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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?

#441

Post by kundiis »

I saw a lot of them, but below seems not only eye-opening but also educational to increase awareness on several areas of life.

1. An Inconvenient Truth - About global warming 2. Seaspiracy - Impact to oceans and climate due to (over)fishing 3. Blackfish - following the controversial captivity of killer whales(orcas), and its dangers for both humans and whales. 4. Sicko - investigating healthcare and insurance on USA 5. The social dilemma - Impact on humans by using online social networks 6. Jiro dreams of Sushi - Man's lifelong practice to perfect the art of Sushi making

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

#442

Post by [deleted] »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #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…

[deleted]

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

#443

Post by EwanG »

For a newer series I think you can do well with America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston - https://www.pbs.org/show/america-outdoors-baratunde-thurston...

Documents a fair bit about the outdoors in several areas, but also the people who live and enjoy them, and some of the more salient social issues around them

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

#444

Post by kklisura »

atombender wrote: post #322

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 came here to suggest the same, since I just watched it recently again. Coming from a Bosnia and born just before the war, it was really chilling watching it. I think it portrays the conflict in Balkans in some neutral and fair way.

Interesting story: during the high school, in 2006-2008, we weren't allowed to have lectures about the war. That didn't stop our history class teacher to play us this documentary. We would watch it during the class and it would take us couple of classes to finish, since it's pretty long.

Also, the full documentary is here [1] and not segmented like OP's link.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVUg-VoPAeA&ab_channel=Triac...

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

#446

Post by TomGullen »

I loved Koyaanisqatsi, trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirH8PADDgQ Not your typical documentary.

Anything by Werner Herzog is incredible as well, I find his approach extremely sympathetic and respectful to the subjects but without sacrificing detail (EG Grizzly Man)

Not strictly a documentary, but Threads by the BBC is a researched film depicting life in the UK if every city was hit by a nuke and it was incredibly disturbing and informative: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film)

Carl Sagan's Cosmos has to be one of the most charming and moving documentaries I've ever watched - arguably a little out of date now but it reached a place the subsequent Cosmos series just couldn't reach.

MayDay! Air crash investigations are all amazing documentaries that manage to balance pretty intense technical information with real life suffering very skilfully and they are incredibly engaging.

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

#447

Post by 4m1rk »

rasulkireev wrote: post #30
gandalfgreybeer wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know what the popular opinion is on this one, but it felt like there was something missing in his version. I enjoyed it, but Sagan’s original series, strikes a different chord. I don’t think it’s nostalgia too since I was too young to catch the original series.

That is so fascinating. I almost never see the Tyson Cosmos recommended. But see Sagan's everywhere. And somehow still didn't watch it.

I might be wrong but I hesitate watching old science documentaries, because science usually gets outdated.

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

#448

Post by JumpCrisscross »

joshlemer wrote: post #349
atombender wrote: post #322

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 really can't stand the new Netflix style documentaries as you call them. Like, there's no coherent sentence or point being made by the speaker when it's literally not even full sentences just parts of sentences being strung together. It's really disorienting and obviously any nuance that the original interviewee was trying to get across is completely lost when every word they say is taken out of context into whatev…

Is there a good example of this style?

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

#449

Post by nl »

BMc2020 wrote: post #213
mixmastamyk wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What were the lies? Lies of fact please, not opinions. This is a good place to start: https://michaelmoore.com/movies/fahrenheit-911/ click on the facts tab

I generally like Michael Moore, but I think there are better documentaries about 9/11.

I think George Bush's politics were abhorrent and his war in Iraq was probably the worst US intervention in history in terms of consequences, so I'm far from a defender of Bush. But conflating a documentary about 9/11 with a documentary about Bush's politics makes a worse documentary than doing both separately IMHO.

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

#450

Post by alcover »

bartimus wrote: post #424
alcover wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it but frankly don't get a solid 'revelation' out of it. Hypnotic, that's about it (for me).

I thought how individualism is just something that was marketed uppon us was pretty powerful. Also how medical science became more about grouping symptoms than understanding where those things originated from.

  individualism (...) was marketed uppon us
Maybe but I tend to favor materialistic explanations before anything 'concerted'. So I'd say individualism was always here but blossomed fully when abundance came.
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