Topic: Awesome documentaries thread

[Original]

Just started watching on Netflix Flint Town, three episodes in and its decent.

If you like your crime/cop docu then this is worth a watch. Its about a small Michigan city near Detroit called Flint which is basically skint and has a high crime rate. The Police have been cut and cut to the point of they havent got enough patrol cars to send out.

Good watch and the lady cop Bernadette is fit as!!! 

Good job the Flint Tropics are able to provide ample entertainment

[AlphaDelta]

Glad you mentioned that. It keeps coming up in my recommendations, but I've been swerving it because I assumed it was about the water crisis they've been in the midst of for a few years.

They do make reference to the water crisis (which in my ignorance hadn't even heard of), but its definitely worth a watch.

[hixxstar]

Just started watching on Netflix Flint Town, three episodes in and its decent.

Good watch and the lady cop Bernadette is fit as!!! 

Thanks.. forgot i D/L all 8 the other week  have to watch over the weekend 

[monkeyharris]

Really interesting doc I just watched on Sky Atlantic about Zola Budd and Mary Decker..looks like it’s a few years old so may have been discussed before
Defo taught me some things about the both of them I never knew before
Didn’t know how involved the Daily Fail were...that Athletics journalist Wilson should be fucking ashamed of himself rather than appearing in the doc
Budd herself although a terrible terrible pawn in a game played between her father , the Fail , the British government and whoever ran British athletics at the time never quite gets round to criticising Aparthied , for my liking. I can slightly understand her issue with saying anything at 17 but interviewed in modern times she skirts the issue

[jason67]

What's it called mate?

[monkeyharris]

The Fall.. The story of Mary Decker and Zola Budd

[jason67]

The Fall.. The story of Mary Decker and Zola Budd

Cheers.

It's a story that apart from the race incident itself I don't know much about.

[Igor Tripod Biscan]

Facing ALi on Netflix is a good watch

It takes the Ali story from a different angle - the stories of some of the men who faced him.  Would have been a good series I think and look into more guys in more depth

[Ziltoid]

The Funeral Murders

What a thought provoking doc. BBC

[jason67]

The Funeral Murders

What a thought provoking doc. BBC

Thought it was brilliant, what a fuckin mad time it was eh?

Thanks for posting it mate.

[Buck Pete]

Thought it was brilliant, what a fuckin mad time it was eh?

Thanks for posting it mate.

Just seen the subject matter. Don't think i could watch it. I really couldn't

I remember the day it happened and watched the events unfold as it was all over the TV, this was all before they realised the footage too disturbing and promptly pulled it.

I have read about it since and can only begin to imagine the fear those 2 blokes felt.

BTW - Not getting into the rights and wrongs as to what happened as it was indeed mad times as Jason says.

[jason67]

Just seen the subject matter. Don't think i could watch it. I really couldn't

I remember the day it happened and watched the events unfold as it was all over the TV, this was all before they realised the footage too disturbing and promptly pulled it.

I have read about it since and can only begin to imagine the fear those 2 blokes felt.

BTW - Not getting into the rights and wrongs as to what happened as it was indeed mad times as Jason says.

Nah watch it Pete, really interesting to hear the views of the people involved 30 years later.

I also forgot that it all happened over a couple of weeks and stemmed from the initial shootings by the SAS in Gibraltar.

[Ziltoid]

Nah watch it Pete, really interesting to hear the views of the people involved 30 years later.

I also forgot that it all happened over a couple of weeks and stemmed from the initial shootings by the SAS in Gibraltar.

Agree with this, You really need to watch it Pete just for the views now and of the time.

What was "disturbing/ridiculous" was a picture of this guys mum on the wall toting a machine gun. She looked about 70.

[BeingJohnMarkovic]

The Vietnam War by Ken Burns is absolutely amazing.

[wellred82]

I'm sure it's already been mentioned but The Seven Five (aka Precinct 75) is amazing. Mike Dowd is a character straight out of a mob movie. Actually reminds me a bit of Joey Pesci. Anyway if you enjoyed the doc there are a bunch of interviews on YouTube. These are definitely worth a watch as he goes into more depth and as well as some stories not covered in the doc.

[johnybarnes]

The Vietnam War by Ken Burns is absolutely amazing.

Yeah it is brilliant.

I've recently finished it - I wasn't fully aware of all the nuances of the war so it was really eye opening and tragic too.

Soundtrack weren't bad either.

