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Recommend a Documentary


JamboSpur

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Ken Burns - The Vietnam War 

 

Best documentary I've ever seen. 

 

Spooky soundtrack provided by Trent Reznor Atticus Ross

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Narrow it down a bit, there’s a pretty wide range of subjects. 
They Shall Not Grow Old the Peter Jackson one about WWI using real footage that has been colourised and speed adjusted is an astonishing piece of work. Sadly the only option just new seems to be to buy it on Amazon Prime for £7.99.

WWII In Colour on Netflix is a week made series. 

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Another one that hugely impressed me was Rising Phoenix on Netflix about paralympians. Some remarkable stories and characters. A mix of humour and sadness from them in the interviews. The young Italian woman fencer is incredible. I’d recommend it to anyone even people with no interest in the subject matter and I can’t give a stronger recommendation than that. 

 

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crunchy frog

That three parter about Donald Trump on BBC iPlayer recently was pretty good. Trump takes on the world it's called

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The Seven Five is probably up there with the best I have seen. It's about corruption in the NYPD in the 80s. Absolutely unbelievable. They were the biggest gangsters on the streets at the time. 

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willie wallace

Fear City.The story of the FBI's fight to bring down the Mafia in New York.

When They See Us. Harrowing tale of 5 young guys arrested for rape in Central Park.

Both on Netflix.

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Auld Reekin'

Any of the travel / world-affairs series by Simon Reeves have been very good, as have those by Ben Anderson and Bruce Parry. All three seem to be able to establish a good rapport and to empathise well with those they encounter and come across as likeable, enquiring, and intelligent.

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Wild China (for cultural, natural type stuff. Some stunning scenes)

 

Next Goal Wins 

The other final 

Coach Zoran and his African tigers

(Above three are all niche football documentaries but essentially under dog stories that bridge culture and societies, even non sports fans could appreciate)

 

Tiger king (just for entertainment value, if you havnt already it's every bit as mental as the hype suggests)

 

Season 1 of ancient aliens (maybe a stretch to call it a documentary as it's all about ancient astronaut theories but season one was quite good while they were still initially presenting their madcap ideas)

 

Tried to provide a variety as you didn't specify what kind you like.

 

I like straight up historical stuff etc as well but none immediately sprung to mind.

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1 hour ago, JamboSpur said:

As it says on the tin.

 

 

 

All on Netflix I think except the last 2

 

Series:

Don't **** With Cats

Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

The Devil Next Door

The Pharmacist

Wild Wild Country

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

 

Films:

The Social Dilemma

Tell Me Who I Am

American Murder: The Family Next Door

The Great Hack

Last Breath

Into the Abyss (Prime)

Diego Maradona (Prime)

 

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Riddley Walker
1 hour ago, crunchy frog said:

That three parter about Donald Trump on BBC iPlayer recently was pretty good. Trump takes on the world it's called

 

Norma Percy who made that doc has done some amazing docs over the years about international affairs/conflicts. 

 

The Death of Yugoslavia and Putin, Russia and the West are both stand outs. 

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Discovery+ is doing (or were doing) month for £1 just now with a week free. I've only watched one documentary so far on Jodie Arias, some American woman who killed her ex boyfriend. It was quite good but I practically knew all the story after watching something on YouTube about it. 

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JudyJudyJudy

This is an excellent documentary. Very disturbing .  But well made and won countless awards.  

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JudyJudyJudy
1 hour ago, Jambos_1874 said:

The Diego Maradona one was very good.

That was brillant

49 minutes ago, Ray Gin said:

 

All on Netflix I think except the last 2

 

Series:

Don't **** With Cats

Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

The Devil Next Door

The Pharmacist

Wild Wild Country

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

 

Films:

The Social Dilemma

Tell Me Who I Am

American Murder: The Family Next Door

The Great Hack

Last Breath

Into the Abyss (Prime)

Diego Maradona (Prime)

 

Some great choices there.  " Dont **** with cats"  " " The Killer inside The mind of Aaron Hernandez" were terrific and i really enjoyed ( hesitate to say that word) " The Devil next door" as I find it fascinating when old war criminals sorry suspected war criminals are unearthed.  That documentary was brilliant. 

 

 

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American Factory by Barack Obama' film company... seems extremely boring on the surface but I thought it was brilliant 

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There’s tons of them but this list has most of the best ones. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/g3342/best-documentaries-of-all-time/
 

Hoop Dreams and OJ Made In America are both outstanding and both on iPlayer. For anyone that’s not seen Dear Zachary, it’s amazing but heartbreaking. One not to read about in advance and only to watch once. 

