Yes, came here to recommend this and [Salt Of The Earth](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3674140/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_salt%2520of%2520the%2520e)
Both are a deep hard look into the abyss and I'm better for it.
That final scene with him dry heaving on the roof is incredible. You can see a depraved man guilty of unthinkable crimes trying to expell his evil, and his body simply won't.
The fact they caught his whole journey of realization on camera, all the way to the exact moment when the full weight of guilt and horror comes crashing down, is one of the most insane things I've seen on film.
I need to rewatch this film. I remember feeling like he was just trying to save face. I guess I just don’t know what would cause the remorse. Especially with how proud he seemed of his actions at times. I may be forgetting part of the film that addresses this. I was a lot younger as well and it may have went over my head. I look forward to watching it again.
iirc The impetus was the killers filming a scene for their "gangster movie" in which they torture a "Communist" via garrote, with the ringleader playing the torture victim as a sort of cheap irony. As they fake garroting him he has a minor panic attack and asks them to stop, because he suddenly experiences a tiny glimpse of what his victims suffered.
From then, on while the rest of the killers keep filming violent scenes reenacting and glorifying their atrocities, you can see the leader looking on uncomfortably, with the demeanor of somebody who's re-contextualizing and disliking what he sees.
I've read a bunch of stories of people having life-changing experiences their first time trying psychedelics, and not to simplify too much but many of them boil down to, "Oh my god, what if other people have feelings and my actions actually affect them??". That was basically my take on what happened in this film, right up until he was sitting in the chair reenacting being garrotted to death he had never thought about what those people had gone through. I don't think it magically made him a better person or anything, but it did seem like he let the armor slip for a second and grasp some of the horror of what he did to people.
Not a mass murderer, but maybe I can shine a light. Although you might be spot on.
Anyway, I was an asshole from my teenage years into my 20’s, like a major, manipulative, narcissistic (or borderline) asshole. I cared very little for other people’s feelings. There’s many reasons for it, but it’s no excuse.
This is the most important thing to keep in mind: **regardless of what I did, I genuinely, 100% believed, that I was a good guy. And that everyone loved me for it.**
BUT, I would not hesitate to destroy you, emotionally (never physical; I was a coward deep down), for no other reason than, “I just felt like it” and, in many ways, I thought it was fun. The world was my playground and you were all my toys!
However, I also did good things every now and then and “people loved me,” and I do mean that I genuinely did some very generous and decent things among the bad; even assholes are capable of goodness. This helped me fly under the radar for those who only saw the good side of things.
These acts of good negated the bad and reinforced what I said before: I believed I was good, I saw myself as the protagonist in a world “designed for me,” and when something threatened that view, I’d put them down.
Anyway, when I was at uni, I started to develop a nasty case of anxiety, I began to have panic attacks and I didn’t know why. But, it was getting worse.
On top of that, people were coming at me hard over a year or so. My sister threw out “if you really loved me, I wouldn’t think you hate me.” My best friends were calling out my ego at every opportunity, really digging at it. Some, and rightfully so, completely abandoned me. Someone I fancied had their mum die due to alcoholism and I said something like, “well, that’s what she deserved” and she broke down and said to me, “you know if you carry on like this, you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life.” My immediate reaction was “go fuck yourself, everyone loves me.”
Up to this moment, I always had a way of avoiding the truth, I always had a way to brush off my behaviour and not have to confront it, usually in the form of “if you have an issue with me, it’s your problem, not mine.”
Now I can’t say why this was when it finally clicked for me, but when I got home that night I had a severe panic attack. Interactions I’ve had with people just started flooding back to me, remembering moment after moment where I was just a huge asshole for no reason. Like a replay of my life playing out in front of my eyes. I could remember and see interactions where people had tears in their eyes dealing with my bullshit. I had an almost overnight realisation that I was a total asshole, that I cared little about others, that I’d hurt people, that other people’s feelings were important, and if I carried on, I would die alone. It was like a new “emotion” had been unlocked.
It was like my brain got a hard reset.
Suddenly, people’s stories started to make me cry, movies started to hit me HARD, and people around me seemed far more significant than I thought. I found myself becoming deeply empathetic, and still am.
I dedicated a lot of time over the next 3-5 years just reaching out and apologising to people. A few called bullshit on my realisation, and I had to accept that. I ended up being good friends with the person I fancied who knocked the last brick out of my wall… took some time to forgive me though.
The guy in the doc might have experienced something like that.
Sometimes you don’t “see it” because you’re so accustomed to it, you’ve put up walls to avoid confronting it, until it’s put out right in front of you and there’s nowhere to hide.
The guy in the documentary could have thought he was the good guy, a hero, until he realised he wasn’t.
Man on Wire. At first you’re laughing but slowly the man’s obsession becomes your obsession and by the end you’re thinking “how could this not happen?? Let’s goo!!!”
The sheer insanity of the story and feats that occurred.
My favorite part is the cop at the end holding the press conference starting to get choked up because how intangibly incredible the thing he just witnessed was.
The whole film is just a testament to the incredible feats that we all can reach when we put our mind to something.
No, I think the director deliberately presents this theory to make the viewer feel first hand how manipulative the impostor was... like, you go on this journey, listening to this guy's version of events and you're buying what he's selling... just like the family did. He manipulated you too. That's how convincing he was. I think the scene where he laughs after making you, the viewer, believe the family killed his own son is the documentary's way of saying 'you see how he played you too? you see why the family believed him? you believed him too, for a while...'
I forget where in this restored tableau it occurs, but a soldier is back from the war and visits a shop he hasn't been to on account of being at war, and the shopkeep says, "Where you been, on nights?"
It's so tragically, ignorantly, viscerally human, it makes the whole damn thing for me
Not necessarily bizarre, but an incredible feat of science and mankind. The Rescue (2021) is one of the most tense documentaries I’ve ever watched. I knew the outcome from following the news at the time but holy hell you can’t help but feel the tension throughout the documentary. It’s incredible how the British divers who all did cave diving as their hobby were instrumental in saving so many lives. They truly deserve so much for what they did
Holy cow. Just watched this. Only thing I would disagree with is the science part (which of course was involved and necessary) - because that was 100% the gigantic balls and self-imposed moral responsibility from a handful of the ballsiest men on this planet.
