Favorite Documentaries

not quite documentary (?) but i liked 'pitch'

gimme shelter is cool

There's more, I'm sure, but I don't feel like dredging them up now.

I saw Spellbound today, which was a fine documentary, I feel. My only problem was that it brought up so many bitter memories about my similar experiences (though not in spelling bees) that I really walked out of there in a foul foul mood. Not the movie's fault itself, of course, but I guess that it did move me in some way, eh?

i like michael moore's films because they're funny and i agree with his politics; as "documentaries" they are terrible re: objectivity, etc. but who's to say why it's any more terrible than "titicut follies"?

I just didn't learn anything from either film. Sorry, GS.

I'm sure there are tons more, but a lot of good ones aren't yet available on dvd, and I have no vhs.

Millhouse
Crumb
Modulations
Hang the DJ
The Atomic Cafe
Mr. Hoover and I
Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog)
A Brief History of Time
The Celluloid Closet
Paragraph 175
Grass
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
Dark Days
The Trials of Henry Kissinger
Forgotten Silver (Okay, it's a mockumentary, but who cares?)
Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid

I've yet to see Bowling for Columbine.

Just saw The Weather Underground and Spellbound recently and liked 'em both a lot too.

Visions of Light (history of cinematography)
Hoop Dreams (follows lifes of inner city basketball hopefulls)
Architecture of Doom (Adolf Hitler: I was a teenaged runaway Wagner)
Don't Look Back (Bob Dylan being cruel and brilliant)
Hearts of Darkness (documentary about filming of Apocalypse Now that is better than the film, itself)
When We Were Kings (Ali Bombaye!)

Still have a great soft-spot for Ken Burns and all of the American Experience documentaries on PBS, too. All of the Martin Scorsese Journey through Film documentaries and extry-special, too.

Streetwise
Sick
Pumping Iron

Haha. Possibly not, but that is a commonly held assumption by the people that make and watch them. I guess I just found both of those films entertaining but kind of pointless. And I was trying to be a little devil's advocate firestarter, I hold my hands up many times over.

I've been watching a few docs lately, King of Kong and Chasing ghosts, Pumping Iron, a few crappy ones about 9/11 and media manipulation that a friend gave me (and why the hell are there so many crappy docs about "9/11 was not what you think, it was all a fraud organised by the US government"), basically whatever I had at hand, and I really want to watch more.

Those people list upthread went on my to watch list though I have no idea what they're about. Anyways, I was wondering if people had any other docs to recommend (I'm sure you do), I'm all for recommandations (and if you could like maybe throw in a line or two to say what it's about I'd love it).

i can't recommend Crumb enough, its probably my favorite documentary ever. i've probably watched it ten times.

also: The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver (aka the Sculptor) Steiner by Herzog. its short, but very very sweet, also seen it several times, soundtrack by Popul Vuh is absolutely killer, too.

Great docs posted here, a few of my own

The Power of Nightmares

Forgotten the name, but the Werner Herzog one about Gene Scott (Actually it's called God's Angry Man, just remembered)

It Felt Like a Kiss (not strictly a doc, but I think it qulalifies)

Musicwise - Some Kind of Monster, a doc about a band I have never really liked, and like even less after watching this, I feel avoids being wisty eyed about its subject matter, a problem that puts me off a good deal of rockumentaries or whatever.

Ok - so can anyone recommend a good political and/or sociological/cultural documentary maker and/or individual films/tv shows in the style of someone like Errol Morris or Adam Curtis? Or anything really?

Thanks!

Seven Up series
Crumb
Grey Gardens
Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist
Cinemania, for personal reasons (not that they're not all for personal reasons)
Brother's Keeper, maybe(haven't seen it in a long time)
Titticut Follies (same)

also-
Meet Marlon Brando
With Love from Truman
American Dream
Hands on a Hard Body
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
Shinjuku Boys
Gaea Girls

Grey Gardens. I first stumbled upon a messed up VHS copy in high school and loved every warped moment of it. It was my introduction to the Maysles' work...love it all!
High School and Titticut Follies
Las Hurdes
The Up Series
Histoire du Cinema
The Sorrow and the Pity-My first documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktmdgC7pZxg

Good timing. I just pulled a bunch of documentaries out of storage today. The first two are two of my favorite movies, period.

To Be And To Have (Être et avoir)
Hoop Dreams
The Thin Blue Line
the two Paradise Lost films
The Filth And The Fury
Dig!
Crumb
Off The Charts (I'm fascinated with the song poem phenomenon, so I might overpraise this one slightly based on its content.)
The Sound And The Fury (A small film presenting an interesting perspective on deafness that I'd never thought about before.)

Oh, I guess that last one was just called Sound And Fury. Pardon.

Hoop Dreams

one of my favorite 5 movies ever, actually

Yeah, bringing it home today and seeing the love here has convinced me to push through the intimidation of that 171 min. run time ASAP.

I like a super short doc called Lonely Boy, too. It can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKcCaCgMLBE