Author Topic: Awesome documentaries thread (Read 281460 times)

Pistolero · « **Reply #480 on:** August 13, 2014, 08:35:52 pm »

BBC4's Imagine special on Rod Stewart was a cracker....still on iplayer and well worth a download

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #481 on:** August 13, 2014, 10:29:11 pm »

Quote from: IgorBobbins on August 10, 2014, 02:45:36 pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03tj0n0/storyville-20132014-17-mad-dog-gaddafis-secret-world

Even though I thought it was structurally all over the place, I found this documentary about Gaddafi fascinating and terrifying in equal measures. Scary to realise how power & money corrupts the mind. Or maybe he was just a mad bastard from the start?

Yeah re-watched it last week, narcissism off-the-charts.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #482 on:** August 14, 2014, 10:45:57 pm »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0197fx4

Daniel Libeskind - Ground Zero

Duration: 55 minutes
First broadcast: Sunday 09 June 2013
Daniel Libeskind’s first building was the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Shortly after it was opened he won a fierce competition to rebuild the most valuable and most politically charged piece of real estate in the world: Ground Zero in New York. It propelled him into the architectural stratosphere and was an experience that changed him utterly. He tells Razia Iqbal and an audience at the Royal Institute of British Architects of the twists and turns in an extraordinary tale.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00tjz3w/episodes/player

Listened to the Hadid and Foster, excellent.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #483 on:** August 18, 2014, 11:54:13 am »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04dznbr/great-poets-in-their-own-words-2-access-all-areas-19551982

Great Poets in Their Own Words -
2. Access All Areas 1955-1982
In 50s Britain, poetry becomes more democratic as poets turn away from the obscurity of modernism in favour of more reflective language and subjects.

Loved this episode, Larkin, Berryman, Ginsberg, Plath, Hughes.

Geormajesty · « **Reply #484 on:** September 3, 2014, 06:09:11 pm »

I watched 'Grizzly Man' and 'Encounters at the End of the World' today and now I want to have Werner Herzog narrating my life. They're both great.

evie · « **Reply #485 on:** September 9, 2014, 12:09:27 pm »

This documentary about the Great White shark is interesting. What an incredible animal. Shame that people still seem to think it's nothing but a killing machine. So powerful. Simply awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Nw62lxA60

Igor Tripod Biscan · « **Reply #486 on:** September 9, 2014, 05:03:20 pm »

Just finished watching 9 episodes of 'The Men who killed Kennedy' on You tube, really compelling stuff, didn't know about some of the stuff on thee - Some of the episodes were broadcast back in the 80's and later added to

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #487 on:** September 10, 2014, 09:38:54 am »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/p025v15l

BBC Four Goes Abstract
A new season of programmes exploring one of art’s most groundbreaking forms.

Love these, the Zaha Hadid one is excellent. Got an architect mate that has been badgering me to see the Malevich thing at the Tate. Despite my initial reticence I'm beginning to vaguely see it.

Buck Pete · « **Reply #488 on:** September 10, 2014, 12:59:33 pm »

Quote from: Pistolero on August 13, 2014, 08:35:52 pm

BBC4's Imagine special on Rod Stewart was a cracker....still on iplayer and well worth a download

BBC4 is fucking brilliant. Especially for Music and Arts stuff. Seen some really good sports documentaries on there too.

The best documentary I have seen on Beeb 4 was "The Deadliest Crash: The Le Mans 1955 Disaster". Archive footage, Interviews with industry experts, the drivers and team staff that were there, and Eye witness accounts from spectators who are now in their 60's and 70's. It then went on to reconstruct the crash using computer simulation to show how it actually happened and how it could have been prevented.

I'm not massively into motor sport but it's a truly gripping, sad and informative documentary.

Synopsis:

At 6.26 pm, June 11th 1955, the world of playboy racers and their exotic cars exploded in a devastating fireball. On the home straight early in the Le Mans 24-Hour race, future British world champion Mike Hawthorn made a rash mistake. Pierre Levegh's Mercedes 300 SLR smashed into the crowd, killing 83 people and injuring 120 more. It remains the worst disaster in motor racing history.

The story was quickly engulfed by conspiracy theory, blame and scandal. Was the mysterious explosion caused by Mercedes gambling all on untried technologies? Did they compound it by using a lethal fuel additive? Have the French authorities been covering up the truth ever since? Or was the winner, the doomed British star Mike Hawthorn, guilty of reckless driving and did his desire to win at all costs start the terrible chain of events?

And too think certain parties were outraged that BBC3 was being axed instead of BBC4. OK I probably don't 'get' BBC3 as i don't fall between the target audience of 19-34 but I do know that Gavin & Stacey won a BAFTA audience award and the best comedy performance award was awarded to James Corden.

That says it all for me.

BBC4 we salute you.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #489 on:** September 10, 2014, 05:21:00 pm »

Quote from: Buck Pete on September 10, 2014, 12:59:33 pm

BBC4 is fucking brilliant.
BBC4 we salute you.

Seconded, with bells on...

Red Beret · « **Reply #490 on:** September 10, 2014, 09:07:01 pm »

Only just found out that The Sky at Night got the boot from the BBC 1 schedule. You can only see it on BBC 4 now. As if it wasn't hard enough to find it on iplayer as it is.

tbonejones · « **Reply #491 on:** September 11, 2014, 08:15:21 pm »

Quote from: Geormajesty on September 3, 2014, 06:09:11 pm

I watched 'Grizzly Man' and 'Encounters at the End of the World' today and now I want to have Werner Herzog narrating my life. They're both great.

Just watched Grizzly Man - beautiful, weird and meaningful. Thanks for posting, I'd definitely recommend it too. I'll watch the other when I have a spare hour or two.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #492 on:** September 17, 2014, 02:40:33 am »

Finding Vivian Maier. My jaw is on the floor. Just wow. The most natural photographs I've ever seen. Can't wait see them in an exhibition. Something about having a Rolleiflex, at hip height that allows street photography to be so much more authentic.

La Vecchia Magpie · « **Reply #493 on:** September 21, 2014, 02:32:12 pm »

Watched this last night :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3PI95z_iMo

"1964"

It's about the USA in '64 - Touches on a lot of social and cultural and political issues, The aftermath of JFK's assassination, The Beatles first appearance in the USA, Cassius Clay defeating Sonny Liston and later becoming Ali. Civil rights movement in the deep south.

Some really good stuff.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #494 on:** September 21, 2014, 02:59:24 pm »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04hkb5r/storyville-20132014-30-web-junkies-chinas-addicted-teens

Storyville -
2013-2014: 30. Web Junkies - China's Addicted Teens
Film following Chinese teenagers inside a Beijing rehabilitation centre for internet addicts, in an examination of a technology-addled generation on the edge of an unknown future.

Sort of hilarious and tragic at the same time.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #495 on:** September 24, 2014, 12:06:57 am »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04jjyh5

Life in Solitary

"In America, thousands of prisoners are locked up in solitary confinement for years, even decades. With unique access to the punishment wing of a supermax prison, award-winning director Dan Edge paints a shocking picture of this hidden and often violent world.

Filmed over six months in Maine State Prison, this film follows the institution's new warden as he tries to reform the system and release some of the prison's most dangerous inmates back into the general population. Unsurprisingly, some of his staff are nervous and resistant to the reforms and he faces a prison culture which has always emphasised punishment over rehabilitation. The film also features younger inmates, inside for less serious crimes, who are driven to shocking self-harm and even suicide by the mental stress of being locked up alone for 24 hours a day."

About to start.

Geormajesty · « **Reply #496 on:** September 24, 2014, 12:40:28 am »

Quote from: tbonejones on September 11, 2014, 08:15:21 pm

Just watched Grizzly Man - beautiful, weird and meaningful. Thanks for posting, I'd definitely recommend it too. I'll watch the other when I have a spare hour or two.

Glad you enjoyed it. 'Encounters...' made me want to go to Antarctica, the type of people you get there are fascinating and the documentary is done so well. The juxtaposition of beautiful landscapes with Herzog's blunt pessimism is brilliant.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #497 on:** September 24, 2014, 12:42:47 am »

Quote from: Geormajesty on September 24, 2014, 12:40:28 am

Glad you enjoyed it. 'Encounters...' made me want to go to Antarctica, the type of people you get there are fascinating and the documentary is done so well. The juxtaposition of beautiful landscapes with Herzog's blunt pessimism is brilliant.

Felt the same way about the type of characters that are drawn there. Wish my background was in the natural sciences..

Red Beret · « **Reply #498 on:** September 24, 2014, 02:53:19 pm »

Think this will be worth looking at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29245289

dave 5516 · « **Reply #499 on:** September 29, 2014, 07:41:58 pm »

The Last of the Unjust.

This is up on PB.

Storyline

A place: Theresienstadt. A unique place of propaganda which Adolf Eichmann called the "model ghetto", designed to mislead the world and Jewish people regarding its real nature, to be the last step before the gas chamber. A man: Benjamin Murmelstein, last president of the Theresienstadt Jewish Council, a fallen hero condemned to exile, who was forced to negotiate day after day from 1938 until the end of the war with Eichmann, to whose trial Murmelstein wasn't even called to testify. Even though he was without a doubt the one who knew the Nazi executioner best. More than twenty-five years after Shoah, Claude Lanzmann's new film reveals a little-known yet fundamental aspect of the Holocaust, and sheds light on the origins of the "Final Solution" like never before.

La Vecchia Magpie · « **Reply #500 on:** September 30, 2014, 12:58:52 am »

Any recommendations on the best 9/11 docs? None of the conspiracy shite either.

La Vecchia Magpie · « **Reply #501 on:** October 1, 2014, 02:39:01 am »

Tried to find that mate but I can't. I watched "102 minutes that changed America" yesterday, it is as "good" * a 9/11 doc you can find. Purely raw footage, no narrator, no dramatic music et.al

* Good is perhaps a bad choice of word, but it's certainly fascinating and compelling.

Daniel Cabbaggio · « **Reply #502 on:** October 1, 2014, 03:01:14 am »

Quote from: La Vecchia Magpie on October 1, 2014, 02:39:01 am

Tried to find that mate but I can't. I watched "102 minutes that changed America" yesterday, it is as "good" * a 9/11 doc you can find. Purely raw footage, no narrator, no dramatic music et.al

* Good is perhaps a bad choice of word, but it's certainly fascinating and compelling.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=259_1252776720

51cam · « **Reply #503 on:** October 1, 2014, 04:11:44 am »

Quote from: Rhi on September 30, 2014, 12:44:20 am

Both have been mentioned in here already, but wanted to give another shout out to:

God Loves Uganda: Yet another demonstration of the quest for power disguised as religion. That "religion" is then used to justify the immoral bullshit of those in charge. Scum. Watching a load of teenage American "missionaries" quoting verbatim from the Bible to try to scare muslim Ugandans into converting to Christianity? Ugh. Though I feel sorry for the kids they send out there too. Brainwashed from such a young age. It made me really curious and I want to go and visit Kansas City and the HQ of the evangelical church from the film. Because I'm a bit weird like that.

Inequality for All: Fucking brilliant. Condense the main points into a 10 minute youtube and show it to every kid under the age of 16. Change the motherfucking world.

Like the sound of these two! Gonna have a look over the next few days!

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #504 on:** October 2, 2014, 09:43:42 pm »

Quote from: Rhi on October 1, 2014, 03:19:19 am

Currently watching Inside Job. I've seen it before but giving it another watch, because, why not? It's always good to remind ourselves of how this shit went down.

I've got a long-ish flight on Thursday too, so I've got The Invisible War downloaded for the journey:

I saw that a while back, quite horrific.

WelshMike · « **Reply #505 on:** October 2, 2014, 09:59:59 pm »

Watched Tim's Vermeer tonight which is pretty great. Quite different too. Definitely worth checking out.

ericthered10 · « **Reply #506 on:** October 6, 2014, 05:53:57 pm »

Watched The Unknown Known. Fascinating look at a bullshit/semantics artist who incredibly managed to have jobs in multiple administrations over decades without ever really being good or well versed in his job. He's a centrifuge that uses spin to distance parts of an idea or question from another that is seemingly inextricably linked, with the added benefit of confusing the questioner suitably to dissuade further questioning.

ericthered10 · « **Reply #507 on:** October 6, 2014, 05:58:50 pm »

And by that, I mean Donald Rumsfeld.

