Thetownend.com

Having watched quite a few of these in the past month or so I was wondering if the folks on here had any recommendations.

Grizzly Man - is a great look into the life of Timothy Treadwell as he lives with, and films, Grizzly bears in Alaska, eventually being killed by one.
 

Sleep Furiously.

I found "The Falling Man" quite interesting (although I do have something of a morbid fascination with 9/11, even after all these years).  It's available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXnA9FjvLSU

The King of Kong if you like videogames

Christian the Lion

Any of Jon Ronsons stuff

Anything by Michio Kaku is good

Super High Me.

The whole series of World At War.......for me the best thing ever shown on TV.

Fascinating,Grim and real.

Got these on DVD going free with a sunday paper - still haven't watched them all

A similar (morbid ish) one - The Bridge

The War Game (for the 60's, might tricky to find)

As Freddie says, King of Kong is brilliant.

Best documentary ever. Watched it on Netflix which has quite a lot of half decent documentaries, well worth the money.

I would suggest this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8hRTDSLTOw

Worth a watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJCIpg3Fczs

Seconded just because of the reunion.

what other ones are worth a watch on there? was thinking of watching indie game

If you're interested in big physics and science this is just magical:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7044753105944203252

First in a 3 parter, all available on youtube.

The singing estate

One of the best 9/11 docs I've watched was the one with the two French journos. Top stuff

Indie Game is ok, but it's no King of Kong. Probably works better if you're in to indie games, I'm not so most of it meant absolutely fuck all to me.

Just had a quick browse and can't remember which ones I watched, or which are worth watching. What I liked is that there is a lot of low budget / indie productions, which I wouldn't even have heard about let alone watched without Netflix.

It's worth going through and rating everything you've watched, if you haven't already, as their recommendation system is pretty spot on.

Is that the one filmed with the firemen?

Thats brilliant that one

Massive selection to view here

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/watch-online/

What's it called, so as I can find it and rip it on youtube plz?

Think it's Channel 4's - What We Still Don't Know.

That's an impressive list, I've picked out a few already that I'll be making time for this weekend.

Thanks Notts, just watched a few myself, one about fraud, another about the Israeli Settlers in the West Bank. One more before bedtime.  :D

That's the one. They were filming a documentary about the NY fire department and it just so happened to fall on 9/11.

Cheers jonny.

"The House of War" by Paul Yule and Robert Young Pelton.
A documentary about Special Forces in Afghanistan 2001 when there is an uprising in a prison.
Very real and disturbing. I think it was on C4 about 10 years ago.

The 9/11 one with the French journalists with the NY Fire Department is also excellent.

Some very good suggestions. Quite fancy watching this one when I get a spare hour-

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

Wake Up Call 2008 Remastered

Must see.

Power of Nightmares, Adam Curtis. Must be 8 or 9 years old now but still pretty much holds up today as a summary of the political situation.

"In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different ways of achieving this, but their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered their people. Those dreams failed and today people have lost faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life, but now they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism, a powerful and sinister network with sleeper cells in countries across the world, a threat that needs to be fought by a War on Terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It's a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media. This is a series of films about how and why that fantasy was created, and who it benefits. At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world, and both had a very similar explanation of what caused that failure. These two groups have changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together, they created today's nightmare vision of a secret organized evil that threatens the world, a fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the most powerful."

Anything by him really apart from the most recent documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace where he overstretched himself a bit. Most of it's on Youtube (he has a BBC blog which is also excellent).

i find man on wire quite interesting, the french guy is quite funny/weird

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIawNRm9NWM

Man On Wire is brilliant, Philippe Petit is engaging and interesting, but mostly nuts. Not a big documentary type, but I have this on Blueray after seeing this on BBC.

Was just checking back through the thread to see if had been mentioned when you posted it,.

A great watch.

Enthralling, a tad scary. Yet very DailyMailtatsic.

Watch this and hesitate or a moment about twitter remarks

You've been trumped which is on bbc2 now. Shocking stuff and a disgrace

I watched one on bb2 earlier about Asians being kicked out of Uganda in the 1970s and coming to the uk.  I may find this more interesting than most as my dad was one of those thrown out the country.

How Britain Worked started last night, first episode of a series where he takes on six restoration projects from the Industrial Revolution.

Worth watching if you can put up Guy Martin's annoying fucking voice.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-britain-worked

Many came to Leicester (despite some shameful attempts by the City Council to try to put them off), moved into an area that was due to be demolished as no-one would live there and sorted it out.  It's now our Golden Mile, with a load of curry houses and the biggest Divali celebrations outside of India.

