Any Documentary Watchers on IC ???

Considering all the stupid topics in the den I figured maybe if there are a few documentary watchers amongst the crowd we can have a decent conversation.

What docs you guys been getting into lately? I love docs, you can keep spongebob and american idol for the simpler folks. Give me something real. I tell you this last 5yrs has been a great time for docs. So much going on in the world today.

These are some of the docs that've really moved me; with a little description of why and what they are. If you could do the same with docs you enjoyed I think this'll be a good thread and maybe we can find some good docs together.




The first one I really enjoyed was HBO's and spike lee's "When the Levees Broke" a 4 part series broken into hour segments. Despite people calling him a racist for this movie I didn't see anything but the truth and views well shown from all sides. If you want to see what really went down in new orleans and led up to katrina and whats happening now its a great documentary. He portrayed us incredibly well (maybe a lil too well) and I couldn't believe a new yorker was capable of giving a sense of REAL new orleans culture not hollywood new orleans into a touching film. I wish he would have gone into the topics of our humourously corrupt school system, government produced drug problem (they put all the liquid hand cuff clinics here and ship H addicts from all over the country here), and violence. But it was a documentary on Katrina not the plight of NO so I'm impressed he covered it at all. All in all it was one of the best docs I've seen in a long time. Somewhat gory but don't let things like that stop you. Its a fact of life and its what really happens and its all the more reason you should see it.


The next one I enjoyed very much and I usually don't like docs of this nature a recent BBC doc called " The Root of All Evil" was badly named (you catch more flies with honey than vinegar after all) but a great and very well done documentary taking on the idea of organized religion as a whole. They talk to several religious people of different backgrounds and has serious discussion with them. They go to israel, and talk to muslims and jews. He has a conversation with one of the largest leaders of a new wave fundamentalist christian church with ties to Bush, talks to a very moderate catholic priest, the friend of an abortion clinic bomber, and people who have had their lives scarred by religious upbringing in a way thats very moving and hard to argue with. The reason I don't like these types of docs is its hard to be civil during them between speakers but they do a good job in this one, while still managing to not pull the punches that people just allow in religious conversation. There are arguments of course, and some crazy shit, but all in all a well put together documentary. Minus the title, which I heard the speaker didn't like either, but they made him use the title.



an independent documentary called "Iraq War Tapes" is a simple documentary where they gave several soldiers with different feelings about the war handi-cams and let them film what they want. Its Iraq through the eyes of soldiers with less fear of repercussions of what they say than when its media. Its gory if your scared of things like that. There are numerous rotting bodies and they shoot people in half with 50 cals etc. Like I said its Iraq through the eyes of the soldiers. Brutal on KBR I was surprised the army allowed these tapes out. But a great documentary for those of you who can handle real life shit.


An old HBO doc called "a question of miracles" I had taped was really great. It deals with faith healers and the horrible things they do to their followers. They talk to Benny Hinn and that german dude from africa. Gunther Reinharkt or something like that. They put people that convince desperate parents they can cure their childs illness for a price, and that if it didn't work that it was because they didn't believe enough in the light they should be seen in. Deals with the neuro physiology of religious belief and group mentality. whats going on in the brains of people affected by this.

This is the real amazing thing about this documentary though. They visit a scientist who created a machine that stimulates the primal parts of your brain and induces visions and feelings of god the same way faith healers do but via a machine. People break down crying in religious ecstasy from the machine, feeling the presence of a higher power, white light tunnels, seeing god, hearing his voice, etc. Its amazing to see. I'm going to try to find out how to be a volunteer for this. I've done many hallucinogens and I'd give ANYTHING to try the god machine just once.


And last but not least Century of Self is a 4 part documentary dealing with mass manipulation, Freudian concepts in action; both today and years ago with incredible commentation from the people responsible for it, the scientist and the political parties that used it speaking openly about their intentions and explaining how and why it was successful on the public. About the science behind the psychology of manipulating the public for political or consumer means. One not to be missed.


One I would HEAVILY ADVISE AGAINST is one reccomended to me numerous times. a crock of shit called "What the Bleep Do We Know?" which is a great documentary on if you want to see whats wrong with a big part of society today. The whole thing is a pseudo documentary that encourages people to believe things for the sake of being fun to believe, more feel good hippy nonsense that hurts society as a whole. It also constantly tries to convince you to believe in things simply because you cannot disprove them. The two of those in action put to the theme of a documentary was enough to make my blood boil. However if your into palm reading, or shit like that. You'll probably like it.