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JudyJudyJudy

Another good one. Free on Youtube too it seems " The Imposter" 2012 

 

 

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Byyy The Light

One that immediately came to mind was about 9/11. One of the first crews on the scene had a tv crew with them as they were filming the story about new recruits coming through the academy and into service. They were following one of the recruits. Was filmed by 2 french brothers.

 

Think it was maybe just called 9/11. 

 

 

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Last Dance is brilliant.

Don't F%%% with cats is really good.

Fyre was OK.

 

Recently finished the Dirty Money series. Really enjoyed the episodes. Jared Kushner comes across as more corrupt than his father in law in his episode. 

 

Other good episodes about Valeant, HSBC and their cartel business, the VW scandal and the crime ridden business of Maple Syrup!!!!

 

 

 

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I've been watching 'Age of Samurai : Battle for Japan' on Netflix tonight. A 6 parter about, funnily enough, the various warring clans in 16th century Japan that eventually led to the unification of the country. It's brutal (in the gory sense) and really interesting if you're at all into Japan or history. 

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18 minutes ago, Jamboross said:

I've been watching 'Age of Samurai : Battle for Japan' on Netflix tonight. A 6 parter about, funnily enough, the various warring clans in 16th century Japan that eventually led to the unification of the country. It's brutal (in the gory sense) and really interesting if you're at all into Japan or history. 

I watched the first episode out of curiosity and ended up binging it over 2 nights. Interesting to see history we know nothing about. 

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JudyJudyJudy
11 hours ago, Zico said:

There’s tons of them but this list has most of the best ones. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/g3342/best-documentaries-of-all-time/
 

Hoop Dreams and OJ Made In America are both outstanding and both on iPlayer. For anyone that’s not seen Dear Zachary, it’s amazing but heartbreaking. One not to read about in advance and only to watch once. 

Made in America was brilliant as sss hoop dreams . Great recommendations . Thanks for link to that list too 

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13 hours ago, been here before said:

The World At War.

Undoubtedly my favourite of all time  Great shout.

 

Still being shown on Yesterday channel for anyone that hasn't seen it.

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JudyJudyJudy
5 minutes ago, JamesM48 said:

Made in America was brilliant as sss hoop dreams . Great recommendations . Thanks for link to that list too 

Loads of great ones on that link from. Previous poster .” When we were kings “ grey gardens “ and “ Amy “ about any winehouse which is very moving . What a talent she was ad sorely missed . God bless her . 

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Just now, JamesM48 said:

Loads of great ones on that link from. Previous poster .” When we were kings “ grey gardens “ and “ Amy “ about any winehouse which is very moving . What a talent she was ad sorely missed . God bless her . 

The Amy Winehouse one was heartbreaking. So sad. Huge talent.

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JudyJudyJudy
3 minutes ago, GinRummy said:

The Amy Winehouse one was heartbreaking. So sad. Huge talent.

Yeah it really was . Poor woman really . All that talent and money and still seemed deeply unhappy . Think she had a lot of low self esteem regarding her looks and her talent it seems . It was a real shock and reminder to people to be careful of u drink and are off it for a good while to be careful when you restart as she basically over dosed on alcohol as her body wasn’t used to the high level she consumed . It’s quite a taboo subject , women alcoholics , particularly young women 

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mrmarkus1981

I hope this thread has longevity, i love a documentary :)

 

Ive watched 'Into The Abyss' and 'Capturing the Friedmans' already today.

 

Both very good. Those Friedmans are oddballs like!!!!!!

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Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (Disney+)

Anything by Louis Theroux (lots on Netflix)

Grizzly Man (Prime)

The Mole (iPlayer)

Icarus (Netflix)

 

Might be harder to find but worth watching if you can source them:

Project Nim

Bus 174

Marley

Touching the Void

Restrepo

Man on Wire

Senna

News from a Personal War

 

 

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JudyJudyJudy
3 hours ago, Ray Gin said:

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (Disney+)

Anything by Louis Theroux (lots on Netflix)

Grizzly Man (Prime)

The Mole (iPlayer)

Icarus (Netflix)

 

Might be harder to find but worth watching if you can source them:

Project Nim

Bus 174

Marley

Touching the Void

Restrepo

Man on Wire

Senna

News from a Personal War

 

 

Touching the void was terrific

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6 minutes ago, jonesy said:

Ken Burns' series on The American Civil War: https://youtu.be/KlseQlnk3R8

 

His series on Prohibition was also great.

