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!
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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.
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.
- 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.
- 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)
Dick Proenneke - Alone in the Wilderness
This isn’t so much a documentary as it is a video blog, but it’s so worth it.
Recorded back in the late 1960s it is a self documented story of one man moving to remote Alaska and building a cabin/homestead in that untamed wilderness.
I cannot recommend this enough. It’s thoughtful, peaceful, and heartwarming.
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)
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.’
- Dominion
- Cowspiracy
- What the Health
- The Game Changers
- Forks Over Knives
- That Sugar Film
Plenty of others, but there’s a theme here.
Sick Around the World, a PBS Frontline documentary, is a good one for Americans. Comparing healthcare systems in multiple countries.
Searching for sugarman
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Second this, it’s amazing. I also like: Food inc PBS circus History of the bbs Brick city
Mister Organ, by the same guy, was also a wild ride.
Tickled blew me away!
Dirty Wars is a 2013 American documentary film about American foreign policies and war crimes. It was the first time that I heard about their manipulations, wars and assassinations.
Mine was 9/11 because it was obvious the official story was ridiculous and literally impossible.
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.
If you like sports, Ballon sur Bitume: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhW2CwKXsfE
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.