So I hope you try watching some of those. Anyone reccomend some others they enjoyed?

There is a good one coming on tommorow night on HBO about voting fraud in the USA . Check it out if you can.






nevermind

yeah I been waiting for that one

i'm really into them and agree there have been a bunch of greats lately! i always try to make my friends watch them too! i really wish more stuff out there was geared towards real information like docs. i find lots of great tv programming too that are like mini-documentary style. bbc really has great programming i find. i hate most of the stuff on american television now with great passion. people actually sit and watch that stuff all day.

yeah that richard dawkins root of all evil one was good. i like that guy. that's the kind of stuff i questioned about religion since i was very young and i think it is refreshing that there are other people out there who question it all too. maybe its not the root of all evil but i believe that larger and larger problems will undoubtedly develop from religious feuds in the future. the world is becoming too connected and i think if these beliefs hold and real information doesn't become the new global religion there will be many more pointless wars fought.

century of self was great too really interesting stuff in that one. eddy bernays jesus man that guy stuck his hand in lots of things. that one hooked me when i started watching it and i ended up staying up late to finish all 4 parts. very interesting. my mom had worked in p.r. for a large part of her career but had never heard of the bernays.. i found that fascinating.

also agree 'what the bleep' was useless. there are supposedly different versions i kept getting but they were all the same shit. one is supposed to change each time you watch it but whatever.. boring. i found a show called 'what we still don't know' to be fairly well done and it touched on some similar issues. much better.

man i have a huge list of them at home.. trying to think of some good ones but i'll have to go back and refresh my memory when i get home tonight.. i literally feel like i watch so many programs i can't remember them a few days later. i guess the indica smoke at night doesn't help much with the memory haha. i'll get back at ya man.

this could be a great thread so good idea!

A great documentary that i recently saw was After Innocence, its about the lives of 7(i think) men that were wrongfully convicted of crimes and freed after DNA evidence was looked at. Some of the men in the documentary had been on death row or in prison for twenty+ years for crimes they didnt commit. It shows the struggles and feelings of these men after they have been released. It's on showtime right now, on the on demand thing. shows how prison is in no way shape or form trying to rehabilitate most "criminals", in prison or after they are released from prison.



EDIT:
i figured i'd post the IMDB link for those who want more info:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436039/

has anyone seen the show on global dimming? that's one that comes to mind as a really interesting look at the climatology of earth and how much more complicated it is than we think.

That global dimming one was interesting. I believe that was a nova. I guess you can't argue with photon detectors hehe.

Some Novas are better than others but they are always interesting. Did anyone catch the nova science now where they were talking about dna mechanisms in plants? Someone was trying to genetically create a certain color flower but discovered that the plants were truning genes on and off as sort of an antivirus scan. That was cool.

I usually catch all the pbs documentaries. Frontline is the gold standard (most are available online). I don't have cable so I know I am missing out on alot of great stuff. I will try to get a hold of the ones you guys have mentioned.

just watched "my country, my country" about a large upper-class sunni-iraqi family. Really made you think about what it must be like to live there right now.

I have a dvd of "devils miners" about child labor in coal mines that I am about to watch right now.

I upgraded to HDTV pretty much just for frontline and nova.

I used to watch TV(TLC, History channel,PBS and a few others) but in the last 7 months I haven't watched one minute. and you know, I like it better. My plants like it better. I just cannot spend 30 to 40 hrs a week in front of the TV any more. Sorry everyone, I think TV makes us all stupid(except docs and such) Motaco hit it right I guess when he said "that is for simple folk" I just look at TV in general the same way.

Well there is lots of dumb pulp fiction but I don't stop reading books beacuse of it.

There is good and bad in every medium. Sometimes video is the best way to convey information.

i just saw this one with there they gave this homeless guy like 100,000 dollers and the asshole spends it all

i love doc's,cool to watch whne baked

There is one coming on Nat. Geo tonight 10 pm Eastern called Saddam's Reign with looks good

just about the only thing I watch is documentaries

the one I really like is "Intervention" on A&E I'm sure some of u have seen it (man u get to see inside the lives of some really fucked up people)...watching that will keep ya off drugs .

