Documentaries worth watching

[Sun Smasher]

Does anyone have anymore suggestions along the same lines as the previously mentioned Toynbee Tile documentary? I an genuinely interested in the strange and weird, things that just have no real explanation. Please no "omg aliens" documentaries though, the aliens ones are just... eeegh.

[Blandest]

Does anyone have anymore suggestions along the same lines as the previously mentioned Toynbee Tile documentary? I an genuinely interested in the strange and weird, things that just have no real explanation. Please no "omg aliens" documentaries though, the aliens ones are just... eeegh.

Someone suggested it in the podcast thread but the thinking sideways podcast is pretty good. I personally like the unsolved murders the most, but they talk about a bunch of other mysteries as well.

[Sun Smasher]

Does anyone have anymore suggestions along the same lines as the previously mentioned Toynbee Tile documentary? I an genuinely interested in the strange and weird, things that just have no real explanation. Please no "omg aliens" documentaries though, the aliens ones are just... eeegh.

Someone suggested it in the podcast thread but the thinking sideways podcast is pretty good. I personally like the unsolved murders the most, but they talk about a bunch of other mysteries as well.

Yeah, they are great. I'm actually the one who mentioned them. It's hard to find more good things along those lines though.

[Blandest]

Does anyone have anymore suggestions along the same lines as the previously mentioned Toynbee Tile documentary? I an genuinely interested in the strange and weird, things that just have no real explanation. Please no "omg aliens" documentaries though, the aliens ones are just... eeegh.

Someone suggested it in the podcast thread but the thinking sideways podcast is pretty good. I personally like the unsolved murders the most, but they talk about a bunch of other mysteries as well.

Yeah, they are great. I'm actually the one who mentioned them. It's hard to find more good things along those lines though.

Well then egg and my face are in alignment. I guess you can take that as encouragement that someone liked your suggestion.

[Sun Smasher]

Does anyone have anymore suggestions along the same lines as the previously mentioned Toynbee Tile documentary? I an genuinely interested in the strange and weird, things that just have no real explanation. Please no "omg aliens" documentaries though, the aliens ones are just... eeegh.

Someone suggested it in the podcast thread but the thinking sideways podcast is pretty good. I personally like the unsolved murders the most, but they talk about a bunch of other mysteries as well.

Yeah, they are great. I'm actually the one who mentioned them. It's hard to find more good things along those lines though.

Well then egg and my face are in alignment. I guess you can take that as encouragement that someone liked your suggestion.

haha quite! It's a really good show, I hope it gets more love from supporters.

[Tiny Prancer]

so I am almost done watching Overnight, a documentary about the rise and crash of Troy Duffy, the writer/director of Boondock Saints. It's definitely a schadenfreude documentary, because it spends a lot of time showing Duffy acting like the biggest piece of work and how it results in doors being slammed in his face in every personal and professional relationship he has. I've never watched Boondock Saints but the friend who clued me in on this doc is a big fan and she said that even though she still enjoys the film, seeing what a horrible shitlord its creator is is definitely sobering. You can watch it on youtube!

[Spoop]

I love documentaries.  Here are a few suggestions I haven't seen made in the thread yet:

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth- a 2011 documentary film detailing the history of the Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis, Missouri, and the eventual decision to implode the entire complex in 1976. Really interesting.

Cobra Gypsies- stunning piece of work; beautifully-filmed. Filmmaker Raphael Treza traveled to northern India and lived among an ancient tribe known as the Kalbeliya for three months.

The Woman Who Wasn't There- This woman actually faked being in one of the twin towers in 9/11.  Batshit crazy.

I Think We're Alone Now- People who stalk the singer Tiffany. Also file under 'batshit crazy'.

Black Tar Heroin- "An extraordinary look at two years in the lives of five young heroin addicts, Black Tar Heroin offers a rare and intimate portrait of how heroin devastates young lives." Filmed in the 90s, I think. Pretty interesting.

