Ken Burns Dust Bowl
Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
461–470 of 568 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#462I'm currently obsessed with documentaries about uncontacted tribes.
trolling or are there actual documentaries? Maybe depends on definition of "uncontacted"?
Uncontacted as in, uncontacted.
:-)
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#463Earlier 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…
Is there a good example of this style?
The Netflix documentary "13th" comes to mind. At about the 19 minute mark:
Speaker 1: The election of ronald reagan was in many ways transformative in a negative sense
Speaker 2: President Richard Nixon was the first to coin the term "a war on drugs" but president ronald reagan turned that rhetorical war into a literal war
Reagan: It's back to school time for america's children, and while drug and alcohol abuse cuts across all generations, it's especially damaging to our young people on whom our future depends
Speaker 2: The modern war on drugs was declared by ronald reagan in 1982
Reagan: As we mobilize for this national crusade, I'm mindful that drugs are a constant temptation for millions:
Speaker 3: Popular opinion polls of the day show that it wasn't an issue for most people in the United States. But reagan was determined to put this onto the agenda to define it as a problem
Reagan: A war against drugs is a war of individual battles
Speaker 3: Reagan used his wife for example in this "just say no" campaign
Reagan: She has helped so many of our young people to say no to drugs. Nancy, much credit belongs to you
Clip of 80s anti drug commercial: This is your brain. This is drugs (cracks egg into pan). This is your brain on drugs.
Speaker 4: I joined it. And some people said...
I think that's a pretty decent example
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#464Fires of Kuwait - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tUzkF_Dp8M A first hand account of the firefighters who were sent to cap the oil wells that Saddam set on fire during his attempt to invade the country. Senna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aPLOQeSHrM The story of famed F1 driver. I'm not a racing fan but this one was amazing. Apollo 11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Co8Z8BQgWc Completely new footage was found of…
> A first hand account of the firefighters who were sent to cap the oil wells that Saddam set on fire during his attempt to invade the country. Just watched the first few minutes and this line strikes me as inaccurate, just based on other things I've read/watched about Saddam's burning of oil wells: "In a final act of vengeance, Saddam ordered the detonation of almost 700 oil wells" I could be misinformed, but wasn't…
You may be right, but it really has no bearing on this film/story at all. I just rewatched some of it and forgot how amazing the cinematography is!
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#465I saw a 2-hour-long documentary about the Standard Model of particle physics, sometime around 1980. It was basically a presentation, by one man, with graphics (which were pretty good for back then). The presentation was sober, and completely free of gee-whizz hype. I think it must have been BBC. As I remember it, it was a really good presentation of the discoveries that had recently been made in particle physics. I'v…
The sheer amount of incredible mind-expanding content that is held in the BBC archives but not readily accessible (even to a UK taxpayer with a TV license) really kills me inside.
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Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#466I posted a few others but thought of this one for cycling fans:
Line of Sight by Lucas Brunelle.
It follows messengers who compete in unofficial and risky alley cat races. The guy follows them with a camera rig on his helmet — this was before Go Pros.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#467[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#468So many great suggestions.
I'll add Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. It documents the filming of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. The film's footage was shot by Coppola's wife, Eleanor Coppola. A really remarkable look behind the making of an iconic film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_of_Darkness%3A_A_Filmma...
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#469Icarus (2017)
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?
#470As a documentary connoisseur, there are about 20 recommendations I could think of, but I'll give you my top 3: Tickled: Less of a "global problem" issue in and if itself, this is nonetheless expository of our time. Top rec. Corked: there is no meritocracy. Plastic China: Arguably the most important documentary film ever made in terms of impact on global policy/affairs
FYI: The internet calls Corked a mockumentary.
And from Paul Irish himself, no less! Sorry, I got the title confused. I meant this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_Grapes_(2016_film)
I have no idea what Corked is.