Ken Burns' documentary on Baseball is excellent. I found it very entertaining even though I wasn't alive for like any of it.


Another very good sports documentary was When We Were Kings

How can any list be complete without "Scared Straight"?

You get such classic lines as: "I ain't never heard the sounds of no birds chirping, but I do know what it sounds like to hear a mean screaming 'cause he's got two dicks in his ass!"

and

"Give me your shoes... GIVE ME YOUR DAMNED SHOES!!!!!!!!"

Plus, the narrator is Columbo. How does it get better than that? Memories of watching that film in 8th grade is priceless. Ahh, public school...

Oh yeah. "Hoop Dreams" was probably the best doc ever made, IMO. What a great film.

One recent documentary I really enjoyed was the History Channel's "The Revolution" about the Revolutionary War, which covers the colonies' unrest with taxation to Washington's becoming the first President of the United States. It's amazing to realize just how underfunded and overstressed the colonial soldiers were in the harsh northern winters, how Washington managed to rally his troops year after year, how Benedict Arnold's defection came about, and how the war turned from a supposed British onslaught to a complete British surrender. I watched it every week.

ScottieK

One I haven't seen mentioned yet is "Winged Migration." The footage of migratory birds -- and the story of how the filmmakers were able to get it -- is amazing. I thought I would be bored by it, as I'm not a bird-watcher or anything, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I also third the nomination of "American Movie." It alternates between being hilarious, depressing (the main character is a bit of a loser) and inspiring (despite a ton of setbacks, the guy just will not stop chasing his dream).

Can anyone tell me the name of this documentary? I saw it on the indie film station a year or so ago but never caught (or don't remember) the name.

The film focussed on a group of homeless people living underground in the New York subway system. They created a makeshift village with plywood homes and even discovered a way to route electricity to these homes. The conditions were horrible but somehow it was working for them. The city eventually forced them to leave after setting some of them up with affordable housing. I remember they didn't adjust so well to life in their new homes. I'd like to see this again and be able to recommend it to others but I haven't come across it again since that first time.

Another one I recommend is Black Tar Heroin. The director followed a group of kids who used for a year or two. It was incredible to see how quickly and mercilessly the drug destroyed these people.

Reversal of Fortune - What happens when a homeless man is given $100,000 to do with whatever he chooses. I really enjoyed this one, think about all the possibilities and watch the reality.

uh, you might want to read the op.

la,

HHAHAAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHA

Year of the Bull
Year of the Bull is a stunning look into the life of one high-school football player determined to get out of the inner-city and into a Division I collegiate program. This documentary follows an entire season with the Miami Northwestern Bulls and Taurean Charles, an All-American, blue-chip prospect battling standardized tests, societal pressures, family conflict and internal struggles. In addition to the standout’s problems, he is faced with trust issues because everyone surrounding him has an agenda.

The War Room
A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. Bill Clinton himself is almost never seen.


American Movie
On the northwest side of Milwaukee, Mark Borchardt dreams the American dream: for him, it's making movies. Using relatives, local theater talent, slacker friends, his Mastercard, and $3,000 from his Uncle Bill, Mark strives over three years to finish "Covan," a short horror film. His own personal demons (alcohol, gambling, a dysfunctional family) plague him, but he desperately wants to overcome self-doubt and avoid failure. In moments of reflection, Mark sees his story as quintessentially American, and its the nature and nuance of his dream that this film explores.

Journey's with George
The film by Nancy Pelosi's daughter that follows George W. Bush campaign in 2000

Paradise Lost
Berlinger and Sinofsky's documentary of a gruesome triple murder in West Memphis, Arkansas and the subsequent trials of three suspects, takes a hard look at both the occult and the American justice system in 'small-town' America. Three teenagers are accused of this horrific crime of killing three children, supposedly as a result of involvement in Satanism. As in their previous documentary, things turn out to be more complex than initial appearances and this film presents the real-life courtroom drama to the viewer, as it unfolds.

Baraka
Without words, cameras show us the world, with an emphasis not on "where," but on "what's there." It begins with morning, natural landscapes and people at prayer: volcanoes, water falls, veldts, and forests; several hundred monks do a monkey chant. Indigenous peoples apply body paint; whole villages dance. The film moves to destruction of nature via logging, blasting, and strip mining. Images of poverty, rapid urban life, and factories give way to war, concentration camps, and mass graves. Ancient ruins come into view, and then a sacred river where pilgrims bathe and funeral pyres burn. Prayer and nature return. A monk rings a huge bell; stars wheel across the sky.

War Photographer
Documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.

The Blue Planet
Seas of Life collection by the BBC

yeah - that george w one was great - and im not a gw hater either.

war room was good too.

startup.com, mentioned earlier, is probably my favorite ever. pure comedy. so many morons. corporate espionage!

CDS,

Journeys with George, yeah that was great.

I just saw her most recent HBO documentary, Friends of God about the evangelical Christian movement across the US. Very good stuff.

All,

My friend Rambo recommended these three movies.

the corporation - about, well, corporations. he liked it a lot.

devil's miner - about a young bolivian kid working in a dangerous mine. this one he felt was slow, but still interesting.

why we fight - focuses on the 'military industrial' complex and as the title says, why we fight. he also found this one a little slow.

Of those I've only seen The Corporation, which I thought was a little slow, overly dense, and dry.

ED: Edited recs above.

I agree that the corportation was kinda dry and slow, but you have to keep in mind that a lot of these documentaries are made for 'regular people'. The things that you (or most 2+2ers) would consider common knowledge, most people wouldn't know.

I showed clips from the Corporation to a grade 12 class and they loved it. They had no idea how corporations work, and what they are capable of.

My biggest problem with it (and most documentaries), is that it was obviously pushing an "evil empire" agenda.

ED: Edited quote.

I really liked

Waco: The Rules of Engagement: In one of the most tragic face-offs in the history of law enforcement, the deadly debacle at Waco pitted the Branch Davidian sect against the FBI in an all-out war. This Academy Award-nominated documentary directed by William Gazecki makes the most of footage and recordings to examine how the events that led to the tragedy of April 19, 1993, unfolded, and how the FBI's unrelenting approach made what was already a bad situation much worse.


I'm an athiest and a liberal and I can't help but side with the davidians. One very interesting thing about this documentary is how bad the democratic congressmen look. They clearly are not up to conducting meaningful oversight of the executive branch when the president is a democrat, in the same way that we've had essentially no oversight of the Bush administration while congress was controlled by republicans.


---------------------------------------------------
Hearts and Minds: An Academy Award-winning documentary that casts a sharp eye toward the U.S. government's costly -- in terms of lives, budget and honor -- all-out effort during the Vietnam War. Director Peter Davis uses his own war footage, newsreels, presidential speeches and interviews with the likes of Robert Kennedy, Gen. William Westmoreland and Daniel Ellsberg to provide a compelling argument against war.

Fascinating film with many amazing clips.

I enjoyed This Film Is Not Yet Rated.
If you are interested in movies this gives you a good understanding of the challenges filmmakers go through with the MPAA ratingsboard.