The Best Documentary You've Ever Seen

[thylasos]

Stephen Fry's "The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive" was exceptionally illuminating.

The Story of the Weeping Camel was also beautiful.

 

[wandererbkb]

Man on Wire. Going for a stroll between the world trade towers. It was nice to see an uplifting documentary featuring them.

No End in sight. How things went wrong in Iraq.

 

[sarah78]

heres a couple of excellent documentaries that really moved me and made me think about life....

For all mankind (1989) > http://www.docmasters.tv/index.php?/topic/2604-for-all-mankind-1989/

TV junkie (2006) > http://www.docmasters.tv/index.php?/topic/2328-tv-junkie-2006/

Domestic violence (2001) > http://www.docmasters.tv/index.php?/topic/2347-domestic-violence-2001/

 

[Antari]

What the bleep do we know, down the rabbit hole. Is definately thought provoking.

 

[BENZOOKA]

There are so many of those. BBC Horizon's Beyond Infinity is the first good one to come to mind.

 

[similar.squirrel]

I can't recall the name, but there was one Attenborough documentary about plants that was breathtaking.
Apart from that..I loved Blue Planet, What the Green Movement Got Wrong and Alien Planet.

 

[Da Joz]

Definitely "American Movie".

 

[Hero in a half shell]

The Steve Irwin documentary on Komodo dragons was incredidble. I saw it years ago and can still remember him crouching down outside their hole/nest thing, with all the dragons hissing at him, and him shouting to the camera "They're really really angry now... I'm going to see if I can get closer!" He was just amazingly brash and fearless, and then the dragon gave chase, him, his guide and the cameraman took off running and escaped up a tree, so they're stuck up this tree with an angry Komodo dragon below them, and Steve Irwin shows the cameraman where the dragon bit into his shoe, the local guide tells him "ohh, thats a sign of good luck"

That was a breathtakingly insane documentary.

 

[Garrsus]

march of the penguins

for the sole reason i love penguins.

 

[skips]

Spoiler: As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

Spoiler: Crumb

 

[Blitzwarp]

Walking With Dinosaurs: First aired on the Discovery Channel

Wait, what? WWD was a BBC production, wasn't it?

Anyway, best documentary for me, hands-down, is Planet Earth. It literally tells me everything I want to know about the world I live on, as well as a few interesting titbits and our place in the universe. Although it did make me feel a little...er, small. And insignificant. lol.

 

[Nemu]

Planet Earth and Life are amazing.

I also "loved" the 2 docs about The West Memphis Three:
Paradise Lost [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost:_The_Child_Murders_at_Robin_Hood_Hills] and Paradise Lost 2 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost_2:_Revelations]

Sadly, I've been following those cases since I saw the first documentary. Those guys got such a horribly raw deal. :/

 

[Slenn]

Walking With Dinosaurs: First aired on the Discovery Channel

Wait, what? WWD was a BBC production, wasn't it?

Anyway, best documentary for me, hands-down, is Planet Earth. It literally tells me everything I want to know about the world I live on, as well as a few interesting titbits and our place in the universe. Although it did make me feel a little...er, small. And insignificant. lol.

When I first watched it, it was aired on the Discovery Channel and it had the british narration in it. I knew sometime later after it was made that it was a BBC not a DC production.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Pretty much any documentaries by David Attenborough (Blue Planet, Planet Earth and etc). I also didn't enjoy this documentary called The Katana - Soul of the Samurai and also this one base around Sholin Monks (I forgot what it's called). Oh I also love watching Wild China when it air on tv.

 

[Yarpie]

I really liked Bowling for Columbine, it was the first documentary that really grabbed me and made me feel some intense emotions.

On a slightly more cheerful note, I absolutely love "7 Ages of Rock". Filled to the brim with interesting facts, personal stories and of course some great music!

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Iron Maiden's Flight 666, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (both done by the same bloke), BBC's Horizon series (I've never seen a bad one), the new one about Lemmy, and Anvil: The Story Of Anvil.

The Story Of Anvil is basically Spinal Tap, but it's real. It's quite depressing, but it's a brilliant documentary.

 

[Trivun]

I'm not usually a massive fan of documentaries, though I do tend to find them quite interesting. One that I really liked though was something on the History Channel (UK) about ancient weapons of war. I forget what the series was called (but if I remember I'd love to track down older episodes online and watch them at some point), but the basic premise was that each episode focused on the history and use of a particular weapon, like bow-and-arrow, swords, spears, halberds, etc. The episode I saw most of was about the sword, and it charted the history of how it was used in battle, explaining why very few soldiers had them in most medieval battles (tending to use spears and pikes instead for close-in work) and how they only became available to the majority of troops (other than the more elite soldiers) when steel became cheaper and easier to produce in the Middle Ages. Swords were still used in battle even up to the times of European imperial domination (even as near as the end of the 1800s), according to the documentary. All this was interspersed with bits where the narrator learned how to use a sword properly, including teaching a bunch of teenagers at a special 'sword school', where they learned basic sword drill, why most troops never wore armour in battle (answer - it's fucking heavy and boiling hot) and opted for the weaker chainmail instead, and eventually took part in a mock sword battle where they put their new skills to the test.

All in all, a very interesting documentary, and if I could remember the name of the series I'd find it and watch it again at some point. If anyone knows what series I'm talking about then please, let me know .

 

[Magicman10893]

The Union: The Business Behind Getting High

A documentary about the history of Marijuana and the legality of it. They also delve into showing how drug dealers, smugglers and growers operate and how the world could be a better place if it were legal.

 

[dark_seraph]

Food, Inc. It may just be because it's the most recent I've seen. I really enjoyed Supersize Me too.