Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Hot air and ill-informed banter

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

He really is that stupid.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

White supremacy is terrorism.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans in disarray!

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

We’re not going back!

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Best Documentary

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  2. 2.

    cope

    “The Rescue” about the Thai kids soccer players trapped in a cave is good as is “Free Solo” about climbing El Cap in Yosemite without protection. Both were produced and shot by the same husband/wife team.

  3. 3.

    BR

    Here’s an obscure but fascinating one: Into Eternity

    It’s about Finland’s nuclear waste repository. They’re one of the only countries even trying to solve the problem of long term storage, and the documentary is about things like “how do you communicate with someone who will stumble upon this thing 10,000 years from now when no human language has lasted that long?” and such. Lots of sincere engineers trying to solve basically impossible problems.

  4. 4.

    2liberal

    netflix has one about the tour de france which captures what those bike racers go thru.   I think 8 parts.  “tour de france unchained”

  5. 5.

    RandyG

    Man On Wire, 2008 documentary about Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center.

  6. 6.

    Redshift

    I’m looking forward to The League, about the Negro Leagues. It’s going to be in theaters and then streaming not too long afterward.

  8. 8.

    Brachiator

    A beautiful and sad documentary film…

    The Agronomist is  a 2003 American documentary directed by Jonathan Demme about Jean Dominique. The documentary follows the life of Dominique, who ran Haiti’s first independent radio station, Radio Haiti-Inter, during multiple repressive regimes.

    Yep, this is the same guy who directed Philadelphia and Silence of the Lambs.

  10. 10.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Latest 30 for 30 “Bill Walton – The Luckiest Guy in the World” (trailer)

    American Experience has been phenomenal this year:

    The Movement and the “Madman” (trailer)

    How two antiwar protests in the fall of 1969 — the largest the country had ever seen — pressured President Nixon to cancel what he called his “madman” plans for a massive escalation of the U.S. war in Vietnam, including a threat to use nuclear weapons.

    Taken Hostage (trailer)

    The secret plan by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected government and its Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

  12. 12.

    RaflW

    Is Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy a documentary series, or a cooking show? Either way, I love it.

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    Godfrey Reggio’s Qasti trilogy!

    You’ve probably seen at least Koyaanisqatsi, but hot diggity dog!

  17. 17.

    prostratedragon

    Saw Man on a Wire when it came out — highly recommend. Mr.Petit’s process and training are awesome.

    Started Shiny Happy People about the Duggars and the quiverfull people. Not very relaxing, but important and holds the attention.

    More calming, a doc about the late soundtrack composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda. I think all three are on, or through, Prime.

  18. 18.

    Anotherlurker

    I can highly recommend Sir David Attenborough’s “First Life” Available on Prime.   He takes you from the early years of Earth into the Cambrian Explosion and beyond.  As always, the Sir David and his amazing crew tell a wonderful story.

    Also from Sir David:  “Plants Behaving Badly”. Again on Prime.  Episode 1 deals with Carnivorous Plants and Episode 2 deals with Orchids.  It is a wonderful film!

  25. 25.

    Devore

    If you have Prime Video, you can add the PBS documentary channel for around $4 a month.  If I remember correctly.

    The Ken Burns documentaries are great, if you haven’t seen them already.   His Vietnam war series really caught my interest.

  27. 27.

    Mike in NC

    “Impossible Peace” about the time between the world wars is great. Prime, I think.

  28. 28.

    Keith P.

    “Hated: GG Allin” – Todd Phillips’ first (student) film about one of the most extreme rockers to have ever lived.  Stay till the end for his final performance and funeral,

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    My Octopus Teacher (2020; Netflix). “Documents a year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with a wild common octopus in a South African kelp forest.” Won the Oscar for best documentary feature.

    Crumb (1995; rent on Prime or Apple TV). Terry Zwigoff’s study of underground cartoonist R. Crumb and his family (including his two brothers).

    Nanook of the North (1922; Max). Robert J. Flaherty’s groundbreaking “docudrama” about “the struggles of the Inuk man named Nanook and his family in the Canadian Arctic.”

    The Thin Blue Line (1988; AMC, Criterion). Murder trial and expert testimony. Directed by Errol Morris; anything by him is good.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Steeplejack: Yes!  Wonderful doc!

    Do you know about Kenneth Brownlow’s Hollywood (1980), or Cinema Europa, or Keepers of the Frame?

    Also, the PBS doc about the National Film Registry, These Amazing Shadows.

    And Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film is an incredible 15-part documentary about the  international movie industry.

  34. 34.

    NotoriousJRT

    I enjoyed “A Most Beautiful Thing,” which is about African American teens in Chicago who tried their hands at crew.  It’s no fairytale, but i thought that it speaks about the human spirit.  I watched on Peacock.

  35. 35.

    Feathers

    The PBS passport is about $5 a month through your local station and gives you tons of PBS shows. NOVA is great for catching up on science, American Experience is moments in US history, American Masters – artists. They are generally an hour long. I find jumping into a topic I know nothing about a good way to get new knowledge.

  36. 36.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Up, by a British filmmaker. Series of docs follows a group of British kids filmed in 7 year increments starting in 1964 and going through  2019.  Not sure where available, but very interesting.

  38. 38.

    Kelly

    “The River Runner” on Netflix. Wild extreme kayaking video with a story about a guy hitting the big time with sponsors paying for international expeditions and the big time kinda grinds him down.

  40. 40.

    Jean

    @Steeplejack: I loved My Octopus Teacher.  It was amazing how the relationship developed over time.  The life span of the octopus is surprisingly short.

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    Searching for Sugar Man (2012; rent on many sites). Wikipedia: “Details the efforts in the late 1990s of two Cape Town fans, Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, to find out whether the rumored death of American musician Sixto Rodriguez was true and, if not, to discover what had become of him. Rodriguez’s music, which had never achieved success in the United States, had become very popular in South Africa, although little was known about him in that country.” Trailer here.

  44. 44.

    TriassicSands

    @2liberal:

    Or one could simply watch the current Tour de France, which will begin Stage 10 tomorrow. Yes, it is behind yet another streaming service pay wall — Peacock. However, for anyone interested, it only costs $5 for 30 days. With eleven stages remaining, and an average length of 4-5 hours, that’s 40-50 hours of viewing, much of which can be enjoyed as a tour through the often beautiful French countryside including the Alps and Pyrennees. (Personally, I think the Giro d’Italia — Italy’s Grand Tour — is more beautiful.) All stages are available for replay. There are two different choices — one is NBC and has lots of advertisements and plenty of silly predictions by talking heads. The other is the something like the “world broadcast” and is generally more enjoyable — same video for both.

    Watching cyclists ride more than 100 miles in 92 degree heat with a finish up a dormant volcano (Stage 9), provides a pretty good idea of the kind of suffering necessary to finish a 21 day race that covers well over 2000 miles with only two rest days. Riders often suffer serious, sometimes life-threatening injuries, and occasionally someone is killed. Road rash and broken collar bones occur regularly.

    It was once possible to watch the entire Tour for free. Then, as the Internet matured, the broadcast disappeared into a streaming service. This is the first time I have ever paid to watch any of the Tour, and I took what may be my last opportunity. And it is the only athletic competition I have any interest in watching.

    Note: It’s more difficult to watch live when you live on the West Coast — stages generally begin at 3:30 – 4:00 AM.

    I plan to cancel Peacock before my 30 days are up.

    That said, the documentary you mentioned distills things down into eight episodes. Honestly, although the time commitment is huge, I prefer the live show from beginning to end, even if I have to watch the replay without knowing who won the stage.

  46. 46.

    Feathers

    @mrmoshpotato: All of these, plus A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies

    @HumboldtBlue: Yes, searching for waldemar januszczak on YouTube or Prime will get you many excellent, watchable art history documentaries, focusing on the pleasure of good art, rather than snobbery. Be sure to watch the one on Islamic art. He travels through the Muslim world, astonishingly beautiful buildings and gardens in Iran I had never seen.

    Mary Beard does the same for the ancient world, looking into the lives of everyday people in the ancient world. She points out that the “Romans” racist Brits are so proud of claiming were largely Polish and North African.

  52. 52.

    Ohio Mom

    I saw two documentaries this past week at a local film festival:

    “Okay! (The ASD Band Film)”
    It’s about a Toronto garage band made up of four autistics in their twenties. It doesn’t do any explaining, it’s a slice of their life. Very accurate, none of that heroic, overcoming their disability crap.

    “Lowdownes County and the Road to Black Power”
    In the early 1960s, the Black citizens of Lowdownes County, Alabama claim their right to vote, with some help from SNCC organizers. In case you need a reminder of the medieval conditions of pre-Civil Rights Era Black Southern life.

  53. 53.

    The Up and Up

    It’s All-Star Extravaganza in Seattle. Along with the baseball mention from a reply above, in case you have not already seen, The Battered Bastards of Baseball. It’s a documentary that came out in 2014 about the Portland Mavericks baseball team.

  54. 54.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Devore: Ken Burns is a treasure. The Dust Bowl is a work of genius. And, of course The Civil War.

    An odd not-to-be-missed one: Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old. He took hundreds of hours of jerky, hand-cranked black-and-white BBC archival footage of WWI, spent about a year messing with it, and brought it to life, color, motion, dialog and all. It’s eerie how that Mack Sennett-grade footage suddenly springs to life 10 minutes into the film. And with all that, he also managed to get a coherent narrative into the film, telling touching and harrowing stories about that war. It’s a masterpiece.

  56. 56.

    Ivan X

    Screwball, about the baseball doping scandals with A-Rod et al, is tremendously entertaining.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack

    @Feathers:

    American Masters is quite often surprisingly good. I highly recommend the one on Miles Davis and—hear me out—the one on David Geffen.

    You want to dismiss Geffen as a rapacious agent turned mogul, and he was that, but he was (is?—he’s 80, dunno how active now) also a lot more. What struck me was that the filmmakers got a lot of really deep interviews with artists whose careers were affected by Geffen. Don Henley of the Eagles as an insightful observer of the ’70s entertainment industry machinery? Sh-yeah!

    The doc on Johnny Carson was also very well done. Very insightful.

  59. 59.

    eclare

    I don’t know if it’s great, but it’s definitely offbeat: The Great Maple Syrup Heist.  Netflix

    For jazz fans:  A Great Day in Harlem.  Looks like YouTube only.

  60. 60.

    piratedan

    BBC Four’s got some old episodes of Rock Family Trees out on You Tube.  That’s if you’re into the incestuous nature of how music groups are formed and how their lineups evolve until they reach success.

  63. 63.

    KSinMA

    “Master of Light” (HBO), about an ex-felon who becomes a classical painter. Both parts of the story are done amazingly well.

  64. 64.

    eclare

    Challenger:  The Final Flight.  Netflix.

    Enraging.  And after all these years, some of the protagonists were interviewed.  You can easily see who didn’t give a fuck ordering the launch and who is still haunted by it.

  66. 66.

    lexilis

    @cope: ​

    Both of these are very good. Especially “The Rescue”. I live in Thailand about 60 km from the cave site. When the boys were finally rescued it was absolutely incredible the outpouring of joy and (and thanks and respect to the rescuers) from the entire Thai population. It was wonderful to experience.

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I feel as though I already answered this question elsewhere.​
     

    ETA: Omnes Omnibus
    @OmnesOmnibus64

    10h
    World at War. And the art series with the nun.

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    Are You Dave Gorman? (2001; YouTube). Maybe stretching the doc definition a bit. This is based on a show that Gorman did for the Fringe Festival in which he recounted his efforts to find other people named Dave Gorman. It is hilarious.

  71. 71.

    catbirdman

    Seems nobody has mentioned Chimp Empire on Netflix — basically Succession with more empathetic characters. The cinematography is breathtaking — I kept asking myself how this could be possible.

    I also recently caught up with Cul de Sac, a rather interesting film. Here’s the blurb:

    In May 1995, Shawn Nelson, a 35 year-old plumber from Clairemont, California, emerged from an eighteen foot mine shaft he had dug beneath his backyard in search for gold. An ex-soldier and methamphetamine abuser, he stole a tank from a nearby National Guard armory and went on a rampage through the residential streets of his neighborhood, crushing cars and lampposts until the cops took him down. CUL DE SAC goes far beyond this apparently minor news story and provides extensive political, economic and social context that ties Nelson’s life to the larger story of a working class community in decline. Newsreels of a fat, happy San Diego in the 50s and 60s, the perfect representation of middle class aspirations for economic prosperity, are juxtaposed with contemporary images of shuttered defense plants, jobless blue-collar suburbanites, drug abusers, and police on patrol. Statements from police, historians and real estate agents sketch out the rise and fall of this military-fueled boomtown, and trace the area’s social ills back to World War II, the Vietnam War and recent layoffs.

