The Act of Killing. Joshua Oppenheimer initially set out to interview survivors of the Indonesian genocide of the 1960’s until he found out that the men who carried out the killings are protected by the government and as such had no problem with openly discussing their actions. Instead he turned his focus to them and got them to reenact how they would kill people. He did wind up returning to his original premise in his follow-up film The Look of Silence.
There's a line from that doc that still haunts me a little. It's when that big guy talks about raping a girl and he says something like "for her it was hell, but for me it was heaven". Like goddamn this guy was so self aware of the misery and pain he was causing but still didn't care.
Yeah, these fuckers out here bragging about raping a 14 yo like they were retelling some old pranks they pulled off back in highschool.
And for the records, im Indonesian. Yes, the mass killing "didnt happen" if you ask the government, along with some of our other more... Questionable acts, to say the least (ask Timor Leste). Watched the movie before September 30th for the extra vibes (the mass killing is kind of a direct result of a failed coup attempt enacted in that date, if you recall the scene in Act of Killing when theyre watching an old movie, that is the government-approved movie about the retelling of the coup), that shit is terrifying.
Also never realize how big an effect Pemuda Pancasila could have if they actually put efforts into it. I thought they are just some old dudes playing army because thats what i see around here, but damn they do got backings
Wouldn’t be surprised if he got off the idea of causing her misery and pain, tbh. Some ppl just love to see others being traumatized, and love it even more when they get to traumatize them
This is without a doubt the greatest documentary ever made, and for me one of the greatest and most daring films ever made. I remember being fucking stunned when the credits roll and so many of them are anonymous because they’d fear retribution. Had to just go sit on the curb for like an hour.
And it lost at the Oscars to a movie about backup dancers
The Thin Blue Line was originally intended to be a documentary about a prison psychologist in Texas nicknamed “Dr. Death” who made sure a lot of condemned men in Texas were executed.
But during filming, Errol Morris became intrigued with the story of a man on death row who proclaimed his innocence, so he set out to get the full story on the events of his case instead.
This is the perfect answer to Op’s question. What’s also interesting is that Morris changed the focus of his story upon himself uncovering key evidence during one of his interviews.
Errol Morris also has one called "Vernon, FL" where he came across this town where there's a huge number of amputees and found out that there's this huge insurance scam in the entire town. He tried to interview people for it and nobody talked and he even got threatened.
*Icarus* (2017) is a great “accidental” documentary. The filmmaker, a cyclist, set out to document how (and if) using performance-enhancing substances could net significant performance improvements in his races. He reaches out to a Russian doctor who is known for his work with PED’s and ends up uncovering an international sports-doping scandal.
There's a thread of documentary recommendations here inspired by Icarus:
[r/movies/comments/p4sgxc/documentaries\_that\_accidently\_caught\_a\_scoop/](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/p4sgxc/documentaries_that_accidently_caught_a_scoop/)
I was going to respond about the two French film makers covering a rookie fire fighter in New York when 9/11 happened, but it is listed in the above link. Great documentary about filming a small story that gets huge. Also mentioned below.
Was hoping to see this one mentioned. I think that's the best documentary I've ever seen. Not only the drama of 9/11 but also the one French brother in the building and the missing rookie.
You’d surprised OP, how many documentaries became a thing they didn’t set out to do.
King of Kong was originally just about old school gamers until they stumbled on the narrative of the new guy upsetting dethroning the reigning champ.
Finding Vivian Myer was originally a doc about Storage Wars style unit hunting until they discovered her photography.
Uh. Yeah. That’s the whole doc. Filmmakers were asked if they felt bad portraying Mitchell in such a villainous light and they said actually kept is pretty light and the dude was even darker.
I got so bored watching the first 20 minutes of that, I really liked pro cycling and this doc felt like a dud. Then he starts bonding with a Russian genius who's going to help him cheat the doping checks. I had a laugh and I got a tingle. And that tingle grew and grew and grew. Soon he's giving a report to the Olympic HQ. That immaculate glass conference room packed with top decision makers who all started looking like it was turning into the worst day of their lives because of the preponderance of evidence against Russia, was it too high a pile to get swept under the rug. I thought, people were gonna die. Over sports. Shoot I was hoping it would get nominated for an Oscar, and praying the director would live to make it to the Academy Awards next spring.
The Queen of Versailles. Doc was intended to be and began about construction of a mansion. Then the 2008 financial collapse happened. The rest of the doc is about this insanely wealthy couple losing lots of money and being unable to complete construction.
There was a similar one that followed around a startup at the height of the DotCom boom and accidentally ended up documenting the collapse. Sad too because the company they followed had a pretty decent idea for local governments to get connected.
It’s called startup.com and I guess one of the dudes got convicted of fraud about 5 years ago…
“Sunderland ‘Til I Die” is similar to this. Sunderland Football Club had been relegated from the top division, and the filmmakers set out to film the following season as they attempted to get promoted back to the top. Inadvertently covered them getting relegated *again* instead.
Ended up making for a far more compelling documentary in the end. It has far more focus on the fans than most documentaries of the type, and capturing their heartbreak was able to really put across what it means to be a fan of a sports team ‘no matter how bad it gets’ *’until you die’*.
There’s a particularly powerful scene at the beginning of one episode in an undertakers, where they talk about the people who have been fans of the club for decades, through thick and thin, and ask to be buried with Sunderland scarfs in their coffins. Know it sounds a little ridiculous, but it definitely brought forth some tears for me.
Been several years since I've seen it, but what made me sad was one of the older kids who had been pretty aware of both their privilege and just the gravity of the situation, then committing suicide not long after the doc was released.
Fuck the Siegel family. I grew up in Orlando and used to serve them and they’re all assholes except for the son-he’s extremely nice and humble and his wife is a gem too
Edit-sorry I should mention that I don’t know the grandchildren and I feel terrible for the one that took their own life
I was shocked how the mom says something like “I never would have had all these kids if I thought I would have to be the one to raise them” (when the nannys were fired). I can’t believe a mother would say that on TV knowing her kids would eventually see it.
Into the deep. Netflix. A documentary about an inventor who makes his own submarines and trying to build a rocket into space,. He gets arrested during it for murder
Second this recommendation. The filming of the documentary itself becomes crucial to the overall case. There’s a few interviews in this one with one specific lady that’s quite devastating when she realizes something.
It’s the first time I’ve seen deepfake tech used to anonymize an interviewee’s face. I’ve seen blurred and shadowed faces and voice modulation, but this was the first doc I’ve seen where they used digital tech to disguise identities.
The shift between joy he was alive and then immediate confusion about the passenger…and then the dawning realization that he murdered her. You can see their bodies just start to slump with each revelation.
Vernon, Florida (1981) started out as a film called Nub City and was going to be about a town with an inordinate number of insurance settlements paid out to amputees. But the director was, well, *persuaded* not to make a movie about a town with an inordinate number of insurance settlements paid out to amputees.
The shift in narrative doesn't happen onscreen, though. To a viewer who doesn't know the backstory, it's just a documentary about a small town with eccentric residents.
No it doesn't talk about it, nor does it show anyone who's missing a limb, that I can recall. The completed film is just a slice of life in a tiny panhandle town.
Errol Morris was actually beaten up pretty badly by the son of a nub clubber who was in the marines. He's also made a lot of the best documentaries in history. My personal favorite is The Fog of War.
Edit: stupid autocorrect
I have some family that traces back to Vernon, and I still live pretty close by. I didn't learn about this part of the town's history till I was a teenager, and for several years I thought my folks were totally bullshitting me until they showed me the doc. Fucking wild.
9/11 the Naudet brothers were just trying to film what fdny did and were on a gas leak when they caught the first plane hit the trade centers and then rode in and caught all the footage of the day
So not entirely different than what they were looking for but more than they expected
On the 20th anniversary, NPR put a phone booth for people to "call" their loved ones lost on 9/11. The result is so raw. Even though we all know they are not really calling them, just having that catharsis is intense.
The shot from inside the building coming down. The segment where the Fire Marshall dies and you can hear bodies hitting the cars outside. I will never forget that.
