Top 5ish Documentaries

[forumname]

Some good movie threads here lately, so I thought I would start this one. I'm mostly into light, quirky, cultural documentaries vs the hard hitting controversial ones, so here are a few that I think everybody should watch:

Surfwise - Probably my favourite - An eccentric surfer pulls his family (11 of them) out of the american social system to travel, live out of a camper and surf.
King of Kong - A guy going for the world record score on Donkey Kong. More than a video game documentary...
The Bridge - They filmed the Golden Gate bridge for a year, documenting people who kill themselves by jumping off of it. Eerie.
Happy People - People in the middle of nowhere, Russia, living a truly simple life.
God grew tired of us - After a life of unimaginable hardships, a group of Sudanese men come to American and experience modern things for the first time (escalators, microwaves, potato chips, etc) - Serious in a way, but funny too.
Wordplay - The world of people obsessed with crossword puzzles. (Similar ones exist about scrabble, spelling, etc)
American Movie - Unexplainable really. This guy is just something else.
Confessions of a Superhero - Chronicles the lives of people work as characters on the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard. A bit depressing.
Spellbound - Following kids in the national spelling bee (There are also 2 about math competitions that I liked but can't remember the names of)
7 up - A series of short docs (7 up, 14 up, etc) - They follow a group of British kids from wildly different economic/social backgrounds, checking in every 7 years to see how they are progressing.
Alone in the Wilderness - As seen on PBS at 3:30 AM. Kind of like a real version on "Into the Wild". An inspiring man who filmed himself living alone in the woods, building what he needed with his own hands.


Any others?

[Dobber]

Can you give like a one line description of each? Interesting thread

A must watch for everyone IMO is the Planet Earth series by BBC. I'm watching it with my kids right now, I put one on every week

[jcairns]

Can you give like a one line description of each? Interesting thread

A must watch for everyone IMO is the Planet Earth series by BBC. I'm watching it with my kids right now, I put one on every week

Make sure you watch The Blue Planet and The Frozen Planet after. Same thing, same creators, but self-explanatory for what parts of the world they focus on.

[jcairns]

To add:

Apollo 13
March of the Penguins
Food Inc
Chasing Ice

And what I recommend above all: years of living dangerously (documentary series that aired this year on HBO, directed by James Cameron featuring a star-studded cast, and on climate change - namely how it is impacting humans).

[doulos]

Brooklyn Castle is excellent, even for people who are not interested in chess. I play chess competitively, so I enjoyed it even more!

King of Kong is also excellent (as alreayd mentioned) and is about guys trying to break world records in arcade games.

Going to have to add a few of those other ones onto my list forumname, as they look really interesting.

I have not had a chance to watch any of the new Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse Tyson, but it's on my list as well.

[forumname]

Can you give like a one line description of each?

Done

[petegreg21]

Murderball has always been a personal favourite of mine.

Food Inc is a must watch.

Depending on what you're into, "Enron: smartest guys in the room" was another I really enjoyed.

I don't watch very many documentaries but those 3 are all worthwhile.

[strider2k2]

Two that I really enjoyed were Project Nim and The Imposter. Project Nim is about a chimpanzee that was raised like a human child back in the 70s, and The Imposter tells the story of a Frenchman who poses as the 16 year old son of a Texas family that has been missing for years.

[MarmotKing]

I heard The Summit is good. Its the Story about one of the worst tragedies on Everest.

[Bomm Bastic]

Does Frontline count? One of my fav news sources. God In America was effin enlightening

[doulos]

I heard The Summit is good. Its the Story about one of the worst tragedies on Everest.

Ooh I just watched this about a month ago and it's about K2, not Everest. If you enjoy mountainering stories, then you'll LOVE this.

[MarmotKing]

Ooh I just watched this about a month ago and it's about K2, not Everest. If you enjoy mountainering stories, then you'll LOVE this.

Oh yeah you're right! I have it on my to watch list on netflix.

[Yetimouse]

Freedom's Fury - Tarantino/Liu directed, about the Hungarian water polo team vs Soviet Union set against the backdrop of the Hungarian Revolution and the Olympic games - fascinating.
Big River Man - Account of his effort to swim all the major rivers in the world, concentrating on his journey down the Amazon.
Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo - Frontline documentary that mirrors the story of Romeo and Juliet during the siege of Sarajevo - awesome.
Cropsey - about Staten Island murders by Andre Rand, examines how the media can run with a story
If A Tree Falls - About the Earth Liberation Front and "ecoterrorism"
ESPN 30 for 30 series is great. I love the 16th Man - Mandela/apartheid and the World Cup of Rugby

Bomm Bastic is right, Frontline produces fantastic stuff.

[marshal]

The Summit was really good. Not into mountaineering in the slightest, but the moral implications of climbing peaks like Everest and K2 is interesting.

I'm a big history/war buff, so I'm usually drawn to those. Here are a few that have stood out for me:

* The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns - in-depth look at the American Civil War. Includes geopolitical background of the conflict, a look at the major battles and the cultural, economic, social and political results.
* Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State - Six, 47-minute episodes. Best doc I've ever watched regarding Auschwitz-Birkeneau and the Holocaust.
* We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks - Not bad. A lot more to WikiLeaks than just Julian Assange, although you get a pretty good idea of his megalomania.

Haven't seen The Armstrong Lie yet, but that's probably next.

[Chili con Carne]

When We Were Kings - documentary of the Ali/Foreman fight in Zaire and the lead up to it (Rumble in the Jungle). Epic!