The Documentary Thread
 

PBS's Frontline is the pinnacle of fascinating documentaries. Some of my favorites in no particular order.

Frontline: Spying on the Home Front. This documentary examines the lines that are crossed when trying to eavesdrop on terror cells and how the government scrutinizes people's records and the electronic surveillance of their communications.

Frontline: When Kids get Life. Chronicles 5 teens in Colorado who have committed murder and are serving life without possibility of parole.

Frontline: The Al Qaeda Files. It's a 2 disc set that chronicles the terror group and documents the rise of Osama Bin Laden. The most fascinating part about this documentary is FBI agent John O'Neill's story. He really was the man who knew.

Frontline: The Man who knew. FBI agent John O'neills complete story.

Frontline: The Tank Man. This documentary investigates the happenings at the Tienanmen Square protests in Beijing and the lone man who stood in front of a column of tanks.

If Frontline is the pinnacle of fascinating documentaries then it's only fair to call Ken Burns documentaries the pinnacle of historymentaries.

Ken Burns: Civil War.

Ken Burns: Lewis and Clark.

Ken Burns: Mark Twain.

Some other documentaries I would suggest include;

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Meerkat Manor (the whole family will love this one.)

Breaking Vegas.

bowling for colimbine opened my eyes for sure

Supersize Me

My three favorites are:

Ken Burns - The War

Why We Fight

The Fog of War

for all you film buffs out there, i recommend:

The Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

I'm excited for Ken Burns' The National Parks series in 2009.

I should have added the War. A great piece of WWII work. Also Shooting War. Hanks and Speilberg team up too examine WWII Combat Photographers.

Crumb: about the weirdo R. Crumb.
Grizzly Man: about the weirdo who got eaten by grizzlies in Alaska.
Dig: about the weirdo behind Brian Jonestown Massacre
Furious Freaks: about the weirdos that make up the Flaming Lips
The Dancing Outlaw: about the weirdo Jessico White, a schizophrenic mountain clogger.
The Devil and Daniel Johnston: about the weirdo Daniel Johnston.


Yes, I like movies about weirdos.

A few more:
Riding Giants: about Laird Hamilton and big wave surfing
The Eyes of Tammy Faye: surprisingly sympathetic look at Tammy Faye Bakker.
Devil's Playground: about bad Amish kids.

Frontline ran a documentary called Country Boys a couple of years back that was fascinating and sad at the same time. It followed these two teens in Appalachian Kentucky and their struggles with school and family in an unbelievably dirt poor part of the country.

Few more:
Genghis Blues: about Paul Penga and Tuvan throat singing
I am Trying to Break Your Heart: about Wilco making the YHF album.
Dog Town and the Z Boys: the documentary, not the movie.
Born to Brothels: about child prostitution in India and a lady who tries to make a difference.

I really liked Scratch.

Oh hey, it's on Youtube.

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I want to see this one.



My wife liked this one.

My wife ordered this one on Netflix. I was skeptical about it, but ended up enjoying it somewhat. She was also the one who ordered Meerkat Manor. I really thought that would be dumb, but I was hooked after the first few minutes of watching.

The last few I saw were:

The Bridge
Over the span of a year, director Eric Steel's cameras capture tormented souls attempting to commit suicide by leaping from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Through poignant interviews with family, friends and eyewitnesses, the film reveals a common thread of depression, despair and chronic mental illness. This provocative documentary further reinforces the landmark's iconic legacy as the world's most popular suicide destination.

Cocaine Cowboys
This penetrating and sometimes harrowing documentary from director Billy Corben pulls out all the stops to explore the many dimensions of Miami's cocaine-trafficking boom of the 1980s, from how the drug was moved and the financial impact on the city to the havoc and violence that followed in its wake. Told by the smugglers, cops and average citizens who were there, this film is an unflinching study of Miami's most notorious and lethal vice.

American Drug War: The Last White Hope
With commentary from soldiers on both sides of the conflict, filmmaker Kevin Booth's incisive documentary wades into the murky waters of the American war on drugs, the longest and costliest war in U.S. history. Taking viewers from prisons and inner-city streets to the halls of Congress and his own kitchen, Booth attempts to sort out the intricacies of the national drug policy -- and the reasons for its unmitigated failure.

They are all very interesting, and American Drug War is definitely the most eye-opening.