As an alternative if you have suggestions for documentary sources please do share them.
Mine would be United States of Secrets by PBS Frontline.
LEMMiNO is also great! One of the best documentary makers ever!
- Burden of Dreams
- Cats of Mirikitani
- Tickled +1
- The Hermit of Treig
- Free Solo
- Into Eternity: A Film for the Future
- Bureau 39: Kim’s Cash Machine
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi
- The Silence of Others
- Palio
- The Ambassador
- The Babushkas of Chernobyl
- The Act of Killing
- The Kingmaker
- Grande Hotel (2010)
- He Dreams of Giants
- HyperNormalisation +1
- The Extraordinary Voyage (2011)
- The Power of Nightmares
- Feng ai ('Til Madness Do Us Part)
- The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (maybe my all-time favorite)
- Dear Zachary (IT WILL RUIN YOUR DAY, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED)
- I Think We’re Alone Now
And reiterating all of the Adam Curtis recommendations. I especially like HyperNormalisation. I don’t know of anything else like his documentaries.
Searching for sugarman
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Wow, thank you for the list sir! this list… is totally hidden gem for me who’s know nothing about many documentary movies.
I”ve watched all Curtis’ stuff apart from TraumaZone and I couldn’t agree more. I watched the first episode of that one a couple of night ago, I’m still processing.
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I put it off because there’s no narration in TraumaZone, just captions but it works so well.
- Dominion
- Cowspiracy
- What the Health
- The Game Changers
- Forks Over Knives
- That Sugar Film
Plenty of others, but there’s a theme here.
The Ken Burns documentary series on the Vietnam War is excellent. Probably the best documentary I’ve seen.
That one was really outstanding. I’ve seen it twice completely.
Shiny Happy People Victim/Suspect Invisible war Lularich Keep Sweet Pray and Obey Wild wild country
Here, take theae: ,
I recently watched, “Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone” and greatly enjoyed it.
It’s about what it was like to live in the Soviet Union at the end of communism and then the end of democracy. The story is entirely told with footage from the time.
I’d like to also recommend my two favorite documentaries about labor unions, Harlan County, USA and American Dream.
Fed Up
Good way to know how truly messed the food industry is because of the lobbying from the sugar industry
‘Kiss the Ground’
Adam Curtis, HyperNormalisation (2016)
‘It argues that governments, financiers, and technological utopians have, since the 1970s, given up on the complex “real world” and built a simpler “fake world” run by corporations and kept stable by politicians.’
Koyaanisqatsi, while not a traditional documentary, is a truly fascinating time capsule featuring a great soundtrack from Phillip Glass. It’s all images/video with no dialog or voiceover. It’s a unique experience (especially in an altered state of mind)
I’m surprised not to see this one anywhere on the list:
Planet Earth
And I saw one recommendation, and want to second:
Free Solo
Planet Earth is just an absolutely stunning visual spectacle showcasing nature at it’s most beautiful. And Free Solo had me glued to my seat like no other documentary that I’ve ever watched. Alex Honnold’s brain is just wired differently, so he has no fear rock climbing without a harness or a rope up an insanely difficult vertical climb of El Capitan.
Dark Side of the Moon It seems like it is about how the moon landing was faked … watch until the end because it is actually about something much more important
Closer to the Edge - Available on youtube for free, and is a glimpse inside the madness of the Isle of Man TT. I am not a huge fan of motorsports, but this is a fantastic and epic watch that follows a bunch of rides in the run up and through the TT.
