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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?

#551

Post by xu3u32 »

m463 wrote: post #494
joshlemer wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

What do you mean by 5-star? 5 on netflix? imdb?

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

#552

Post by tra3 »

70jS8h5L wrote: post #550
tra3 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Appreciate the list very much. Do you think you could share the ones to start with and why you liked them?

To be completely honest - my memory for films is terrible, so I struggle to remember why I loved many of these. Also, many of them take unexpected twists and to say why I loved them so much risks ruining part of the surprise. I've watched countless documentaries and in order for them to make this list I have to _really_ enjoy them, and for the most part they require no interest in the subject matter in my opinion - t…

Thank you!

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

#553

Post by michaelcampbell »

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #542
michaelcampbell wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loved the Civil War, and I think the quality of Vietnam was great too, but it made me so angry I had to stop watching it. I am not of an age where I was in danger of going, but I had siblings that were. They luckily did not go. I liked his Jazz one too.

> I loved the Civil War, and I think the quality of Vietnam was great too, but it made me so angry I had to stop watching it. I'm just curious - what particularly made you angry about it? My father served in the military, but was posted as a medical orderly to West Germany rather than Vietnam at the time, this was in the early 70's. He tended to some of the wounded guys getting repatriated after getting physical ther…

> what particularly made you angry about it

There were lots of things all pointing to essentially the same issue; the fact "we" (I'm American) _KNEW_ that it was almost certainly unwinnable and kept it going despite all the facts and just kept throwing young people at the problem.

And partially because it was my country doing it. The lack of transparency and outright lying. It's something I need to just get over I guess; it's what gov'ts do.

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

#554

Post by SteveDR »

Theory42 wrote: post #536
orasis wrote: post #63

“The Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis. https://youtu.be/eJ3RzGoQC4s It goes through each decade of the 1900s and explains how Freud’s psychology and the new field of marketing completely reshaped society. For the first time in my life I feel like I understood the “why” of how things work in American society. This film is probably best if you’re age 40+ and actually remember some of the events.

This is a work of art--I must say though that I remember thinking of his subject as a bit of a mirror for his work: in the first episode he remember him talking about propaganda in its many forms, and then getting the impression that he was using those exact techniques on the viewer within the documentary itself.

This would only be hypocritical if he claimed in the doc that the techniques weren’t effective or were unethical. Honestly I haven’t seen it recently enough to know if he does this, just saying.

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

#555

Post by yesenadam »

AceyMan wrote: post #170

"Searching for Sugar Man" (2012) took the Oscar that year and for good reason. If you like cultural/arts/music stuff, just go watch it. protip: don't read up on it before since nearly any write-up may include spoilers. Not even the liner notes on whatever streaming platform you find it. Just hit play.

I loved it..but when I learned the true story after I watched it, I felt lied to, way past what is acceptable. Like, he played large venues in an Australian tour in 1979, and returned in 1981, but that wouldn't fit the story the documentary wants to tell at all, so is not mentioned.

edit: I just learned his 1979 album Alive was recorded live in concert in Sydney. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga5aR0MwWOs

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

#556

Post by yesenadam »

cafard wrote: post #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.

I loved that too, saw it when it came out. Did you hear about the lawsuit? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Be_and_to_Have

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

#557

Post by rex_lupi »

David Attenborough's documentaries. Each of them are great. A few especially phenomenal ones: 1. Life on Earth (1979) 2. Blue Planet II (2017) 3. Planet Earth II (2016) 4. Our Planet (2019) [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135095/ [2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6769208 [3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5491994/ [4] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253866/
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