Best documentaries you have seen

Boom_Bap

Laois_Man wrote: »

It's actually Called "The Seven Five" isn't it.

That is a good documentary but not hugely different to many episodes of The FBI Files on the Investigation Discovery channel

I've seen it named a few different things! But if you search for any of em in Netflix it comes up.

MRnotlob606

The Thin Blue Line.

Doogs27

Three sports docs, 1. Four days in October (baseball) 2. The price of gold (Olympic ice skating) 3. The two Escobars (football/columbia under escobar. Basically anything on ESPNs 30 for 30 series.

Doogs27

Doogs27 wrote: »

Three sports docs, 1. Four days in October (baseball) 2. The price of gold (Olympic ice skating) 3. The two Escobars (football/columbia under escobar. Basically anything on ESPNs 30 for 30 series.

Catching Hell is good. As is Tim Richmond: To The Limit.

Wall of Death, about early attempts on the North Face of the Eiger, is very good.

AudreyHepburn

Anything by David Attenborough - whether he actually wrote the program or is simply narrating it the moment I hear his voice I will stop what I'm doing and sit down to watch.

I was introduced to him by my Dad when I was about 8 or 9 through Life On Earth and have been a huge fan ever since.

The way he speaks makes you hang to every word and want to know what he's going to say next and I love how makes his narrative into a story, giving whatever creature he is talking about a personality.

And the shots used in his programs are never anything short of breath taking.

laoch na mona

Éire Fhiáin, TG4's planet earth is pretty good as well. It's on their web player

razorblunt

Doogs27 wrote: »

Three sports docs, 1. Four days in October (baseball) 2. The price of gold (Olympic ice skating) 3. The two Escobars (football/columbia under escobar. Basically anything on ESPNs 30 for 30 series.

Agreed, a good rule of thumb for a 30 for 30 episode, is to not read the synopsis, just sit down and watch. I've often though I wouldn't be interested in a particular episode due to not having an interest in that particular sport. I've been wrong every time.

Boom_Bap

Doogs27 wrote: »

Three sports docs, 1. Four days in October (baseball) 2. The price of gold (Olympic ice skating) 3. The two Escobars (football/columbia under escobar. Basically anything on ESPNs 30 for 30 series.

If you are looking for Basketball docs, the 2 I'd recommend are:

1 In A Billion - About an Indian trying to break into the NBA

and

Iverson - Doc about Allen Iverson who should have been on par with Jordan, but never reached that high.

gimli2112

Doogs27 wrote: »

Three sports docs, 1. Four days in October (baseball) 2. The price of gold (Olympic ice skating) 3. The two Escobars (football/columbia under escobar. Basically anything on ESPNs 30 for 30 series.

Seen a good few of these just went on to Wiki to see which one really stood out for me. Four Days in October was brilliant. Had a list of about 15 so I'll just post the link and leave the best 5 I've seen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_for_30

Kings Ransom
The U
The Best that Never Was
Catching Hell
The Announcement
You don't know Bo
The 85 Bears
Survive and advance


Dammit couldn't cut this down to 5.

Chain Smoker

Boom_Bap wrote: »

If you are looking for Basketball docs, the 2 I'd recommend are:

1 In A Billion - About an Indian trying to break into the NBA

and

Iverson - Doc about Allen Iverson who should have been on par with Jordan, but never reached that high.

Iverson is by Steve James too, who has directed several amazing documentaries.
Iverson isn't even his best one about basketball!

fiachr_a

Do I not like that (not its real title), about England's failed World Cup campaign in 1994. Real-life Mike Bassett.

Doogs27

gimli2112 wrote: »

Seen a good few of these just went on to Wiki to see which one really stood out for me. Four Days in October was brilliant. Had a list of about 15 so I'll just post the link and leave the best 5 I've seen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_for_30

Kings Ransom
The U
The Best that Never Was
Catching Hell
The Announcement
You don't know Bo
The 85 Bears
Survive and advance


Dammit couldn't cut this down to 5.

I take it back.... survive and advance.....powerful stuff! Non sports would find it hard not to be engrossed.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Any good Irish ones like the Sophie Tuscan case?

Doogs27

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Any good Irish ones like the Sophie Tuscan case?

Yeah, like all these making a murderer, the jynx, shadow of truth are produced brilliantly. You would think there would be some intriguing stories to be told, Catherine nevin etc.

razorblunt

razorblunt wrote: »

Agreed, a good rule of thumb for a 30 for 30 episode, is to not read the synopsis, just sit down and watch. I've often though I wouldn't be interested in a particular episode due to not having an interest in that particular sport. I've been wrong every time.

Yeah, the 2 I mentioned were about baseball and Nascar, would never watch either but the sport was almost incidental to the tragedy in each.

Never watch basketball either, but found the battle between Reggie Miller and the Knicks fascinating, think it's called Winning Time.

As I like American Football, I enjoyed The U, You Don't Know Bo, the Best That Never Was, Run Ricky Run etc.

Sam Kade

RTE had an interesting documentary around 10 years ago about a Cork man claiming to be related to a rich deceased Savannah woman.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/dna-tests-fail-to-link-us-millionaire-and-cork-businessman-1.1150298

Chancer3001

There was a documentary I saw years ago about rural China. Followed an elderly man with 3 daughters whos wife had died.

