I liked "One Strange Rock" by Darren Arronofsky.
It's a couple of astronauts talking (mostly) about space and life and physics. It has crazy beautiful visuals
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?
#112'Chasing Ice'! It's about a photographer (James Balog) who set up cameras in parts of Greenland, Iceland and Alaska to take time lapses of glaciers over the course of a couple of years. The images (and the difference that a couple of years makes) is astounding -- it truly is the most stunning visualization of global warming/climate change that I have ever seen.
And it's on Netflix.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#113Only because no one has mentioned it yet, "When We Were Kings". About The Rumble in the Jungle. We forget that, at the time, people were worried that Foreman, the hardest hitter who ever lived, might _kill_ Ali in the ring.
The savvy of Ali's "rope a dope" strategy, combined with the way he got in Foreman's head, whispering in his ear in the clinches, was genius. IMO, you can't watch this film and not agree -- GOAT.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#114Wild Wild Country on Netflix is outstanding: https://www.netflix.com/title/80145240/ I'm also a big fan of BBC Horizon's episodes, they cover a wide range of topics and generally are quite excellent and well researched. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf
I'm a big documentary fan, and I was excited for this one because of strong recommendations from friends, but I guess the pacing rubbed me the wrong way. It felt like each individual part dragged.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#115I love, love, love music documentaries. The great ones have a great story to tell. I also believe that the ones about bands have some lessons for people starting businesses and dealing with cofounder friction, creative dynamics, licensing, etc. Many of them also deal with the impact of technology on recording, performing, and marketing. Recommended: "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1157605/…
A few more great musical documentaries:
Searching for Sugarman: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125608
Don't Think I've Forgotten: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2634200
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#116I was surprised that nobody had yet suggest Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl. While not particularly exciting, to be honest, I found it incredibly moving and educational. The origins and extent of the plight and its ramifications across the whole country are nothing short of country-defining.
That the solutions to come out of at are so far removed from where we are today and how the US seeks to solve similar wide-spread economic challenges is deeply saddening.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#117I really like Alone in the Wilderness, which is about Dick Proenneke building his log cabinby hand and living a solitary life in Alaska.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#118planet earth (both the parts) for me
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#119The BBC's Planet Earth series is fantastic. Reminds me of Shakespeare: "There are more things in heaven and earth then are dreamt of your in philosophy"... Makes you really appreciate the beauty on this planet.
Also - a bit of a curveball answer: I really like Documentary Now! (on Netflix). They are parodies of really well known documentaries. So I ended up watching the parody and then looking for the source material on which it was based. I realized that my wife (art major) knew almost all the original documentaries and I knew almost none (engineer...)
EDIT: Wikipedia has the mapping of parody->original : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_Now!
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#120The World at War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_at_War It's a BBC series that chronicles the second world war. It was made in the 1970s and features interviews with the people who were actually there. I really recommend everybody watch it at least once in their life. I think you can find it on YouTube.
Narrated in the dulcet tones of one of the great Shakespearian actors, Lawrence Olivier.