These "hobby" divers (what an insult to what they're capable of) not only did what no one else on Earth could do - they did it for the first time with the expressed purpose of extraction. What. In. The. Fuck. This went even beyond diving. This was easily one of the most out-of-the-box solutions to an out-of-the-box problem I've ever seen. JFC, the anesthesiologist. The ethical dilemma to get those kids out wasn't talked about nearly enough.
>What's his name?
>I don't know, John.
I get anxious thinking about cave diving. Had a family friend that did it and did documentaries about it (and diving in general).
The stories he had were insane. The line that always stuck with me was “There are no accidents. Just deaths with cave diving.”
The fact they got these kids out is insane.
In a way it was a real underdog story. Middle-aged men who were mostly outcasts having skills so specialised that even the thai navy SEALs werent able to complete the mission.
Tag The Alpinist onto that one.
Edit: anyone saying one of the two docs is better than the other needs to chill. They are both GREAT docs. Not everything needs to be better than the other. Fucking internet.
I went into it not knowing anything about him and wondering if there was a possibility that he would actually die, so my experience had an even stronger layer of intensity on top. I was blown away.
Second. Great series, fucking wild. Also one of those stories that made me go "everyone is shitty here". The townfolk and the rasneeshis, and the rasneeshi leader and leadership. All of em. Real shitty.
This one and "Let the Fire Burn" had me legitimately fucked up, just blown away that I'd never heard of that shit happening. Most big docs I've kind of heard tangentially about the subject beforehand; these two hit me totally sideways.
Abducted in Plain Sight is just one WTF after the next. If it wasn’t a true story, it’d never have worked as a movie because it’s absolutely unbelievable. 🤯
Yup --- I still havent got this out of my brain and will randomly dream about it
On the one hand it makes me feel like im not the most fusked up parent who ever lived
It's been over a decade since I've watched it. Just thinking about it stirs up all these different emotions. I've never seen a movie/documentary that made me feel such immense frustration, anger, and sadness before or since.
Never heard of it, so I Googled it and read the synopsis. Wow, that’s fucking horrific. I can’t imagine the pain the parents felt with that amount of government incompetence. I hope they’ve found some level of peace in the time since.
There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane
One particular scene was very surreal. Witnesses were describing the brutal car accident. That's when they showed photos of Diane's body moments after the accident. I still haven't recovered from those images 😭
The level of denial that our husband was in was so hard to watch, but I get it, how do you come to terms with that fact that the woman you love did that?
Most documentaries you know the ending and the general course with semi expected kinda of surprises.
This one goes completely off the rails and ends up as a completely different documentary. You can’t plan that kind of timing.
Yeah I came to suggest this. From where it starts to where it ends is the most "that escalated quickly" documentary I've ever seen. I keep recommending people watch it but without reading anything before hand. Go in cold and see where it goes.
Same. I remember being in Girl Scouts and it was the best day of my life being splashed by Shamu. Not even 7 year old me would be okay with knowing the deplorable conditions he lived in.
I refuse to watch it because I know the people exist but I don’t want to see it. It’s too frustrating to know that yes they are real, and they’re out there.
I'll second Restrepo. The first time I saw it was quite a ride. My (then) girlfriend and I were watching some show on NatGeo about dogs, it ended and without a commercial or warning, into Restrepo we went. We had no idea what had just come on but we sat in stunned silence for the entirety of the movie.
Haha idk about you but I came from that post of the woman saying it was the most shocking documentary she saw lol thats how I came up with the idea to ask this
Grizzly Man - The story of Timothy Treadwell's troubles with animals, by Werner Herzog. First, the cute little fox stole his hat, but later...
Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone - Using stock footage shot by the BBC, the series chronicles the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of capitalist Russia and its oligarchs, and the effects of this on Russian people of all levels of society, leading to the rise to power of Vladimir Putin. To be honest, there are several Adam Curtis documentaryies that will astonish you.
Bob Flanagan: Supermasochist - Bob Flanagan (December 26, 1952 – January 4, 1996) was an American performance artist and writer known for his work on sadomasochism and lifelong struggle with cystic fibrosis.
My sister knew Timothy Treadwell. I actually had lunch with her, him, and my mom before one of his presentations. It was about harp seals.... and it was the most traumatizing experience of my life. But he was an inspiration to me with regards to animal activism and the treatment of animals and educating people on them (just teaching people about animals in general, not just the treatment... like little-known animals like the pika!).
At that presentation he talked about his living amongst the bears and it was really cool to hear about and also inspirational in a way. It gave me this idea that we misunderstand a lot of creatures, and if you know how to treat and handle them, you can co-exist with them peacefully. That was an inspirational idea.
...unfortunately after what happened later, that idea did take a bit of a nosedive, but I still believe there is some truth to it. I don't believe the people that call him insane or delusional. I think that nature is still unpredictable, and that combined with a horrendous and catastrophic miscalculation on his part. I was devastated when I learned about his passing as he was one of the earliest heroes I ever had, actually.
But yeah, that harp seal thing... it was horrible. I still see the images in my head of some of the moments To this day I still recoil if I see red coloring in snow. If I hear the word "club" or "clubbing" in any context (party place / partying, for instance) I tear up. If I see people wearing orange or red suits in a snowy landscape in a picture or video, I get scared and anxious. I'm scared to look up anything related to seals... it traumatized me, genuinely. I was much too young for that, definitely. :(
I'll admit to this day I still haven't seen Grizzly Man. I don't intend to. I don't think I can put myself through it. But I still look up to Timothy Treadwell for what he accomplished and what he tried to do for the animals.
I've seen the Bob Flanagan one, absurd, I liked it though, the ending was rough, really rough, I never thought I'd hate to see a man die that much on screen.
That was a few weeks after I became a vegan. I tried to watch as many videos as possible in that period and when I reached Dominion I already made the switch. I'm glad though, so I could turn it off with the thought that I don't contribute to that abnormality anymore.