  72. 72.

    thruppence

    Netflix has Abstract: The Art of Design – a two season documentary series where each episode explores the work and methods of one particular artist or designer. A deep dive into talent even for those of us who haven’t got it.

  73. 73.

    meander

    The PBS documentary series Soundbreaking which looks at music production.  One episode is about sampling, and how the rap / hip hop artists used it to create their background music.  Other topics include recording innovations of the Beatles, the rise of music videos, how Stevie Wonder used some of the first synthesizers in the 1970s.  Tons of big names tell their stories.
    American Experience’s “Circus”, about the hugely important cultural influence of the circus in the U.S.  In the early 20th century, the biggest circuses required 100 train cars to transport people, animals, and equipment (and most of them were driven by exploitation of animals and humans).

    “Summer of Soul,” a remarkable documentary about the 1969 Harlem music festival, a multi-week event in Mt. Morris Park in Harlem.  Outstanding footage of performers and crowd, context about 1969 with archival footage. Director Questlove did some interviews on NPR’s Fresh Air about the production.

    “Fiddler:  Miracle of Miracles”: a fantastic documentary about the birth and life of Fiddler On The Roof.

  74. 74.

    Grover Gardner

    Herb and Dorothy is a terrific doc about an ordinary NYC couple living in a one bedroom apartment who amassed one of the most extraordinary collections of modern art ever.

  75. 75.

    AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team

    Break Point on Netflix. I’m not even a big sports fan but this was great watching.

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    A few.

    Prime/Freevee: Impossible Peace, Westinghouse: The Life and Times of an American Icon, The Outrageous Sophie Tucker, EXPO: Magic of the White City, The World’s Greatest Fair, Meet the Romans with Mary Beard.

    Tubi or Kanopy: The Catcher Was a Spy, EXPO: Magic of the White City.

    Tubi: The Hitler Chronicles.

  78. 78.

    Casey

    An unexpected documentary about David Bowie, told in his words and songs without narration – MoonAge Daydream.  Not what you’re expecting, and the more intimate for it.

  81. 81.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:

    I’ve personally known people with my name.

    A family lived in the town next to us, father same first and last name and middle initial. Son had same name as dad, but he’s the II, not junior, and so am I. There is also another vet at the same VA clinic I use who has the same last name, first initial and same last 4 SS#s as I do, which is how we are ID’ed.

  82. 82.

    Eric K

    Anything by Werner Herzog.

    Showtime’s music documentaries are generally good, the most recent one I saw was on Ronnie James Dio

    Netflix has one on Quiet Riot that is surprisingly interesting

  87. 87.

    LesGS

    @catbirdman: That was quite a thing here in San Diego. My kids were in their early teens when that went down. When we heard that he’d been shot and killed inside the tank after getting it stuck on the center divider of 805, my older teen, disturbed by that, asked, “Did he have a gun?” (He didn’t.) The younger looked at her and said flatly, “He had a tank.“

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    Historical rock documentary The Wrecking Crew.

    Music lovers will be astonished at the influence The Wrecking Crew wielded over rock and pop music in the 1960s and early 1970s. These unsung instrumentalists were the de-facto backing band on hit records by The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny & Cher, Elvis, The Monkees and many more. These dedicated musicians brought the flair and musicianship that made the American “West Coast Sound” a dominant cultural force around the world.

    A link to the background site. Great photos.

  92. 92.

    prostratedragon

    Just found in a tab: The Picture-Taker, PBS. About Ernest Withers, an iconic photojournalist of the Civil Rights movement who turned out also to be an FBI informant. Also, Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story, about the Michaelsons, who had huge but largely uncredited influence on Hollywood movies for several decades. She was a researcher, mainly for art departments, and he was a storyboard illustrator, art decorator, and production designer. And American Masters: Tyrus, about the animation artist Tyrus Wong. Both rentable at Prime, $3.99.

    On youtube, The “Dambusters”, about the British mission to destroy the Ruhr valley dams in 1943. Traces back to the inception of the mission years before.

  93. 93.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Dead thread? In case it’s not, here are two about a couple of ladies who were so much more than the parts they played: Woman In Motion (Nichelle Nichols) and Bombshell (Hedy Lamarr).

    There was a great one a couple years ago about Ingrid Bergman too. Ah yes (thanks Google) Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words.

    Now to try to get back to sleep.