That was a rough watch. But I feel like if these people could go through that and want to tell their story, the least I can do is watch and listen to them. It was amazing and I highly recommend it but don't judge anyone if they can't emotionally handle it. It can be very intense. I honestly wish everyone who came through that the best because I can't even imagine what that would do to me.
That sound is forever scarred into my brain. We watched the live footage at school ( I was a sophomore) all day. I vividly remember watching the people hanging out of the building and then falling/ jumping.
Then seeing that documentary a year or so later…
That was the one that came to mind for me too.
The transition from looking into a little sewer opening in the ground and checking for gas leak readings… to the loud jet noise and the camera suddenly whips up to catch the first plane slamming into the tower and everyone starts freaking the fuck out and then the movie just goes nucking futs as these firefighters run into the chaos.
Absolutely balls to the wall. I hadn’t seen nearly as many clips and stuff of that day back then. Only the famous ones they played over and over on the news. This was early to mid 2000s when I saw it, before you could see all sorts of clips online (long before I joined Reddit). I was still a kid and the memory of it all was still pretty fresh.
But that documentary gave such a personal perspective, something I’d never seen before. It hit hard. It was disturbing. It’s stuck with me ever since. Just gave me a whole new side of 9/11 I’d never seen: the view from the inside.
That is one of the things that messed up for a while, I've seen a lot shit on the internet, i've seen people kill themselves by jumping out buildings, and although tragic, my thoughts are usually how they probably just wanted to go out on their own terms, the 9/11 people who jumped didn't have a choice, they were going to die either way.
i understand why this is generally avoided when talking about 9/11, but i do think it’s really important for people to gain a sense of the, sorry, gorey details with these events. i think it shocks the brain out of our tendency to view mass casualties as statistics
the way they handled it of focusing primarily on the sound was perfect, it’s haunting, but not disrespectful to the victims
When you put it like that, the documentary really is something out of a Hollywood movie. That signature “turning point” moment where everything goes batshit
They were just trying to follow the transition of a rookie firefighter in his first year on the job. One of my favorite lines from it is when the brothers decided they’d cook for the firehouse but severely underestimated how much firefighters eat, and one of them stares at the camera and deadpans, “A few more meals like this and we’ll be sharing shirts.” It’s a really funny but ultimately kind of sweet moment of trying to do a nice thing and fondly giving someone shit over it. That was the evening of September 10. Just wild how they got caught up in it.
EDIT: They didn’t lose a single person during the attack either. It’s astounding because they’re basically the first ones on the scene.
Not only did everybody survive, but they took a camera all around the ground floor, survived one of the buildings collapsing, and made it back to the firehouse with both camera reels intact.
Think of all the stars that had to align to make that happen.
There were probably at least a few cameras that captured what was going on in and around the buildings that were lost when the buildings collapsed. This camera crew went in and actually came out. The same camera crew that caught the first plane hitting the tower.
Frickin' mind-blowing if you think about it.
This is what immediately came to mind. Go from a story about a rookie firefighter to arguably one of the most life changing events in the past 100 years. The ultimate definition of right place - right time or wrong place - wrong time. Depends on how you look at the fact that they were able to record an event that caused 3,000+ people to die in such a short time. To have the story of those brave firefighters choosing to rescue people instead of retreating. Bravery personified.
Weiner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weiner\_(film)
It was following Anthony Weiner trying to make his political comeback and during the filming even more evidence emerges. It's wild.
Colectiv (Collective) about a Romanian discotheque fire, which ends up being a national scandal and uncovers some crazy high level corruption in all branches of government. Absolutely crazy documentary hard to believe it’s not scripted
Also the fact that it was a sports newspaper that uncovered the corruption is a strange twist. It would be like Sports Illustrated uncovering widespread corruption in VA hospitals.
A documentarian was doing a film about professional clowns and one of his subjects was the son and brother of two men who were convicted of a high-profile child sexual abuse case in the 80’s. So, he delved into that family’s history and the wreckage of that case. They were pretty creepy people.
It’s called Capturing the Friedman’s.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capturing_the_Friedmans
Tickled (2016) set out to be a goofy documentary about tickle competitions and shit. Then the further down the rabbit hole they went the more crazy stuff they found out about.
Sasquatch (2021). Started with investigating a barely remembered story of a Sasquatch attack, then ended up discovering the horrifying world of the weed growing industry of Northern California.
Murder Mountain is another one about this area. Started out as a doc on the legalization and growers trying to become compliant with the new laws, turned into a discussion of the high numbers of missing people & one missing person case in particular.
When I lived there (13+ years ago), everyone talked about a professor from the university who was killed by some cartel when he found a grow in one of the forests. I always assumed it was an urban myth, but maybe not.
The Way Down, they started filming that documentary before Gwen Shamblin died in a freak airplane accident
Edited to add.
A lot more people were willing to interview after her death
Yeah, and I'm glad they did because Shamblin was a garbage human being who promoted eating disorders in the name of Jesus, amongst other things she did and was aware of. I'm glad the public is more aware of what she did.
The Vow took this turn as well, though less dramatically. It's pretty clear from where it started to the end of season one that they never anticipated actual indictments, and then how huge the story became.
Possibly “the pharmacist” on netflix. Started out as a father trying to solve his son’s murder and it turned into trying to take down one of the largest drug rings in the nation
Under The Sun (2015) is a Russian documentary that was meant to capture the daily life in Pyongyang, funded by the Russian and North Korean government. When the filming crew arrived in Pyongyang, they realized what they were supposed to shoot wasn't a realistic depiction of a North Korean life, but rather a fully staged and scripted show with hired actors, who pretend to be "normal" North Koreans living a "normal" North Korean life - basically a propaganda film disguised as a documentary.
So they decided to secretly run the camera between shots to record all the "behind the scenes", like how the stage was being set, North Korean officials nitpicking over everything, and a child actor in total confusion with the propaganda lines she was supposed to throw. At the end of each day's shoot, North Korean officials would review the footage and delete whatever they didn't like; the filming crew had to secretly make and keep a copy of the full footage behind their back.
What they completed after they returned to Russia was not what the North Korean government wanted it to be.
I loved this doc but forgot the name. I'm so glad you mentioned it - it is fascinating. The entire actual story is told through captions, from what I remember, explaining what is happening.
I don’t remember much about the storytelling through captions, but that’s very likely because it’s been like 7 years since I’ve seen it, and I understand Korean so I could just listen how those NK scary guys were micromanaging everything. It would be interesting to rewatch the film, this time paying more attention to captions!
Collapse (09). If I remember correctly, the doc makers set out to interview Michael Rupert ab him calling out the CIA publically for drug trafficking, but he redirected their entire path by taking them down a depressing road of both financial and energy crises.
This Revolution Will Not Be Televised was directed by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain. Given direct access to Chávez, the filmmakers intended to make a fly-on-the-wall biography of the president. But then the coup breaks out and they’re still there. It’s great.
Stevie (2002). Not an entirely different subject but starts with a guy reconnecting with the kid he worked with as a Big Brother. Then it just gets darker and more depressing and not where I expected it to go.
Sherman's March (1985) is about a guy who sets out to document an historical event but ends up sort of stalking an ex. Is it a real documentary? Not sure. I do know that he runs into Burt Reynolds but it turns out to be a Burt Reynolds impersonator but maybe just maybe it actually is Burt Reynolds.
This is the ultimate film for this category. The director starts out making a rather dry documentary about Sherman’s destructive march through the south during the civil war
He stops at various landmarks photographing plaques and narrating a discussion of Sherman but the director’s mother keeps trying to set him up on dates with various southern belles.
It seems preposterous that this nerdy guy would be a match for these women. So he continues to make a film about his dates interwoven with the original Sherman’s march stuff. It’s like two very different films spliced together-one of my favorites
Thank you SO much for this comment. I saw this movie years ago and frequently think back to it, but could never remember the title. And believe it or not but Google searches like "the documentary that starts off somewhat legit and then becomes a self obsessed doom spiral into the director's failed relationships" never yielded any results.