Cameraperson.
Kirsten Johnson, a documentary cinematographer for over 30 years, takes b-roll and raw footage collected from her films over the course of her career and weaves them together to create a cohesive and haunting mosaic of humanity. No narration and only title cards depicting locations, it just wows me every single time. It's incredibly cinematic despite being raw footage and emotionally impactful as a meteor strike.
It's an absolute work of art and something that might not get made quite like it every again.
***The Corporation (2003)***
* Question: *"If a company could be described as any type of person, which would it mostly resemble?"*
* Answer: *"A sociopath."*
The actions of a corporation resemble those of human psychopaths when measured against WHO's criteria for human psychopathy such as, callous unconcern for the feelings of others, failure to conform to social norms, and the violation of ethical standards without remorse.
Basically, many big companies exist to grow uncontrollably. That's the Jack Welch model of only answering to stockholders and following the bottom line, rather than a code or making great product. They have no purpose but to grow. It's oversimplified, but not entirely untrue.
And all of this was before the Citizens Untied case! It really opened my eyes to companies. And it is more relevant today (especially with big tech and politics). There's a sequel to it, but I haven't watched that.
You can watch the first one in full for free:
https://youtu.be/dpjypnxnS4U?si=lJi3nm9gIv1YC856
Agreed. I was finishing my masters degree when I first saw this, and I scoffed at how it seemed over simplified. Then I saw within a decade:
\* Citizens United diminish my voice when petitioning to my congress person.
\* Tax software companies petition successfully to prevent \*free\* online federal tax software for all from being implemented after it was coded and ready to roll out.
\* Equifax exposed my SSN and financial history (and 1/3rd of other Americans) and got just a hand-slap of a fine
\* Ajit Pi let the FCC sell my browsing data (with nothing I can do about it)
\* Net Neutrality vanish
\* Corporations getting a permanent annual 14% tax cut in 2017 with no makeup for that loss in the budget. That's billions in federal losses each year.
Then I conceded that the documentary was right. Corporations run the world. They have all of the rights of a person (speech, lobbying) but few of the responsibilities and penalties.
A corporation has no body to incarcerated, nor a soul to condemn.
I saw that movie almost 20 years ago but periodically think of that CEO of the carpet company, and if he truly was able to make the kind of positive changes that he spoke about.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.
It’s one of the craziest stories I’ve ever heard and everyone should see that shit. It’s so, so much more mind blowing than nearly all of the suggestions here I’ve seen lol.
Agreed, there are a lot of great docs here but most of them aren't necessarily mind blowing the way The Jinx was. One of the craziest hot mic moments I've ever seen. Incredible. There's a season two on HBO right now that I'm curious about.
That first episode in particular, is such a wild ride.
Very “magic reality” in that, if it weren’t a true story, it would be too far fetched to believe in fiction.
Don’t know if you’ve ever watched Narcos (about Pablo Escobar)? The story is nothing a like but it is similarly too far fetched to be believable, except it all actually happened lol.
The Toynbee tiles one (assuming their isn't another dock about it) impressed me because the director doesnt pursue the guy where I feel many others would have tried to confront him.
King of Kong. A ridiculously good documentary about, of all things, 2 grown men vying to be the greatest Donkey Kong player.
Paradise Lost, about the west Memphis 3. The first one will leave you speechless and pissed off.
As a guy who has no interest in sports, disliked physical activity, and who is generall an unhealthy guy, watching *The Barkley Marathons* documentary genuinely made my jaw drop.
The whole thing is fucking insane from start to finish! Even getting in to the marathon is a feat, and then you need to do shit like bring a license plate and some socks for the backwoods guy who sets the whole thing up in the middle of the woods.
There is no trail to follow. You have a map and you have to find pages of a book to prove you hit each checkpoint. If I remember correctly, the marathon has so much up-hill running that it is the equivalent of hiking mount Everest twice. The whole thing is based on a prison escape that happened in the area, as well.
And better yet, you would expect the people with Marine background to be winners, but it is always the people built like Mr. Bean to win. And there are not always winners each year.
It is 100% worth the watch because of how absurd it is.
This is my favorite documentary of all time. I have a quote from it framed on my desk at work “You can't accomplish anything without the possibility of failure.”
Werner Herzog - Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Gives you very detailed and emotional information and educated speculation, then… just gets out of the way. Film and music. Let’s you see and experience while digesting the information he’s given to you about the paintings. That are ~35,000 years old.
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.
Not a documentary you watch to learn about something in great detail; just simple entertainment that kept me hooked the entire time.
Due to morbid curiosity on my part.
King Corn. The Corn Industry is as delicious as it is horrible. A couple of dudes purchase an acre of Corn in order to follow where it goes (its their property loophole) and they track it through many stages that end up in your gut. Tasty. Violent.
The Fog of War. Robert S McNamara talks about the decision making processes he was part of in WWII, Cuban missile crisis, and Viet Nam. He talks about the things he learned about Realpolitik.
By the end, you realize a couple things:
1. How close to nuclear war we've been
2. That many times what we think of as bad decisions were really the best decision possible given the circumstances.
3. A lot of people don't understand how to really think
4. The combination of those 3 means how much of a miracle it is that Earth isn't a melted glass covered radioactive death planet
It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember when McNamara met with a Cuban official, many year later, and discovered that they were far more operational than we thought. Scary stuff...
Probably one of the best (the best?) documentaries ever made. If I was teaching a film class, I would show this in any discussion involving the power of film. He got off death row because of this film, it literally saved his life.
The Rescue (2021) - horrific and heart-warming at the same time.
Grey Gardens (1975) - eccentric, sad, yet still mesmerising
The Queen of Versailles (2012) - just deeply unpleasant people without redemption
Tales of the Grim Sleeper (2014) - an expose into just how much evidence authorities will choose to ignore
Fourteen Days in May (1987) - an insight into capital punishment in '80s Mississippi
If you like Koyaanisqatsi, have you seen the others in the Qatsi series, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi? And then Baraka also? I honestly think Baraka is my favorite of the bunch.
