My favorites:

1. The Last Waltz- Film about the last concert The Band ever played. Great music, great concert scenes, great commentary. 5/5

2. No Direction Home- Not a surprise seeing as Bob Dylan is my idol. Either way, great film going very in depth into his life, along with some great concert scenes. Only drawback is its 4 hour running time. 4.5/5

Thin Blue Line
Hoop Dreams

Documentaries are one of my favorite genres.



1) Winged Migration

2) Spellbound

3) The Big One

4) Hoop Dreams

5) Just, Melvin: Just Evil

6) Gizzly Man

7) 20 Dates

8) Small Wonders

9) Bowling for Columbine

10) When We Were Kings

11) Night and Fog

12) Murderball

13) Waco: The Rules of Engagement

Hoop Dreams is a great film.

The Last Waltz is the shit.

GK I know you like Dylan, so you gotta see Don't Look Back if you haven't yet. It's a documentary about his concert tour in 1965 ('66 maybe) where he is first playing electric, and it's pretty much just awesome. Dylan is hilarious and is a complete asshole to all these reporters, and there are some other great scenes of him onstage and playing backstage or in his hotel.


Other documentaries I've liked:

Winged Migration - Yeah Brvheart, this is pretty much the coolest nature movie ever made.

Roger & Me - Michael Moore's first documentary

When We Were Kings - documentary about 'The Rumble in the Jungle,' Muhammed Ali vs George Foreman in Zaire in 1974. Pretty much the best sports movie ever made. The fight itself is incredible, with Ali using the "rope-a-dope" against his heavily-favored opponent.

Best line (taken from IMDB) -

Ali: I done something new for this fight! I done rassled with a alligator! That's right, I have rassled with a alligator. I done tussled with a whale! I done handcuffed lightning, throwed thunder in jail! That's *bad*. Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I'm so mean, I make medicine sick!

Hoop Dreams!

Roger and me was very good, but I liked The Big One and Bowling for Columbine better.

I agree with most on here.

Hoop Dreams was very good
Grizzly Man is very good and very disturbing
Roger and Me, I enjoyed
Bowling for Colombine: was very good
F-9/11- I liked it
When We Were Kings- very good


I also like some of the HBO specials, not documentaries so much, but very good.

The Ground Zero one about the Yanks in the WS in 2001 was good
Hitlers Pawn was interesting, concerning the 1936 games and one female highjumper.

Yea, can't remember any other ones I found as interesting.

Here's one that was very, very good and also extremely disturbing:

Capturing The Friedmans

if anyone hasn't seen the fog of war, then they need to right now. Robert McNamera is one of the more interesting men to have ever lived and we get great insight into what went on during the kennedy and johnson administrations

I thought is was fine. I have some problems with it, obviously... but it was infinitely better than F-9/11.

It would have been even better if either kid actually made the NBA.

I don't agree with that.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

edit: there's a documentary i heard about that's about the Rolling Stones concert in San Francisco when the Hell's Angels were security for the show and they ended up stabbing someone or a couple someone's. can't remember the name, never saw it but heard it's really good. anyone familiar with this?

I love love love roger and me, it's such a personal movie. THe big one is funnier, but it reminded me of an extended version of his old TV show ( Which was great) called TV NAtion. After Far. 9/11, I kind of swore him off, and haven't seen his last two movies. 9/11 was such a shameless propaganda piece, that I really lost interest in him as a film maker.


Man on a wire is amazing, a completely fresh style of doing a documentary story.

Tyson- probably because I just saw it, but I thought it was very well made, and a very compelling story. I basically have no memories of a world without mike tyson.. when I was a kid, he was like the face of death, the unstoppable force. people forget how fast and powerful he was, because he became such a sideshow. very compelling

The trials of Henry Kissenger. This movie made me so angry.. I ended up playing poker afterward, and I was on tilt from watching this movie, and ended up losing my ass ( relatively speaking, it was only a live 2-4 o-8 game.).

Planet Earth ( not really a movie, but it pwns).

This Is Spinal Tap

Spread out among my queue:

A/K/A Tommy Chong
American Masters: Andy Warhol
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Philosophy of a Knife
Picasso: Magic, Sex, Death
Billy The Kid
War Made Easy
D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
Encounters at the End of the World
Man on Wire
The Garden
Tyson
Trouble the Water
Bustin' Down the Door



huh, I guess I enjoy documentaries.