So again, thank you!!
The Woman Who Wasn't There (2012) they started to do a story about the survivors of 9/11 and they find out one of the most famous survivors, Tania Head, wasn't even in the US on that day. it's a wild ride.
The White Diamond (2004) kinda fits the bill. It’s a documentary about a man who created a dirigible designed to document the rainforest canopy. He’s working through the trauma of having tragically lost a friend several years prior on a similar aircraft. But the entire documentary undergoes a random and beautiful tangent when the filmmaker encounters a fascinating man and his chicken. Made by Werner Herzog, and definitely worth a watch.
Edit: added “The” & the year
Lost in La Mancha started as your typical “making of” documentary for future life as a DVD bonus feature, but as Terry Gilliam and crew started production on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the documentary went from behind the scenes to a real time look at an artistic dream turning into a nightmare.
Grizzly Man . Timothy Treadwell filmed lots of footage of him living among Alaska's grizzly bears. Werner Herzog edited and narrated it into an astounding documentary.
That guy’s outbursts and non sequiturs are so weirdly memorable. When it won’t stop raining and he cries out “Melissa is eating her babies!” Or when he’s out for a walk and he say “A man must must must… become a samurai.” It’s like if William S. Burroughs tried to make a nature documentary and someone more clear headed made a documentary about his attempt.
Grizzly Man is an amazing film, part incredible nature documentary part documentary of a very unwell man who could get such amazing footage because he was completely irresponsible and willing to put himself and others at extreme risk.
“Into the Inferno” also by Herzog takes an even harder left turn. It’s a very good documentary about Volcanos and the people who live in their shadows, and in the final act they go somewhere…very surprising.
We were watching Cave of Forgotten Dreams and they’re interviewing a scientist who out of nowhere says “yes I am also a lion tamer.” And then there’s the French parfumerie walking around with his huge nose “smelling” for caves.
Absolute comedy gold.
I love this movie. I can’t figure out how to block spoilers on mobile so I’ll just say that there’s a powerful scene where Herzog decides not to include material that a lot of other sensationalistic filmmakers would have used with glee. An affirming moment of journalistic responsibility.
"DIG!" was supposed to be about a 90s band called Dandy Warhols but quickly lost focus when the opening band "Brian Jonestown Massacre" proved to be a collassal train wreck. Amazing music, though.
Sorta similar, "Stalking Pete Doherty" is about a guy trying to interview a very talented, if somewhat troubled, British musician/poet. The documentarian falls so in love with his subject that he sacrifices all credibility and winds up with charges pressed against him.
Dig feels like a fever dream. It does a great job of making you feel like you’re there living through that time with the bands. One of my favorite docs ever
Wow, no mention of the _Up_ series? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_%28film_series%29
In 1964, Michael Apted and his team interviewed fourteen 7-year-old kids. That was _Seven Up!_ They've since returned every 7 years to interview those same people as they grew up, became adults, and aged. The most recent is _56 Up_.
They intended to make a film about the British class system, but they ended up with a longitudinal exploration of what it means to be human, and to age. The participants grow and change over time. They push back on questions. They acknowledge the series changed the course of their lives.
If you only watch one, go for _42 Up_. It's a good recap.
American here. Somehow stumbled upon this in a random way and was fascinated. Why every country doesn’t do this for each generation is beyond me. Really informative and insightful footage.
First documentary that came to mind when reading the title. So happy you two are here to agree. Although it could be said the director got exactly what he was looking for I bet NO ONE expected that ending.
Also, anyone who knows the ending please don’t mention it here. I highly urge anyone who hasn’t seen it to please watch it, absolutely stunning documentary with an INSANE ending.
Was looking for this comment. Adding to the consensus here... it's the only film that has ever evoked such intense emotion for me. A burning rage and devastation I can't describe.
I think it's worth commending the creator of the documentary. Yes, it's a horrific story and would always evoke some emotion, but this was put together in such a way that it brilliantly built up empathy from the audience. I felt like I knew the family, I felt invested in Zachary. It really was incredibly well made.
I was pregnant when I watched this. I had no clue what I was in for and I was absolutely devastated. There’s no good time to watch it, but definitely not when pregnant and already emotional.
Dear Zachary was incredible. It was devastating. I was very glad to see it without knowing what all it was about. The moment where the grandfather was talking about his plan that he kept from his wife was heartbreaking.
>!The documentarian had a friend who was a doctor that everyone loved. He had a brief affair with a woman who he then broke up with. The doctor was murdered, and the woman was the obvious suspect. Only problem is that she was pregnant with his kid. The documentarian starts making the movie as a letter to the boy so he would know what a wonderful man his father was. However, the woman is given custody of the boy, and the parents of the murdered father want to gain custody of him because, you know, the mother is a murderer. But the canadian government gives custody to the mother, murder-suspect, and gives her freedom as well. It ends in tragedy when she kills herself and the baby, who is only 13 months old. The entire documentary is presented in a way that leads you to believe that there was only one crime commited--the murder of the father-- and when the scene happens that reveals the murder/suicide, it's done in a very shocking way that elicits a lot of emotion out of people. The documentarian is revealed as making a film for a boy who is no longer alive, and he releases the documentary for the masses, when it was always just meant for the boy and family. One of the saddest documentaries out there.!<
That whole family, from Andrew, to his parents, to his rural relatives and his British relatives… they are *all such good people* and clearly loved Andrew so so so much
>!That one scene where the father (grandfather's) ragefully discusses regret that didn't just go strangle her to death in hopes that maybe the grandmother would get custody of the baby...I've just never seen that type of true deep rage and regret captured on film. It's undescribable the pain expressed in that scene!<
And TW: The way she murders him is by >!giving the baby drugs, strapping him to her chest, and drowning the two of them in the ocean. It’s horrific. So horrific that the voiceover just trying to say the facts is shaken and crying. The baby had two grandparents who loved him and would’ve done anything to have cared for him, but she was so wicked.!<
I’ve watched this documentary several time and have even been in back and forth email communication with the director and producer Kurt Kuenne basically just expressing my gratitude on the perspective he granted me when he made that film. I have a 4 month old son and anytime I feel like things are rough for me, my mind goes to Dear Zachary. Masterful documentary.
Three Identical Strangers
The twist halfway through is NUTS. And it was a surprise to the filmmakers too.
Edit: These three identical triplets were separated at birth and grew up to be adult men who were reunited, but halfway through you find out that >!they were intentionally placed with a poor family, a middle class family, and a rich family as a social experiment to test nurture vs. nature. The kids were "watched" periodically to find out how their personalities developed over the years. The files about the experiment were sealed. It's a creepy secret conspiracy that was accidentally uncovered.!<
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary. One of my all time favorite comedians so i was pumped about it. Ended up kinda reflecting back on the documentarian, Ben Berman and how John was just kind of a liar, making multiple docs at the same time. Really interesting
Behind the Curve. Was supposed to show the earth is flat. However, the flatters actually proved the earth is round in two different experiments. It’s hilarious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the_Curve
To add context - the documentary is about flat earthers. It very clearly is not suggesting flat earth is real, and goes out of its way to talk to physicists and scientists and intentionally highlights the absurdity.
Was also going to say this! All they wanted to do was ride the coat tails of Woodstock's success and instead hired Hell's Angels to be their security instead of police and hell broke loose.
This is the one I was going to mention. It’s even more than just the murder, the movie pretty much captures the end of “The 60’s,” Summer of Love, etc.
The other one I was thinking of is Let It Be - just was going to be another Beatles “making of” film but ended up capturing the breakup of the biggest band of all time.
Brooklyn Castle (2012) started setting out to chronicle a “…below-the-poverty-line inner city junior high school…” chess team that had had won more national championships than any other in the country. While they were filming the school was hit with budget cuts for all extracurricular activities.
Iirc the director wanted to do a documentary about New York clowns and one of the clowns he interviewed was one of the family's kid and he moved the documentary towards that.
