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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?

#181

Post by beefman »

Top 5

1. First Contact (1982) - Possibly the best documentary ever made https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085544/

2. Rivers and Tides (2001) - Beautiful meditation on the art of Andy Goldsworthy, with music by Fred Frith https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307385/

3. This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I'll Ever Make (2002) - The story of Popcorn Sutton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA

4. Alone in the Wilderness (2004) - Mostly original footage and commentary by Richard Proenneke https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437806/

5. Apollo 11 (2019) - Narration-free documentary on the first moon landing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8760684/

Bonus picks:

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) is a dramatization but an incredibly accurate one https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/

If mockumentaries count, everything by Christopher Guest is obligatory. There's also this short gem on the Centrifuge Brain Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeHxUVkW4w

Grizzly Man (2005) is not a mockumentary, but like most Herzog documentaries, it's not exactly straight https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/

Finally, I'm a huge fan of first-nuclear-era documentaries made by the U.S. government, e.g.

Army Nuclear Power Program (1963) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPWDMHH4rY4

SNAP 8 Reactor (1963) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82nCRWawfhQ

SNAPSHOT (1964) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9jI1Hdl5Yw

Remote Maintanence of Molten Salt Reactors (?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHT-w2x6dDg

and many more.

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

#182

Post by koonsolo »

The Coconut Revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sl8KJDOqK4

Wikipedia: a 2001 multi-award winning documentary film about the struggle of the indigenous peoples of Bougainville Island during the Bougainville Civil War. The movement is described as the "world's first successful eco-revolution" and has drawn parallels with the conflict depicted in the 2009 film, Avatar.

What I love about this is how these people are able to create everything from what is locally available.

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

#183

Post by Simon_O_Rourke »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #26

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…

Any of Ken Burns' documentaries are good, The Civil War and Vietnam being two of the best. Even his take on Prohibition and Baseball are very watchable.

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

#184

Post by arnejenssen »

tatoalo wrote: post #12

I'm going to list just a few of the best I have seen so far: - The Last Dance [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8420184/ ] - Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13651632/ ] - Indie Game: The Movie [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/ ] - The Staircase [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388644/ ] - Making a Murderer [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5189670/ ] - Icarus [ https://www.im…

You can see Indie Game for free on Mailchimp.com https://mailchimp.com/presents/film/indie-game-the-movie/

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

#186

Post by jsbg »

Into the Inferno - Werner Herzog. Documentary on volcanoes where the director allows the filming locations to bring other topics to the forefront.

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World - Werner Herzog. Film about the internet.

The Thin Blue Line - Erol Morris. Film about a murder of a police officer that comes to a different conclusion than the court did about who the murderer is and led to the release of an innocent man and the incarceration of the guilty one.

The Civil War - Ken Burns. There's a reason it's a classic!

Good Intentions - Walter Williams. Film about how economic policies that sound good often have the reverse effects that they intend to have.

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

#187

Post by azemetre »

kmike84 wrote: post #126

Exit Through the Gift Shop - an amusing documentary about somebody trying to find Banksy (a street artist), and much more, supposingly directed by Banksy himself. There is some debate if it is documentary or not (the story is almost too good), but it seems the evidence suggests it is real. EDIT: sorry, I missed the "last 4 years" part in the question. This film is older than that.

I still think about the final line from banksy often, paraphrasing here:

“I use to encourage everyone to make art. I don’t do that much anymore.”

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

#188

Post by Simon_O_Rourke »

bobduncan wrote: post #166

Tim’s Vermeer : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim's_Vermeer Produced and directed by Penn and Teller who I thought were just magicians. It mixes art and technology with a little bit of historical puzzle solving. As someone who knows little about art history, I found it fascinating.

It's good, there's enough science in it for the nerds and enough painting for the Arts majors. I liked especially the part where they wheel in the patio heater into their art studio, turn it on for a few minutes and immediately start feeling a bit weird.
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