Best Documentaries (Page 2)

Every post reminds me of another one.

Grizzly Man, about Timothy Treadwell, guy who had a bit of a hard time dealing with reality and other people, fancied himself a savior of the Alaskan Grizzlies.  He went up and lived with them every summer, filming himself for a documentary he hoped to make.  Until they killed him, and his girlfriend that was there at the time, when the bears attacked him outside the tent.  He left the camera rolling at the time, so there is audio of it (they don't play it, but the director listens to it)

This guy would get right up to them and actually touch them.  There's been some discussion about whether what he was doing was good or bad for the bears.

That was awesome and I am so glad I saw it when it was still in the theaters (on the big screen).

My vote for the best documentary: The Fog of War. And, BTW, I thought, "Why We Fight," sucked. It was so unoriginal and just seemed to be a medley of a bunch of other documentaries I've seen in recent years (created prior to Why We Fight). I really hated it at the time and didn't make it a point to remember all the reasons why. It presented nothing new, though.

I like nature documentaries a lot, and loved this series PBS did about 2 years ago. I think it was called Deep Jungle.

I've seen City of God and Rabbit Proof Fence. You guys are good at naming awesome movies. This will make the trainer much more fun.

At first I thought the guy on the cover of Rabbit Proof Fence was Keifer Sutherland. However he doesn't look like Keifer in the movie.

A couple of really good surfing docs:

"Endless Summer"

"Riding Giants"

Also, what kind of dirty hippie liberal would I be if I didn't throw out a Michael Moore film, but "Roger & Me" was excellent.

I know one.

If you were a real dirty hippie liberal you'd throw out Farenheit 911........  But, like Spinal Tap, that's not really a documentary

ES and Riding Giants are goodStacy Peralta, the director of Riding Giants (and yes, of Peralta wheels and trucks and skateboards) also did Dogtown and Z Boys a docu about the so cal skating scene in the 70s.  It's fantastic (and for you dirty hppie libs, narrated by Sean Penn)

BUMP!

I just wanted to thank the contributors to this thread and especially jeng for starting it.  I read about a lot of movies when they are being released but due to things like life, work, family, etc don't see many of them.   Thanks to this thread I was inspired to rent my first documentary (thank you Netflix).  I'm about halfway through Who Killed the Electric Car?.  There's not much here that is surprising, but I'm really enjoying the documentary film style.  Seeing, in real life, incidents that happened to help shape and reflect the world we live in is very interesting. 

Can't believe noone mentioned Michael Moore movies:

Bowling for Columbine, Farenehit 9/11

Also, anyone remember the PBS documentary called "The Farmer's Wife"?  That was awesome.

Yeah...I guess documentaries don't have to be true :D 

This is a great thread! My Netflix queue just gained substance. Thanks!

Word Wars was great. The people scared me, though.

Bush's Brain--same thing.

Check page 1.  Reading is a skill.

I was going to include "The Farmer's Wife" before I read this. I second it - very well done.

I second  Hoop Dreams also

Two that haven't been mentioned: 

Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control  - An Errol Morris (The Fog of War) documentary that interweaves stories about a guy who studies mole rats, an animal trainer, a topiary gardner, and a robot-maker.

Titicut Follies - 1967 movie about life at a Massachusetts mental institution. Terrifying, very controversial, banned for years in various places. Kind of hard to find.