OT: Recommendations for Documentaries
Looking for some recommendations on interesting documentaries. I am still working but my hours have been cut and I have more time to watch TV. I just watched Three Identical Strangers on the Hulu. Very interesting documentary about triplets who were separated at birth and adopted by three different families. Not only were they separated but they had no idea they had any siblings. Check it out if you can.
ZZ Top on Netflix.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - doc on the collapse of Enron.
https://watchdocumentaries.com/enron-the-smartest-guys-in-the-room/
The book, with the same title, goes into even greater detail.
The Defiant Ones- excellent doc about rock and rap, 4 part series
Won’t You Be My Neighbor - Mr Rogers doc, very uplifting, dude was a prince among us
The entire Dirty Money series on Netflix is gold.
Planet Earth
Blue Planet
The War
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Queen of Versailles about exceptionally wealthy folks in Florida losing their fortune in the financial debacle just as they were building an enormous house
History of the Eagles about.....the history of the Eagles (band). I was only a marginal fan but found it fascinating
Discovery Channel's 'Expedition Unknown' with Josh Gates. It's not a documentary series, but I'll direct you to several episodes that are documentary in style:
Season 7 Episode 4, 'Mystery of Dead Mountain' - Braving the sub-zero conditions of Sibera, Josh Gates investigates one of the strangest and most brutal cold cases: the Dyatlov Pass Incident. Nine Soviet hikers died suspiciously. Sixty year later, no one knows how or why. Continued with Episode 5, 'Siberia's Coldest Case'.
I'd also recommend the treasure hunt episodes regarding 'The Secret', which are pretty neat. In fact, only 3 of the 12 treasures have been found, so if you live in NYC, San Franscisco, Milwaukee, Houston, Charleston, etc. you can go look for them right now if you can crack the code.
Season 5, Episode 4 "The Secret" - Josh travels all over the US to find the treasures featured in The Secret, a cryptic book published in the 1980s
Season 7, Episode 9 "Cracking the Secret" - Josh Gates is on a nation-wide treasure hunt to solve a mystery no one has cracked for 40 years: The Secret. Josh travels coast-to-coast and back in time using cutting edge augmented reality and tapping into a network of obsessed Secret detectives.
Season 7, Episode 12 "The Secret Solved" - Breaking news sends Josh Gates racing across the globe. One of the wickedly hard puzzles of The Secret, which Josh has been chasing for years, might have been solved. He's been crisscrossing the US, but this solution is in Josh's hometown.
Wild Wild Country
Waco: The Rules of Engagement
Citizenfour
Apollo 11
Band of Brothers (Not technically a documentary, but very close to "Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest," by Ambrose. And is, to me, one of the greatest viewing experiences of all time.)
Unnatural Selection - NetFlix
*Biohacking, doin it myself since I train.
#myostatin knockout
American Factory, most recent Oscar winner, was excellent and showed some of issues, impacts of globalization.
Agree, but I also couldn't help thinking throughout how eerily similar it was to the 80s Michael Keaton comedy "Gung Ho," the plot of which basically could have been a script for this documentary.
It really was insane how closely the documentary mirrored Gung Ho.
My favorite part was when the men from the factory went to China and were absolutely stunned at how much more productive their workers vs. the ones in the US.
Apollo 11
There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane
Searching For Sugarman
Evil Genius
The Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats its Young
Absolutely riveting. If you have ever done an ultramarathon or considered one the Barkley is the be all/end all of that genre.
The Pharmacist was a good short series.
Don't F*ck with cats
Im in the midst of Tiger King. There's wacky Florida people involved. Imagine that.
McMillions was good
Our Planet narrated by David Attenborough
Wild Alaska
And really any nature doc.
The Third Reich: The Rise & Fall
They are comprised entirely of homemade footage inside Germany from around 1930-1945. It's easily the best WWII documentary I've ever seen.
Edit: apparently the whole thing is free on YouTube
Ken Burns - Civil War
John McCullough was a superb narrator. He was neither an actor nor a professional voice talent. He a historian. But he knocked it out of the park.
John McCullough was a superb narrator. He was neither an actor nor a professional voice talent. He a historian. But he knocked it out of the park.
David McCullough
The trial of Gabriel Hernandez on Netflix
The Fog of War
A lot of good recommendations here, so I’ll just add one a didn’t see which has stuck with me for a long time:
http://www.espn.com/30for30/film/_/page/hillsborough
Didnt know arm wrestling was entertaining til I watched "Pulling John". There's a case to be made John Brzenk is the most dominate athlete at a given sport in the last 50 years. He didnt lose for like 20 yrs. and the characters are like Rocky, so it will keep your attention. Then once the doc. is over follow it up with "Over the Top" and call it a good night.
Perfect bid was interesting
Can't ESPN move up the release date of the 10 part doc on Michael Jordan?
Restrepo (10 yrs old but still gripping) deals w/ Afghanistan war.
The PBS documentary on the Oklahoma City bombing is the best I’ve ever seen. Really digs deep into antigovernment radicalism starting with Ruby Ridge and Waco
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/oklahoma-city/
Free on Youtube:
The Dark Side of the Ring Chris Benoit Documentary.
Part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkUsAztC4Xc
Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEtP3vMElcQ
Lynyrd Skynyrd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow
Think I've watched it 5 times.
Hitsville: The Making of Motown
Both of those are great. I think they are Showtime?
Do ya like Good Music?..yeah yeah....check out this documentary on Muscle Shoals Studios on Youtube:
I just finished "Tiger King" this very minute.
Went online and saw this thread and wasn't surprised to see multiple recommendations to watch this one.
I usually hate Jerry Springer type stuff where stupid people get to say stupid things and act like they're interesting celebrities but, this story is fascinating.
Also, the main guy taped everything he did all day for years so, there's tons of real footage of pure crazy.
The Keepers was excellent. I watched that a while back. It’s about a catholic school in Baltimore(?) and some shitty things being done to the girls there, and the nun who tried to do something about it.
Hip-Hop Evolution on Netflix. If you like hip-hop, of course. It’s a great series.
The Pharmacist on Netflix. One murder really gets into the opioid epidemic.
Finders Keepers - The story details John Wood's attempts to recover his mummified leg from Shannon Whisnant, after Whisnant found the leg in a grill purchased at a storage unit auction. Great characters and a good laugh.
March 26th, 2020 at 10:09 PM ^
The Known Unknown (or, as someone already suggested, any Errol Morris), 13th, No End in Sight and Inside Job (Iraq war and financial collapse respectively), Wild Wild Country, American Factory. Icarus is an amazing accident turned masterpiece. But I'm not ashamed to admit that the most compelling doc I've seen recently on Netflix is 'Cheer', a series about a jr. college competitive cheer squad. Don't judge.
March 27th, 2020 at 12:29 AM ^
I recommend someone make a documentary on one or more of these:
Modern hobo living
Modern day homelessness
Handheld devices of toddlers
Suburban wildlife
Brewing/distilling using only items found on your property