Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

331–340 of 568 posts

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

#331

Not from the last 4 years, but so good I watched some of the series twice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_historic_farm_series In each series, a team of historians/archaeologists/anthropologists live for a year on a farm of a specific era, doing things the way they are understood to have been done in that era. They are like first-person documentaries and lots of fun to watch. You really get the feeling of how life…

Fantastic series. Ruth Goodman is a national treasure, and Peter Ginn and Alex Langlands are also extremely watchable.

I'm personally partial to Victorian Farm, both because it's at a very interesting point in time — much of it pre-machinization, but also an age of scientific discoveries and agricultural improvements — and because I feel like it's the season where they are the most self-reliant (the farm they move into is disused and they have to renovate it) and living in the most realistically re-enacted environment.

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

#333

The Power of Nightmares (BBC / Adam Curtis) [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430484/ ] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK3wz-OyR1U

Adam Curtis is great, but his stuff is better described as commentary. He basically does James Burke's 'Connections' [0] as polemic. Can't get enough personally. [0] Burke's 'Connections' and 'Day the Universe Changed' are definitely worthy of mention on this post.

^^^ Thank you! ^^^ Came here to reccommend Connections by James Burke and glad to see someone else has mentioned it. It's a masterpiece of popular science production made better with the grainy film patina of the 70s and 80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ

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

#334

The Death of Yugoslavia (1996) [1] [2]. Won the BAFTA and Peabody awards that year. It's a BBC documentary in six episodes about the conflict that caused the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the wars in the Balkans. It stands out among many documentaries for being a truly dispassionate moment-to-moment record of events. No sensationalism, no grand-standing, just the facts. If you're tired of the Netflix style of documen…

I just watched this while traveling in Croatia and Bosnia, and I thought it was an incredible documentary! It's also very interesting that it was made only 6 month after the Dayton Accords ended the war. It gives you a very in-the-moment view of events. Definitely worth checking out!

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

#335

The World at War - BBC documentary series about WWII. Shows humanity simultaneously at it's best and worst. The Vietnam War - Ken Burns documentary series. Very balanced and sobering take on the Vietnam war, events leading to the Vietnam war, and unrest in the US during that period. The Fog of War - Errol Morris doc about Robert McNamara. The Salt of the Earth - Doc about photographer Sebastião Salgado Alone in the W…

The fog of war is amazing.

I'd be more careful when using the word "amazing".

I agree that technically it's well done, but IMO it leaves too much space to McNamara to write his own narrative.

McNamara's role in the escalation of Vietnam War and the U-turn he did in the Senate hearings towards the end of his term as Secretary of Defense is something he IMO never properly tried to reflect upon...

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

#336
Inside Job (2010) - documentary about the 2008 financial crisis and policies leading up to that years before. Sort of like the documentary version of The Big Short. Narrated by Matt Damon. Interesting and informative about the catalysts for the crisis.

Full movie on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/T2IaJwkqgPk

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

#340
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback - yes I'm not a native English speaker (I'm trilingual)

It's a weird quirk, now that I think about it, as a native English speaker. It's only a change in present / past tense and the preposition, but communicates something completely different. I guess reflecting on something external is always assumed in the past tense (I didn't care for...), while reflecting on ones own opinions (I don't care for...) suggests personal belief. And "for" (external) vs "about" (self) inten…

I often use past tense because in my tribe (Kalenjin for those interested)- when you do historical commentary you don't interject with your current feelings. You say what you felt then (e.g while watching the documentary) unless you talking about how you feel now vs then. It's very contexual.

Rules in English can be confusing [1] ;)

[1] - https://youtu.be/kXH3HDE9Czo

Post reply on HN