I saw a great documentary during a film festival in Olympia, Called " the Mystery of Picasso, which if you have a chance, you should check out. It show Picasso making paintings in real time.. showing you the master at work. The paintings were then destroyed, so they exist only in film.


Another great documentary is A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory... it's about this woman search to find out about her uncle, who'd commited suicide after spending time at the warhol factory ( he ended up walking out into the ocean and drowning). It has lots of great interviews with members of the factory today.. and shows them just to be these petty, absurd, awful people. It's fascinating.

Who cares!? NOT ME!! You don't have to agree with every opinion that I have for me to feel cool! *runs away crying*



I understand completely why you say that, I just have a differing opinion on that particular topic.

Added both and the Picasso film sounds fantastic. It's been bumped up towards the top of the order.

King of Kong

It's a film about championship Donkey Kong players. Loved it.

Sorrow and the Pity

It's a six hour documentary set in the Vichy region, talking to villagers who lived (and some collaborated) during the occupation. It's a study in how cruel and thoughtless human beings can be.

Valentino

I recently caught it, it's downloadable on the XBox/Netflix partnership. It's not my favorite documentary, but it has a lot of things I love to see in movies. It gave a close view of the creative process. Valentino is a man, and a brand. The brand is a publicly owned commodity, and the movie showed this great tension with Valentino, and how he's reacting to not owning his name. (Yes, he's still the guy, but if you're the company who owns the name, how do you remain loyal to the guy, while also looking for ways to continue the brand without the man, like Chanel?)

I really want to see the king of kong

King of Kong was awesome and it made me want to punch the "villain" in the face.

I heard he unironically wears a cape. Confirm/deny.

Ha, I saw this a long time ago and I don't remember him wearing a cape, but it sounds like him.

Denied.

He does exclusively wear different red, white, and blue neck ties. And I think he has a mullet, as well. (Are the parts greater than the sum? Do those two things equal a cape?)

The staircase

for football fans, the last game is totally amazing.

Also, I'm looking forward to the new documentary about Lebron's team when he was a senior.

He's sort of the Phil Hellmuth of Donkey Kong. It's very amusing, if a bit overrated. I recommend.

That is because, and take no offense when I say this, you're a dumbass.

Anyone have a download link for Just, Melvin: Just Evil? It sounds hot as balls.

It's absolutely incredible. They actually show footage of the guy's funeral with his daughters pissing on his grave. Scouts honor.

ROGER EBERT:
...our next movie is one of the angriest, most painful documentaries I have ever seen--and it's one of the best. It's titled "Just, Melvin" It debuts on HBO cable in two weeks, and it tells the story of a man named Melvin Just, who as a husband, father, stepfather and grandfather repeatedly committed incest and violent abuse against almost every single member of his family. The story is told by two of the survivors: his daughter, Ann Marie, and her son, James Ronald Whitney, who directed the film.

[SHOW CLIP FROM THE MOVIE]

ROGER EBERT:
As family members the filmmakers have access to everyone involved, including Melvin's wife, who was Ann's mother and stood by while abuse took place.

[SHOW CLIP FROM THE MOVIE]

ROGER EBERT:
The litany of incest and abuse continues, as we see a family devastated by this man. And what is incredible is that the filmmaker actually confronts Melvin Just himself, and he talks to him on camera.

[SHOW CLIP FROM THE MOVIE]

ROGER EBERT:
There are a lot of movies about abuse, but very rarely do you get to confront the abuser in person on the screen...This moie is one of those incredible documentaries you can barely imagine being made. Its story is horrifying, and the testimony of the survivors, including James Whitney and his mother Ann, is both grave and inconsolable. What's liberating is they actually confront their molester, and they nail him right on camera. The name of the documentary is "Just, Melvin" It will play twice on HBO, starting April 22nd. You have never seen anything like it...the movie is so amazing: it shows a history, a multigenerational history of abuse in which this one person in this family--without any resources or any escape hatch--was just able to impose his evil will year after year after year...I thought it was really powerful.

You post all this. And yet you make no motions to facilitate my gratis viewing. I submit you stand to somehow profit from this. I don't like to be baited, **********.