Now watching heroes of the skies on channel 5, good stuff about Gabby Gabreski a USA pilot flying spitfires in WW2 .

I'm making a 2 minute long documentary  'Paul Hart - the early years'  for insomniacs

You could reduce that to 1 minute, "Paul Hart at the County Ground"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz341D_URNA

Senna
Jimi Hendrix
Pumping Iron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJSRs_OE0I&feature=related

Dunno if this is a repost but ,"You've been trumped"  is on the iplayer.

"In this David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland's last wilderness areas to build a golf resort. "

A proper piss boiler!

Thanks for that, will watch that now

It's not on iplayer

oh sorry, I watched it on there a couple of days ago, must've dropped off.

Just watched this one. Highly recommend it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2DFb7ifihg&feature=related

I've just watched, Gay to Straight, Stacey Dooley in the USA.

It's still on iPlayer and is about how gays get therapy to cure them of their homosexuality. It's far from a must watch, but the title did catch my attention and it seemed likely to be absurd and amusing.

It was also laced with irony and amusing shit like 2 "recovering gays" spending the night together, as straight friends, and "doing guy stuff, like wrestling."

I just watched this today.  Really good and pretty shocking, especially seeing the Police, out of the blue, forcibily arrest the two journalists on an, ahem, trumped-up charge.  Really makes you root for the little guy.  It's like a real-life version of the film "Local Hero".

I consequently did some googling this afternoon and discovered Trump was pretty unhappy that the film got aired on the BBC and he posted some scathing comments on Twitter about the BBC re current Savile enquiries.  Also called the documentary maker a loser who should give up film-making as his film has bombed.  Also said the publicity has just helped him get more bookings for his golf course. 

Apparently 1 million people watched it when aired on BBC the other week...doesnt sound like it "bombed" to me...but shame 8 million people will watch X-Factor but far less a programme like this.

Can't find a link to that one. Would be interested to watch it. Going to catch that gay to straight one shortly.

Documentary awards

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20240325

re: the above, here's the Bobby Fischer Documentary on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AneXiRU-0SQ

I have just rewatched, The James Cracknell Trilogy on DVD. It's The Tougest Race on Earth (him doing the Marathon des Sables 156mile ultra marathon through the desert), Race Across America (him treking across the USA) and The Coldest Race on Earth (him racing a bike in Alaska).

I was blown away by how much of an unstoppable machine the bloke was the first time I saw it (on Discovery) and on second viewing I was just as flabbergasted.

Superb TV, made better by the unforeseen circumstances in the second race where he gets hit by a truck, while cycling, and got brain damage. You can't help but both like and admire him.

and he's rowed the Atlantic

If you don't mind someone NOT falling, "Man on High Wire" is a spellbinding documentary about Philippe Petit who broke into the Twin Towers and plotted multiple tightrope walks between the twin towers before being coaxed off by police - people on the sidewalks looked like ants!

Slight bit of pedantry...it's called just, "man on wire".

But yes it is superb. Incredible story, brilliantly told. Philippe has so much charisma he could present or tell any story and you'd be glued to it.

I would suggest you try "Starsuckers" if you care about media/celebrity and that stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW7b7N8N1xA

If you want a good sports one you can't beat When We Were Kings on Foreman-Ali and the Rumble in the Jungle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUSxWilW9is

And finally, if you don't fancy conspiracies much

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txk52JPqUdQ

i'll bookmark those, cheers

Watched this tonight, "This Film is not yet Rated":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8N3EztyOoA&list=PL2F327072B017663A

Enjoyable documentary plus has the awesome Television - See No Evil over the closing credits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7L0IYPXKj8

 :banana:

Most powerful one I have ever seen. Called "The Bridge", about those who jump off the San Francisco Bay Bridge to their death. The producer evaded the authorities to take this footage. This is just the trailer.

-WARNING- Very depressing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG3UMb3uHe0

Air Crash Investigation.

The fact that these machines get off the ground to begin with never ceases to amaze me. How the investigators put together the clues and, in some cases, large parts of an aircraft in order to solve the cause of the crash is fascinating.

I love the program, though not the frequent tragedy of it obviously. As a slightly nervous flier it has somehow had the opposite effect on me than would be expected, its made me less nervous.

I think its because a lot of the time its shown there is a chance of the pilot remedying the emergency, but obviously there are classes of instantly non-recoverable catastrophe.

It is a bit worrying how many have been down to pilot error though!

