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by 70jS8h5L 1383 days ago
I love documentaries, and these are my favourites. All very worth a watch.

- The Crash Reel

- McConkey

- Buck

- Apollo 11

- Carts of Darkness

- The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

- Samsara

- Baraka

- Brooklyn Castle

- Spellbound

- Drew: The Man Behind the Poster

- Crumb

- The Jinx

- The Art of Flight

- King of Kong

- Indie Game: The Movie

- Capturing the Friedmans

- OJ: Made in America

- The Barkley Marathons

- The Seven Five

- Murderball

- Unbranded

- Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee

- Big River Man

- Hoop Dreams

- Word Wars

- Free Solo

- Long Shot

- Meru

- Being Elmo

- All This Mayhem

- Jiro Dreams of Sushi

- The Cove

- Project Nim

- Alone in the Wilderness

- Behind the Curve

- The Dawn Wall

- Grizzly Man

- 13th

- Winnebago Man

- Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler

- Get Me Roger Stone

- Icarus

- 13th

- Koyaanisqatsi

- The Thin Blue Line

- An Inconvenient Truth

- Oklahoma City

- Virunga

- The Staircase

- Evil Genius

- Undefeated

- Betting on zero

3 comments

Get me Roger Stone was brilliant, I never quite understood what a political provocateur was until I watched that. Now it’s amazing to spot them throughout the political universe.
Capturing the Friedmans is brilliantly constructed. Jarecki peels the onion one layer at a time, saving key details for when they'll have maximum impact.
Appreciate the list very much. Do you think you could share the ones to start with and why you liked them?
To be completely honest - my memory for films is terrible, so I struggle to remember why I loved many of these. Also, many of them take unexpected twists and to say why I loved them so much risks ruining part of the surprise. I've watched countless documentaries and in order for them to make this list I have to _really_ enjoy them, and for the most part they require no interest in the subject matter in my opinion - they're just objectively good. So, I'd recommend literally any to start with, but with all that being said, some favourites amongst the favourites:

The Crash Reel - an amazing tale of a person preparing for the olympics, with an unexpected turn and just a very heartwarming/impressive journey - very very highly recommended.

The Cove - follows a whaling event that happens every year, and exposes the savagery of it. However, it's filmed almost like a thriller, in how the team set up to expose the event. Very eye opening, if a little sad, but very very good.

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster - just an amazing documentary about a man who makes amazing film posters - incredible, you'll see that he's responsible for so many recognisable posters from your childhood.

Being Elmo - lovely film about the puppeteer behind Elmo - really heartwarming

13th - very good film about racial injustice in the legal system.

Thank you!