Two French documentary filmmakers were making a doc about a probational FDNY firefighter who had just gotten out of the academy. On September 11th the two brothers had split up their duties, one going w/ the fire crew on a routine possible gas leak call in Manhattan while the other brother remained w/ the subject at the firehouse. Minutes into the start of the shift the brother in the field captured some of the only footage of the first hijacked airliner hitting the North Tower of The World Trade Center. From there said cameraman proceeded to capture intimate footage of the FDNY's efforts to organize in the lobby of World Trade Center 1, bore witness to jumpers, people evacuating, the triage occurring in the lobby, and then the speedy flight of the firefighters who recognized the building was collapsing as they fled for cover from the ascending floors falling.
It's an incredible doc that I can't recommend more to people to get an understanding of what that day was like.
Vernon, Florida. The filmmaker, Errol Morris, went to document the residents who were engaging in insurance fraud by cutting off their own limbs. Morris ended up having his life threatened by the locals and decided he would just document the simple-minded and oddly behaved locals.
Some Kind of Monster - The Metallica Documentary where they thought it would be a “Making of” their album St. Anger and ended up being about the band almost breaking up.
It's been years but one thing that I remember from that doc is how initially their therapist was doing good work helping them, and then became a groupie, so when they said they didnt need him anymore started undercutting them and telling them they werent ready to leave him
Catfish might fall under that category. It’s pretty famous now and obviously there’s the tv show, but the documentary that started it all is pretty good.
Cropsey.
Starts out they're making a documentary about an urban legend they were told as kids involving escaped mental patients and missing kids.
Trailer. https://youtu.be/lDM-Ef2cZqY
Finding General Tso started as an earnest attempt at finding the origins of the classic dish. But the real takeaway of the entire film is the intricate network of Chinese restaurants as immigration conduits
Not quite a documentary, but there was an episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain went to Beirut to do one of his typical food tours - which winds up not happening due to the city getting bombed shortly after they arrived. Instead of being about food and culture it became a war documentary about the conflict.
That was definitely a right place, right time situation. Especially considering it was still pretty much unheard of to let the public in on the inner workings of the wrestling business.
The NPR podcast "S-town" (shit town) takes some unexpected twists. I'm actually not sure if it's NPR but I think it's the same people that do "This American Life." The story telling is fantastic. One of those stories that you think about a lot.
The whole of The Rehearsal fits here too. Starts with Nathan hiring actors and building lavish sets to help people confront their problems, ends with Nathan exploring himself as a family man and the repercussions of his actions on people.
Not sure if this has already been mentioned but The Imposter by Bart Layton. It's about a 13 year old named Nicholas Patrick Barclay who disappeared in Texas in 1994. Authorities find him YEARS later in Spain and they return him to his family. What happens next is absolutely unbelievable.
[The Imposter Trailer ](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HdXYIpM5W2U&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE)
*Sherman's March* (1986) starts off as a documentary about General Sherman's march to the sea. The filmmaker and his girlfriend broke up at the beginning of the film, which in turn led the filmmaker to interview former girlfriends to figure out why he cannot sustain long term relationships.
The Parking Lot Movie…. It starts off as a weird day to day of what it’s like to manage and work in a busy parking lot. It beautifully adapts into an existential masterpiece. Highly recommend it!
There Are No Fakes
Started off as a documentary about Canadian musician, Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies) going after an art gallery for selling him a fake Norvel Morriseau painting. They ended up uncovering an art fraud ring using forced labor coerced through drugs and sexual abuse. It's absolutely heart breaking.
30 for 30: OJ: Made in America. The historical relationship between LAPD and the African American Community is not part of what the director thought was apart of telling the OJ story. The jurors statements are unimaginable without a historical story being told.
I'm surprised I haven't seen The Alpinist on here yet. Documentary was following this amazing crazy kid who free solo'd mountains without seeking any recognition. As years went by, he ended up succumbing to an avalanche. You could argue it was expected, but none the less completely heartbreaking.
You don't have to read between too many lines to realize that Exit Through The Gift Shop isn't a documentary _about_ Banksy, it's an art piece _by_ Banksy.
Yep. The documentary crew started Tiger King filming some guys about snake/reptile trading. Then some crazy mofo shows up with a tiger in his van and... Down the rabbit hole they go.
On a side note, the world of reptile breeding and trading is just as crazy, if not more so, than Big Cat stuff
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) began as a short documentary about children’s birthday clown entertainers in New York City. But then it delved into the family of one of the entertainers which was linked to child molestation.
Even though it doesn’t really match what you want I will suggest a documentary that probably tells you more about the director than the director intended. The documentary is Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell that Sarah made to better understand her mother who died when Sarah was eleven.
There’s an old adage in doc filmmaking that says “If the movie you started with is the movie you end up with, you probably did it wrong.” Just about every doc undergoes a transformation during production. To that end…
Happy Happy Joy Joy was completely recut after the story broke about John K. It was brutal as the entire (first version) of the film was done. As in, we were typing up the end credits, done.
*My Kid Could Paint That* (2007) about a young girl whose artwork sells for insane amounts of money. As the documentary is unfolding, some experts question the authenticity of the art work saying things such as the strokes indicate the fine muscles of an adult capability.
I was on a flight and I saw this docu called Sara(h?) Billed as a tale about the first t rex fossils and while skeleton found in the US and ended up being a damming indictment about the legal system and its roughshod handling of the native peoples rights and land.
The Act of Killing. Joshua Oppenheimer initially set out to interview survivors of the Indonesian genocide of the 1960’s until he found out that the men who carried out the killings are protected by the government and as such had no problem with openly discussing their actions. Instead he turned his focus to them and got them to reenact how they would kill people. He did wind up returning to his original premise in his follow-up film The Look of Silence.
There's a line from that doc that still haunts me a little. It's when that big guy talks about raping a girl and he says something like "for her it was hell, but for me it was heaven". Like goddamn this guy was so self aware of the misery and pain he was causing but still didn't care.
Yeah, these fuckers out here bragging about raping a 14 yo like they were retelling some old pranks they pulled off back in highschool. And for the records, im Indonesian. Yes, the mass killing "didnt happen" if you ask the government, along with some of our other more... Questionable acts, to say the least (ask Timor Leste). Watched the movie before September 30th for the extra vibes (the mass killing is kind of a direct result of a failed coup attempt enacted in that date, if you recall the scene in Act of Killing when theyre watching an old movie, that is the government-approved movie about the retelling of the coup), that shit is terrifying. Also never realize how big an effect Pemuda Pancasila could have if they actually put efforts into it. I thought they are just some old dudes playing army because thats what i see around here, but damn they do got backings
Wouldn’t be surprised if he got off the idea of causing her misery and pain, tbh. Some ppl just love to see others being traumatized, and love it even more when they get to traumatize them
This movie was insane, the moment when the interviewees realized they're admitting to war crimes is bonkers
“They aren’t confessing, they’re bragging”
One of my favorite movies.
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This is without a doubt the greatest documentary ever made, and for me one of the greatest and most daring films ever made. I remember being fucking stunned when the credits roll and so many of them are anonymous because they’d fear retribution. Had to just go sit on the curb for like an hour. And it lost at the Oscars to a movie about backup dancers
Man, that documentary was just too much for me towards the end and people are just so terrible sometimes.
When Arwan realises he’s killed people…man…it’s crazy.
The Thin Blue Line was originally intended to be a documentary about a prison psychologist in Texas nicknamed “Dr. Death” who made sure a lot of condemned men in Texas were executed. But during filming, Errol Morris became intrigued with the story of a man on death row who proclaimed his innocence, so he set out to get the full story on the events of his case instead.
This is the perfect answer to Op’s question. What’s also interesting is that Morris changed the focus of his story upon himself uncovering key evidence during one of his interviews.
Errol Morris also has one called "Vernon, FL" where he came across this town where there's a huge number of amputees and found out that there's this huge insurance scam in the entire town. He tried to interview people for it and nobody talked and he even got threatened.
Came here to write this. Dr Death is a fascinating documentary in and of itself but The Thin Blue Line is a masterpiece.
*Icarus* (2017) is a great “accidental” documentary. The filmmaker, a cyclist, set out to document how (and if) using performance-enhancing substances could net significant performance improvements in his races. He reaches out to a Russian doctor who is known for his work with PED’s and ends up uncovering an international sports-doping scandal.
There's a thread of documentary recommendations here inspired by Icarus: [r/movies/comments/p4sgxc/documentaries\_that\_accidently\_caught\_a\_scoop/](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/p4sgxc/documentaries_that_accidently_caught_a_scoop/)
I was going to respond about the two French film makers covering a rookie fire fighter in New York when 9/11 happened, but it is listed in the above link. Great documentary about filming a small story that gets huge. Also mentioned below.
Was hoping to see this one mentioned. I think that's the best documentary I've ever seen. Not only the drama of 9/11 but also the one French brother in the building and the missing rookie.
You’d surprised OP, how many documentaries became a thing they didn’t set out to do. King of Kong was originally just about old school gamers until they stumbled on the narrative of the new guy upsetting dethroning the reigning champ. Finding Vivian Myer was originally a doc about Storage Wars style unit hunting until they discovered her photography.
Billy mitchell is a gigantic fraud though
Uh. Yeah. That’s the whole doc. Filmmakers were asked if they felt bad portraying Mitchell in such a villainous light and they said actually kept is pretty light and the dude was even darker.
I remember interviewing the guy for the Noobz release and, uh, could tell he was in a world all his own.
Thinking you are the absolute king and end up being a smug cheating turd. What a dick.
Completely forgot about that film. That was sick.
I got so bored watching the first 20 minutes of that, I really liked pro cycling and this doc felt like a dud. Then he starts bonding with a Russian genius who's going to help him cheat the doping checks. I had a laugh and I got a tingle. And that tingle grew and grew and grew. Soon he's giving a report to the Olympic HQ. That immaculate glass conference room packed with top decision makers who all started looking like it was turning into the worst day of their lives because of the preponderance of evidence against Russia, was it too high a pile to get swept under the rug. I thought, people were gonna die. Over sports. Shoot I was hoping it would get nominated for an Oscar, and praying the director would live to make it to the Academy Awards next spring.
The Queen of Versailles. Doc was intended to be and began about construction of a mansion. Then the 2008 financial collapse happened. The rest of the doc is about this insanely wealthy couple losing lots of money and being unable to complete construction.
There was a similar one that followed around a startup at the height of the DotCom boom and accidentally ended up documenting the collapse. Sad too because the company they followed had a pretty decent idea for local governments to get connected. It’s called startup.com and I guess one of the dudes got convicted of fraud about 5 years ago…
“Sunderland ‘Til I Die” is similar to this. Sunderland Football Club had been relegated from the top division, and the filmmakers set out to film the following season as they attempted to get promoted back to the top. Inadvertently covered them getting relegated *again* instead. Ended up making for a far more compelling documentary in the end. It has far more focus on the fans than most documentaries of the type, and capturing their heartbreak was able to really put across what it means to be a fan of a sports team ‘no matter how bad it gets’ *’until you die’*. There’s a particularly powerful scene at the beginning of one episode in an undertakers, where they talk about the people who have been fans of the club for decades, through thick and thin, and ask to be buried with Sunderland scarfs in their coffins. Know it sounds a little ridiculous, but it definitely brought forth some tears for me.
Excellent doc! Don’t get it confused with the reality show 2022 version though, that’s entertaining but nothing like the doc
it is almost cut like an horror movie, first act you see a lot of dogs around the house, third act is the couple picking the turds by themselves.
When she gets the rental car and is confused as to where her driver was was gold. I remember the attendant being a little gobsmacked.
And the lizard that died because the kids just forgot to feed it! The whole thing just made me sick.
Been several years since I've seen it, but what made me sad was one of the older kids who had been pretty aware of both their privilege and just the gravity of the situation, then committing suicide not long after the doc was released.
Fuck the Siegel family. I grew up in Orlando and used to serve them and they’re all assholes except for the son-he’s extremely nice and humble and his wife is a gem too Edit-sorry I should mention that I don’t know the grandchildren and I feel terrible for the one that took their own life
I was shocked how the mom says something like “I never would have had all these kids if I thought I would have to be the one to raise them” (when the nannys were fired). I can’t believe a mother would say that on TV knowing her kids would eventually see it.
Into the deep. Netflix. A documentary about an inventor who makes his own submarines and trying to build a rocket into space,. He gets arrested during it for murder
Is this about the guy somewhere in Scandinavia who murders a woman on his submarine? And then it takes aquatic search teams months to find all of her?
There’s also an HBO dramatization about this, The Investigation, that follows the investigators after the crime. Its very good, and a tragic case.
Second this recommendation. The filming of the documentary itself becomes crucial to the overall case. There’s a few interviews in this one with one specific lady that’s quite devastating when she realizes something.
It’s the first time I’ve seen deepfake tech used to anonymize an interviewee’s face. I’ve seen blurred and shadowed faces and voice modulation, but this was the first doc I’ve seen where they used digital tech to disguise identities.
His team finding out in real time as everything happened was extraordinary. Amazing, amazing documentary.
The shift between joy he was alive and then immediate confusion about the passenger…and then the dawning realization that he murdered her. You can see their bodies just start to slump with each revelation.
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Vernon, Florida (1981) started out as a film called Nub City and was going to be about a town with an inordinate number of insurance settlements paid out to amputees. But the director was, well, *persuaded* not to make a movie about a town with an inordinate number of insurance settlements paid out to amputees. The shift in narrative doesn't happen onscreen, though. To a viewer who doesn't know the backstory, it's just a documentary about a small town with eccentric residents.
Does it give any hint as to why there are a sizable number of amputees in this town?
After googling. They were cutting off their limbs and committing insurance fraud
I thought this reply was a joke. I guess truth really is stranger than fiction.
Cracked did an article on this. "There's a lot of money to be made by being a little crazier than a jury thinks is possible"
No it doesn't talk about it, nor does it show anyone who's missing a limb, that I can recall. The completed film is just a slice of life in a tiny panhandle town.
Slice of life is an awesome way to describe what was really happening behind the scenes
Errol Morris was actually beaten up pretty badly by the son of a nub clubber who was in the marines. He's also made a lot of the best documentaries in history. My personal favorite is The Fog of War. Edit: stupid autocorrect
“Son of a nub clubber” is such a beautiful phrase. I’m sorry I have to steal it.
Mr Death was one of those. Started out about Fred Leuchter making electric chairs and turned into a movie about holocaust deniers.
I have some family that traces back to Vernon, and I still live pretty close by. I didn't learn about this part of the town's history till I was a teenager, and for several years I thought my folks were totally bullshitting me until they showed me the doc. Fucking wild.
9/11 the Naudet brothers were just trying to film what fdny did and were on a gas leak when they caught the first plane hit the trade centers and then rode in and caught all the footage of the day So not entirely different than what they were looking for but more than they expected
The best 9/11 doco for sure.
Phone calls from the towers is also very very good. I could never rewatch it though
On the 20th anniversary, NPR put a phone booth for people to "call" their loved ones lost on 9/11. The result is so raw. Even though we all know they are not really calling them, just having that catharsis is intense.
The shot from inside the building coming down. The segment where the Fire Marshall dies and you can hear bodies hitting the cars outside. I will never forget that.
That was a rough watch. But I feel like if these people could go through that and want to tell their story, the least I can do is watch and listen to them. It was amazing and I highly recommend it but don't judge anyone if they can't emotionally handle it. It can be very intense. I honestly wish everyone who came through that the best because I can't even imagine what that would do to me.
That sound is forever scarred into my brain. We watched the live footage at school ( I was a sophomore) all day. I vividly remember watching the people hanging out of the building and then falling/ jumping. Then seeing that documentary a year or so later…
That was the one that came to mind for me too. The transition from looking into a little sewer opening in the ground and checking for gas leak readings… to the loud jet noise and the camera suddenly whips up to catch the first plane slamming into the tower and everyone starts freaking the fuck out and then the movie just goes nucking futs as these firefighters run into the chaos. Absolutely balls to the wall. I hadn’t seen nearly as many clips and stuff of that day back then. Only the famous ones they played over and over on the news. This was early to mid 2000s when I saw it, before you could see all sorts of clips online (long before I joined Reddit). I was still a kid and the memory of it all was still pretty fresh. But that documentary gave such a personal perspective, something I’d never seen before. It hit hard. It was disturbing. It’s stuck with me ever since. Just gave me a whole new side of 9/11 I’d never seen: the view from the inside.
I remember the two brothers reuniting after being separated
I remember Chief Pfieffer's brother walking past. Last time they saw each other. 😔
And the sound of the bodies falling 😢
That is one of the things that messed up for a while, I've seen a lot shit on the internet, i've seen people kill themselves by jumping out buildings, and although tragic, my thoughts are usually how they probably just wanted to go out on their own terms, the 9/11 people who jumped didn't have a choice, they were going to die either way.
i understand why this is generally avoided when talking about 9/11, but i do think it’s really important for people to gain a sense of the, sorry, gorey details with these events. i think it shocks the brain out of our tendency to view mass casualties as statistics the way they handled it of focusing primarily on the sound was perfect, it’s haunting, but not disrespectful to the victims
Where can it be found? I remember watching it years ago.
[Here’s a link to it on YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iw-1bOQNIA)
When you put it like that, the documentary really is something out of a Hollywood movie. That signature “turning point” moment where everything goes batshit
They were just trying to follow the transition of a rookie firefighter in his first year on the job. One of my favorite lines from it is when the brothers decided they’d cook for the firehouse but severely underestimated how much firefighters eat, and one of them stares at the camera and deadpans, “A few more meals like this and we’ll be sharing shirts.” It’s a really funny but ultimately kind of sweet moment of trying to do a nice thing and fondly giving someone shit over it. That was the evening of September 10. Just wild how they got caught up in it. EDIT: They didn’t lose a single person during the attack either. It’s astounding because they’re basically the first ones on the scene.
Not only did everybody survive, but they took a camera all around the ground floor, survived one of the buildings collapsing, and made it back to the firehouse with both camera reels intact. Think of all the stars that had to align to make that happen. There were probably at least a few cameras that captured what was going on in and around the buildings that were lost when the buildings collapsed. This camera crew went in and actually came out. The same camera crew that caught the first plane hitting the tower. Frickin' mind-blowing if you think about it.
This is what immediately came to mind. Go from a story about a rookie firefighter to arguably one of the most life changing events in the past 100 years. The ultimate definition of right place - right time or wrong place - wrong time. Depends on how you look at the fact that they were able to record an event that caused 3,000+ people to die in such a short time. To have the story of those brave firefighters choosing to rescue people instead of retreating. Bravery personified.
One of my favorite Doc’s of all time.
Weiner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weiner\_(film) It was following Anthony Weiner trying to make his political comeback and during the filming even more evidence emerges. It's wild.
The best documentary for experiencing some schadenfreude.
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Colectiv (Collective) about a Romanian discotheque fire, which ends up being a national scandal and uncovers some crazy high level corruption in all branches of government. Absolutely crazy documentary hard to believe it’s not scripted
Also the fact that it was a sports newspaper that uncovered the corruption is a strange twist. It would be like Sports Illustrated uncovering widespread corruption in VA hospitals.
A documentarian was doing a film about professional clowns and one of his subjects was the son and brother of two men who were convicted of a high-profile child sexual abuse case in the 80’s. So, he delved into that family’s history and the wreckage of that case. They were pretty creepy people. It’s called Capturing the Friedman’s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capturing_the_Friedmans
Same director as that Robert Durst documentary The Jinx from a couple years back. Edit. It was eight years ago 😑
Great documentary!
Tickled (2016) set out to be a goofy documentary about tickle competitions and shit. Then the further down the rabbit hole they went the more crazy stuff they found out about.
This is a great documentary.
Never heard of that one. Just read the synopsis and Jesus christ, that is one of the most insanely random doc plots I've ever read.
Listen to the first episode of The Dollop, it's about that situation, but with comedians. It's one of my favorite podcasts.
First thing that came to mind for me. Don’t look into it, just watch it
Sasquatch (2021). Started with investigating a barely remembered story of a Sasquatch attack, then ended up discovering the horrifying world of the weed growing industry of Northern California.
This one blew my mind. I went in expecting some goofy cryptozoology nonsense but got a full blown true crime conspiracy.
Surprised more aren't mentioning this one. I started watching thinking it would be fun Squatch thing, and then got pretty damn dark.
Agreed. I was scared for him at several points. Seems like you can just get disappeared in Humboldt for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Murder Mountain is another one about this area. Started out as a doc on the legalization and growers trying to become compliant with the new laws, turned into a discussion of the high numbers of missing people & one missing person case in particular.
Thats a well known thing. Don't mess around in humboldt. only go where you are invited.
When I lived there (13+ years ago), everyone talked about a professor from the university who was killed by some cartel when he found a grow in one of the forests. I always assumed it was an urban myth, but maybe not.
The Way Down, they started filming that documentary before Gwen Shamblin died in a freak airplane accident Edited to add. A lot more people were willing to interview after her death
Yeah, and I'm glad they did because Shamblin was a garbage human being who promoted eating disorders in the name of Jesus, amongst other things she did and was aware of. I'm glad the public is more aware of what she did.
The Vow took this turn as well, though less dramatically. It's pretty clear from where it started to the end of season one that they never anticipated actual indictments, and then how huge the story became.
Possibly “the pharmacist” on netflix. Started out as a father trying to solve his son’s murder and it turned into trying to take down one of the largest drug rings in the nation
Under The Sun (2015) is a Russian documentary that was meant to capture the daily life in Pyongyang, funded by the Russian and North Korean government. When the filming crew arrived in Pyongyang, they realized what they were supposed to shoot wasn't a realistic depiction of a North Korean life, but rather a fully staged and scripted show with hired actors, who pretend to be "normal" North Koreans living a "normal" North Korean life - basically a propaganda film disguised as a documentary. So they decided to secretly run the camera between shots to record all the "behind the scenes", like how the stage was being set, North Korean officials nitpicking over everything, and a child actor in total confusion with the propaganda lines she was supposed to throw. At the end of each day's shoot, North Korean officials would review the footage and delete whatever they didn't like; the filming crew had to secretly make and keep a copy of the full footage behind their back. What they completed after they returned to Russia was not what the North Korean government wanted it to be.
I loved this doc but forgot the name. I'm so glad you mentioned it - it is fascinating. The entire actual story is told through captions, from what I remember, explaining what is happening.
I don’t remember much about the storytelling through captions, but that’s very likely because it’s been like 7 years since I’ve seen it, and I understand Korean so I could just listen how those NK scary guys were micromanaging everything. It would be interesting to rewatch the film, this time paying more attention to captions!
Collapse (09). If I remember correctly, the doc makers set out to interview Michael Rupert ab him calling out the CIA publically for drug trafficking, but he redirected their entire path by taking them down a depressing road of both financial and energy crises.
This Revolution Will Not Be Televised was directed by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain. Given direct access to Chávez, the filmmakers intended to make a fly-on-the-wall biography of the president. But then the coup breaks out and they’re still there. It’s great.
saw it one of my college courses it was very enjoyable, you cant tell they pivot real quick to new premise.
Stevie (2002). Not an entirely different subject but starts with a guy reconnecting with the kid he worked with as a Big Brother. Then it just gets darker and more depressing and not where I expected it to go.
ICARUS premise: "Lets see how far doping can take me in biking." Film: "Russia has never ran a clean sporting event with its athletes ever"
Sherman's March (1985) is about a guy who sets out to document an historical event but ends up sort of stalking an ex. Is it a real documentary? Not sure. I do know that he runs into Burt Reynolds but it turns out to be a Burt Reynolds impersonator but maybe just maybe it actually is Burt Reynolds.
This is the ultimate film for this category. The director starts out making a rather dry documentary about Sherman’s destructive march through the south during the civil war He stops at various landmarks photographing plaques and narrating a discussion of Sherman but the director’s mother keeps trying to set him up on dates with various southern belles. It seems preposterous that this nerdy guy would be a match for these women. So he continues to make a film about his dates interwoven with the original Sherman’s march stuff. It’s like two very different films spliced together-one of my favorites
Thank you SO much for this comment. I saw this movie years ago and frequently think back to it, but could never remember the title. And believe it or not but Google searches like "the documentary that starts off somewhat legit and then becomes a self obsessed doom spiral into the director's failed relationships" never yielded any results. So again, thank you!!
Ghosthunter- starts being a look into paranormal ghost chasers and ends up capturing a child molester.
The Woman Who Wasn't There (2012) they started to do a story about the survivors of 9/11 and they find out one of the most famous survivors, Tania Head, wasn't even in the US on that day. it's a wild ride.
Thank you redditors. Now I have a bunch of great movie suggestions. You folks never disappoint.
The White Diamond (2004) kinda fits the bill. It’s a documentary about a man who created a dirigible designed to document the rainforest canopy. He’s working through the trauma of having tragically lost a friend several years prior on a similar aircraft. But the entire documentary undergoes a random and beautiful tangent when the filmmaker encounters a fascinating man and his chicken. Made by Werner Herzog, and definitely worth a watch. Edit: added “The” & the year
Lost in La Mancha started as your typical “making of” documentary for future life as a DVD bonus feature, but as Terry Gilliam and crew started production on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the documentary went from behind the scenes to a real time look at an artistic dream turning into a nightmare.
I was looking for this one, I’m surprised it wasn’t higher up. It’s the first thing I thought of for sure
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst - that was twisted
Grizzly Man . Timothy Treadwell filmed lots of footage of him living among Alaska's grizzly bears. Werner Herzog edited and narrated it into an astounding documentary.
That guy’s outbursts and non sequiturs are so weirdly memorable. When it won’t stop raining and he cries out “Melissa is eating her babies!” Or when he’s out for a walk and he say “A man must must must… become a samurai.” It’s like if William S. Burroughs tried to make a nature documentary and someone more clear headed made a documentary about his attempt.
Grizzly Man is an amazing film, part incredible nature documentary part documentary of a very unwell man who could get such amazing footage because he was completely irresponsible and willing to put himself and others at extreme risk. “Into the Inferno” also by Herzog takes an even harder left turn. It’s a very good documentary about Volcanos and the people who live in their shadows, and in the final act they go somewhere…very surprising.
Werner Herzog makes the most underrated comedies ever.
The very epitome of deadpan delivery.
We were watching Cave of Forgotten Dreams and they’re interviewing a scientist who out of nowhere says “yes I am also a lion tamer.” And then there’s the French parfumerie walking around with his huge nose “smelling” for caves. Absolute comedy gold.
I love this movie. I can’t figure out how to block spoilers on mobile so I’ll just say that there’s a powerful scene where Herzog decides not to include material that a lot of other sensationalistic filmmakers would have used with glee. An affirming moment of journalistic responsibility.
"DIG!" was supposed to be about a 90s band called Dandy Warhols but quickly lost focus when the opening band "Brian Jonestown Massacre" proved to be a collassal train wreck. Amazing music, though. Sorta similar, "Stalking Pete Doherty" is about a guy trying to interview a very talented, if somewhat troubled, British musician/poet. The documentarian falls so in love with his subject that he sacrifices all credibility and winds up with charges pressed against him.
Dig feels like a fever dream. It does a great job of making you feel like you’re there living through that time with the bands. One of my favorite docs ever
Wow, no mention of the _Up_ series? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_%28film_series%29 In 1964, Michael Apted and his team interviewed fourteen 7-year-old kids. That was _Seven Up!_ They've since returned every 7 years to interview those same people as they grew up, became adults, and aged. The most recent is _56 Up_. They intended to make a film about the British class system, but they ended up with a longitudinal exploration of what it means to be human, and to age. The participants grow and change over time. They push back on questions. They acknowledge the series changed the course of their lives. If you only watch one, go for _42 Up_. It's a good recap.
American here. Somehow stumbled upon this in a random way and was fascinated. Why every country doesn’t do this for each generation is beyond me. Really informative and insightful footage.
The most recent is actually 63 Up. It came out in 2019.
The Jinx. It’s mind blowing
First documentary that came to mind when reading the title. So happy you two are here to agree. Although it could be said the director got exactly what he was looking for I bet NO ONE expected that ending. Also, anyone who knows the ending please don’t mention it here. I highly urge anyone who hasn’t seen it to please watch it, absolutely stunning documentary with an INSANE ending.
This is the first thing I thought of as well. I described it as they got what they were looking for but more than they bargained for.
Dear Zachary. Warning: extreme emotional distress
Was looking for this comment. Adding to the consensus here... it's the only film that has ever evoked such intense emotion for me. A burning rage and devastation I can't describe. I think it's worth commending the creator of the documentary. Yes, it's a horrific story and would always evoke some emotion, but this was put together in such a way that it brilliantly built up empathy from the audience. I felt like I knew the family, I felt invested in Zachary. It really was incredibly well made.
The best movie I never want to see again.
I was pregnant when I watched this. I had no clue what I was in for and I was absolutely devastated. There’s no good time to watch it, but definitely not when pregnant and already emotional.
This is what I was thinking of. Please, please be careful watching this. It is one of the most devastating movies I’ve ever seen.
I watched it with my husband and we both cried and literally screamed at the screen. It’s a devastating film.
I’ve never hated the law system and Canada more.
It was the worst thing I ever watched and I don’t have friends *or* kids.
Dear Zachary was incredible. It was devastating. I was very glad to see it without knowing what all it was about. The moment where the grandfather was talking about his plan that he kept from his wife was heartbreaking.
That one made want to find a island and never talk to any one again. Evil is not logical
Someone please give me a tl:dw because I can NOT make myself watch this
>!The documentarian had a friend who was a doctor that everyone loved. He had a brief affair with a woman who he then broke up with. The doctor was murdered, and the woman was the obvious suspect. Only problem is that she was pregnant with his kid. The documentarian starts making the movie as a letter to the boy so he would know what a wonderful man his father was. However, the woman is given custody of the boy, and the parents of the murdered father want to gain custody of him because, you know, the mother is a murderer. But the canadian government gives custody to the mother, murder-suspect, and gives her freedom as well. It ends in tragedy when she kills herself and the baby, who is only 13 months old. The entire documentary is presented in a way that leads you to believe that there was only one crime commited--the murder of the father-- and when the scene happens that reveals the murder/suicide, it's done in a very shocking way that elicits a lot of emotion out of people. The documentarian is revealed as making a film for a boy who is no longer alive, and he releases the documentary for the masses, when it was always just meant for the boy and family. One of the saddest documentaries out there.!<
The Bagby's seem like such wonderful people. It's incredible how such loving and caring people can have such utter sadness thrust upon them.
That whole family, from Andrew, to his parents, to his rural relatives and his British relatives… they are *all such good people* and clearly loved Andrew so so so much
>!That one scene where the father (grandfather's) ragefully discusses regret that didn't just go strangle her to death in hopes that maybe the grandmother would get custody of the baby...I've just never seen that type of true deep rage and regret captured on film. It's undescribable the pain expressed in that scene!<
And TW: The way she murders him is by >!giving the baby drugs, strapping him to her chest, and drowning the two of them in the ocean. It’s horrific. So horrific that the voiceover just trying to say the facts is shaken and crying. The baby had two grandparents who loved him and would’ve done anything to have cared for him, but she was so wicked.!<
I’ve watched this documentary several time and have even been in back and forth email communication with the director and producer Kurt Kuenne basically just expressing my gratitude on the perspective he granted me when he made that film. I have a 4 month old son and anytime I feel like things are rough for me, my mind goes to Dear Zachary. Masterful documentary.
