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).

Dig! is excellent. I watched it on a flight to London a little over a year ago. It was the most interesting of the 5 or 6 movies I watched on those flights. The fact that it spans such a long period of time allows it to tell a really interesting story of the contrasts of these two bands struggles and successes from near the very beginning of their existences.

I recently read about this and it sounded like a really interesting idea. Can I start viewing this from any movie or do I need to start from the beginning to really get it?

TiK,

I thought Wordplay was OK, but largely becasue I find the subject matter so interesting. Overall I was pretty disappointed and don't think it's nearly as good as those two.

American Experience on PBS is probably my favorite show right now. The pieces they did on The Quiz Show scandal, and on Fidel Castro's story were absolutely incredible. I've like almost everything else they've done. I would suggest anyone into documentaries put it on their season pass.

Also History Viewpoint is a British series has some pretty good stuff. There's one I found moving called "The Germans We Kept" about German POWs that stayed and helped rebuild Britain after the war.

A lot of new history has come out in the last 5-10 years with the Soviet Union opening their files. Discovery Channel (I think) had a documentary called Russian Roulette about this incident that will curl your hair. Apparently 4 Russian subs were patrolling around the Caribbean during the Cuban missile crisis--in horrid living conditions, with tactical nukes, and very vague orders about when they were allowed to fire. There were a few confrontations where we were literally a bad gesture away from WW-III. The US had no idea until a few years ago that these subs were nuclear armed.

Once every few weeks or so I try to scan through every show on DirectTV (A-Z) looking for interesting stuff. Otherwise it's just too hard to know what's out there with all the channels. It takes a few hours to do.

Can't believe I forgot about this one. A great documentary that caused me to feel a wide range of emotions from sympathy, to disgust, and confusion.

I highly recommend this one.

Agreed.

Holy crap I just realized no one's mentioned Endless Summer yet. One of my favorite films--documentary or not. The stuff in Africa where they surf with some of the locals and become the first people to surf a pristine beach are highlights.

i have only seen a bit of it, but a good friend always recommended American Movie

Plot : A hapless amateur filmmaker struggles to produce his latest horror film, "Coven."

Yeah this immediatly came to mind for me too. The eldest son really sells me on the father being guilty. He is probably the worst actor in the world and obviously faking a lot of what he says. I wonder what happened to his career after that documentary came out.

suzzer,

Riding Giants is another one about surfing that I really liked.

I was being a little sarcastic on the Hookers on the Point thing. It's one of those so-bad-it's-good things to me, but doesn't belong alongside Pumping Iron or many of the others mentioned. American Pimp was legitimately well done IMO.

Have you seen Endless Summer? Old doccumentary following two surfers going around the world.

Was it Lock-up: The Prisoners of Rikers Island?

I found Fog of War absolutely fascinating. You're listening to one of the leaders of the US talk about being on the edge of total nuclear war 3 times and only escaping because they were lucky.

Somehow you always feel the guys at the top know more than you. It's scary to realize they don't.

I enjoyed Step Into Liquid as well.

The Fog of War is a great movie. I'm amazed still at the moral compromises that McNamara is willing to accept in himself.

I saw one titled The Cats of Mirikitani this past Tribeca Film Festival. I'm not going to do the description justice, so from the website:

Apparently, the filmmaker initially intended the film to chronicle four seasons in the life of a homeless NYC artist, until 9/11 happened and she ended up taking the guy in, at which point she learns his history (i.e. his being in an internment camp, his having his American passport revoked, etc.). It was very moving. Probably more so for me being that I'm Japanese-American. But I recommend it to all.

Grizzly Man has some depth. It was interesting to see that someone with basically an "unsuccessful" life could do something original, defining himself. Even if he was incredibly stupid in some ways.

There was a "100 best" countdown on documentaries about a year ago in the UK. After it they showed "Touching The Void", a documentary film telling the story of two mountaineers who got in to difficulties up some *big* mountain in a snowstorm, with one of them breaking a leg.

film

book

Truly remarkable

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco -- pretty cool film whether or not you're a fan of Wilco's music. An interesting glimpse into the lives of working musicians. Filmed durring the recording of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." Also chronicles the corporate fiasco that had the band dropping their label and signing a new one mid-production.


Comedian -- Kick a film that documents Jerry Seinfeld's return to stand-up post-sitcom. At the same time, documents a 'rookie' comedian working for a big break. Pretty intriguing.