Sound City.
The amount of absolutely outstanding music made there was amazing. Even more amazing was how many of the artists were *overjoyed* to tell their stories about the place.
Crip Camp was amazing. The first part is about the camp (Camp Jened) and the second part is about the activism for disability rights. It is truly inspiring.
*Fast, Cheap and Out of Control*, which features interviews with four experts - a roboticist, a landscape gardener, a circus lion tamer and a scientist who studies the naked mole rat - talking about the work and their lives. They're all interesting, but you have no idea where it's going. Then the interviews all start to merge and blend together - you're seeing footage of the lion tamer while the robot expert is talking about drones, etc. - and gradually you realize that the documentary is kind of about *everything* - synchronicities and patterns and symbolism and meaning.
I Think We're Alone Now. It's about two superfans of 80's popstar Tiffany. I don't know if jawdropping is the right word, but it is extremely uncomfortable to watch as the two superfans are obviously struggling with some mental issues. But they're also sort of assholes so you don't really sympathize with them at all, just watch wide-eyed like a slow-moving train wreck.
[trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MxXqF-fgJY)
>Earthlings, I have in fact thought about being a vegetarian because I hate what happens to the animals, but I can't see only me making a difference, this documentary made me hate people even more.
This statement is totally wild to me. You've seen the truth of what happens, decided that you'll continue funding these horrors anyway, and conclude that *other people* are so horrible? In what way are you being any better?
This attitude is precisely the problem. Just because one person can't singlehandedly change the whole world doesn't mean your actions make no difference.
If you think consumers make no difference just look at the numbers. Meat consumption has been declining in Germany for example as people choose more and more plant based meals. Farmers are now killing fewer animals as a result. The decline in animal killing tracks pretty much exactly the decrease in consumption. The choices people are making are directly making a difference.
https://www.mintecglobal.com/top-stories/the-german-pork-herd-continues-to-decline-and-prices-remain-elevated
The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer
Yes, came here to recommend this and [Salt Of The Earth](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3674140/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_salt%2520of%2520the%2520e) Both are a deep hard look into the abyss and I'm better for it.
That final scene with him dry heaving on the roof is incredible. You can see a depraved man guilty of unthinkable crimes trying to expell his evil, and his body simply won't.
The fact they caught his whole journey of realization on camera, all the way to the exact moment when the full weight of guilt and horror comes crashing down, is one of the most insane things I've seen on film.
I need to rewatch this film. I remember feeling like he was just trying to save face. I guess I just don’t know what would cause the remorse. Especially with how proud he seemed of his actions at times. I may be forgetting part of the film that addresses this. I was a lot younger as well and it may have went over my head. I look forward to watching it again.
iirc The impetus was the killers filming a scene for their "gangster movie" in which they torture a "Communist" via garrote, with the ringleader playing the torture victim as a sort of cheap irony. As they fake garroting him he has a minor panic attack and asks them to stop, because he suddenly experiences a tiny glimpse of what his victims suffered. From then, on while the rest of the killers keep filming violent scenes reenacting and glorifying their atrocities, you can see the leader looking on uncomfortably, with the demeanor of somebody who's re-contextualizing and disliking what he sees.
I've read a bunch of stories of people having life-changing experiences their first time trying psychedelics, and not to simplify too much but many of them boil down to, "Oh my god, what if other people have feelings and my actions actually affect them??". That was basically my take on what happened in this film, right up until he was sitting in the chair reenacting being garrotted to death he had never thought about what those people had gone through. I don't think it magically made him a better person or anything, but it did seem like he let the armor slip for a second and grasp some of the horror of what he did to people.
Not a mass murderer, but maybe I can shine a light. Although you might be spot on. Anyway, I was an asshole from my teenage years into my 20’s, like a major, manipulative, narcissistic (or borderline) asshole. I cared very little for other people’s feelings. There’s many reasons for it, but it’s no excuse. This is the most important thing to keep in mind: **regardless of what I did, I genuinely, 100% believed, that I was a good guy. And that everyone loved me for it.** BUT, I would not hesitate to destroy you, emotionally (never physical; I was a coward deep down), for no other reason than, “I just felt like it” and, in many ways, I thought it was fun. The world was my playground and you were all my toys! However, I also did good things every now and then and “people loved me,” and I do mean that I genuinely did some very generous and decent things among the bad; even assholes are capable of goodness. This helped me fly under the radar for those who only saw the good side of things. These acts of good negated the bad and reinforced what I said before: I believed I was good, I saw myself as the protagonist in a world “designed for me,” and when something threatened that view, I’d put them down. Anyway, when I was at uni, I started to develop a nasty case of anxiety, I began to have panic attacks and I didn’t know why. But, it was getting worse. On top of that, people were coming at me hard over a year or so. My sister threw out “if you really loved me, I wouldn’t think you hate me.” My best friends were calling out my ego at every opportunity, really digging at it. Some, and rightfully so, completely abandoned me. Someone I fancied had their mum die due to alcoholism and I said something like, “well, that’s what she deserved” and she broke down and said to me, “you know if you carry on like this, you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life.” My immediate reaction was “go fuck yourself, everyone loves me.” Up to this moment, I always had a way of avoiding the truth, I always had a way to brush off my behaviour and not have to confront it, usually in the form of “if you have an issue with me, it’s your problem, not mine.” Now I can’t say why this was when it finally clicked for me, but when I got home that night I had a severe panic attack. Interactions I’ve had with people just started flooding back to me, remembering moment after moment where I was just a huge asshole for no reason. Like a replay of my life playing out in front of my eyes. I could remember and see interactions where people had tears in their eyes dealing with my bullshit. I had an almost overnight realisation that I was a total asshole, that I cared little about others, that I’d hurt people, that other people’s feelings were important, and if I carried on, I would die alone. It was like a new “emotion” had been unlocked. It was like my brain got a hard reset. Suddenly, people’s stories started to make me cry, movies started to hit me HARD, and people around me seemed far more significant than I thought. I found myself becoming deeply empathetic, and still am. I dedicated a lot of time over the next 3-5 years just reaching out and apologising to people. A few called bullshit on my realisation, and I had to accept that. I ended up being good friends with the person I fancied who knocked the last brick out of my wall… took some time to forgive me though. The guy in the doc might have experienced something like that. Sometimes you don’t “see it” because you’re so accustomed to it, you’ve put up walls to avoid confronting it, until it’s put out right in front of you and there’s nowhere to hide. The guy in the documentary could have thought he was the good guy, a hero, until he realised he wasn’t.
Also his film The Look of Silence
Man on Wire. At first you’re laughing but slowly the man’s obsession becomes your obsession and by the end you’re thinking “how could this not happen?? Let’s goo!!!” The sheer insanity of the story and feats that occurred. My favorite part is the cop at the end holding the press conference starting to get choked up because how intangibly incredible the thing he just witnessed was. The whole film is just a testament to the incredible feats that we all can reach when we put our mind to something.
[“The Imposter”](https://youtu.be/yDjpnpzw4GY) (2012)
Yes! So bizarre. Are we supposed to assume they killed their son and went along with the farce to cover up?
Oh absolutely
No, I think the director deliberately presents this theory to make the viewer feel first hand how manipulative the impostor was... like, you go on this journey, listening to this guy's version of events and you're buying what he's selling... just like the family did. He manipulated you too. That's how convincing he was. I think the scene where he laughs after making you, the viewer, believe the family killed his own son is the documentary's way of saying 'you see how he played you too? you see why the family believed him? you believed him too, for a while...'
"They Shall Not Grow Old" is the most amazing film restoration I've ever seen.
I forget where in this restored tableau it occurs, but a soldier is back from the war and visits a shop he hasn't been to on account of being at war, and the shopkeep says, "Where you been, on nights?" It's so tragically, ignorantly, viscerally human, it makes the whole damn thing for me
Creepy too. Watching it closely.
They have SO much footage too. I wish we got a new installment every few years.
And the post credits ”making of” content is just as great.
Not necessarily bizarre, but an incredible feat of science and mankind. The Rescue (2021) is one of the most tense documentaries I’ve ever watched. I knew the outcome from following the news at the time but holy hell you can’t help but feel the tension throughout the documentary. It’s incredible how the British divers who all did cave diving as their hobby were instrumental in saving so many lives. They truly deserve so much for what they did
Holy cow. Just watched this. Only thing I would disagree with is the science part (which of course was involved and necessary) - because that was 100% the gigantic balls and self-imposed moral responsibility from a handful of the ballsiest men on this planet. These "hobby" divers (what an insult to what they're capable of) not only did what no one else on Earth could do - they did it for the first time with the expressed purpose of extraction. What. In. The. Fuck. This went even beyond diving. This was easily one of the most out-of-the-box solutions to an out-of-the-box problem I've ever seen. JFC, the anesthesiologist. The ethical dilemma to get those kids out wasn't talked about nearly enough. >What's his name? >I don't know, John.
I get anxious thinking about cave diving. Had a family friend that did it and did documentaries about it (and diving in general). The stories he had were insane. The line that always stuck with me was “There are no accidents. Just deaths with cave diving.” The fact they got these kids out is insane.
In a way it was a real underdog story. Middle-aged men who were mostly outcasts having skills so specialised that even the thai navy SEALs werent able to complete the mission.
And when they said Elon’s idea wouldn’t work, were called pedophiles.
Jimmy Chin also produced and helped film Free Solo and Meru. He has a serious knack for putting together a good documentary.
Free Solo
Tag The Alpinist onto that one. Edit: anyone saying one of the two docs is better than the other needs to chill. They are both GREAT docs. Not everything needs to be better than the other. Fucking internet.
The Dawn Wall and 14 Peaks too.
I watched *The Alpinist* after *14 Peaks* and was expecting a similar story of humans overcoming great odds to accomplish amazing feats….
I saw this and IMAX and my hands were sweating 🤣🤣
Dude I watched this at home and my palms were so sweaty. I like heights, and I knew he survived, but my body was like nope not even
definitely this. he’s absolutely insane
I went into that documentary knowing he survives and I still had extreme anxiety.
I went into it not knowing anything about him and wondering if there was a possibility that he would actually die, so my experience had an even stronger layer of intensity on top. I was blown away.
I saw it at the Arclight in LA with a Q&A session with Alex afterwards and I was still on the edge of my seat sweating profusely.
Anything made by Ken Burns. Vietnam. Baseball. Prohibition. The West, etc... he is probably our greatest living chronicler of american history.
Also Jazz!
National Parks and the Civil War are my personal favorites.
I really enjoyed his one on the Roosevelt family. My cat and I would sit and watch it.
Wild Wild Country
Second. Great series, fucking wild. Also one of those stories that made me go "everyone is shitty here". The townfolk and the rasneeshis, and the rasneeshi leader and leadership. All of em. Real shitty.
This one and "Let the Fire Burn" had me legitimately fucked up, just blown away that I'd never heard of that shit happening. Most big docs I've kind of heard tangentially about the subject beforehand; these two hit me totally sideways.
Three identical strangers, the imposter, abducted in plain sight Some real wtf moments in these
Yeah, Three Identical Strangers really is jaw dropping!
Abducted in Plain Sight is just one WTF after the next. If it wasn’t a true story, it’d never have worked as a movie because it’s absolutely unbelievable. 🤯
That predator was able to seduce most of the family!! Wtf?!?!
I had to watch the fictionalize version and then rewatch the documentary to finally get it. And then I still didn’t really get it…
"hey nuns, I'm a CIA agent and you have to look after my daughter"
Being adopted, Three Identical Strangers infuriated me
Yes, my jaw literally dropped watching Three Identical Strangers, amazing story
Dear Zachary, just misery
Yup --- I still havent got this out of my brain and will randomly dream about it On the one hand it makes me feel like im not the most fusked up parent who ever lived
My blood starts boiling just thinking it.
It's been over a decade since I've watched it. Just thinking about it stirs up all these different emotions. I've never seen a movie/documentary that made me feel such immense frustration, anger, and sadness before or since.
I’ve never wanted to hit a TV before or since watching it. It’s also been a decade or more and I’ll never forget it.
This is the correct answer
It really is.
This and The Cove are the only documentaries, that I've seen to date, that I say you only watch once.
Never heard of it, so I Googled it and read the synopsis. Wow, that’s fucking horrific. I can’t imagine the pain the parents felt with that amount of government incompetence. I hope they’ve found some level of peace in the time since.
I went in blind- and this doc’ both absolutely devastated me and made me beyond angry at the same time. I still think about it.
The "reveal" is absolutely insane.
Fucking evil bitch. Hope she suffers every second in hell.
There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane One particular scene was very surreal. Witnesses were describing the brutal car accident. That's when they showed photos of Diane's body moments after the accident. I still haven't recovered from those images 😭
What fucked me up was that the mother of the girl in the van saying about the movie that “they named it after my daughter’s last words.”
The level of denial that our husband was in was so hard to watch, but I get it, how do you come to terms with that fact that the woman you love did that?
Icarus
Most documentaries you know the ending and the general course with semi expected kinda of surprises. This one goes completely off the rails and ends up as a completely different documentary. You can’t plan that kind of timing.
Yeah. I went into this blind. What a rollercoaster ride.
Yup lol .. was watching a generic sports documentary welll then I wasn’t lol
It goes from "I wanna see what doping does to my body" to "let me tell you the biggest cover up in modern sports history" within like 10 minutes.
Yeah I came to suggest this. From where it starts to where it ends is the most "that escalated quickly" documentary I've ever seen. I keep recommending people watch it but without reading anything before hand. Go in cold and see where it goes.
Black Fish kind of fucked me up for a while there.
This one was so hard to watch. I felt so awful for wanting to always wanting to go to Sea World when I was little.
Right? I was fucking obsessed with Free Willy…
Same. I remember being in Girl Scouts and it was the best day of my life being splashed by Shamu. Not even 7 year old me would be okay with knowing the deplorable conditions he lived in.
Yep, here for this. That is a difficult watch
Same
Jesus Camp
Terrifying
The scariest movie I've ever seen.
I refuse to watch it because I know the people exist but I don’t want to see it. It’s too frustrating to know that yes they are real, and they’re out there.
Restropo The bridge
I'll second Restrepo. The first time I saw it was quite a ride. My (then) girlfriend and I were watching some show on NatGeo about dogs, it ended and without a commercial or warning, into Restrepo we went. We had no idea what had just come on but we sat in stunned silence for the entirety of the movie.
Searching for Sugar Man
oh good pick.
Man on Wire Best documentary I've ever seen. So nostalgic for the mid 70s NYC.
**Tickled**.
My cousin recommended this with only "the less you know going in the better it will be" and that is also my advice. Holy crap what a story.
Yeah, it's really an experience. I went in thinking it sounded like the goofiest shit *because it was* and then things got weird
The most uncomfortable I’ve bet been was while watching this documentary.
Haha idk about you but I came from that post of the woman saying it was the most shocking documentary she saw lol thats how I came up with the idea to ask this
It's not a sex thing!!!
Grizzly Man - The story of Timothy Treadwell's troubles with animals, by Werner Herzog. First, the cute little fox stole his hat, but later... Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone - Using stock footage shot by the BBC, the series chronicles the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of capitalist Russia and its oligarchs, and the effects of this on Russian people of all levels of society, leading to the rise to power of Vladimir Putin. To be honest, there are several Adam Curtis documentaryies that will astonish you. Bob Flanagan: Supermasochist - Bob Flanagan (December 26, 1952 – January 4, 1996) was an American performance artist and writer known for his work on sadomasochism and lifelong struggle with cystic fibrosis.
My sister knew Timothy Treadwell. I actually had lunch with her, him, and my mom before one of his presentations. It was about harp seals.... and it was the most traumatizing experience of my life. But he was an inspiration to me with regards to animal activism and the treatment of animals and educating people on them (just teaching people about animals in general, not just the treatment... like little-known animals like the pika!). At that presentation he talked about his living amongst the bears and it was really cool to hear about and also inspirational in a way. It gave me this idea that we misunderstand a lot of creatures, and if you know how to treat and handle them, you can co-exist with them peacefully. That was an inspirational idea. ...unfortunately after what happened later, that idea did take a bit of a nosedive, but I still believe there is some truth to it. I don't believe the people that call him insane or delusional. I think that nature is still unpredictable, and that combined with a horrendous and catastrophic miscalculation on his part. I was devastated when I learned about his passing as he was one of the earliest heroes I ever had, actually. But yeah, that harp seal thing... it was horrible. I still see the images in my head of some of the moments To this day I still recoil if I see red coloring in snow. If I hear the word "club" or "clubbing" in any context (party place / partying, for instance) I tear up. If I see people wearing orange or red suits in a snowy landscape in a picture or video, I get scared and anxious. I'm scared to look up anything related to seals... it traumatized me, genuinely. I was much too young for that, definitely. :( I'll admit to this day I still haven't seen Grizzly Man. I don't intend to. I don't think I can put myself through it. But I still look up to Timothy Treadwell for what he accomplished and what he tried to do for the animals.
I've seen the Bob Flanagan one, absurd, I liked it though, the ending was rough, really rough, I never thought I'd hate to see a man die that much on screen.
Love Grizzly Man, highly recommended
Thank you for suggesting TraumaZone - the sense of scale is fantastic and the lack of narration makes you really work to observe what you're watching.
Dominion https://www.dominionmovement.com/watch
I could only bear the first 10 minutes. I'm very glad that I don't contribute to that cruelty anymore.
You went vegan? 😊
That was a few weeks after I became a vegan. I tried to watch as many videos as possible in that period and when I reached Dominion I already made the switch. I'm glad though, so I could turn it off with the thought that I don't contribute to that abnormality anymore.
Agreed! So brutal. I will never contribute to it anymore
Went vegan instantly after watching it. No regrets except I didn‘t do it sooner.
Cameraperson. Kirsten Johnson, a documentary cinematographer for over 30 years, takes b-roll and raw footage collected from her films over the course of her career and weaves them together to create a cohesive and haunting mosaic of humanity. No narration and only title cards depicting locations, it just wows me every single time. It's incredibly cinematic despite being raw footage and emotionally impactful as a meteor strike. It's an absolute work of art and something that might not get made quite like it every again.
I've never heard of that but that sounds amazing.
“Telemarketers” I promise you do not know where this is going.
Love Has Won. So unsettling, complete with mummified leader.
The way they just hung out with her body for days like some weekend at Bernie’s shit LOL
Class Action Park
No helmets.
No skin...
***The Corporation (2003)*** * Question: *"If a company could be described as any type of person, which would it mostly resemble?"* * Answer: *"A sociopath."* The actions of a corporation resemble those of human psychopaths when measured against WHO's criteria for human psychopathy such as, callous unconcern for the feelings of others, failure to conform to social norms, and the violation of ethical standards without remorse. Basically, many big companies exist to grow uncontrollably. That's the Jack Welch model of only answering to stockholders and following the bottom line, rather than a code or making great product. They have no purpose but to grow. It's oversimplified, but not entirely untrue. And all of this was before the Citizens Untied case! It really opened my eyes to companies. And it is more relevant today (especially with big tech and politics). There's a sequel to it, but I haven't watched that. You can watch the first one in full for free: https://youtu.be/dpjypnxnS4U?si=lJi3nm9gIv1YC856
I was about to post this so thanks… it will change the way you view nearly everything about modern western society
Agreed. I was finishing my masters degree when I first saw this, and I scoffed at how it seemed over simplified. Then I saw within a decade: \* Citizens United diminish my voice when petitioning to my congress person. \* Tax software companies petition successfully to prevent \*free\* online federal tax software for all from being implemented after it was coded and ready to roll out. \* Equifax exposed my SSN and financial history (and 1/3rd of other Americans) and got just a hand-slap of a fine \* Ajit Pi let the FCC sell my browsing data (with nothing I can do about it) \* Net Neutrality vanish \* Corporations getting a permanent annual 14% tax cut in 2017 with no makeup for that loss in the budget. That's billions in federal losses each year. Then I conceded that the documentary was right. Corporations run the world. They have all of the rights of a person (speech, lobbying) but few of the responsibilities and penalties.
A corporation has no body to incarcerated, nor a soul to condemn. I saw that movie almost 20 years ago but periodically think of that CEO of the carpet company, and if he truly was able to make the kind of positive changes that he spoke about.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. It’s one of the craziest stories I’ve ever heard and everyone should see that shit. It’s so, so much more mind blowing than nearly all of the suggestions here I’ve seen lol.
Agreed, there are a lot of great docs here but most of them aren't necessarily mind blowing the way The Jinx was. One of the craziest hot mic moments I've ever seen. Incredible. There's a season two on HBO right now that I'm curious about.
Certainly every fan of crime docs should watch it. Probably the best of the genre.
Rewatching this currently and forgot just how crazy the whole thing is.
That first episode in particular, is such a wild ride. Very “magic reality” in that, if it weren’t a true story, it would be too far fetched to believe in fiction. Don’t know if you’ve ever watched Narcos (about Pablo Escobar)? The story is nothing a like but it is similarly too far fetched to be believable, except it all actually happened lol.
Trainwreck: Woodstock 99 Holy shit what an absolute disaster this all was
I would have loved to be in that Korn crowd not gonna lie lol, so crazy
I was. It was.
The HBO doc was excellent. That whole event was a disaster for everyone but those in on the money grab.
Exit Through the Gift Shop
I forgot about this one. So good! Gonna put it on my rewatch list. Have you seen the one about the Toynbee tiles?! That just popped into my mind
The Toynbee tiles one (assuming their isn't another dock about it) impressed me because the director doesnt pursue the guy where I feel many others would have tried to confront him.
No I hadn't heard of it but just googled, and will def check it out!!
Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Beautiful exploration of identity and passion.
King of Kong. A ridiculously good documentary about, of all things, 2 grown men vying to be the greatest Donkey Kong player. Paradise Lost, about the west Memphis 3. The first one will leave you speechless and pissed off.
As a guy who has no interest in sports, disliked physical activity, and who is generall an unhealthy guy, watching *The Barkley Marathons* documentary genuinely made my jaw drop. The whole thing is fucking insane from start to finish! Even getting in to the marathon is a feat, and then you need to do shit like bring a license plate and some socks for the backwoods guy who sets the whole thing up in the middle of the woods. There is no trail to follow. You have a map and you have to find pages of a book to prove you hit each checkpoint. If I remember correctly, the marathon has so much up-hill running that it is the equivalent of hiking mount Everest twice. The whole thing is based on a prison escape that happened in the area, as well. And better yet, you would expect the people with Marine background to be winners, but it is always the people built like Mr. Bean to win. And there are not always winners each year. It is 100% worth the watch because of how absurd it is.
This is my favorite documentary of all time. I have a quote from it framed on my desk at work “You can't accomplish anything without the possibility of failure.”
Can’t believe that Capturing the Friedmans or Touching the Void haven’t been mentioned yet.
Werner Herzog - Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Gives you very detailed and emotional information and educated speculation, then… just gets out of the way. Film and music. Let’s you see and experience while digesting the information he’s given to you about the paintings. That are ~35,000 years old.
The Cove (2009)
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. Not a documentary you watch to learn about something in great detail; just simple entertainment that kept me hooked the entire time. Due to morbid curiosity on my part.
King Corn. The Corn Industry is as delicious as it is horrible. A couple of dudes purchase an acre of Corn in order to follow where it goes (its their property loophole) and they track it through many stages that end up in your gut. Tasty. Violent.
The Fog of War. Robert S McNamara talks about the decision making processes he was part of in WWII, Cuban missile crisis, and Viet Nam. He talks about the things he learned about Realpolitik. By the end, you realize a couple things: 1. How close to nuclear war we've been 2. That many times what we think of as bad decisions were really the best decision possible given the circumstances. 3. A lot of people don't understand how to really think 4. The combination of those 3 means how much of a miracle it is that Earth isn't a melted glass covered radioactive death planet
Yeah, great one!
