This movie made me hate life, emotionally intense is an understatement.

I recently watched the series 'Carrier' on Hulu/Netflix (it's on both, free on Hulu) about a deployment on the USS Nimitz. Very interesting stuff, mind-blowing and fascinating things happen on an aircraft carrier/in cockpits/in the minds of the soldiers. Well worth a watch.

http://www.hulu.com/carrier

Just checked this out based on this recommendation. Worth watching for sure.

not actually documentaries but..

Nova ScienceNOW: How Does the Brain Work?
episode trailer http://video.pbs.org/video/1754201538/

They go to Las Vegas and use magic tricks to help explain how our brains perceive things in our everyday lives. Some pretty cool 'cup work' by Penn and Teller.

(tid bit: the human brain can hold an estimated 1 million gigabytes of information)

Before this I watched Nova's Secrets of the Mind
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mind/

This deals with brain perception as well, but focuses more on the effects of brain damage and how it affects people's reality (some really amazing discoveries in neuroscience have come from studying the survivors of certain types of brain dramage).

Check them both out if you can. Next I'm going to try to watch the entire Charlie Rose Brain Series. I have to watch each episode a few times. Not so much for the information to sink in, but more because I'll fall asleep a lot while watching them. I'll wake up and the **** will be almost over (then I'll realize I only 'caught' like the first 15 or 20 minutes). << Rewind

Unknown White Male: Documentary of guy who somehow wakes up on the subway and doesn't remember anything, no signs of injury and doesn't even know his name. Interesting look at retrograde amnesia.

http://videosift.com/video/Unknown-W...mentaryC4-2006

I came across the above when looking for more info on this story:

Man with 7 second memory: Clive Wearing has the worst case of amnesia in the world, he has anterograde amnesia (the type as seen in Memento) where he is unable to make new memories. Everytime his wife leaves the room and then comes back he thinks he hasn't seen her for years and is just waking up from a coma. If anyone can find a link to a full documentary on this can you post it becuase I can't find anything other than this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNDRDJy-vo

Marjoe http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924

Imdb-summary: Part documentary, part expose, this film follows one-time child evangelist Marjoe Gortner on the "church tent" Revivalist circuit, commenting on the showmanship of Evangelism and "the religion business", prior to the start of "televangelism".

Don't know if it's already been mentioned. One of the best documentaries I've seen, in any case.

ESPN: 30 for 30- 2009 Series of 30 different great sporting stories over the last 30 years.

All the episodes are on youtube, definitely worth working your way through them.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408430/

Watched 20 Seconds Of Joy last night. Very cool doc about an extreme sport athlete(particularly skiing, sky diving, and base jumping) that really gets into why she does what she does. Def recommend it.

Last night I watched The Tillman Story I loved it. It followed the government coverup of Pat Tillman's death. Even though it wasn't intended to be funny, there were some great one liners in this documentary. The guy came from a family full of bros. It turns out, the government chose the wrong bro to mess with.

Exit Through the Gift Shop - Just saw this one the other day. A guy who habitually films everything for 10 years, meets a guy who is a street artist like 2 years into his 10 years of filming everything.The guy then habitually films several of the biggest street artists in the world doing their art in London, Paris, L.A. all over the world. He is in pursuit of the biggest and most mysterious street artist and finally gets the chance to meet him. It really is great and just continuously gets better and better until the end with a twist ending.

Inside Job - 'The story that cost $10000000000ish to make' is great. Gives a really good picture of how ****ed up the whole sub prime mortgage stuff was. Pretty much organised crime. Some amusing squirmage from scumbags when they realise the interviewer isn't really on their side too.

This looks interesting: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php...t=event_invite

Was at the world premiere of Conan O'Brien Can't Stop yesterday. I definitely recommend seeing it when you can. Much funnier than his show usually is and you get to see the negative effects that 2 months on the road have on him. His Q&A after the show really showcased how much more comfortable he was with a mic in front of an audience than pretty much every other director/actor at SXSW.