Thin- a documentary about an eating disorder clinic and the patients who go there. The film mostly revolves around four women with anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia and their struggles for recovery. Kind of sad. :(

The Interrupters- Members of the activist group CeaseFire work to curb violence in their Chicago neighborhoods by intervening in street fights and showing youths a better way to resolve conflicts.

Life 2.0- All about the magic that is Second Life.

Town of Runners- About kids from Ethiopia who want to run in the Olympics, and the difficulties they face.

Cropsey- SPOOKY! about child abductions in Staten Island, and the mental institution that used to be there.

just watched tonight: Web Junkie Chinese kids get sent to boot camp to overcome their internet addiction.

Some of these are on Netflix, some on Youtube, and the rest you can find on the documentary sites on Google.

[a gross spider]

I Think We're Alone Now- People who stalk the singer Tiffany. Also file under 'batshit crazy'.

I saw this when it was on tour at the local warehouse-turned hipster theater. I was fucking great and then it turned out that the filmmakers had actually brought mr stalker dude with them and he answered questions from the audience and signed posters and weirdly hit on the friend I was there with.

Also I'm sure someone's mentioned it by now but I just watched The Search For General Tso and it's really good. Goes into the history of Chinese-American food but also the specific origins of America's favorite candied fried chicken.

EDIT: wait a goddamn second. Four pages in and nobody's mentioned In the Realms of the Unreal? Really? Honestly everybody needs to stop what they're doing right now and watch this. It's about a shut-in who spent his entire life writing a 15000-page novel about magical girls and would basically be the best F+ exhibit ever if he had lived long enough to see the internet.

[goombapolice]

Cropsey- SPOOKY! about child abductions in Staten Island, and the mental institution that used to be there.

Oooh just watched this one! it was really good!

 Couldn't say whether or not Rand did it, but I'm leaning towards "did it"

[Spoop]

I Think We're Alone Now- People who stalk the singer Tiffany. Also file under 'batshit crazy'.

I saw this when it was on tour at the local warehouse-turned hipster theater. I was fucking great and then it turned out that the filmmakers had actually brought mr stalker dude with them and he answered questions from the audience and signed posters and weirdly hit on the friend I was there with.

Oh. Oh god. Ahhhh!

Oooh just watched this one! it was really good!

 Couldn't say whether or not Rand did it, but I'm leaning towards "did it"

I think I'm leaning towards "did it" too.  But wasn't there discussion that he may not have acted alone?  I haven't watched it in a few months... perhaps another showing is needed!

[Schumin Capote]

I watched "Orion: The Man Who Would Be King" last night. I don't want to spoil too much about this, but it is about a singer who would neither confirm nor deny that he was Elvis returning after faking his own death. I'm really surprised I hadn't heard of this before and it would make an amazing Dollop.

[Ambious]

I know that voice - a documentary about voice actors in cartoons and video games. A fun watch, with some cool people.
James Randi: An Honest Liar - about famous magician and skeptic James Randi, who set it as a life goal to expose frauds and pseudoscience perpetrators.

[Digital Walnut]

I've really been enjoying BBC's The Hunt so far. In case you need another excuse to watch a David Attenborough series, the cinematography is amazing.

Some of my own camerawork will be featured on the BBC and PBS in January. It's airing in England as The World's Sneakiest Animals and on PBS as Natural Born Hustlers. I shot the segment on Steller's Jays imitating Red-shouldered Hawks to scare off competition for food (which I think will air on the 20th) as well as some of the narration around the redwoods, beaches and bluffs.

[Digital Walnut]

I just watched PBS's The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, a fairly comprehensive history of the organization. Most of what I knew about the Black Panthers I learned piecemeal while growing up in Oakland, so I enjoyed seeing a lot of the key events in chronological order.

[MythosSanta]

On the off chance that anyone here hasn't seen Crumb, please please do so.

I second this. I got the movie on Criterion DVD from Barnes and Nobles and it's fast become one of my favorite movies. It feels like someone decided to chase down an Fplus subject and do a full length film on them. As someone whose read a bit of Crumb's work, it adds another layer to it. That said, the misogyny he exhibits kinda ruins some of his work for me.