  94. 94.

    oldster

    “Muster Dogs* is an Australian production about training herding dogs — kelpies. The format comes from Great British Bake-off, but the task is to take a young 3-mo. puppy and train it to be a working dog in just 9 months.

    Four episodes. If you like dogs, you’ll like the series.

  95. 95.

    catbirdman

    @LesGS: These conspiracy-minded works are consistently intriguing and frustrating. I’m listening to the audio book of Chameleo right now, by Robert Guffey, an English professor at Cal State Long Beach. He was interviewed by Marc Maron last week re: his new book on QAnon. I am interested enough that I bought a print copy of his current book, but do not expect any kind of answer from it :)

  96. 96.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Paris Is Burning (Jenny Livingstone, 1990) (IMDb, Wiki) – Great documentary about the late 1980’s drag and vogueing scene in NYC.

    From Wikipedia:

    Upon its release, the documentary received exceptionally good reviews from critics and won several awards including a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, a Berlin International Film Festival Teddy Bear,[23] an audience award from the Toronto International Film Festival, a GLAAD Media Award, a Women in Film Crystal Award, a Best Documentary award from the Los Angeles, New York, and National Film Critics’ Circles, and it also was named as one of 1991’s best films by the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, Time magazine, and others.

    In spite of the many positive reactions and film awards earned, Paris Is Burning did not receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature that year. This generated accusations that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was homophobic and transphobic … which in turn led to changes on how documentaries are nominated for the Academy Awards.

  97. 97.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    He’p me, he’p me! I’m stuck in Moderationville!

    Please to be releasing me from modererating.

    (Not sure why. Suspect a quote from Wikipedia exceeded the site’s link limit.)

  98. 98.

    Kathleen

    The Keepers on Netflix. The subject matter is fascinating, as well as the story about how and why this documentary was made. Ultimately, it’s a story about the bonds of friendship and love for Sister Catherine.

    The impact this documentary had on the laws regarding sexual abuse is here:

    https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-keepers-summary

    This resonated with me personally because I attended an all girls Catholic high school in St. Paul, Minnesota and graduated a couple of years before these women did. I relate to the love they had for Sister Catherine and how that bonded them years later.

    For many of the teenage girls who attended Baltimore’s Archbishop Keough High School in the late ’60s, Sister Catherine “Cathy” Cesnik was a revelation. Young and kind, she was a dynamic educator who loved poetry and music. She was also a friend, mentor and — perhaps most importantly — a confidant.

    The Keepers, a 2017 documentary series directed by Ryan White, suggests that what Cesnik was told in confidence by her students — specifically about the horrific sexual abuse they said they endured at the hands of the school’s chaplain and guidance counselor Father Joseph Maskell — could be what led to the young nun’s still-unsolved 1969 murder.

     

  101. 101.

    catbirdman

    @LesGS: The question is whether the military has been experimenting with psy-ops on the tweaker population — knowing that they are inherently fabulist/unreliable, and therefore easily dismissed. Were the police justified in shooting the unarmed driver of a tank that was essentially inoperable, did the killing serve a larger purpose, or was it some combination? Having only started down this rabbit-hole myself, I really don’t have a firm opinion at this point.

  102. 102.

    eclare

    I can’t believe that I forgot The Barkley Marathons.  A grueling marathon set in East TN with some unusual quirks.

    https://barkleymovie.com

    In 25 years, ten people have finished it, according to the trailer, although I think I read a couple of people finished this year.

  103. 103.

    geg6

    Episodic (there are 6 one-hour episodes) but best true crime doc I’ve ever seen: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.  So freakin’ good that I’ve watched it twice and am thinking about a third round.

  104. 104.

    Whalesnot

    @Carlo Graziani: thank you for mentioning “they shall not grow old”. That was one of the most moving and powerful experiences I’ve had in a documentary. It’s like magic, but sad magic.

  105. 105.

    eclare

    @geg6:

    Dateline addict here, that looks really good, thanks!  IIRC the author was the wife of Patton Oswalt who died suddenly.

    Just googled, yep.  Interesting, her middle name is my first name, spelled the same way.  It is not a common name.

  108. 108.

    eclare

    @R-Jud:

    I watched that last night, I couldn’t believe those scrapbooks!  And the origin of “Careless Whisper.”

  109. 109.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Watch “Magnus,” documentary on the five times world chess champion. It shows how you can grow up healthy even if a genius with great family support.