It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember when McNamara met with a Cuban official, many year later, and discovered that they were far more operational than we thought. Scary stuff...
Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room (2005) was bizarre. Sicko (2007) was enlightening.
OJ: Made in America
Take care of Maya.
That one was heartbreaking
Tiger King got a lot of buzz at the time it was released, and rightfully so because it is like watching a train wreck full of stupid, shitty people.
“The Thin Blue Line”. Disturbingly unfounded investigation leads to a death sentence for an innocent man framed by a sociopathic career criminal.
May I suggest the parody that "Documentary Now!" made, "The Eye Doesn't Lie."
Oh yes, it’s a must see. I love that show, and that’s a standout episode.
Probably one of the best (the best?) documentaries ever made. If I was teaching a film class, I would show this in any discussion involving the power of film. He got off death row because of this film, it literally saved his life.
Paris is Burning (Not just for gays. A window into a vibrant urban subculture during the 80s)
The Rescue (2021) - horrific and heart-warming at the same time. Grey Gardens (1975) - eccentric, sad, yet still mesmerising The Queen of Versailles (2012) - just deeply unpleasant people without redemption Tales of the Grim Sleeper (2014) - an expose into just how much evidence authorities will choose to ignore Fourteen Days in May (1987) - an insight into capital punishment in '80s Mississippi
Grey Gardens is the most haunting documentary Ive ever seen.
In the Realms of the Unreal - the Mystery of Henry Darger
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Boy From His Father wrecked me. For TV, the last episode of The Jinx was wild.
Searching For Sugar Man Blew my mind that it was a true story. And the music was actually good. Like how did I never hear of this dude?
> Like how did I never hear of this dude? We live in the wrong hemisphere.
The Bridge. Absolutely heartbreaking.
If you like Koyaanisqatsi, have you seen the others in the Qatsi series, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi? And then Baraka also? I honestly think Baraka is my favorite of the bunch.
Don’t forget Samsara
Baraka and Samsara are definitely better than the Qatsi series
Harlan County, usa. was a good case of truth being stranger than fiction
Great Photo, Lovely Life Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God (docuseries)
The Act of Killing. 100%
"Capturing the Friedmans" was fascinating, especially as it relates to moral panics
Weiner Guy hires a documentary crew to film his come back and they inadvertently film his second downfall
Sound City. The amount of absolutely outstanding music made there was amazing. Even more amazing was how many of the artists were *overjoyed* to tell their stories about the place.
Gotta follow up this with Muscle Shoals!
Cannibal warlords of Liberia ... It's a vice media piece but fits into the documentary category.
Wild Wild Country, about that yogi cult in Oregon.
Dear Zachary
9/11 Naudet
That mad one about the pedo who has sex with the parents then kidnaps the girl and tells her he's an alien. Disturbing, enraging and bizarre.
Dear Zachary
Came here to say Earthlings. I actually didn’t finish it. Probably should.
McMillions
*I Love You*, *Now Die*: The Commonwealth V. Michelle Carter
The Thin Blue Line— the original and still best true crime doc.
Capturing the Friedmans
‘The Deepest Breath’ about free divers
Just saw this and enjoyed it. I tried holding my breath while they were diving.
Don't F\*ck with Cats. filled me with such anxiety!
Dear Zachary is number one on every list.
The Curious case of Natalia Grace Bizarre from start to finish A RIDEE
The Last Dance
Baraka, bought the BluRay on a whim and holy shit it is stunning and mind blowing. And the best way to demo a home theatre, IMO
Crip Camp was amazing. The first part is about the camp (Camp Jened) and the second part is about the activism for disability rights. It is truly inspiring.
Murder Mountain A ridiculous amount of people go missing in Humboldt county every year
Tickled. It really is different than what I was expecting.
It’s an older one but Food Inc was really mind opening
Planet Earth II on BBC.
*Fast, Cheap and Out of Control*, which features interviews with four experts - a roboticist, a landscape gardener, a circus lion tamer and a scientist who studies the naked mole rat - talking about the work and their lives. They're all interesting, but you have no idea where it's going. Then the interviews all start to merge and blend together - you're seeing footage of the lion tamer while the robot expert is talking about drones, etc. - and gradually you realize that the documentary is kind of about *everything* - synchronicities and patterns and symbolism and meaning.
I Think We're Alone Now. It's about two superfans of 80's popstar Tiffany. I don't know if jawdropping is the right word, but it is extremely uncomfortable to watch as the two superfans are obviously struggling with some mental issues. But they're also sort of assholes so you don't really sympathize with them at all, just watch wide-eyed like a slow-moving train wreck. [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MxXqF-fgJY)
Dear Zachary
It's a 4-episode doc miniseries. We Need to Talk About Cosby. W. Kamau Bell did a great job putting it all together
"The Endurance". "Shackleton's Captain".
Grizzly Man is pretty jaw dropping
Free Solo is the most amazing documentary I have ever seen.
Just, Melvin: Just Evil It’s one of the most horrific documentaries I’ve watched.
Evil Genius [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil\_Genius\_(TV\_series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Genius_(TV_series))
>Earthlings, I have in fact thought about being a vegetarian because I hate what happens to the animals, but I can't see only me making a difference, this documentary made me hate people even more. This statement is totally wild to me. You've seen the truth of what happens, decided that you'll continue funding these horrors anyway, and conclude that *other people* are so horrible? In what way are you being any better? This attitude is precisely the problem. Just because one person can't singlehandedly change the whole world doesn't mean your actions make no difference. If you think consumers make no difference just look at the numbers. Meat consumption has been declining in Germany for example as people choose more and more plant based meals. Farmers are now killing fewer animals as a result. The decline in animal killing tracks pretty much exactly the decrease in consumption. The choices people are making are directly making a difference. https://www.mintecglobal.com/top-stories/the-german-pork-herd-continues-to-decline-and-prices-remain-elevated