Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?

One that had a huge impact on me as a kid was "QED - A Guide to Armageddon" - which is a very factual analysis of the effects of a nuclear weapon on a modern city.

It's available on YouTube.

The director went on to make Threads.

Also - "Behind the Lines" about the training done by the Arctic and Mountain Warfare Cadre of the Royal Marines:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00j9v8j

Grizzly Man: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/ -- the folly of humans when it comes to interacting with wild animals well illustrated

The Fog of War: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317910/ -- whoa. Just: whoa.

The Thin Blue Line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Blue_Line_(1988_film) -- when a conviction goes wrong.

I guess I really like Errol Morris and Herzog? Probably.

Cizenfour is hands-down my favorite movie of all time. It’s cinematically beautiful and the inside perspective on the Snowden leaks is tantalizing. I can’t receomend it enough.

Forks over Knives. Details the findings of an extensive string of studies on the consumption of animal protien. What is not covered in this particular documentary was how the US government was about to change thier food recommendations in 1977 but was stopped by agricultural power brokers invested in meat production. Uphill battle ever since but we can see exploding diabetes, heart disease, and cancer--all demonstrated as controllable I the studies talked about in this documentary. Changed my life.

The Overnighters fundamentally shifted how I think about selflessness, greed, apathy, and NIMBYism. I think about it on a near-daily basis.