For me it’s gotta be something from ARTE (the French/German culture television channel). Either it’s the one about Chodorowskis weird Dune project or the three-part series about the history of racism. Both were extremely well-made documentaries.
The Vietnam War by Ken Burns. Among other things, it’s got an amazing soundtrack
The civil war as well by KB. The Ashokan Farewell stayed in my head for 20 years after watching it and I didn’t know where it came from. All I remembered was a good narrator and serious historical content, finally found the song name!
Hell yes, it’s hard to go wrong Trent Reznor on the soundtrack.
“How it’s Made”
Probably not what you were thinking of, but yes, it’s actually a documentary series.
Just a fascinating look into how various things are made.
For me it was a short YouTube doc about pagpag. Granted I haven’t seen many docs but this one sorta hit home as we were very poor growing up but we were fortunate enough to not be this poor.
It’s pagpag it means brush off.
Woops looks like autocorrect got me and I was to sleepy to notice.
It can also mean “shake off” as in you just shake off the dirt sticking on the food before eating it.
Of course that’s not really what’s being done, but it’s a simplified description of what pagpag is.
Azorian: The Raising of the K-129
One of the secretive, over-engineered, and ridiculously expensive Cold War spy projects which inspired fiction like James Bond and Metal Gear Solid really happened.
I say give “Icarus” a shot. I think it’s on Netflix rn. It starts off as bike race and then grows into something much more crazier. I think it win some awards? Highly recommend!
Starts as trying to show how you can cheat in bike racing and ends up exposing Russia in a doping scandal within the Olympics. Was a crazy movie but amazing
I always mention The Smartest Guys In The Room. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron%3A_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
Its about Enron and the manipulation of the energy market in the 90s.
Eye opening for anyone who expects ethics , morality, or human dignity from a corporation.
“Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution”
- imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1468876/
- a youtube copy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suZdYkZ_feM
- invidious: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=suZdYkZ_feM
Focuses on Robespierre’s year on the Committee for Public Safety. It has a mix of re-enactments and “talking head” experts, and the talking heads often disagree with one another. It’s a set of events that’s usually ignored in US schools, which is a shame because there’s a lot we could learn there.
It’s hard to pick just one, but I’ve always enjoyed June 17th, 1994 by Brett Morgen and it’s one I rarely see mentioned in these contexts. There’s no narrator, it’s basically entirely archival news/sports footage from the day, but has a lot of footage that wasn’t actually broadcast, with hosts and reporters talking to producers, trying to decide what to do next. I worked in local TV news for about 10 years, so those segments were very familiar to me and really resonated with me seeing not only the events, but also the quick decisions of trying to figure out how to present those events and particularly how to tell people about what became the dominant news story of the day.
2008, I Think We’re Alone Now directed by Sean Donnelly.
It’s the personal documentaries that really stay with me. Obsession, delusion, a personal hell there seems to be no escape from but bewildering to anyone on the outside as to how it’s possible to be so ensnared.
Ghenghis Blues - A blind musician discovers Tuvan throat singing and travels to Mongolia to discover the music and people.
Fog of War (2003) is just heartstopping for anyone interested in 20th Century American history. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317910/
Grizzly Man (2005) is mesmerizing all the way through despite it’s quirky protagonist and predictable conclusion.
Probably Tony Seba clean disruption.
I’m not sure if this quite fits. He looked into the past and extrapolated into the future.
Now it’s hard to think back 10 but no one really thought solar panels were going to go anywhere and everyone thought electric vehicles were a gimic. Many, many experts made predictions of linear or linear with some jumps. But I remember Tony Seba talking about exponentials and improvements in costs and manufacturing. He was the only one and everyone made fun of him. But he turned out to be right.
Everything he said made so much sense to me, what I knew about physics, economics and manufacturing. All of it resonated with me and I was sure that guy was on to something. But no one else was.
I’m really surprised he isn’t more famous. I really need to go back and rewatch a video from 10 years ago just to see how close he got.
“Grey Gardens” Documentary now had me interested to find out what they were parodying and it just held my attention from start to finish. The crew is just there to observe, very little influence by them. Not that they needed to, the duo was entertaining on their own. You get to see what happens to these people who were once basically royalty what mental health and isolation does to someone. Yet, they maintain a level of optimism and a sense of living life the best they can. It’s a beautiful combination of sad and hopeful.
Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
It’s got a good dose of Aussie humor for a pretty serious ecological disaster. Also a good dose of “we humans have learned nothing from our mistakes “.