  110. 110.

    Trivia Man

    Intersexion on Prime.
    Actual interviews with actual intersex people and their lived experiences, especially their childhood. A stark demonstration that there are certainly more than 2 genders.

  111. 111.

    Trivia Man

    Also on Amazon Prime, a whole series of “The making if…” with dozens of classic albums. I started with Dark Side of the Moon but there many more.

    it might be too wonky- technical for some, they spend a lot of time on technical specifications. But the stories behind the actual songs were of interest to me.

  113. 113.

    deekaa6

    Attica on Showtime. Filled with the experience and insights of people who were there as well as very real and often painful footage of the riots and the aftermath. Powerful stuff!

  114. 114.

    terraformer

    I thought the 3-part (1 hour each) series “Arnold” on Netflix was pretty good, especially if you grew up watching the guy in the 80s. I had no idea he was apparently instrumental in California’s green energy drive. Has his problems, but a pretty amazing individual

  116. 116.

    Mrscoachb

    “The Day the Music Died” about the Don McLean song “American Pie”….his career, how he wrote it and it’s global impact.   Either Hulu or Paramount Plus

  117. 117.

    dexwood

    @oldster: My wife found this series about six weeks ago while searching for something to watch. We adopted a Kelpie about seven months ago and gleaned some insight into our lovely, wonderful dog, Maggie.

  118. 118.

    RA

    Nat Geo series, “Extraordinary Birder With Christian Cooper” and PBS series Miriam and Alan Lost in Scotland
    I don’t know if they are considered documentaries but they are fun and interesting.

  119. 119.

    Sebastian

    @Carlo Graziani:

    I loved They shall not grow old so much, I watched it three times.

    i am surprised nobody has recommended “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men”. A superb four part documentary of the Wu-Tang Clan.

  122. 122.

    Seth

    100 Foot Wave.  Big wave surfing documentary series on Max (formerly HBO).  It is incredible.  One of the best documentaries I have ever seen.  You’ve never seen waves like this, let alone people surfing on them.

  124. 124.

    VFX Lurker

    Class Action Park (2020) — the story of a New Jersey water park with lax (and lethal) safety standards. Available on [HBO] Max.

    Deepsea Challenge (2014) — With the help of a good team, director James Cameron dives ~35,000 feet solo to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean and returns safely. Available on multiple streaming services. If your library has Kanopy access, you can stream this for free.

  126. 126.

    gluon1

    It’s from 2008 and probably largely familiar news to this crew but Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, is a fascinating take on one of the architects of the current GOP style. It appears to be on Prime Video, YouTube, and lots of other places.

  131. 131.

    JerrytheMacGuy

    @Carlo Graziani: My wife and I saw “They Shall Not Grow Old” in a movie theater (part of the Fathom Events series), it’s first-run in the U.S. When it ended, there was complete silence by the audience. Everyone stayed to watch the “Making of” feature afterwards.

    Brilliant film making.

  132. 132.

    Manyakitty

    Too late to edit my last comment on this here dead thread, but also recommend Scorsese’s Living in the Material World about George Harrison. So good

  133. 133.

    JerrytheMacGuy

    Not documentaries or streaming series, but I recommend some of the FREE online lecture course taught by noted Yale professors. Over the last year,  I have “taken” courses in American and European History and Religious Studies. I particularly enjoyed the history courses taught by Joanne Freeman and John Merriman, but David Blight’s “The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1876” course is truly exceptional. Blight is an excellent lecturer and the course is relevant to our current political situation in the U.S.

    https://oyc.yale.edu/courses

  134. 134.

    dexwood

    @Manyakitty: So true. So sad. Such a talented guy. We own the dvd and watch it at least twice a year. I’ve suggested Rumble two or three times here in recent years. There are a few real surprises in it.

  135. 135.

    phein64

    The PBS series “Native America” from 2018 explores how different cultures generate knowledge of their place(s) in the cosmos.

    Narrated by Robbie Robertson, who says my wife’s name (she appears briefly).   I think that’s what she wants on her tombstone:  “Robbie Robertson said my name!”

    There is a season two coming in October.

  137. 137.

    SWMBO

    Any of the Walking With Dinosaurs or Prehistoric Planet series. William loves dinosaurs. I liked Pole to Pole with Michael Palin. Grave of the Fireflies is gutting but still very good. Connections with James Burke. All three series were great.

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