I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard great things about No Driection Home: Bob Dylan http://imdb.com/title/tt0367555/. A documentary about Dylan directed by Scorsese - what more could you want?

Hoop Dreams is my personal favorite doc as well. It's probably the only documentary I've watched several times, and every time I get through it, I think the same thing - "I can't believe that movie is 3.5 hours long." It just flows so well, and is really easy to get immersed in and sit through.

The only other recommedation I can think of off the top of my head is Dust to Glory http://imdb.com/title/tt0386423/, an entertaining film about the Baja 1000, an annual off-road race held in Mexico. The scenery and camerawork are particularly top-notch. A well-put-together piece for such a low-budget movie.

American Dream (imdb link) is a great documentary about a labor strike at a Minnesota meat packing plant. I was impressed with how well the film shows the different parties affected by the strike: the workers and their families, the townspeople, the management, and the union negotiators; and manages also to paint higly personal individual portraits.

the smartest guys in the room - enron scandal. solidly made. entertaining. helps explain a lot of the scandal to a lot of people who really have no idea of what happened at all.

the kid stays in the picture - highly entertaining 'documentary' about the life of famous producer robert evans. i really, really enjoyed this film. it was fast and engaging. narrated by evans of course, who does an amazing job.

El D,
I seem to remember you mentioning being a fan of The Flaming Lips. I think there's a documentary called Fearless Freaks, if you haven't seen it/heard of it you may be interested in checking it out.


I've been wanting to see Cocaine Cowboys for a while now seems like it would be really good.

I actually own 20% of a documentary about Ramblin' Jack Elliot and a few other old musicians called Pioneer Troubadours. The project is kind of still unfinished and my involvement is only financial but hopefully the guys doing it will get their act together and finish the movie. At this point I'm kind of doubtful it'll ever be finished (hippies....) but they're good people and I'm holding out hope it'll happen eventually.

Recent thread.

Still haven't seen it yet.

My favorite Errol Morris documentary is Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. It's basically all talking-heads interviews and old stock footage, but it tells the story of 4 different weird, eccentric people. Thematically it's about what human existence is like. Good stuff.

Also, most HBO documentaries are typically very solid. One that stands out for me was a couple years back called Small Town Ecstasy. It was done by the same guy who did Capturing the Friedmans, and it's about this dad who parties and does drugs with his kids. Messed-up stuff.

The Michael Apted 7 Up series.

Be Here to Love Me about singer-songwriter Townes Van Zant is one of my favorite music documentaries.

He was a really troubled guy from an affluent family who walked away and became basicly a vagabond musician. Many critics agree he was one of the great songwriters of our time. He was given electro shock therapy for depression and it ended up erasing most of his childhood memories. A fascinating story.
Trailer

hopefully bdk3clash will chime in, he's the documentary master. a good one about andy goldsworthy, one of my favorite artists, is rivers and tides.

goldsworthy makes sculptures and other things out of things he finds while exploring nature. he also does some installations. here's a black hole with leaves:

Also very good was Capturing the Friedmans. Particularly since that was a huge bit of local news for me when I was growing up.

My Best Fiend- documentary about Klaus Kinsky by Werner Herzog.

Crumb is an excellent recommendation too.

Many find them cloying, but I greatly enjoy Ken Burns' films, particularly The Civil War.

Another that deserves mention is Lost In La Mancha, which is about Terry Gilliam and Johnny Depp's quixotic journey to film a Don Quixote movie.

Two of the best ones that haven't yet been mentioned are:

The Times of Harvey Milk -- a terrific and very moving look at the controversial gay San Francisco politician who was assassinated. I cried.

Startup.com -- I defy anyone to find a better exploration of the dot-com boom and bust.

Noah: I thought Rize was visually great and enjoyed the dancing, but as a documentary I thought it was pretty bad in terms of creating a compelling story. I wouldn't recommend it.

Claunchy: Small Town Ecstasy was crazy, highly recommend it. Yeah, I try to watch all those HBO documentaries.

syf: Dope Sick Love was such a downer. I recommend it, but pretty sad stuff.

Your mentioning these reminded me of Wordplay, focusing on the annual crossword puzzle tournament founded by Will Shortz, crossword editor of the New York Times. The documentary is interspersed with interviews of puzzlemakers, and puzzle doers (some pretty entertaining clips including Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart).