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Author Topic: Top 5 Documentaries  (Read 20041 times)

sdedalus

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #60 on: April 10, 2009, 12:29:14 PM »
Top of the head. . .

1. Sans soleil (I see "documentary" and automatically think "non-fiction")
2. F for Fake
3. Don't Look Back
4. Man With A Movie Camera
5. The Last Waltz/Woodstock
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duder

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #61 on: April 10, 2009, 12:31:35 PM »
Être et Avoir

I remember really liking this when it came out. But then I got so put off by the guy trying to sue for shares of the film's profits and by some things the filmmaker said in response that I think I forgot about it almost deliberately.

It's still great.
...

skjerva

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #62 on: April 10, 2009, 12:40:45 PM »
i guess i was tired last night and didn't make it to the rest of the day's posts on the thread.  Verite, looks like i have few films to catch up on

This is a rushed list, and I'll edit if I have the time to approach this more thoroughly.

First, an incredible contemporary one which I urge you all to see is Bus 174.  Sadly couldn't fit it into my ten.

Second, Sans Soleil is, like, one of the ten greatest films of all time, but I see it as dominantly an essay film rather than a documentary, though, it does have documentary aspects, for sure.  Gleaners and I is another essay-documentary, but I feel that there's enough documentary in it to count it.  My memory has been proven to be very faulty so perhaps my recollection of those two are off.

1. Warrendale
5. The House is Black
9. Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment
10. Two Laws

and

what else i am forgetting?

Harlan County, U.S.A.?

I recommend Johan van der Keuken's stuff as well as Robert Gardner's Forest of Bliss (I haven't seen Dead Bird yet).  Heddy Honigmann's Forever is coming out on DVD soon as well as Marker's A Grin Without a Cat.  I loved Forever.  Can't wait to watch it again.  Black Harvest is essential.

i have a lot of work to do :)

i should revisit Harlan, i do love it, but it doesn't strike me as Top tennish.  i'll also revisit 174, which i liked, but i don't remember it as standout

on the essay film, i consider them docs.  if not clear, i like pushing at the boundaries of what that might mean - see also my Benning and Warhol mentions, as well as my desire to think of Mishima as one; i reckon some folks might even question Greaves, LAPI, Portrait, What Farocki Taught (i think Far From Poland is also pretty great, perhaps in my 25), F for Fake, and Furnaces...

a few more popped into my head:

something from Akerman
something from Yvonne Rainer, i've only seen her Film About a Woman Who, worthy of consideration
Sink or Swim (not seen)

roujin's The Revolution Will Not be Televised reminds me of Farocki's Videogram of a Revolution which is very similar, and i think much better (and maybe in that Top 25ish area) :)

i also should check-out Don't Look Back
« Last Edit: April 14, 2009, 11:08:50 AM by skjerva »
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Thor

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #63 on: April 10, 2009, 12:58:22 PM »

roujin's The Revolution Will Not be Televised reminds me of Farocki's Videogram of a Revolution which is very similar, and i think much better (and maybe in that Top 25ish area) :)


I'm pretty sure roujin didn't direct this.
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skjerva

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #64 on: April 10, 2009, 02:06:58 PM »

roujin's The Revolution Will Not be Televised reminds me of Farocki's Videogram of a Revolution which is very similar, and i think much better (and maybe in that Top 25ish area) :)


I'm pretty sure roujin didn't direct this.

it seems like his work
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

philip918

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #65 on: April 10, 2009, 03:42:26 PM »
1. Titticut Follies
2. Grizzly Man
3. Bus 174
4. Sans Soleil
5. Surfwise (maybe a little too fresh, but I loved this)

mañana

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #66 on: April 11, 2009, 03:14:03 AM »
1 Hoop Dreams (1994) James
2 Don't Look Back (1967) Pennebaker
3 The House Is Black (1962) Farrokhzad
4 Gimme Shelter (1970) The Maysles
5 Ted Baryluk's Grocery (1982) Mirus & Paskievich
6 Harlan County USA (1976) Kopple
7 Roger & Me (1989) Moore
8 Primary (1960) Drew
9 The Old Believers (1988) