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.
Behind Bars series on YouTube. Especially the one on Antananarivo prison in Madagascar.
It really helps me appreciate my freedom and life, despite occasional difficulties.
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.
Three from Ron Fricke: Koyaanisqatsi, Baraka, Samsara.
So so beautiful. I’ve only seen one(Samsara)though are they all like that.
Yeah, pretty much. Similar style.
Baraka changed my life when saw it in college
The Vietnam War by Ken Burns.
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 All I remembered was a good narrator and serious historical content, finally found the song name!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.
Everything by Adam Curtis. It’s mostly already known facts, but arranged in a positively depressing way.
Man on Wire is a 2008 documentary film directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center.
“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.
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.
Down the Rabbit Hole for EVE Online is absolutely amazing. I’ve played the game here and there for quite a long time, and it’s one of my favourite experiences, that is however really hard to put into words.
That game is weird. I still can’t explain why it’s one of the best games I’ve played, but I always keep returning to it and love consuming content about it from time to time. And this document is amazing in explaining how extremely unique and cool the game is in it’s metagame and the stories it generates. The game has it’s problems, but I still think it’s one of the most unique lifestyles in gaming, that nothing ever comes close to. It’s the only MMORPG that’s actually literally roleplay, that basically forces you to roleplay without you even realizing it. Sure, you may not speak in character, but the fleet doctrines, logistics, corp organization, propaganda, corp-politics and everything around it people do - that’s literally roleplaying.
Another one would be B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989. This document is really really hard for me to watch, because it’s a subculture that was always really important to me, to the point where I help with event promotions and DJ at local 80s goth/synthpop events and it’s my main hobby. But, since I’m now in my 20s, I’ve missed it. The way internet transformed music subcultures is terrible, especially so the alternative ones, but music consumption in general - sure, it’s really amazing to have every almbum ever in the palm of your hand, but there’s just so many that I don’t know any. If I talk to anyone who started with music with the one MC tape, and each new relleas was something hard to get that you actually treassured, I really envy their relationship with music. And that’s something that’s almost impossible to build in this day and age.
The fact that I’ll never get to experience the scene as it was in the 80s is one of the saddest things for me, and this documentary shows it in really genuine and amazing way.
And then there’s The Social Dillema, about the dangers of social networks. A word of warning from people who worked at large social network companies and left because the way they exploit users got too much for them, and now they are trying to spread the word. I really recommend this for everyone, it’s eye openning and really terrifying. It was one of the first impulses that got me heavy into privacy, and it everyone should see it at least once.
DTRH is one of my favorite channels, I love almost everything that he has made. I think my favorite of his (aside from WingsOfRedemption of course) was about Henry Darger, tragic and hopeful at the same time.
Everyone should watch The Social Dilemma.
Shoot I have a LOT. Documentaries and educational youtube channels are my JAM. If people like my top picks here and want more recs, let me know and I will spill out my list of followed channels.
But the top ones that spring to mind:
Most of Barely Sociable’s work (especially the two parter on bitcoin) but of all of his, my absolute favorite is The Dark Side of the Silk Road.
Again, most of Lemmino’s works, but particularly Cicada 3301: An Internet Mystery
and honorable mention to Summoning Salt for The Quest to Beat Matt Turk a documentary about the history of Mike Tyson’s Punchout speed running.
The Farthest, a documentary about the Voyager program. It’s marvelous.
three-part series about the history of racism
That sounds interesting, but I couldn’t find it. Do you have a link, or a title?
I can reommend “Encounters at the End of the World” by Werner Herzog, it’s about researchers in Antarctica and what motivates them to be there. So many interesting people, and it gets a bit philosophical.
For me it was a short YouTube doc about pagag. 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.
I keep comming back to it, Nuclear Nightmares, a BBC Horizon dpcumentary about our fear of radiation and weather or not it is warrented.
It is from 2006, so it might be a bit outdated, but it still seems to hold up.
It would be interesting to see a new documentary on the subject.
Related, The Atomic Cafe is my favorite documentary ever and about ignoramce, the cold war and McCarthy era US propaganda around nuclear war.
Is that like Threads and The War Game?
Nope, Nuclear Nightmares deals with our fear of radiation from civilian nuclear sources.