I have always enjoyed flying but can see your point about the programme making you feel more comfortable. It might also be because you now know what those moving bits on the wings are doing rather than just making strange noises.

As you say a lot of incidents happen because of pilot error but generally there should be enough checks and balances in place to give the captain and his crew the ability to correct the error without serious incident.

More of a concern for me are those cases which are down to poor maintenance. The consequences often leave the pilots with little or no time/ability to recover the aircraft.

Been watching a few documentaries recently.

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) was a really interesting one about the West Memphis Three; three young men convicted of the murder of school kids in an alleged "satanic ritual".  Not a case I'd heard of myself but seems to have been the US answer to the James Bulger murder, except that in this case the accused have the support of Metallica and the Dixie Chicks.

Bit of information on the case here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) was about the CIA's use of torture in Abu Graib, Guantanamo Bay and Bagram.

5 Broken Cameras (2011) was about a Palestinian farmer-turned video journalist living in a village close to the Israeli "security fence."  Really shocking to see the treatment meted out by the Israeli settlers and security forces (albeit a bit one sided, for obvious reasons).

I would recommend all three, especially the last one. 

Just finished watching "Catching Hell", a baseball doco about Steve Bartman...the most infamous baseball fan EVER, who caught the limelight instead of the ball.

Amazing footage and access throughout

Part of the ESPN 30 for 30 series if memory serves me right, shed load of other excellent sports documentaries in that series.

I watched that Louis Theroux one last night about that weirdo family who picket the funerals of soldiers.

Some of the girls in it have certainly 'blossomed'

I've just bought that for our media students (I'm a College librarian).
Brilliant documentary but what makes it interesting is the way the more brutality the camera sees, the more calm and detached the film maker seems to become. He just keeps the camera running on the shameless bullying, looting and encroaching of the Israelis.

A couple of suggestions:
Hearts of Darkness - Just watched this for the umpteenth time - the documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now and its  totally bonkers excesses. And The Last Waltz - my favourite music documentary, which probably dates me...

"The Two Escobars", which is also in that series is magnificent. Currently on Netfilx

Cheers for the recommendation, will download that next (along with Apocalypse Now, haven't seen it in years)

don't know if its been suggested previously but blood on the staircase is fascinating.  Its quite long 8 x 45 minute episodes but it shows a murder trial, from not long after it happened although the way through, and there are some twists worthy of a fictional story!!!

Could people advise where documentaries they recommend are available to view?
Ta very much

I will have to seek that one out. if you're into true crime, murder trial with twists, you should definitely check out the Paradise Lost trilogy I mentioned a few posts ago. It's really gripping!

I use http://isohunt.com/ and download using http://www.bitcomet.com/

For inspiration on what to download I've recently been using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Documentary

Just watched that last one, thanks for the heads up.

I saw something related on vice.com, another good site for documentaries.

here's a link to death on the staircase

http://watchseries.lt/serie/Death_on_the_Staircase

just be prepared to lose hours of your life

??? That link isn't working for me, but I found a couple of torrents for it on isohunt so I'll download it for later

It's almost impossible to stop watching this, regardless of the need for sleep before work the following day.  Damn you Red Sheldon!

Swindon Town FC - That's football

Watched it all the way through for the first time yesterday.  Fantastic insight into the club during a great period.

I haven't seen it in years. I remember Ross Maclaren giving lingy a bit of a hard time about his accent  :D

Also, the nerves on the bench at tranmere away.

how far through it are you???

finished it, except for the two hour long bbc storyville one that seems to have been filmed a few years later

Watched a few more off this list over the weekend.  I would recommend The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara.  I don't think I'd heard of him before watching it, but it's a really fascinating insight into some of the decisions behind the Second World War and Vietnam.  A must-see for anyone with an interest in 20th century history. 

The whole thing is available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkQk50qtTwo

Some acclaimed documentaries I've enjoyed:

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Hoop Dreams
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Mayor of the Sunset Strip
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
Dig!
Capturing the Friedmans
Waltz with Bashir

Nice one, will get downloading, should keep me going for a couple of weeks!

This is brilliant, as it shows just how difficult the film was to make.


This was just amazing, one of my favourite films, let alone documentaries.

Watched this last night on your recommendation, very interesting.  In a similar mould to Death on the Staircase and Paradise Lost.  Can't get enough of these did they/didn't they crime documentaries at the moment, but it's a bit annoying that they can't just whisper it at the end, "yeah, actually I did do it!"

