Have you seen any good documentaries lately?
Asked by
jca2 (
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December 26th, 2021
I’m a fan of documentaries and I keep a list of suggestions that look interesting, and I keep a list of ones I’ve seen.
A good one I saw recently was “Life of Crime-1984–2020” which followed the lives of heroin addicts in Newark for that time period. It showed their crimes, their health, their families, everything.
Another fun one was “Heavy Metal Parking Lot” which was from the early 80’s and it was an amateur film of Judas Priest fans who were going to the concert, taken in the parking lot. It reminded me of people I hung out with when I was in high school. The film is now a cult classic and follow ups have been done, “where are they now” and stuff like that.
Have you seen any good ones lately?
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I love them too. I saw one on Farrah Fawcett the other day. That woman had some grit to her, and she was very intelligent.
Grey Gardens The story of the Beales, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy.
@anniereborn: I just saw Grey Gardens a few weeks ago, then I saw the follow up to it, and then I saw the prequel which was done by Jackie’s sister. Then I bought the book from Amazon, which I haven’t looked at yet. I have been following the designer who bought the mansion, on Instagram. Her name is Liz Lange. It’s amazing how beautiful the house and grounds look like now compared to what it was like in the 70s.
“Paper and Glue” about the street artist JR. It’s available on MSNBC.
@jca2 I also love the HBO movie. It really fills in the holes from the past. And the acting is superb.
I haven’t watched Dopesick, starring Michael Keaton yet, but it’s on my list. It’s based on the book: Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America by journalist Beth Macy, who has written extensively about the opioid crisis in Appalachia.
I saw Harriet, the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Excellent.
One that I figured would be just kind of fluffy and good-feeling was A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Lloyd Vogel. Also excellent.
“Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults”.
It’s a documentary mini-series on HBO Max that chronicles the life of the Heaven’s Gate cult leader and features in-depth interviews of the surviving members. It’s extremely engrossing, but also sad and disturbing.
We watched the Mr. Rogers documentary and we liked it. My husband didn’t like the movie with Tom Hanks, but really liked the documentary.
I watched one a few days ago, I’m awful with names. It was about some women in Harlem Holland who distracted and killed Nazis. One was eventually shot, but never gave up any names. Two were sisters.
More recently, I have been absorbed in videos taken of the quadstate tornado at various locations. They aren’t documentaries, but they could be used to make one.
It was a ruthless act of nature. The results are inconceivable.
I watched Get Back by Peter Jackson last week. So well done.
I watched Grey Gardens last night. Really heartbreaking. Drew Barrymore did an amazing job with the Massachusetts, Kennedy accent.
@Dutchess_III You should watch the actual documentary too. You will be amazed at how well Drew and Jessica did!
@Dutchess_III That’s the movie. It was great but you really should check out the actual documentary that the movie was based on.
I’ll see if I can find that.
@smudges: I heard Dopesick is really good. i have to put it on my list.
Wow. Drew Barrymore did an insanely spectacular job in the movie. I’m still at the beginning but it’s almost giving me chills.
Living up to her Grandfather’s huge name.
That was the most depressing documentary ever.
@Dutchess_III: I thought it was wild how rich and crazy they were.
@Dutchess_III: You watched the one I linked in Amazon (the actual documentary), right?
I have another one for you – the original with Jackie’s sister, Lee Radziwill. She went to visit them earlier that summer to try to negotiate with the town about the condition of the house.
I’ll check the out ASAP.
But I don’t know that they were rich. Their family was, obviously, but we don’t know how generous their family was.
@jca2 They were rich originally. However, when Mr. Beale left Big Edie he put her on a stipend. She had the Bouvier trust, but that ran out eventually. So by the time of the documentary they were living on very little.
Escape From Pretoria: based on the real-life prison break of two political captives, this is a race-against-time thriller set in the tumultuous apartheid days of South Africa.
Been a while since I saw it and I have a terrible memory for movies/books, but I remember it being very good. Stars Daniel Radcliffe. Definitely not little Harry Potter!
@smudges It sounds like you are referencing movies based on real events but not really documentaries.
Well, I thought I was. Are my recommendations not what you are looking for, @jca2? Obviously, discard them if they aren’t.
A documentary is a broad term to describe a non-fiction movie that in some way “documents” or captures reality. Documentaries are often used to reveal an unusual, interesting or unknown angle.
“The Wikipedia definition of a documentary film is this: a non-fiction motion picture intended to document reality primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record.
“American film critic and filmmaker, Pare Lorentz, defines a documentary film as a factual film which is dramatic.”
“There are six modes of documentary production according to film critic Bill Nichols which include expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, poetic and performative.”
The last three quotes came from: https://www.videomaker.com/how-to/documentary/what-is-documentary/
The last one discusses 6 different types of documentaries.
I was watching a ridiculous movie about some alien thing attacking San Francisco. I was watching it my my husband’s best friend’s wife. She’s an idiot. The movie was filmed in documentary form so she believed it was real. She was pretty hysterical about it all.
SMH.
@Dutchess_III There is also a mockumentary in the series Documentary Now with Fred Armison and Bill Hader.
I think youtube, nebula and curiosity stream have some great educational content. I’ve recently discovered a youtuber Ryan Chapman who breaks down political science stuff in a way that is as even-handed and nonpartisan as I’ve seen.
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