The local farmers bullied him a little and he was devastated he had no sons. One scene the locals chop the head off his goat cos his goat ate their crops....

Anybody ever see this?

tinpib

Doogs27 wrote: »

Yeah, like all these making a murderer, the jynx, shadow of truth are produced brilliantly. You would think there would be some intriguing stories to be told, Catherine nevin etc.

After the huge success of Making a Murderer I imagine lots of documentary film makers sitting on 10s or 100s of hours of footage probably approached distributors or folks like Netlfix/HBO/BBC looking for money to finish them.

i think we will see a lot more of this type of show, long form doc, or documentary series come out.

I wonder myself are there any Irish filmmakers sitting on footage who don't have money to finish it?

A good example is the Mary Boyle doc done by Gemma O'Doherty that was only released on YouTube as criminally no one gave Gemma money or platform to get the doc out there.

She did a fantastic job on no-budget, she deserved to get more money for it

moneymad

Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States

SpaceCowb0y

I watched "The Barkley Marathons" on Netflix last night, well worth a watch! Absolute madness from the race itself right down to the people who organise it and a sheer show of mental and physical strength and determination by all the people who take part in it.

Outlaw Pete

Just finished watching all six parts (45mins each) of 'Is OJ Innocent?' . It's well worth watching.

It's basically a docu asking if there is any truth to the conspiracy theory that Jason Simpson actually was the one that killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, but rather than just focus on William C. Dear's theory, as other docus have done, this one actually puts the "evidence" to Detective Tom Lange and allows him a rebuttal.

A lot of the interactions between the hosts / investigators is a little dramatized for presentation but it actually works quite well as you can tell their views are genuine despite that. There are also interviews with Fred Goldman, Denise Brown, Kato Kaelin, some jurors, "witnesses", Jason's friends, co-workers etc, along also with some video footage which I haven't seen show up in any other docus before.

Tbh I thought I'd be a little jaded re: the whole OJ thing after The People vs OJ and the recent OJ: Made In America but I actually really enjoyed it. 4 hours or so flew by. It's narrated by Martin Sheen also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Puonm_Fgw

LeBash

Telstar about the life of Joe Meek.

dublinman1990

Citroen2cv wrote: »

Cosmos.
The original was narrated by Carl Sagan and the remake by Neil degrasse Tyson. This should be compulsory watching in school.

I have the remake called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey on Blu-ray. It has 4 discs inside. I got it cheap for €11 from HMV two years ago & haven't watched it yet. I must get a chance to see it as it has gotten great reviews online.

You can get the set on either DVD or Blu-ray on Amazon or HMV, Tower Records or Golden Discs if you're lucky.

NIMAN

As much as these doc's are all from big TV channels etc, I remember seeing an Irish one about 10 years ago, can't remember if it was Rte, tv3 or whatever, but it was about 2 old farming brothers who lived alone.

One of them died and then it transpires that he had a daughter through some relationship many years before, and she comes back to claim the farm, and you end up heartbroken for the remaining farmer. Very sad.

Anyone know the name of it?
Only thing I remember of the title was that 'land' was in it.

Outlaw Pete

Townlands - The Brothers.

From memory I believe some of the footage was originally aired as part of a different programme.

Nerdlingr

PARALLEL WORLDS, PARALLEL LIVES

Saw this a few years back and loved it. Nice short documentary.

https://vimeo.com/58603054

The BAFTA and RTS Award-winning documentary PARALLEL WORLDS, PARALLEL LIVES follows the lead singer of US rock band EELS, MARK OLIVER EVERETT, on his journey of discovery across America to learn about the father he never knew, HUGH EVERETT III, the quantum physicist author of the Parallel Universe theory.

mrsdewinter

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Townlands - The Brothers.

From memory I believe some of the footage was originally aired as part of a different programme.

That sounds fascinating. I'd love to see that, tbh.

gerrybbadd

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Just finished watching all six parts (45mins each) of 'Is OJ Innocent?' . It's well worth watching.

It's basically a docu asking if there is any truth to the conspiracy theory that Jason Simpson actually was the one that killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, but rather than just focus on William C. Dear's theory, as other docus have done, this one actually puts the "evidence" to Detective Tom Lange and allows him a rebuttal.

A lot of the interactions between the hosts / investigators is a little dramatized for presentation but it actually works quite well as you can tell their views are genuine despite that. There are also interviews with Fred Goldman, Denise Brown, Kato Kaelin, some jurors, "witnesses", Jason's friends, co-workers etc, along also with some video footage which I haven't seen show up in any other docus before.

Tbh I thought I'd be a little jaded re: the whole OJ thing after The People vs OJ and the recent OJ: Made In America but I actually really enjoyed it. 4 hours or so flew by. It's narrated by Martin Sheen also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Puonm_Fgw

Thank you for this. I've watched the first 4 parts over the last 4 nights, and it is riveting stuff. I've just finished watching the OJ mini series on Netflix, so it is a good follow up

Jawgap

Loved Ken Burns' documentary about the Civil War......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGQ1tJP_26A

nelly17

Russia Putin and the west I think BBC made it

It was done over 4 hour long episodes - this looks to be an consolidation of all 4