Fantastic!  Loved the early stuff he did on the piano, the stuff with the guitar less so.

The three part Iraq war doc that finished tonight on the beeb has been fantastic

This was quite good, with some excellent music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Payy47wH6XY

I only watched it for the first time last night, as someone who wasn't around at the time it's wonderful that such a documentary exists.

The bit with Chalkie and Kevin Morris in the physio room is quite touching and poignant.
Shaun Close looked like a man who realised his football career had gone down the shitter.
Oggie came across as a massive massive cunt.

I watched this last night. Thought it was superb. It was certainly far from unbiased, but that just made it more watchable and the people who made it deserve credit. (I actually think the characters were so stereotypical, that that alone made it enjoyable.)

Time is Illmatic is a really good watch if you're a fan of hip hop/Nas

Kind of documentaries I suppose (well, rather this thread is better than the general telly one) but does anyone else watch TED Talks?

Some sci-fi documentaries, like this one, really appeal to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH3bmG-KjvU

The Universe is decent.

I love stuff about the universe and what not. but I can't stand the yank documentaries with the cheesy, over-dramatic voice over guy.

Try Through the Wormhole. Narrated by Morgan Freeman.

I'll have a look, cheers

Or Through the Keyhole with David Frost and that annoying yank who I cant remember

You not a pasta sauce fan, Aud?

Through keyhole with Keith Lemon?

Lloyd Grossman - there, I haven't succumbed to Alzheimers yet

Reminds me of the Reeves and Mortimer sketch taking the piss out of Masterchef.

Grossman had an enormous head and floated across the room.

Detest Vic Reeves ever since he was on I'm A Celebrity - he came across as an enormous fucking tool

I never watch that but have always enjoyed their surreal style of comedy.

I also enjoyed when he went on Gordon Ramsey's programme and asked for a boiled egg. Ramsey was raging!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM8quCF_Qkk

I've tried but they have a tendency to really annoy me for some reason.

Some are good, others are just people with an agenda they want to preach. I think you have to pick and choose the ones that are of interest to you.

I watched the Glenn Greenwald one recently on internet privacy and mass surveillance. That was well worth a watch and I'd encourage anyone with a spare 20 minutes to give it a go.

This TED talk is worth 5 minutes of your time for some useful tech tips that not everyone may be aware of.

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_pogue_10_top_time_saving_tech_tips?language=en#t-324920

TED is fucking brilliant.

^utter cunt^

Hypernormalisation - fascinating documentary about how we ended up in this strange place in time. Also currently available on iPlayer.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AUiqaFIONPQ

It's taking me a few attempts to get my head around all of the information in Hypernormalisation, quite a lot to process!

I'd recommend these:

Happy People - A Year In the Taiga (Werner Herzog)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1pOjj49d9Y

Racing extinction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwxyrLUdcss

Amy

Finding Vivian Maier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er8-Vq__cRE

Project Nim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ3d0PczpC4

Cartel Land
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=63&v=ZoSFSiLgbdI

This was pretty tragic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN5IV6wUFbM

12 O'Clock Boys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMQY6k16TU

My favourite, very slow and with an occasional bit of Aphex Twin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz341D_URNA

Blackfish (available on Netflix) is well worth a watch. Interesting and shocking insight into the events at Seaworld including a number of deaths directly attributable to one rogue orca and how it was all kept on the down-low.

Blackfish was very  good, and sad.

I have to confess in watching the orca show in Loro Park. I know it's incredibly wrong and cruel to keep them in captivity. I'm ashamed to say part of me enjoyed the show. my cunt rating should be of the roof.

Tilikum, the star of blackfish, died last year.

I've always loved Star Trek 4 where they go back in time to save the humpback whales.

humpback whales aren't even endangered any more. Thanks Star Trek 4.

I had to watch Hypernormalisation twice, there are lots of strands of information and trains of thought in there. I had altered my perception beforehand both times, although perhaps that helped.

Cheers for the recommendations.

As I am getting older, drinking pre, and on, a flight then watching this did for me.  I have, fortunately, refused to go to SeaWorld on several occasions.  Do not watch this if feeling at all fragile.

HyperNormalisation is still the most relevant recent documentary. Came out post-brexit, but pre-Trump winning. I don't agree with all the leaps of connections Curtis makes, but I love his style, and his voice. Dude is screwed on. Everybody should watch it. Still on iplayer for another 8 months.

New six-part Adam Curtis documentary Can't Get You Out of My Head on iplayer.

https://youtu.be/thd5bBUNEw8