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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?

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the name...?

Was surprised to find it but it has the title “Channel 4 - Cold Turkey - Heroin addiction documentary 2001” on youtube

Thanks! I've half way through and this is incredible

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

#492
The Rescue - A chronicle of the enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand. Directed by Jimmy Chin.

Also by Jimmy Chin: Free Solo. An incredible film.

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

#493
Jago: A life underwater [1]. It's been a while so I'll refer to the synopsis [2]: "JAGO: A LIFE UNDERWATER is the story of Rohani - an 80-year-old hunter who hobbles around on land but who dives like a fish on a single breath descending to great depths for several minutes to stalk his prey like a true underwater predator."

I have found the life story of Rohani incredibly humbling and his connection to the sea unique. He lived on it. He lived in it. The images pictured this relation in such a way that left me mesmerized. The human aspect of the documentary is worth it by itself, but if you want some stunning underwater images, you are in for a treat.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5141686/ [2] https://www.amazon.com/Jago-Life-Underwater-James-Reed/dp/B0...

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

#494

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…

Sort of loosely related.

when I first streamed netflix years ago - my queue was full of 5-star movies and shows to watch.

As I worked my way through my queue I developed a pattern. Everything I hadn't watched became 5-star documentaries.

I would develop "documentary fatigue" where there were so many well-documented, well produced and important issues to learn about, that I would quickly saturate and at that point I wouldn't watch documentaries anymore.

I would literally put 2-star scifi movies with unbelievable monsters or cataclysms before all the 5-star documentaries.

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

#495
About 2003 or 2004, there was a French documentary, "Etre et Avoir" about a teacher in a rural town in France. I liked it as

- giving a picture of a thoroughly dedicated, able teacher - showing the interest and frustration of teaching small children - showing a very different school system--there are relatively few places in the US where a classroom can have first graders and eighth graders.

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

#497

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…

Unfortunately that style of documentaries far predates Netflix.

Fortunately, there are also more good documentaries being produced than ever!

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

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that relevant? Are you saying that because cruel things happen in the wild we should be fine doing cruel things? I doubt we would accept someone justifying other acts by showing how it occurs in the wild such as stealing all the way to something extreme like cannibalism.

You're making a lot of assumptions.

Do you want to explain how it's relevant then?

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

#499

"The Civil War" by Ken Burns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civil_War_(miniseries) Detailed. Unagitated text. No reenactment. Based on contemporary documents only (almost). Competent experts, some quite characters. Reserved but impressive music.

The historian Shelby Foote is the star of the series.
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