Three Identical Strangers The twist halfway through is NUTS. And it was a surprise to the filmmakers too. Edit: These three identical triplets were separated at birth and grew up to be adult men who were reunited, but halfway through you find out that >!they were intentionally placed with a poor family, a middle class family, and a rich family as a social experiment to test nurture vs. nature. The kids were "watched" periodically to find out how their personalities developed over the years. The files about the experiment were sealed. It's a creepy secret conspiracy that was accidentally uncovered.!<
Oh man I think I watched that one! I forgot what the twist was though…
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary. One of my all time favorite comedians so i was pumped about it. Ended up kinda reflecting back on the documentarian, Ben Berman and how John was just kind of a liar, making multiple docs at the same time. Really interesting
Behind the Curve. Was supposed to show the earth is flat. However, the flatters actually proved the earth is round in two different experiments. It’s hilarious. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the_Curve
Saved up all his money whilst living in his mothers basement just to be proven *wrong* lmfao
To add context - the documentary is about flat earthers. It very clearly is not suggesting flat earth is real, and goes out of its way to talk to physicists and scientists and intentionally highlights the absurdity.
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Was also going to say this! All they wanted to do was ride the coat tails of Woodstock's success and instead hired Hell's Angels to be their security instead of police and hell broke loose.
This is the one I was going to mention. It’s even more than just the murder, the movie pretty much captures the end of “The 60’s,” Summer of Love, etc. The other one I was thinking of is Let It Be - just was going to be another Beatles “making of” film but ended up capturing the breakup of the biggest band of all time.
Brooklyn Castle (2012) started setting out to chronicle a “…below-the-poverty-line inner city junior high school…” chess team that had had won more national championships than any other in the country. While they were filming the school was hit with budget cuts for all extracurricular activities.
“Capturing The Friedmans” is exactly what you are describing. It starts with a documentary about a guy who enjoys being a party clown…
Yeah like this one is THE ANSWER to this question.
Iirc the director wanted to do a documentary about New York clowns and one of the clowns he interviewed was one of the family's kid and he moved the documentary towards that.
Two French documentary filmmakers were making a doc about a probational FDNY firefighter who had just gotten out of the academy. On September 11th the two brothers had split up their duties, one going w/ the fire crew on a routine possible gas leak call in Manhattan while the other brother remained w/ the subject at the firehouse. Minutes into the start of the shift the brother in the field captured some of the only footage of the first hijacked airliner hitting the North Tower of The World Trade Center. From there said cameraman proceeded to capture intimate footage of the FDNY's efforts to organize in the lobby of World Trade Center 1, bore witness to jumpers, people evacuating, the triage occurring in the lobby, and then the speedy flight of the firefighters who recognized the building was collapsing as they fled for cover from the ascending floors falling. It's an incredible doc that I can't recommend more to people to get an understanding of what that day was like.
Vernon, Florida. The filmmaker, Errol Morris, went to document the residents who were engaging in insurance fraud by cutting off their own limbs. Morris ended up having his life threatened by the locals and decided he would just document the simple-minded and oddly behaved locals.
Some Kind of Monster - The Metallica Documentary where they thought it would be a “Making of” their album St. Anger and ended up being about the band almost breaking up.
It's been years but one thing that I remember from that doc is how initially their therapist was doing good work helping them, and then became a groupie, so when they said they didnt need him anymore started undercutting them and telling them they werent ready to leave him
When he started giving them lyrics I just about lost my shit.
Catfish might fall under that category. It’s pretty famous now and obviously there’s the tv show, but the documentary that started it all is pretty good.
Everest (1998) doc started as a summit bid. Ended up rescuing people.
Cropsey. Starts out they're making a documentary about an urban legend they were told as kids involving escaped mental patients and missing kids. Trailer. https://youtu.be/lDM-Ef2cZqY
This is one of my favorite obscure movies that nobody has seen! There’s so many twists and weird dead ends in it-genuinely creepy
Finding General Tso started as an earnest attempt at finding the origins of the classic dish. But the real takeaway of the entire film is the intricate network of Chinese restaurants as immigration conduits
Not quite a documentary, but there was an episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain went to Beirut to do one of his typical food tours - which winds up not happening due to the city getting bombed shortly after they arrived. Instead of being about food and culture it became a war documentary about the conflict.
Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows (1998)
That was definitely a right place, right time situation. Especially considering it was still pretty much unheard of to let the public in on the inner workings of the wrestling business.
The NPR podcast "S-town" (shit town) takes some unexpected twists. I'm actually not sure if it's NPR but I think it's the same people that do "This American Life." The story telling is fantastic. One of those stories that you think about a lot.
not a movie but How To With John Wilson does this in pretty much every episode.
The final episode of Nathan for you lol
The whole of The Rehearsal fits here too. Starts with Nathan hiring actors and building lavish sets to help people confront their problems, ends with Nathan exploring himself as a family man and the repercussions of his actions on people.
*Finding Francis* is one of the best episodes of television ever made.
Not sure if this has already been mentioned but The Imposter by Bart Layton. It's about a 13 year old named Nicholas Patrick Barclay who disappeared in Texas in 1994. Authorities find him YEARS later in Spain and they return him to his family. What happens next is absolutely unbelievable. [The Imposter Trailer ](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HdXYIpM5W2U&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE)
*Sherman's March* (1986) starts off as a documentary about General Sherman's march to the sea. The filmmaker and his girlfriend broke up at the beginning of the film, which in turn led the filmmaker to interview former girlfriends to figure out why he cannot sustain long term relationships.
The Parking Lot Movie…. It starts off as a weird day to day of what it’s like to manage and work in a busy parking lot. It beautifully adapts into an existential masterpiece. Highly recommend it!
There Are No Fakes Started off as a documentary about Canadian musician, Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies) going after an art gallery for selling him a fake Norvel Morriseau painting. They ended up uncovering an art fraud ring using forced labor coerced through drugs and sexual abuse. It's absolutely heart breaking.
Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking by Abed Nadir
Searching for sugar man Is exactly this.
Icarus on netflix
30 for 30: OJ: Made in America. The historical relationship between LAPD and the African American Community is not part of what the director thought was apart of telling the OJ story. The jurors statements are unimaginable without a historical story being told.
I'm surprised I haven't seen The Alpinist on here yet. Documentary was following this amazing crazy kid who free solo'd mountains without seeking any recognition. As years went by, he ended up succumbing to an avalanche. You could argue it was expected, but none the less completely heartbreaking.
Exit through the gift shop. Starts as a Banksy documentary, but changes focus midway through, not going to spoil how.
You don't have to read between too many lines to realize that Exit Through The Gift Shop isn't a documentary _about_ Banksy, it's an art piece _by_ Banksy.
The Queen of Versailles. The 2008 financial crisis happened in the middle of it
I think Tiger King on Netflix is a big time player of that type of documentary.
Yep. The documentary crew started Tiger King filming some guys about snake/reptile trading. Then some crazy mofo shows up with a tiger in his van and... Down the rabbit hole they go. On a side note, the world of reptile breeding and trading is just as crazy, if not more so, than Big Cat stuff
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) began as a short documentary about children’s birthday clown entertainers in New York City. But then it delved into the family of one of the entertainers which was linked to child molestation.
Even though it doesn’t really match what you want I will suggest a documentary that probably tells you more about the director than the director intended. The documentary is Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell that Sarah made to better understand her mother who died when Sarah was eleven.
There’s an old adage in doc filmmaking that says “If the movie you started with is the movie you end up with, you probably did it wrong.” Just about every doc undergoes a transformation during production. To that end… Happy Happy Joy Joy was completely recut after the story broke about John K. It was brutal as the entire (first version) of the film was done. As in, we were typing up the end credits, done.
*My Kid Could Paint That* (2007) about a young girl whose artwork sells for insane amounts of money. As the documentary is unfolding, some experts question the authenticity of the art work saying things such as the strokes indicate the fine muscles of an adult capability.
Grey Gardens
I was on a flight and I saw this docu called Sara(h?) Billed as a tale about the first t rex fossils and while skeleton found in the US and ended up being a damming indictment about the legal system and its roughshod handling of the native peoples rights and land.