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3210/02.html

here's that gene thing i was talking about. you can watch online. It's only 10 minutes

I am sure the government will find a way to keep most people ignorant about this type of research for the most part or make it prohibitively expensive.

Two channels I'd love to get but don't are the Discovery Science channel and the National Geographic channel. I think my favorite things to watch when I'm high, and even when I'm not, are shows about nature. I think discovery channel used to have a lot more shows about nature and animals and stuff, now there's a lot of stuff that isn't as interesting.

discovery is great but i don't think it would hurt them to stop looping programming blocks over and over in the same day. i hate when i'm sittin at home on the weekend and sunday morning there are certain shows on and then i get up and go about my day and i turn the tube back on in the evening to find the same shows looping over again! on all those discovery/history/tlc channels! hate that.. put some variety on we know you have the material.

yeah I enjoy discovery but honestly I'm getting fed up with them. if I see one more "science of the bible: what they ate at the last supper" and shit like that I'll lose it. That ain't science.


I'll have to check out that "what we still don't know" the bleep one had some interesting points, they just butchered everything around it and made it useless.


@Grenouille yeah that machine is insane. what I can tell you about it is that its a chair in front of a blank wall, and they wear this special type of helmet that measures brain activity. then a guy has a machine in back of you with a few different nobs that control a magnetic beam that is aimed at the core of the brain where religious beliefs are held. He can twist the nob to adjust frequency and give different results. Amazing to see it sounds like something out a cheap science fiction novel, but its real.



Another doc to keep this thread rolling. glad to see so many fellow doc watchers not rotting their minds on american idol.

a doc called "My (own) Flesh and Blood" which is about a woman who has taken in about ten special needs children and raises them. And when I say special needs I mean special needs. Children with all sorts of horrible diseases and mental disorders. She raises them and takes care of them through all their problems and its a doc chronicling their lives.

Its incredibly touching and I cried through the whole thing for those children. There are very few and far inbetween people of that class. (certainly a better person than me) People who are willing to raise the children abandoned by everyone else instead of forcing them to live in isolation in group homes.

We turn a blind eye to alot of shit in this country and that is one of the most devastating to have in your face. The children that should have been aborted but were not. Children of meth addicts, and so forth. Born HIV positive with afflictions that stop their bones from growing, or this one poor boy who is 20 something but the size of a 8 yr old. His skin burns off of him naturally. He looks like he's been in a house fire but its just his skin naturally burns and peels off. He lives in constant pain.

There are so many children with these problems and the fact is people don't take care of them. They are given up for adoption but nobody wants them and they end up living in what amounts to a juvenile detention center with glass on the doors intead of bars. Puts human compassion in your face and the reality of what happens with these do gooders that convince prostitute crack heads to give up kids for adoption instead of abortions. Sorry and I know I'll get flamed but some people are better off dead. Nobody especially a child should be forced into a situation like that. Living in a group home with an affliction like that and a life expectancy of twenty years or something isn't a life. its just torture before death.

The children in this one at least have each other and a woman that loves them. But they are about ten out of god only knows how many thousands of children without loving guardians with similiar conditions who have been abandoned and forgotten in this country.

Thanks for all the documentaries! I think the Root of all Evil is an amazing documentary

I LOVE erol morris' and werner herzog's documentaries. Erol morris did one called "the gates of heaven" about these two competing pet cemetaries which is awesome. There's also Vernon, Florida which is about a town that has the highest rate of self mutilations for disability/insurance money. There's this one scene where theres this group of old guys who all chopped off their leg talking in rocking chairs in front of the town store. Morris' also did a series that originally aired on bravo then ifc called first person.

My favorite herzog doc is called "god's angry man" which is about a madman televangelist some of you may remember named eugene scott. He would literally insult and berate his audience demanding money. He died about 2 years ago but he still has the record for most hours spent being nationally broadcasted on tv. There's also the one herzog did about the making of fitzcarraldo, "my best fiend", "little dieter needs to fly", "sculptor steiner" all of them are excellent but a little "artsy" for some tastes.

herzog's portrait of timothy treadwell (grizzly man) was especially poignant to me as i'd had the good fortune to travel to that deserted stretch of aaskan coastline and happened by total chance to encounter treadwell there. i spent a day with him meeting all the bears there on the beach and when i watched grizzly man years later, after treadwell had been killed, i was amazed that herzog had been able to expose the tragedy without berating treadwell's eccentricity. herzog i concluded is a very sympathetic biographer.