Favorite documentaries?

Gates of Heaven

This Is Spinal Tap.

Ken Burns' "Jazz," Radiohead's "Meeting People is Easy," Sigur Ros' "Heima," a film about father-son relationship around the world called "Pop and Me," and "Blair Witch Project."

Hoop Dreams; anything done by Louis Malle; Tokyo-Ga by Wim Wenders; Hearts of Darkness; Burden of Dreams by Les Blank; Capturing the Friedmans; @ In the Mood for Love (the making-of the movie of the same name); Close-Up by Abbas Kiarostami, which is kind of a documentary and kind of a commentary on the nature of film

I just watched Half-Japanese: The Band That Would Be King. It's reignited my love of rock music and turned me onto The Shaggs.

As I've mentioned before on this board, anything by Adam Curtis. "Century of the Self" is his exploration of Freud's theories of psychoanalytics being used by Freud's American nephew to invent PR and consumer society as we know it, and how that's changed the path of history. The best documentary I've ever seen (all 5 hours of it) - called into question almost everything I "know". Fantastic. "Power of Nightmares" is an analysis of the rise of neoconservatism and al-Quaeda and how politics has changed from telling people an ideology will make the world better to trying to tell people their lives are in danger unless they vote for a particular politician. It's very dry, but fascinating and the US networks have all refused to broadcast it. His older works (Pandora's Box and The Mayfair Set) are about the small group of capitalists who heavily influenced the history of the UK in the latter half of the 20th Century, taking it from an almost socialist industrialised nation to a capitalist service provider, starting wars and the like along the way. Probably not that interesting if you're not from the UK or interested in British history. "The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom" is very abstract and personal, Curtis' opinion is that a "cult of individualism" has taken hold of modern society and is turning us all into self-obsessed narcissists who are ultimately unfulfilled and depressed. I wouldn't watch it without having seen his other work, though. I don't necessarily agree with everything Curtis says, and his documentaries are heavily influenced by his own strong opinions - up until the point of actually providing a solution to all the problems he identifies, unfortunately. But then, maybe that's left as an exercise for the viewer. They are beautifully researched and made. They also provide enough information for an informed viewer to come up with their own opinion which is, to me, the sign of a well-made documentary (Mr Spurlock and Mr Moore should take note...) PS. Most of the Adam Curtis documentaries are up on Google Video for free...

Harlan County, USA
Decline of Western Civilization
Brother's Keeper
Gimme Shelter

and many more I can't think of....

The Story of the Weeping Camel

40 year old virgin

One Day in September

On this we can agree. I give it 11 stars.

Ken Burns "Civil War"

American Hardcore

Mayor of Sunset Strip

Sounds of Underground London

Red Dawn








but seriously, I'd say Pumping Iron.