Keeping a jaundiced eye on the corporate media.
Dec 2nd, 2007 at 7:41 am by Maya
Since we got Netflix, I’ve been all into the documentaries. We just watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated, and before that we had Who Killed The Electric Car. Both were incredible and totally changed the way I look at this country.
So give me more to add to my list. What documentaries can you not recommend highly enough?
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The Corporation, which examines the idea that if a human being acted the way a limited liability corporation acts– indeed, the way it is forced by relevant law and the conditions of its charter to act– we’d call it a sociopath. But you undoubtedly know that already.
Eugene Jarecki’s Why We Fight
“The Corporation”
“Baraka” — one of the most beautiful films ever made.
“War Is Sell”– the outsourcing of the Military.
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”– about the attempted CIA coup against Hugo Chavez.
“The End Of Suburbia”– about Peak Oil and its implications.
“The Community Solution”– How Cuba Survived Peak Oil.
Every one of them is worth owning, let alone simply viewing.
–mf
Here is my current list:
An Inconvenient Truth
Who killed the Electric Car
Uncovered - The war in Iraq
Iraq for Sale
A Crude Awakening
No End in Sight
Enron - The smartest guys in the room
I told Santa Clause to bring me a copy of “Sicko” by Michael Moore.
Just for fun: Darkon!
An oldy: Harlan County, USA. Plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose.
I found “Small Town Gay Bar” to be totally on the mark.
“Control Room,” or how an army press flak detailed to sell the Iraq war discovered his humanity.
Here are some documentaries that I have never forgotten:
1. Black Tar Heroin (watched it on Dailymotion.com. Broken into parts (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.).
2. American Hollow (documentary by Rory Kennedy (the late RFK’s daughter). Follows an Appalachian family through their trials, tears and tribulations. Excellent socio-economic awareness piece.
3. Capturing the Friedmans (an “ordinary” Jewish family in New York turn out to be anything but ordinary). HBO shows this occasionally on their documentary lineup.
4. Latcho Drom (means “Safe journey”). Not just a musical documentary, it follows the journey of the gypsies (or “Rom”) through years of persecution and poverty. The documentary covers the diaspora of the gypsy people through India, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, France and, finally, Spain. This documentary was truly one of my favorites. I learned to love the gypsy music and to better understand the unconventional lifestyle of the Romani or Gypsy people.
5. Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero. After 9-11, Americans ponder the existence of God.
6. Southern Comfort. Excellent, thought-provoking documentary about a transgendered (female-to-male) person and his circle of friends. The fact that “Robert” has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer seems merely incidental in this documentary; what stands out is his contagious joy of life and the small circle of misfits that share his world.
7. Promises. Outstanding documentary that allows the viewer more than a glance into the world of the children - both Palestinian and Israeli - who, at turns, emulate, admire and question the decisions of a grownup world engaged in a battle that seems to have no end in sight.
8. The Devil’s Playground. Gives an inside view of Amish youth and what happens when some of them grow too fond of the “English” lifestyle. Mainly centers around a charismatic young man who becomes addicted to methamphetamine.
9. Flesh and Blood. Centers around life in the “Tom” household; that is, the day-to-day accomplishments and heartaches of a single mother who has adopted ten children, all of whom have special needs. Riveting.
There are too many good documentaries to include here, but those listed above are some great ones for starters.
‘The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo’. Followed up with Salma Hayek’s ‘Frida’.
i second the emotion for “the corporation”, “why we fight”, “capturing the friedmans”, “the control room”, and “no end in sight”.
add to that list “the thin blue line”, “doctor death”, “fast, cheap and out of control” and “the fog of war” (all by errol morris, probably the greatest documentarian alive–note only the last of those films is overtly political).
also “hands on hard body” is great–also not political, but great nonetheless.
the international documentaries association recently ranked the top documentaries of all time. here’s my post in response to the rankings. check out the comments to the post, there’s a ton of recommended docs in there.
My favorites would have to be An Inconvenient Truth, Sicko, The Corporation, Supersize Me.
After you watch all the ones that make you angry, watch “Paperclips”, we can be good human beings, too.
“What a Way to Go - Life at the end of empire” - Absolutely stunning on climate change, peak oil, overpopulation convergences - film just out this year - am not sure whether NetFlix carries yet, but you might be able to get a free copy on-line or some place. Makes many other problems seem trivial.
Some I have enjoyed: “The Future of Food”, “The Yes Men”, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts”, “Unchained Memories: Slave Narratives”, “Shut Up & Sing”, “Life and Debt”, and “When We Were Kings”. John Pilger’s “Stealing a Nation” is also quite good, if you can find it.
Two real docs — “Control Room” and “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” — but also a dramatization that plays as a documentary and is especially compelling given our situation in Iraq. “The Battle of Algiers.”
Less obviously political, but a fascinating documentary for thinking about art and politics, is the new “Helvetica,” about the font of the same name. It’s partly a story about how elite art design became part of everyday life, partly a story about why Helvetica became the favored font for government (on the space shuttle, on subway signs, on IRS tax forms) and big business (from American Airlines to American Apparel). It will change your sense of graphic design, and you don’t have to be an artsy nerd to enjoy it (though it’s great fun for artsy nerds).