[rafathegaffa83]

Recently watched the classic documentary Salesman. My is this a bleak film as the Maysles brothers and Charlotte Zwerin follow a group of door-to-door bible salesmen circa 1967 from New England to Florida as they try to flog an overpriced, gaudy bible and set of Catholic encylopedias to poor Catholics. I can't say I enjoyed the film, but I definitely will not forget it. There are some really visceral moments in this film.

Spoiler

The scene in which the film's focus Paul Brennan tries to sell a bible on an installment plan to a poor Polish woman who already owns a bible and can't make ends meet is one of the sickening, infuriating and depressing things I've seen committed to celluloid

[close]

[Buck Pete]

Has anyone caught the HBO Documentary 'Beware the Slenderman'?  Was on SKY Atlantic last night.

Oh wow, its really good.

Story of two seemingly ordinary but lonely 12 year old girls in Wisconsin who tried to murder their friend by stabbing her multiple times.  Subsequent Police interviews revealed they had committed the crime to appease a fictional monster created on the internet called 'Slenderman' on the creepypasta website.

It was truly fascinating and the doc featured actual footage of the girls police interrogation and heart breaking interviews with the families of the girls.   The girls never tried to deny they had done it and always insisted it was to keep Slenderman from hurting them and their loved ones.

I'm sure younger posters on here are quite familiar with Slenderman, but for me it was the first time I've heard of it.  The stories we arl arses heard of the bogeyman as kids taken to a new level.  The doc also featured internet experts and literary academics explaining all about internet meme's, web folklore, phenomenons and their effects when they go viral.

It brought home how easy a young fragile mind can be corrupted when a set of circumstances collide.

Anyhow, HBO knock it out of the park yet again. Well worth a watch.

[andyrol]

An update on the 'slenderman stabbing'  since the documentary. Morgan, the girl who carried out the actual stabbing, was sentenced to 40 years in a mental health penal facility late last year.

[andyrol]

Just searched and found that the other girl, annaise? , Got 25 years in a mental health facility. She can appeal and become an out patient after 3 years, she'd be on an outpatient mental health list till she's 37 .  It's all shocking .

[Buck Pete]

Just searched and found that the other girl, annaise? , Got 25 years in a mental health facility. She can appeal and become an out patient after 3 years, she'd be on an outpatient mental health list till she's 37 .  It's all shocking .

Yes, i had to google what sentences they each got.  I 'm glad the US justice system saw sense here and didn't send them to prison. They were clearly troubled girls.

I notice the girl they stabbed managed to drag herself to the highway and get help, she was out of hospital within 7 days and then back to school shortly after.  I am in no way saying what the girls did was not terrible, but it makes you wonder just how brutal the stabbing actually was and not some frenzied attack the media seem to portray.

[Igor Tripod Biscan]

Watched a couple of good documentaries tonight

What happened in vegas - about the Vegas PD - (spoiler..c*nts) - A narrative mess but interesting story

Off The Rails.....brilliant, sad and fascinating story about a serial 'train jacker' - A very well put together documentary and a compelling story 

[AlphaDelta]

Watched a couple of good documentaries tonight

What happened in vegas - about the Vegas PD - (spoiler..c*nts) - A narrative mess but interesting story

Off The Rails.....brilliant, sad and fascinating story about a serial 'train jacker' - A very well put together documentary and a compelling story 

Both of them sound decent, did you watch them on Netflix?

[hixxstar]

Watched 2 docu's last night.. both good imo.. 

FOREMAN 2017...is the definitive feature documentary on legendary boxer George Foreman
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7311634/

OPERATION ODESSA 2018..a true crime thriller about a Russian mobster, a Miami playboy and a Cuban spy who teamed up to sell a nuclear submarine to a Colombian drug cartel.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7983794/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

[tubby]

3 episodes into Wild Wild Country on Netflix about a religious/sex cult that bought some land in the US and things start to escalate between them and the locals.  Really fascinating stuff with some nasty characters and a bunch of cultists drinking unfathomable amounts of Kool-Aid.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/hBLS_OM6Puk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/hBLS_OM6Puk</a>

[Xxavi]

^I watched all of it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think most cultists are just hippies or freeloaders. The nastiest bunch are at the very top, you can clearly see that they were in for a personal gain including the leader. That Indian lady might be the worst of the bunch. To this day, she seems to have no shame.

[Ycuzz]

Aye, finished that one some weeks ago. Very well made and proper interesting. Most of all, really impressed about the amount of source material they had, I mean, wow! They had pretty much everything - from everywhere!

[dikwad]

Watched 2 docu's last night.. both good imo.. 

