Is This The Real Life? Documentaries You Love

[Deleted]

There's a killer documentary series airing on the CBC called Sex, Truth and Videotape. Basically, women from all over Canada give their views on sex. I realise that my synopsis is simplistic and dull, but the series itself is anything but. My fellow Canucks see this if you can. It's on at 10pm every Monday.

There's also Shake Hands With The Devil. It documents Romeo Dallaire's journey in Rwanda ten years after the genocide.

I wanted to get The Fog of War on DVD and I simply wasn't sure. Maybe I should.

[scout]

I loved American movie about the guy who was trying to make zombie/cultlike movie I think..its been a while since i've seen it.The guy was begging everyone even his old uncle, who gave him the money. The guy was such a sad loser, but you had to root for him anyway.

[vacationland]

Scout, you're talking about American Movie, right? I'd recommend that one, too...it's a fascinating train wreck. Kind of like a reality-show version of Waiting for Guffman, but with more drinking and gore.

Foxfair, I lived in the UK for almost 3 years myself. Adore the cabbies...they really bring the profession to a whole new level. I used to live on an obscure, very small street, and I was flabbergasted the first time a cabbie took me there directly from Heathrow (around 25 miles away), by what I later learned was the absolutely quickest route, completely without directions. Women drivers are still kind of rare, but I used to see a young woman riding her scooter around my neighborhood with the London A-Z propped on her handlebars.

42 Up I think was released in 1998. The next one should've been shot last year and should be released this year, if it gets distribution in North America. I'm sure it'll come out on DVD somewhere.

I went to borrow 42 Up from the library and it's out on loan until mid-April (arrrgh!). I may borrow The Fog of War to tide me over.

Saw a little bit of Dogtown and Z-Boys on cable last week...does anyone know, was that Sean Penn narrating? The voice was familiar.

[decormaven]

Yes, that is Sean Penn who serves as narrator for Dogtown and Z Boys.

[hasbro]

Moldy said:

No...it's not propaganda at all. Don't worry about that. It's a very good, thought provoking doc.

Has anyone seen Harlan County? Was it any good?

Yeah I saw it recently it's fantastic. However it is a harrowing experiance.

Along that vien Senorita Extravia by Lourdes Portillo. It's on the 400+ murders of young women in Jarez. Really effected me because I was there a year before and found out that the black crosses on telephone poles weren't anything folksy.

Anything Errol Morris has done is brilliant. Fog of War, Thin Blue Line, Vernon, Florida Morris spoke in front of my class and the backstory on Vernon is hillarious. He was drawn to the town because it had an abnormal concentration of people who had dismembered themselves to collect insurance.

Hellhouse is high comedy.

[johnboysmole]

So many of my favorites already mentioned! Step Into Liquid, Harlan County, Thin Blue Line and there are so many more out there!

I had the most fortunate experience of taking a class in college in oral history. We saw a lot of documentaries and it hasn't been until recently that it has been taken seriously in a scholarly way.

I am ashamed to say that I haven't seen Fog of War, but it's definitely on my list.

One that I've seen several times is Married in America. It chronicled a variety of couples coming from many cultural, racial, social and economic backgrounds and followed them as they got married. The second part of the documentary will be filmed 10 years later! We have to wait until 2012, but how interesting!

[foxfair]

O/T VacationLand Where were you? I was right beside Clapham Common...

[Deleted]

I also have to recommend TRIBUTE, a fine doc about, you guessed it, tribute bands. They have as much strife and internal wranglings as the real bands. And they also have their own obsessive fans- who'd have thunk it!

DEVIL AT YOUR HEELS is also a great 70s doc about an Evil Kenevil-style daredevil who tries to jump across a small stretch of river that connects the US to Canada. It is absolutely hilarious (he's too lardy to fit into the skin tight zip up suit he has to wear) and almost unbearably poignant as the project spirals out of his control.

[johnboysmole]

Oh my goddess! How could I forget my very, very, very favorite! Trekkies and now Trekkies 2.

Not only the funniest shit you'll ever see, but kind of heartwarming in a geeky way.

[snacktastic]

OK, not to be too long winded but I saw Control Room recently - it was good. Not eeeexcellent, but good. I think the US military should use that Marine (the main guy - I am so bad with names!) as a propaganda tool - he definitely puts the lie to the 'All American soldiers are bloodthirsty, brainwashed brutes" line - he was pretty great.

I also recommend Control Room and definitely think that the Marine (and his noticably dreamy eyes) should be upfront as a media person.

The other documentary. The Game of their Lives which is about the North Korean Soccer Team that made it to World Cup quarterfinals in 1966. I found it totally fascinating.