 

I love American history.

 

You can pretty much say any Ken Burns. His country music one was great as was his jazz one though it felt a bit rushed once it hit the mid 60’s. 

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been here before
24 minutes ago, Tazio said:

You can pretty much say any Ken Burns. His country music one was great as was his jazz one though it felt a bit rushed once it hit the mid 60’s. 

 

His Dust Bowl series was brilliant as was his previously mentioned Vietnam 10 parter.

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mrmarkus1981
On 03/03/2021 at 18:32, Salad Fingers said:

The Seven Five is probably up there with the best I have seen. It's about corruption in the NYPD in the 80s. Absolutely unbelievable. They were the biggest gangsters on the streets at the time. 

 

This was my third of the day, tremendous. Definitely worth a watch

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On 03/03/2021 at 19:54, Ray Gin said:

Don't **** With Cats

 

This was proper mental. Think I sat up til about 3am to watch it all as I got hooked which isn't like me. People said Tiger King was even more mental than this when it came out, but it really wasn't. This pissed all over Tiger King.

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luckyBatistuta
On 03/03/2021 at 19:54, Ray Gin said:

 

All on Netflix I think except the last 2

 

Series:

Don't **** With Cats

Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

The Devil Next Door

The Pharmacist

Wild Wild Country

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

 

Films:

The Social Dilemma

Tell Me Who I Am

American Murder: The Family Next Door

The Great Hack

Last Breath

Into the Abyss (Prime)

Diego Maradona (Prime)

 

I was really enjoying the Hotel Cecil one, but after such a good start, it all fell a bit flat for me.

 

Maradona one was excellent viewing.

 

On 03/03/2021 at 20:50, Phage said:

American Factory by Barack Obama' film company... seems extremely boring on the surface but I thought it was brilliant 

 

Forgot about this, a really interesting watch. Stumbled across it and just couldn’t stop watching.

 


 

Recently watched Fear City, if anyone hasn’t seen it yet, you won’t be disappointed.

 

My favourite movie documentary is Senna, watched it on the plane to Florida. Folk must have been looking at me wondering who the crazy guy was, bubbled like a baby. 
 

Almost forgot, also cried watching Seve, another must see.

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1 minute ago, luckyBatistuta said:

I was really enjoying the Hotel Cecil one, but after such a good start, it all fell a bit flat for me.

 

[spoiler]I thought it had quite an important message in the end about the damage that "internet experts" can cause through spreading their nutjob theories around.[/spoiler]

 

 

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One of the problems, and I blame Netflix for this, is that too many are too long. Something that could be a really interesting one or two episode thing is now stretched out to a 6 part series. Works fine when you have something like the Ken Burns ones mentioned that cover an entire history of a subject. Now you get six episodes about one event. 

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11 minutes ago, luckyBatistuta said:

I was really enjoying the Hotel Cecil one, but after such a good start, it all fell a bit flat for me.

 

Maradona one was excellent viewing.

 

 

Forgot about this, a really interesting watch. Stumbled across it and just couldn’t stop watching.

 


 

Recently watched Fear City, if anyone hasn’t seen it yet, you won’t be disappointed.

 

My favourite movie documentary is Senna, watched it on the plane to Florida. Folk must have been looking at me wondering who the crazy guy was, bubbled like a baby. 
 

Almost forgot, also cried watching Seve, another must see.

If you want a good greet then you have to watch Rising Phoenix that I mentioned earlier. Happy greeting though. 

Edited by Tazio
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luckyBatistuta
8 minutes ago, Ray Gin said:

 

[spoiler]I thought it had quite an important message in the end about the damage that "internet experts" can cause through spreading their nutjob theories around.[/spoiler]

 

 

Not really

1 minute ago, Tazio said:

One of the problems, and I blame Netflix for this, is that too many are too long. Something that could be a really interesting one or two episode thing is now stretched out to a 6 part series. Works fine when you have something like the Ken Burns ones mentioned that cover an entire history of a subject. Now you get six episodes about one event. 

Agree, could easily half some of them

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luckyBatistuta
1 minute ago, Tazio said:

If you want a good greet then you have to watch Rising Phoenix that I mentioned earlier. Happy greeting though. 

I bubble at anything and everything bud, big woos

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Just now, luckyBatistuta said:

I bubble at anything and everything bud, big woos

Ha, I was getting a bit emotional just watching the trailer I posted as it brought back the memories of watching it. 

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