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

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

#141
I worked on food safety policy fir years, and “Our Daily Bread”[1] rocked my world. It profoundly changed how I thought about food policy, its transportation, handling, and overall safety from farm to fork.

As a kid, the nova documentary on Andrew Wiles[2] solving Fermat’s last theorem not only inspired me to study science, but I too wept with joy..

Honorable mention: “The KGB, the Computer and Me“ about my childhood hero Clifford Stoll [3]

1} https://youtu.be/zG7q1NQJz7E

2} https://youtu.be/6ymTZEeTjI8

3} https://youtu.be/4gHNVNRQTJg

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

#143
post #85

Fahrenheit 911. It's about a major terrorist attack that happened 21 years ago today. The film maker later said the number 1 question people asked him on the way out was, "How come we never saw any of this on TV?" I saw it in the theater on opening night. It got about 20 seconds of applause at the end.

This one should be great and yes shows a few things we didn’t typically get to see. But it hates its subject so much that it resorts to few lies(aka falsehoods) thrown in for good measure. Disappointing because of that.

Read books of Clarke and Tenet for a better account.

Blood and Oil is a good non partisan account of the history of oil dependence since WWII. Great for more background.

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

#145
If you like exploring outer space:

Apollo 11 (2019). A feature-length documentary telling the story of the first people to land on the moon, told entirely without narration, using gloriously high definition archival footage.

If you like that and want more NASA history, I also loved When We Left Earth (2008), which is a six-part series covering the history of NASA's manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and then on to the space shuttle, ISS, etc.

If you like exploring our planet:

The Rescue (2021). The story of the kids soccer team who was trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand for nearly three weeks in 2018 and the huge international effort that ultimately saw them rescued safely by hobbyist cave divers after the Thai navy seals decided it was too dangerous to attempt.

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

#146
Iraq in Fragments

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiu8cXhjpX4 Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCf-rMTmFRM

In the wake of the invasion of Iraq, this filmmaker went there solo with little more than a prosumer quality dv camera. He filmed his subjects daily life, staying long enough that eventually everyone around him would drop their guard and behave more naturally despite the camera. For the final edit of the film he focused on the experiences of three young men, sunni, shia, and kurd, to paint a larger picture about the multiple directions Iraq is pulled in.

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

#148
post #12

I'm going to list just a few of the best I have seen so far: - The Last Dance [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8420184/ ] - Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13651632/ ] - Indie Game: The Movie [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/ ] - The Staircase [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388644/ ] - Making a Murderer [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5189670/ ] - Icarus [ https://www.im…

+1 for Icarus. Until just a few years ago, cycling was up to its eyeballs and doping. Wasn’t just one American, one Italian, or one German. It was nearly everyone.
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