A thread for Documentaries
 

Anyone see any of the below listed films? Thoughts?

Watched:
Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine (2017)
Gameplay (2013)
Batman & Bill (2017)

Half way through watching:
Chasing Coral (2017)

Want to watch soon:
Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys (2014)

If you like the MTV show Jackass I would recommend "Dumb." If your into video game history check out "Gameplay." And if you dislike Bob Kane watch "Batman&Bill." If your a big global climate change person "Chasing Coral" is for you. Or if your on acid because some of the underwater scenes will blow your mind. I'm excited to watch "Plastic Galaxy" even though I'm not a huge Star Wars person. It looks great!

You watch any documentaries lately good/bad?

I Know That Voice (2013) John Dimaggio made it. It was all about voice acting its really interesting.

Ghostheads (2016): A Doc about Ghostbuster Fans

Back In Time (2015): All about Back to the Future

Jackie Chan: My Stunts from 1999 was fantastic, and shows how much work Jackie Chan does in his movies. I'm pretty sure the whole thing is on youtube too.

Jackie was still fairly young and agile in 1999 (even if he was like 40 already, lol), so it's fun to watch Jackie when he could still do stuff near his prime.

Now, it's not an "official" documentary and more of a "school project" documentary, but this one on Chris Chan is a delight of going down a slope covered in oil.

The Business of Being Born is an interesting one on hospital maternity practices, and thankfully doesn't shoot itself in the foot on having a "homebirth w/midwife only!!!" bias, but still discusses that there are some severe (and dangerous) problems within overmedicated hospital birthing practices that have been carrying on for the past fifty years or so. (Annnnnd then the ever-so-boring sequel came out that involved someone blaming the rising Autism rates on inducements/epidurals and...yeah, f*ck you, lady.

The original Cosmos is an absolute joy to this day, and the new version is awesome as well, but it's just not the same without the oh-so-ethereal original theme music

Planet Earth I & II
Life
The New Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson
Richard Hammond's Invisible World
PBS Forces of Nature
Babies
Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman

I saw Batman and Bill last weekend. It's an interesting topic, and the comic panel motion graphics were really cool. I think I would have liked it better if it focused more on Finger and Kane and less on the guy who was doing the research. Don't get me wrong, the research was important, but the guy's family life and background wasn't, at least not proportional to the time the documentary spends on it.

I could rattle off a million Documentaries, but I think my favourite is Bigger Stronger Faster. It's about steroids.

If that's not your bag, check out the 'making of' docs on the Alien Quadrillogy DVDs. They are really insightful, and don't pull any punches.

I recommend the Rockafire Explosion Documentary, it basically tells the story of Showbiz Pizza and the characters they used and how they became Chuck-E-Cheese and we see the lives of 3 people including the creator. It's one of those documentaries you don't expect to like but it just works.

There's also King of Kong which is a doc. on Donkey Kong high scores, also not something you'd expect to like but it's awesome, especially if you followed it back in the day when it was released and G4 even broadcast the live try to beat the score at E3 2007 I think, since then the score has only gotten crazier but the story hasn't been as awesome. There are some "spiritual" "sequels" like ghosts in the arcade and man vs snake but they aren't as good as this one but they scratch the itch if you want more.


I love documentaries though I mostly watch history/science documentaries, not big on most biographies unless said person is a scientist/historian/historical figure.

Also, no one is going to recommend the TMNT doc from fellow dromer? I remember it was pretty good and there's a second one coming.

Wow a lot that I haven't seen and a few that I have. My list is growing.

"The Business of Being Born" was eye opening. If it's the one I am thinking about I seen it a couple years ago. I thought it was interesting how the doctors could schedule the C-sections around golfing times and how nature was pushed aside. If I remember correctly.

I know what you mean it was almost two movies one about Bill Finger and one about the researcher. Yes I seen BSF and in that similar vein "pumping iron" is an oldie but goodie. It has Arnold being Arnold and trying to punk Lou Ferrigno in portions.

Since you mentioned video games, I was reminded of a documentary I once watched called GTFO. It's about the misogyny that females face in the video game community. There are a lot of women and girls who seem to look down on video games. So I'm glad for the ones who don't, but it sucks how a lot of them get attacked for trying to become a part of something that mostly guys are known for.

I own a copy of the former. I have a lot of respect for the craft of voice acting. So another good documentary on it is Adventures in Voice Acting. As for the last two you mentioned, I've seen them and they're both great.

There was a documentary on PBS about the love lives of adults on the spectrum called Autism in Love. Another one that was on PBS is called Accidental Courtesy, which is about a black man who set out to meet racists and learn how they became that way, and he says that he has gotten some of them to change their views. Both are on Netflix now.

Do you happen to know if 'Back In Time' is on Hulu or Netflix?

Yeah and most of those guys that attack the girls are probably gamer snobs. Harassing even other dudes that happen to be new to gaming. But yeah the "fake gamer girl" or "fake nerd girl" thing is all over the internet too. :-?

Yeah, that's the one. I wasn't thinking of that as an example, but on the other factors that make the unnecessary c-section rate explode in the US (not knowing how to handle breech/posterior position or just simply not knowing how/wanting to deal with natural labors in general, especially if they take a long time to get through, not wanting to be at work during holidays).


It's been awhile since it was taken off Netflix, and thus it's been awhile since I've seen it, but I think it mostly covered the abusive tactics used in maternity care (which boy, I wonder why the US maternal mortality rate in the US is so high, especially in Texas!)

It's just on Netflix.

Pumping Iron is great. Have you seen Generation Iron? It's sort of a follow-up centering around the modern Mr Olympia competition. It's very interesting to see how much it's changed since Arnold's heyday.

Yeah, I use to watch a lot of fitness shows for motivation to workout. Haven't been to the gym in almost two years. Guess I should have kept watching them :lol:. Things sure have changed a lot since Arnold's day forsure.

I got around to watching Plastic Galaxy. It was good and worth watching. A big focus on Kenner toys and the employees. Still haven't finished Chasing Coral.

Back In Time is next on my watch list.

King of Kong is phenomenal!
I never thought I could have so many feelings able Donkey Kong.

I'd also suggest Fog of War to folks who have an interest in modern history.

Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime is an awesome documentary discussing the fight against Distillers in the production of Thalidomide pills. From the reason why they produced it, to the sketchy use to treat morning sickness - which in turn caused deformations in developing pregnancies of various extents. I think the "Last Nazi War Crime" bit is a bit on the nose, since they don't discuss that connection until the very, very end of the documentary.

The Thalidomide disaster itself is fascinating, but the families affected by it struggling for justice are even more so...especially when they've only been getting their justice in recent years.

Atari: Game Over is a neat retrospective on the downfall of Atari and it tells the interesting story of those E.T. carts found in that landfill.

I don't really watch documentaries but I liked that one quite a bit.

Since we're talking about documentaries... does anyone care that they are often full of s**t? I ask because I don't really. I love King of Kong, but from what I hear it plays pretty fast and loose with the truth, and Pumping Iron may as well be scripted... but I don't care as long as they're well made and entertaining.

I don't know what that says about me.

Any good documentary has to twist an angle and edit it so there can be a narrative, that doesn't mean "bad" for them to do it since it's what you have to do to make it more compelling.

But yeah you have to take it with a grain of salt and know that it's not all "one sided" like documentaries make it out to be, whether it's blackfish or even an inconvenient truth which are both excellent documentaries and I'm on "their" side of the issue, you have to know that they choose the interview scenes to make people look "bad' or "good" depending on their narrative.

Using King of Kong as an example, the "bad guy" Billy Mitchell is actually one of the the "good guys" in "man vs snake". He was really mad how he was portrayed in King of Kong but he made such an excellent villain there, not to mention that even if that angle was played out, you can tell from interviews that Mitchell even if not the huge Jerk that he is in king of kongs, definitely has a "strong" personality and likely a Trump voter but he isn't a huge ****ing bad guy as much as Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows plays in the background and with your feelings.