Baraka. No narrative, no traditional story, just stunning images from around the world. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0103767
Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
211–220 of 245 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#212Buck - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1753549/ - Story of the actual real life horse whisperer.
Chicken People -https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4819510/ - follows three people for a year as they show their chickens at chicken fancier shows. Pretty gentle and just a nice film.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#213"The Isle of Flowers". It's heart wrenching and it's only 13 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQcdXh9v0pA I could give you a summary but watching it with no context makes it as powerful as it was intended to be. The 'videoclip' editing has been somewhat overdone, but this was done in 1989 so please give it a break and stick to it. The doc itself was very famous in its time, but has since somewhat faded from p…
Wow, thanks for sharing that. It is powerful.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#214I am a documentary filmmaker and the one title I am surprised not to have seen here is American Movie. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181288/
True documentary classic- incredible characters, editing, treatment. Just an overall gem.
And if you dig that, check out Home Movie, a follow up from Chris Smith & excellent example of the vignette approach to a feature doc https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275408/
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#215Earth From Space (2012)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2149708/?ref=m_nv_sr_1
This documents Earth by combining imagery and data from many different satellites, to model the Earth in a way never before seen before. It shows how different systems of the Earth interact with each other that is absolutely mind-blowing.
For example, you see how a stirring of dust in the desert creates a daily migration of minerals into the Amazon rainforest which allows the rainforest to survive and thrive.
It shows daily, and weekly, and Millennial long cycles that power the planet and really changes how you see the Earth.
And it's gorgeous.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#216Style Wars "The Original Hip-hop Documentary"
http://www.stylewars.com/site/
Amazing, gritty portrait of NYC in the 80s.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sister film is Armadillo (2010) [0] which follows a group of Danish soldiers from pre-deployment shenanigans, to the FOB in Afghanistan, IED attacks, possible war crimes (found to be baseless), and then the return home. To me, the most striking scenes were the ones where the Danish and UK soldiers would play FPS games, don very high tech gear, bounce about in armour, etc. and then contrast that to the rusty, bent…
>“Each Javelin round costs $80,000, and the idea that it's fired by a guy who doesn't make that in a year at a guy who doesn't make that in a lifetime is somehow so outrageous it almost makes the war seem winnable.” Do you know how useful a Javelin is? I think it's worth that much if it will save the life of the soldier firing it. I'd sure pay that much for it if I had the money and I thought it would save my life, o…
I should have been more clear. The quote comes from Sebastian Junger, one of two filmers of Restrepo, the comment I was replying to. My take on his quote was that he was explaining that the cost differentials are insane and a general waste of money for both sides; that the war is not worth fighting in a very real sense of blood and treasure, not that lives are not worth saving.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/275699-each-javelin-round-c...
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#218Restrepo is a 2010 American documentary film about the Afghanistan war. The 2nd Platoon is depicted defending the outpost (OP) named after a platoon medic who was killed earlier in the campaign. The huge success of this film and what separates it from the hundreds of other war pictures is that Junger puts us right in the middle of the action without any political agenda. He simply decides to film these groups of sold…
where can one watch it?
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#219Searching for Sugar Man, do not watch the trailer or read on it. It will spoil the documentary! If you like music, 60s, justice, Bob Dylan and feel good story its a must watch.
Read about it after though, they told a story that doesn't really match reality.
I've seen those criticisms but you have to remember this is before the Internet and before cross communication with other countries, etc. It's a stretch, do those critics expect them to be investigating something and spending hard earned money visiting all countries around the world to verify some random fact of an artist? The documentary is based on the personal experience of some fans in South Africa and people that give that criticism don't seem to understand the context. Plus, the film (as its title is named) is about THEIR search for sugar man not about the life of the guy itself or all the facts around his life.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#220“13th” kind of a history of about the 13th Amendment and mass incarceration.