Pistolero · « **Reply #508 on:** October 6, 2014, 06:13:30 pm »

Explosions: How We Shook the World...on BBC4 - was a fascinating hour ...the history of explosives - from ancient China to the Atomic bomb...still on iplayer and well worth a watch

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v9kb3

gwalk · « **Reply #509 on:** October 9, 2014, 01:33:22 am »

An Alternate Reality - the Football Manager Documentary

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/uqnKxF4PnJI" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/uqnKxF4PnJI</a>

really enjoyed this, would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the game

Mutton Geoff · « **Reply #510 on:** October 10, 2014, 06:39:15 pm »

After a Heads up in here i watched 'Road' on catch up it was on BBC Ulster, about the Road Racing Dunlop family brilliant Doc and voiced by Liam Neeson, one of the best Docs i have seen in a while.

Ycuzz · « **Reply #511 on:** October 10, 2014, 09:12:38 pm »

Quote from: WelshMike on October 2, 2014, 09:59:59 pm

Watched Tim's Vermeer tonight which is pretty great. Quite different too. Definitely worth checking out.

Second that, really enjoyed it.

Ycuzz · « **Reply #512 on:** October 10, 2014, 09:14:43 pm »

Quote from: gwalk on October 9, 2014, 01:33:22 am

An Alternate Reality - the Football Manager Documentary

really enjoyed this, would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the game

Gone. Dang, got curious

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #513 on:** October 13, 2014, 07:00:39 pm »

Storyville: Arms Dealer - The Notorious Mr Bout - raises some interesting grey areas, and parallels with other CIA bogeymen, terrorist groups. The irony is beautiful, your arms are illegal, your training is evil, ours, well ours, is ours and perfectly legit and above board, nothing to see here.

Cloudstepper · « **Reply #514 on:** October 13, 2014, 07:31:30 pm »

Quote from: Twelfth Man on October 13, 2014, 07:00:39 pm

Storyville: Arms Dealer - The Notorious Mr Bout - raises some interesting grey areas, and parallels with other CIA bogeymen, terrorist groups. The irony is beautiful, your arms are illegal, your training is evil, ours, well ours, is ours and perfectly legit and above board, nothing to see here.

Just watched a Storyville one called The Gatekeepers, interviews 6 former heads of the Israeli secret service (Shin Bet), it was very good. On iplayer now, is this one on Iplayer or elsewhere?

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #515 on:** October 13, 2014, 07:39:14 pm »

Quote from: Cloudstepper on October 13, 2014, 07:31:30 pm

Just watched a Storyville one called The Gatekeepers, interviews 6 former heads of the Israeli secret service (Shin Bet), it was very good. On iplayer now, is this one on Iplayer or elsewhere?

I think it is no longer on iPlayer, but I'm sure you can torrent it. I watched The Gatekeepers a while back, great documentary, the oldest guy with dodgy arm recently passed away. The candidness of the former heads and their nuanced understanding of the situation, it was unexpected, but then they might have been playing to the gallery, fully knowing who the audience would be and the value of sounding sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. It felt genuine when I watched it.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #516 on:** October 15, 2014, 12:40:18 am »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04lcxms/cosmonauts-how-russia-won-the-space-race#group=p0282ywf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04ltcgk/the-spaceman-of-afghanistan#group=p0282ywf

Hard to disagree with the central premise of the 1st documentary, the scientific utility of the moon missions dropped off rapidly after the first handful, whereas the ISS has ongoing scientific value. So an Afghan got to space before the Chinese and Indians...

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #517 on:** October 21, 2014, 06:14:39 pm »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04m3k1q/storyville-20132014-29-russias-toughest-prison-the-condemned
Storyville -
2013-2014: 29. Russia's Toughest Prison: The Condemned
Storyville: Documentary which looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #518 on:** October 21, 2014, 06:36:06 pm »

Quote from: Rhi on October 21, 2014, 06:31:16 pm

On a similar theme, has anyone seen Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, yet? I've got it lined up for tonight's viewing.

If it is the Storyville one, yes. Excellent.

stara · « **Reply #519 on:** October 21, 2014, 07:35:47 pm »

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/qdNr_vxOzcA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/qdNr_vxOzcA</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FDo-CWfe8Cw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/FDo-CWfe8Cw</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/B5nKFvQ8gIM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/B5nKFvQ8gIM</a>

Viva VHS revolution