Also saw Being Elmo (story about the life of Elmo's puppeteer - won US Documentary Special Jury Prize at Sundance) which was great and Elmo of course made a special appearance afterwards for a Q&A.

And I saw a pretty cool documentary called Better This World about the Texas Two who were arrested on domestic terrorism charges at the Republican National Convention in 2008. Great access and fairly well rounded. Reminded me a bit of War Don Don, but not quite as good.

Oh and I saw The Greatest Movie Ever Sold which was pretty good. Simple concept from the guy who did Supersize Me in which his entire movie is about the process he went through to finance the movie through product placement. Definitely interesting.

Going to see the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner How to Die in Oregon later this week and possibly another SXSW doc or two.


ETA: I feel pretty confident that How to Die in Oregon, Being Elmo, and probably the Greatest Movie Ever Sold will be up for Oscars next year.

I might've mentioned this movie last year when it premiered at SXSW, but I've found a way for most people to watch it now.

Pelada is a story about two ex-college soccer players searching for where to go next after not making it pro and traveling the world in search of pick-up games to play in. Soccer is used as a gateway to learn more about these people they play with and their lives. Lots of really interesting places that they play in including a ghetto in Buenos Aires, with the South African construction workers for the World Cup stadiums, in a prison in Bolivia, with moonshine makers in Africa, in a Jewish/Muslim game in Jerusalem, and in Iran where women are forbidden from playing (one of them is a woman). Really good stuff.

You can rent it from Amazon for $3 or you can buy it from them for $15 as a digital download. They also sell the DVD for $20 at their web site.

http://www.amazon.com/Pelada/dp/B004LQGXPU

ETA: Trailer here

You will enjoy this movie even if you don't know anything about soccer. Trust me.

Just watch Still Bill documentary on Bill Withers. I liked it a lot. Started out slow, but picked up in the second third of the movie. If you like character pieces or life reflections it's good. PM me if you want a link to it.

+1 - Pelada also did the best I've ever seen at expressing the emotions involved with quitting a sport, at a near elite level, that essentially defined your life for the past decade

Highly recommend and would watch again

If people can show me they know how to share back and not be greedy, I have some invites to get Pelada now.

Bad Writing

A documentary about a writer who examines his work, and consults some very good writers to see what makes his writing "bad"

Really wanna see this

"I'm Pat ****ing Tillman"

How do we know they are lying? Their lips are moving. I don't want to ruin it but there is a lot of stuff about Tillman I didn't know before I watched this. Truly an honorable man whose memory was tarnished by liars and looters for their own gain. A jaw dropping story that clearly documents heights politicians will go to for power and money.

watched "wasteland last night and thought it was excellent , ive seen all of the oscar nominated docs and this was prob my fav

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1268204/plotsummary


its out on netflix now .

i have watched majority of the doco's suggested in this thread.

however, i just watched talhotblond and think it is probs ****ed up one ive seen. i think everyone should def see it, especially since a majority of us spend alot of time on the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXA0YmIapZM

Yeah, this ruled. Pat ****ing Tillman was the man, and he didn't deserve any of the **** that happened to him/his family. Sad, eye-opening story. Must watch imo.

ones i think are a must watch of the top of my head are (watched too many to remember them all):

tillman story
the cove
man on wire
talhotblond
20 seconds of joy

i also didnt think capturing the friedmans was very good, was all over the place and poorly done imo

The Union: The Business Behind Getting High best pot documentary out there for sure. Covers all aspects of it absolutely awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqJO-RFQfHk full video ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zI7G6KvkhQ the trailer ...

if your a fan of the 1980s, and a fan of serial killers and stuff like that- I love this documentary



The Killing of America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pTmLaB7-c0

check it out if you can find it. Lots of rare footage. Assassinations, interviews, some great Bundy footage, Manson etc. Looks like its on youtube in 11 parts if you cant find it complete anywhere else.