Documentaries

Recently I have become rather interested in documentaries. Whether this shows that I have become more interested in the world or simply become to lazy to read about stuff is up to debate. However, I have watched quite a few documentaries and I am still looking for more stuff. So I am looking for recommendations, however merely asking about those seem boring, so I'd rather make a thread for general discussion of documentaries. That is, present some documentaries that you think are good, that affected you etc. or discuss them. So, since I love the sound of my own voice or whatever the equivalent expression for text would be, I'll start out with some stuff I like. There was already another thread in the live-action TV section about recommendations for war documentaries, in which I wrote a bit about some pretty good documentaries, so I might as well put it into this one thread.

"The best documentary I have seen on world war 2 is hands down "The World at War" from ITV (1973). It's a 26 episodes series, with every episode being in the vicinity of 50-60 minutes, so be prepared to invest some time. It tells a very clear story of the second world war and has plenty of interviews with the people involved. Especially interesting to me are all the interviews with germans including high-ranking officials such as Albert Speer and Karl Dönitz. But on all sides there are a good mix of interviews with both common soldiers and people who were secretaries to important statespeople etc. It is also extremely neutral, which is rather refreshing. That is not to say that it doesn't call the axis powers out on their atrocities, but it never vilifies the countries themselves and puts equal empathis on civilian deaths, and deaths in general, be they allied or axis. It deals with the entirety of World War 2, which includes the war with Japan, though it focuses mostly on Europe and there is very little on the second Sino-Japanese war, focusing more on the war between Japan and the Allies. It is very thourough, telling you about both the military history, the political history and how the war affected the societies of the countries involved. It is simply one of the best, if not the best, television historical documentaries that I have ever seen.

I actually saw a pretty interesting documentary about World War 2 Japan recently, called "Wings Of Defeat: We Were Kamikaze" made by Risa Morimoto a Japanese-American woman, after she found out that her uncle had been in training to become a kamikaze pilot at the end of WW 2. It was very interesting and basically tears down the traditional image of the fanatically devoted (or heroically self-sacrificing) kamikaze pilots and replaces it with an image of often frightened young men who were forced to serve their country's pride in whatever way they could. It consists mostly of interviews with old japanese men telling the story of how they trained to become kamikaze pilots, how they felt about it etc. Unfortunately I was unable to find the full documentary in subbed form and had to go with a cut version made for PBS (55 minutes as opposed to 89). If you understand Japanese or are willing to shell out for a DVD (am considering it now, seems like you can get it reasonably priced for home use) the longer version is probably better. The short version was great as well though. "

Staying tangentially on the topic of World War 2, I'd like to direct your attention towards another Japanese documentary "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On". This is very different from the ones I mentioned above, in that it isn't just a historical look at events, with some personal stories intertwined, it's the filming of a story that is actually unfolding as we are watching. It is very personal, very controversial and constantly questions the role of the documentary maker. The documentary follows a man in his 60'ies, Kenzo Okuzaki, who is a war veteran (it was released in 1987). Okuzaki is extremely anti-establishment, thinks that Hirohito is the most cowardly man in Japan and went to prison in 69 for using a slingshot to fire steel pinballs at him. Okuzaki is vehemently anti-war, has a van covered in slogans, drives around making protests etc.

He decides to investigate why two Japanese soldiers from his unit were ordered executed by the Japanese military after the war was over. In order to do this he visits various people of the unit, officers, medical officers etc. He tries to get the information out of them using any means necessary, appeals to justice, threats, mental abuse and even at times physical abuse, making you question the documentary maker for not intervening. They all give different accounts of what happened, so it's kind of like Rashomon, except that it's all real. In the end, he might have gotten to some kind of truth, though we never really know, and that truth by the way, is extremely gruesome. They go to New Guinea to investigate too, but all the footage was confiscated by the Indonesian Government. At the end we learn that after this documentary Okuzaki tried to kill the commanding officer of his old unit, as justice for what happened, but ended up, shooting at and wounding (not quite fatally) said officer's son and has gotten a 12-year prison sentence.

As I said, it's like Rashomon, but real. It's an extremely powerful documentary, making you question the role of the documentary maker, not to mention that it's simply a powerful story. Okuzaki is kind of sympathetic, yet he is also...not. He is completely determined to follow through on his beliefs and convictions in an almost fanatical way, no matter what he has to do, ironically not unlike the Japanese military of WW 2 which he hates. But yeah, I really recommend this one, though it is not for the faint of heart.

I have far more stuff, I'd like to talk about, but this is most likely already at the tl;dr level for most people, so I'll save it for later. So, the ball is in your court, here's to hoping that I'll read about some interesting documentaries for me to watch.

edited 26th Apr '11 6:09:50 AM by Mathias

I'm fond of ones like King Of Kong, Wordplay, and The like. For the past five years I volunteered at this documentary film festival and thus got to see a whole lot of great things- War on the Weak (about scientific racism and Nazi eugenics), The Yes Men Save The World (about these guys who pretend to be corporatate PR men doing what they should be doing), Waking Sleeping Beauty (about the Disney studio during the big 90s Disney Rennaissance), Inventions of Dr. Nakamats (about a crazy Japanese inventor who claimed to have invented the floppy disk, very entertaining), one about Bill Hicks (I think it was just called American), Page One (a year in the life of The New York Times), Shut Up Little Man (about an underground phenomenon whereby these guys recorded their neighbors drunken fights), and Bobby Fisher vs The World.

And I've seen many awesome things that stretched the limits of what documentary does, blending it with art and blowing your mind. Unfortunately, they aren't available on DVD

I've heard a lot of good things about The World at War elsewhere too, which intrigues me a lot more since I do have an interest in history. That last one up there sounds so horrid but very, very creative and atrociously appropriate. I'll ask around about it when I can, knowing a local self-proclaimed documentary wizz myself.

I don't think I can really offer much beyond what could be usual examples. I'm not a fan of tabloid tactics in journalism, but my favourite documentary director is probably the infamous Nick Broomfield, British guy who's famous for doing almost what tabloids ultimately do. He's probably best known now for his two documentaries on convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos, which are both available on 4oD on Youtube to British users. He also did a film called Fetishes (trailer - somewhat NSFW as the name implies) about the fine folks at New York's famous Pandora's Box dungeon. HBO idiotically marketed as a an 'undercover' film which has thrown off some viewers, but it's really not a 'point and laugh' type of deal. It's like the Wuornos films, really humanistic in a sphere that's hard to make humanistic to lots of people, funny when it wants to be, and the direct/indirect dynamic is moderated really well. Oh yeah, and potentially the other reason. Oh dear, it's impossible to avoid.

I'll also do a shout out to Fred Wiseman's classics. Going to uni allowed me to catch a screening of High School, a mesmerising and downright horrifying cinema verite visit to a high school in the late '60s. I'm looking to see it again at some point, even if it is stark in a simply nasty way. That, or the 'sequel' he did in the '90s.

The Day After Trinity by Jon Else. That is all.

Children Underground was a rather touching one. The whole thing is actually up on You Tube IIRC(assuming it hasn't been taken down.

Heavy Metal in Bahgdad is really good too(maybe you heard of it), if Metal doesn't bother you. I'm not a huge metal fan but I still really enjoyed it and I suggest checking out the stuff the band put out after its release, it's good! The documentary itself is actually pretty inspirational, if sad. I have mad respect for these guys though. I know this one is available on Netflix and I saw it originally on TV, I forgot which channel.

I don't watch many documentaries so maybe these two you know or seen already, but I found them both worth watching.

There's Invisible Children too of course but everyone sort of knows that one. If not you should watch it but it's very sad.

The Emperor's naked army sounds really interesting, thanks.

edited 1st May '11 6:16:18 PM by Vertigo_High

Never Sleep Again is an awesome, if long, retrospective look at the Nightmare On Elm Street series.

The same people also did the much shorter His Name Was Jason a few years earlier.

Eh, part of the draw to me was the sheer volume of content.

The two-disc DVD has over an hour of deleted interviews though.

Speaking of films about films/making ofs, Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate is a fairly respectable (if abridged) adaptation of Stephen Bach's often well-received book of the same title, focusing on the end of United Artists as a studio and the influence of the titular film. Folks interested in New Hollywood and related topics should give it a look, I'm pretty sure it's on Youtube now if only in fragments.

Includes Willem Dafoe on narration as something of a Stealth Insult.

Sorry for the bump but.......

.....how does this make you feel?

edited 29th Jun '12 2:30:37 PM by truteal

I've been meaning to check out extreme shockumentaries, like Traces of Death or Faces of Gore.

Look for "The Valour and the Horror", a three-parter on Canada's military experience in World War 2. Harrowing isn't the word. The one dealing with The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada and what happened to those men in Normandy, "In Desperate Battle", made me ask "Why did this happen?"