist formerly known as captain beefheart
fearless freaks
the living planet
life on earth
year of the horse
dogtown and zboys
looking for truth with a pin (about Ivor Cutler)

I'd like to see derailroaded and titticult follies

would this be the one?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390299/

i haven't seen it but i heard it was good. It can't be anywhere near as good as the other "taking of..." movie I've seen

Imagine: John Lennon
Roger & Me
Arte TV Patti Smith
Arte TV Brad Mehldau Trio
South Bank show Put Blood in the Music
South Bank show Laurie Anderson
Rockpalast Sonic Youth Amsterdam 1989
plenty more I can't think of at the moment

south bank show is always fantastic if it's someone i'm interested in

I've got a few on my computer i can make into torrents if anyones interested

armando iannucci
manga mania
terry gilliam
douglas adams
hunt the funk (with lenny henry, a major downside to what could have been a very good documentary)


there is also a sonic youth/john zorn one floating around demonoid

I think there is an Arte TV John Coltrane one that I'd like to see/get.

I thought of some other goodies:
John Peel's Record Box
Punk: Attitude
Heavy Petting

those recent Hooked ones & Vh-1 drug docs are good.

Oh & there was this recent one which was a multi-part history of Twentieth-Century Art on PBS that was good.

No Direction Home
Martin Scorsese's The Blues
(especially the Scorsese & Wenders ones)
Scorsese's Italianamerican
Einstein's Letter
other Einstein ones

The BBC did one on The Velvet Underground last year or so that I haven't seen.

I've got that john peel record box too if anyone wants a torrent of it

Oh yeah I forgot to mention Radiohead: Meeting People is easy.

It's a doc about them on their tour supporting Ok Computer. You feel quite sorry for them, because of all the shit they have to go through on tour.

Refused Are Fucking Dead DVD is fantastic.
Someone mentioned Imagine which is great.
Hype is another good music docoumentary, as is obviously Dig!

I don't get to watch many documentaries, but I did enjoy this one that was on Sundance Channel about workers in China (I think they were Chinese) who made beads for Mardi Gras. I don't remember the name, but it was pretty good. All the Chinese women laughed when they saw pictures of women showing their breasts for the beads. They said the beads were ugly.

forgot to mention DiG! that was a really good one.