FOREMAN 2017...is the definitive feature documentary on legendary boxer George Foreman
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7311634/

OPERATION ODESSA 2018..a true crime thriller about a Russian mobster, a Miami playboy and a Cuban spy who teamed up to sell a nuclear submarine to a Colombian drug cartel.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7983794/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

Foreman doc was great

[Stevie-A]

Only just caught up with 'Bobby Sands: 66 days' on Netflix. Fascinating watch.

[Saul Goodman]

Only just caught up with 'Bobby Sands: 66 days' on Netflix. Fascinating watch.

You may have already seen it but 'Hunger' is an incredible film about the same topic. It contains one of my favourite scenes ever in a film.

[Stevie-A]

You may have already seen it but 'Hunger' is an incredible film about the same topic. It contains one of my favourite scenes ever in a film.

Thanks mate. Always wanted to watch this, and now have the prompt!

[hixxstar]

Foreman doc was great

It was mate.. His big smile 


2 others i recommend by the way.. 
Next goal Wins
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2446600/
Out Of The Ashes
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1691334/

[Six Beardy]

I've not been following the whole thread and I'm sure it must have been mentioned before but I'm rewatching 'The West' on Netflix. I watched it on the BBC in the 90's and it still stands up well. Despite the shock, horror and depressingly chilling injustice of large sections of the subject matter, there's still a poetic beauty in how the story is delivered, both visually and in the commentary and the contemporanious letters and diary entries of the time.

I went back to it after watching a brilliant doc about the Donner Party on youtube - one of the most fascinating true stories of desperation, suffering, betrayal, murder, cannibalism and human endurance imaginable. It's not very visual ( other than the occassional on-screen time or location caption ) so can be used as a kind of podcast type thingy to listen to as you are doing the decorating, in the car etc. Next time I momentarily lose internet connection, my footy stream freezes or I suffer some kind of other trivial modern-day annoyance I'm going to try and think back to the horrors faced by the Donner Party to help ground myself into some kind of perspective. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUTvnp0K4L8

[Dull Tools]

I've not been following the whole thread and I'm sure it must have been mentioned before but I'm rewatching 'The West' on Netflix. I watched it on the BBC in the 90's and it still stands up well. Despite the shock, horror and depressingly chilling injustice of large sections of the subject matter, there's still a poetic beauty in how the story is delivered, both visually and in the commentary and the contemporanious letters and diary entries of the time.

I went back to it after watching a brilliant doc about the Donner Party on youtube - one of the most fascinating true stories of desperation, suffering, betrayal, murder, cannibalism and human endurance imaginable. It's not very visual ( other than the occassional on-screen time or location caption ) so can be used as a kind of podcast type thingy to listen to as you are doing the decorating, in the car etc. Next time I momentarily lose internet connection, my footy stream freezes or I suffer some kind of other trivial modern-day annoyance I'm going to try and think back to the horrors faced by the Donner Party to help ground myself into some kind of perspective. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUTvnp0K4L8

Is that the Ken Burns one on the West?

[KillieRed]

"Bobby Kennedy for President" on Netflix.

Excellent use of contemporary footage and the few people still around to talk about the 60`s and the events leading up to his assassination. John Lewis in particular is very moving. Though it was more than 50 years ago I was struck by how similar people are today, despite changing fashions/technology etc. Also, the amount of footage of RFK walking around, shaking hands without security. 5 or less years after his brother was shot he was hopping in and out of an open-topped car. I`d suggest it was bravery rather than naivety.

[please, I have my reasons for it but...]

Watched this a while back but saw that it has been added to YouTube for a couple of dollars and I think, but not so sure that it is on Netflix.

Hit too close to home as an Egyptian who lived there during the time of the Revolution and witnessed the change from hope to utter despair as the realization set in that the country turned back the clocks to the 50s after 2013. Bassem Yousef was the only satirist who really tried to criticize the regime as openly as he did and it led to him being exiled from the country since 2014 and there is suspicious that because of his regime criticisms, his dad was killed on purpose by the regime.

Give it a go

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/nVwUrbGcxZ4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/nVwUrbGcxZ4</a>

[RedSamba]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpdb9zo_1t8

[MartinSkrtelsBasement]

Saw a film last night called ‘Sin Bin of the City’ about the Toxteth Riots.

Not out yet but keep an eye out...

Trailer here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uEfpgXIy6QA

[mallin9]

Wild Wild Country is surreal

After watching Evil Genius, is it wrong that I find some of these Rajneesh women more offensive than Marj Diehl?  So self serving and holier than thou. 

[tubby]

Thought Evil Genius started off strong but then kind of tailed off towards the end, could maybe have done with one fewer episodes.