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Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 9:45 am
by Alan
Sometimes nothing beats a good well made documentary. Share what youve watched and what you recommend.


Off the top of my head to get started....


The Babushkas Of Chernobyl (Prime)
This is sweet, lovely and sad. Its about the elderly people that snuck back to their homes within the contaminated zone. Theyre all such great characters and their way of life is so interesting. Even more so is how they are still supported by the government even though they are technically breaking the law by living there. Also has a small section on people that play Stalker then walk to Prypyat.


Evil Genius (Netflix)
A chap robs a bank with a bomb around his neck. He says hes being forced to and if he doesnt the bomb will go off. The police stop him down there street where the bomb eventually explodes killing him. From there the story just goes batshit, more twists and turns that most far fetched movies but its all reality. Its a good watch.


Who Took Johnny? (netflix)
Johnny Gosch is abducted on his paper route in 1982 and isnt seen again for many years (if at all). In a story of paedophillia that goes right up to people in power and possibly even higher if you read a bit beyond what the documentary covers that I'm sure was cut to avoid lawsuits. Its as fascinating as it is horrible. Slipknot where right, people=shit. Johnny was also the first kid to be printed on a milk carton.


The Staircase (netflix)
Yeah I dont think we need to summarise that one do we? S'good.


Mommy Dead And Dearest (not on streaming platforms as far as I know)
The insane story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard killing her mother. One of the more famous Munchausen By Proxy cases.


The Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann (netflix)
Its interesting if a bit boring at times. Its also infuriating how fucking stupid the parents are if they had nothing to do with it. Utter morons. Also the media are just shit as if that needed to be said.


Amanda Knox (netflix)
Its not the most interesting but its informative and certainly is an other good eyeopener at how shit news media is.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 10:04 am
by Sly Boots
In addition to the above, would say that Abducted in Plain Sight and Fyre, are both worth a watch and both on Netflix.

The Ted Bundy Tapes, or whatever it's called, is really good as well.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 11:02 am
by Wrathbone
I've always had a soft spot for the Star Wars Episode 1 hour-long making-of documentary:



Regardless of what you think of the film, it's a superb insight into film-making and also gives some context as to how some of the more bewildering aspects came to pass. The fear in the eyes of the people round George Lucas when he's discussing Jar Jar is palpable.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 11:04 am
by Sly Boots
Wrathbone wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 11:02 am
The fear in the eyes of the people round George Lucas when he's discussing Jar Jar is palpable.
:lol:

Does it touch at all upon what happened to Jake Lloyd afterwards? I felt really sorry for the poor kid reading about all the shit he went through and subsequent mental health issues.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 11:15 am
by Wrathbone
No, that was a terrible turn of events. It's very much focused on the making of the film itself - there's no talking heads stuff or anything like that. Everything is just footage from various areas and stages of the process, from storyboarding to post-production.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 11:26 am
by Hatredsheart
Our Planet, if that fits in the documentary genre. Excellent viewing.
I've seen some reviews saying it's too preachy on climate change but truth hurts I suppose.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 10:33 am
by DjchunKfunK
Behind the Curve

A flat Earth documentary that is an interesting watch and touches on why these things are so dangerous.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 1:26 pm
by Strudel
Do you mean Behind the Curve? If it's the one on Netflix, yeah I thought that was quite interesting. Those people are all completely bonkers.

I'll put a second vote behind Fyre as well. It was like watching a car crash; I had no sympathy for any people who appeared in that documentary - from the main organisers, their staff, the punters... all a bunch of complete cockwombles who deserved everything they got.

The Amanda Knox documentary I was less impressed by; it's incredibly biased and distorts some of the details (particularly around the trial) to make her sound innocent, when it was far from clear in real life.

To add to the list:

Icarus A really interesting insight into the issue of doping in sport. I have zero interest in sport and this all seems rather stupid to me, but it's a well told and compelling story.

Going Clear - Everyone knows that Scientology is bananas but that doesn't make this any less enjoyable and interesting to see.

Get Me Roger Stone. An insight into the mind and horrors of a Trumpian arsehole.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 3:59 pm
by Mantis
I just watched Dominion. It has drone and hidden cam footage of various practices in warehouse farming practices for both meat and other animal produce, alongside a few other topics such as animal testing.

It's one of the most harrowing documentaries I've ever seen. I went vegetarian in the new year to improve my diet and generally try to reduce my consumption of things that contribute largely to our carbon footprint, but the sheer level of completely unnecessary abuse that goes into these industries is something most of us know happens but never really properly visualise. Out of sight, out of mind. I will never go back to eating meat after seeing this, even though it doesn't make up the entire production within the market I can't help but think that any support for eating meat even in its most humanely farmed form is only tacit support for these practices too.

It's on Youtube for those interested but be warned it contains a lot of footage of animal abuse.


Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 4:10 pm
by Alan
Good man. It’s so painfully easy to remove animals from your diet these days compared to even a few years ago. They’re even getting better with fake cheese, it’s not there yet but it’s getting there.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 4:26 pm
by Mantis
Some of the vegan cheeses I tried at a vegan festival last year were actually better than regular cheddar.

I still eat various regular cheeses because it's one of my favourite foods, alongside eating eggs and drinking cows milk. But seeing the battery chickens forced into tiny cages and knowing that the free range farms tend to also keep battery hens on the same site, plus the section on how the cows are forcefully impregnated to produce milk, has all made me reconsider my consumption of any kinds of animal produce at all. I definitely need to do more research.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 4:48 pm
by Alan
They just lack that greasy stringy super bad for you fun. Cheese was the the hardest thing for me too and I still miss it a little truth be told but I still wouldn’t go back. The applewood vegan one is about the best supermarket cheese but some of the more artisan ones are way better. Switching milk was much easier than I thought it would have been.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 6:05 pm
by eny
I've been connected with, and worked in British farming all my life, I don't have a problem with how quality assured meat is reared, managed and produced. Mass meat production for cheap meat product is bad, and corners are cut that lead to suffering and lapse management, so it is a good thing that people are making conscious choices with regard to where their meat comes from, and be assured, when you are buying cheap meat, you are choosing cheap production and all that that entails.

That documentary is skewed to an agenda and shows the worst of what happens, the vast majority of farmers I have known just don't rear their meat that abhorrently, or with that much lack of care and connection. AI done properly is nowhere near as angry and violent as that scene in the film, and is a perfectly effective and efficient management tool in milk production.

The fewer people eating meat the better, the less meat in our diets the better. If you continue to eat meat, eat less, eat local and be prepared to pay for better quality. Because be under no illusion, quality care costs.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Mon May 11, 2020 11:37 am
by Mantis
I don't know a great deal about quality assured farming either. But to be honest, the idea that something is reared solely for the purpose of being butchered to provide me with food that I don't even really need from a biological standpoint just doesn't sit well with me anymore, no matter how well it is treated in life. No living creature would voluntarily let itself be murdered for its meat, I just find the whole thing deeply unsettling and upsetting now.

And yet up until the end of 2019 I ate meat four or five times a week, absolutely loved the stuff and never even gave a thought to the process that went into providing me with my juicy steak.

Re: Document your Documentary viewing.

Posted: Thu May 14, 2020 6:03 pm
by Achtung Englander
Looks like BBC 4 will get the axe next year in favour for....wait for it....re-installing BBC3 as a channel

The BBC have completely lost it