The marketing tactic of moving his bbq sauce to eye level in the supermarket certainly seems like it would be a hellmuthian move.


Definitely a documentary worth watching.

Holy shit: Timothy Treadwell was 100% fucking crazy. I assumed he was just typical animal-idiot-crazy, but he actually went crazy. Amazing.

You're watching some good movies lately. I especially enjoyed the Letterman segment.

how the **** did I forget "the devil and daniel johnston.
"
My dream festival


Wesley Willis

13th floor elevators

Daniel Johnston

Scott Walker

Jandek

Devil & Daniel Johnston is amazing. DJ is one of the most fascinating people I can think of. (Jandek and Walker are also Dutch-approved, and their documentaries are also something you should check out.)

Similarly awesome is Dutch's biggest hero, Henry Danger. This doc downplays the pedo theories, but is still fascinating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PMBVxJnoPw...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgslg6SL1x4...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wOSspP51BU...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfdZCOLyCoM...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrmHG4aDHbo...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz2wurA4gyo...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgc9MWOwfjQ...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KT6WOvgXnw...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzEcSFmKid4...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9tVuwnO3O0...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1u5msrKT6w...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjVjVjKK6zo...feature=related

Is anybody watching the 30 for 30 series? ESPN is having 30 different directors do a documentary about any particular sports subject they're interested in.

I like the idea, although I didn't watch the first one (King's Ransom, about the Gretzky trade). And the next few ones don't sound interesting either. (I should be a salesman.)

But then some of the best documentaries aren't necessarily about a subject that you're all that interested to begin with.

I watched the king of kong, and I love love loved it.. but I was disappointed to find out that the documentary manipulated the facts in order to make it seem more dramatic.. the million point score that Wiebe sent in via video tape wasn't to break Mullet man's record... it was to break Wiebe's own 2003 record. The Documentary gives you the impression that he was breaking mullet man's record. Wiebe had appeared in national video game competitions in the past, had met Mullet man and even competed against and done interviews with him... Finding out this stuff really burst my bubble about this documentary. I think the subject matter was interesting enough ( and the competitor's weird enough) that they didn't need to manipulate facts like that.

I thought the Gretzky one was good... I'll keep watching.

the Baltimore Colts band doc was great too........really cool idea by espn

Louis Theroux.

The guy has made some fantastic specials for the BBC.

these were my favorites, they are pretty mind blowing.

2.4 "Louis Behind Bars" Louis goes inside California’s San Quentin – one of America's most notorious prisons – to meet serial murderers, gang members, at risk inmates and guards.

2.5 "Louis’ African Hunting Holiday" Louis journeys to Limpopo Province in South Africa to join the holidaymakers who flock there to hunt big game.

2.6 "Law and Disorder in Philadelphia" Louis joins Philadelphia's police department, patrolling an area that has over 400 homicides a year, drug dealers on every corner and where carrying a gun is part of everyday life. But during his time spent with the local cops, he sees a complex picture evolve.

2.7 "Law and Disorder in Johannesburg" Louis Theroux travels to Johannesburg, where the residents find themselves increasingly besieged by crime as he looks at the issue of law and disorder.

Here is the Philadelphia one: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-258794784227132041#

The Johanesbourgh episode is even more disturbing.

I love Louis Theroux. I've seen about 80-90% of his shows. Some of the older ones are really amazing too, and are really really funny, like the one where he goes to the south to learn about gangsta rap, and the one where he goes to NY to learn how to make it as a Broadway actor. The one at the brothel in Nevada was really good too, and they're not just funny, they're incredibly interesting.

For some reason Netflix doesn't have the Theroux specials. Maybe I'm not searching for the right key word.

also


Bigger, Stronger, Faster wasn't as interesting as I had hoped.

My top 3 docs are:

CRUMB about the cartoonist Robert Crumb and his twisted family.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse About Coppola's making of Apocalypse Now.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly Werner Herzog at his best. He later made the movie Rescue Dawn based on Dieter's story.

.

Hope you get a chance to get over to the Hammer Museum. Crumb has a new exhibit there, his illustrated Book of Genesis. It should be spectacular.

Thanks a lot for the info. Just checked out their website. Will go there for sure. Too bad, just missed him "live" on OCT.27...

You have a weird name...WomanDeadChildren? FrenchCarTenChildren? WifeCarTenKids?