Topic: Your Top 3 favourite documentaries:

[Citizen Skeptic]

I just finished the three part Vietnam War in HD. I highly recommend it. It is a great study in bad leadership and the damage it can do to a country.

[WC]

1) Exit Through The Gift Shop - The story of how an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work.

Wouldn't consider this a documentary, as it was an obvious conceptual and meta Banksy piece, launching a new conceptual meta meta piece by Banksy; Thierry Guetta aka Mr. Brainwash.

But still great to see Shepard Fairey in action.

[NakedTime]

Ken Burns - Prohibition
Ken Burns - Baseball
Before Stonewall / After Stonewall
Frontline: The Vaccine War
Loving Lampposts - this one's about autism, though it doesn't focus solely (or predominantly?) on the science, though where it touches on the science it supports science.

That's five, actually.

[Johnny Slick]

Honestly, as much as I liked the baseball one for the pictures, I think Ken Burns Civil War is the best of the bunch.

[AxeGrrl]

Watch and enjoy     (i'm mainly posting because i just discovered that the entire thing is on youtube via Crackle) parts will make you ask 'is this a mockumentary?'.....but it's not, which makes it that much more entertaining, imo

but come on, could someone write a character as entertaining Mark's best friend, 'ex' druggie Mike?
i don't think so

i'm a docu junkie and find it almost impossible to narrow down my faves to 3, but whenever I want/need to smile, I watch this

American Movie

[Johnny Slick]

My current list, which is subject to change at any time:

Grizzly Man
Best Worst Movie
The Thin Blue Line

Several others which could easily get in there:

Capturing the Friedmans
HELVETICA (WHICH WILL ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF OHHHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH)
Encounters at the End of the World
Ken Burns' Civil War
Ken Burns' Baseball
Marjoe
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (more of a series than a single doc, but still)
Fog of War (by Errol Morris, who also did The Thin Blue Line; this was an interview with JFK's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara about Vietnam)

[Citizen Skeptic]

HELVETICA (WHICH WILL ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF OHHHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH)

I liked that one too.

[Johnny Slick]

HELVETICA (WHICH WILL ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF OHHHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH)

I liked that one too.

I hope for your sake that you watched it in a location where you were able to stand up and yell easily.

[MikeHz]

Off the top of my head:

1. "The Ascent of Man."

2. "Connections."

3. "Cosmos."

[Citizen Skeptic]

HELVETICA (WHICH WILL ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF OHHHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH)

I liked that one too.

I hope for your sake that you watched it in a location where you were able to stand up and yell easily.

Yeah, and the dogs joined in too. We're quite a trio.

I have a fond spot for my heart in fonts (from being in computer graphics biz). Always thought that someone owning a font face was weird, but people actually sue each other over that sort of stuff.

[andrewclunn]

Dear Zachary
Bigger, Faster, Stronger.
(This spot open for another documentary, so recommend one to me)

[stonesean]

I just finished the three part Vietnam War in HD. I highly recommend it. It is a great study in bad leadership and the damage it can do to a country.

The new doc, or a remastered Time/Life?  The Cronkite Time/Life is the only one I've ever seen all the way through. 

EDIT: Never mind.  Just found it online.  The Michael C. Hall narrated one, right?   Just watched the Ia Drang valley episode.  Holy shit.  Nothing makes me wish for a draft more than watching a documentary about 'Nam.  With a draft, these endless wars in the middle east would be long over by now....

[Citizen Skeptic]

I just finished the three part Vietnam War in HD. I highly recommend it. It is a great study in bad leadership and the damage it can do to a country.

The new doc, or a remastered Time/Life?  The Cronkite Time/Life is the only one I've ever seen all the way through. 

EDIT: Never mind.  Just found it online.  The Michael C. Hall narrated one, right?   Just watched the Ia Drang valley episode.  Holy shit.  Nothing makes me wish for a draft more than watching a documentary about 'Nam.  With a draft, these endless wars in the middle east would be long over by now....

Yeah, that's the one.

I agree with you on the draft. It ended shortly after I became eligible. They were running a lottery at the time too, they'd draft in ascending order. My number was 18 and I thought I had a 50/50 chance of being drafted.

I grew up watching viet nam on the nightly news and having the beejeezus scared out me me thinking when I grew up I was going to have to go to viet nam. I was pretty sure the war was never going to end. It had gone on for years and when your 10 years old, a few years is forever.

I thought that I would not be able to afford college at the time either so I figured I'd avoid getting drafted and join the air force with a couple of friends from high school. Didn't work out that way for me, but it did for both of them.

Fortunately, the draft ended.

[petrolpetal]

What about 'Man on Wire' - its about the guy who tightrope walked between the two towers...spectacular

Catfish was also brilliant.

I  am going to think about my third....I don't suppose Christopher Guest's mockmentaries count?? They are hilarious.


I would be happy with 'exit through the gift shop' as a doccie

[lukebourassa]

1) Exit Through The Gift Shop - The story of how an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work.

Wouldn't consider this a documentary, as it was an obvious conceptual and meta Banksy piece, launching a new conceptual meta meta piece by Banksy; Thierry Guetta aka Mr. Brainwash.

But still great to see Shepard Fairey in action.

What about 'Man on Wire' - its about the guy who tightrope walked between the two towers...spectacular

Catfish was also brilliant.

I  am going to think about my third....I don't suppose Christopher Guest's mockmentaries count?? They are hilarious.


I would be happy with 'exit through the gift shop' as a doccie

If Exit Through The Gift Shop isn't a doc (and it's possible that it's merely elaborate performance art), than there's no way that Catfish is a documentary.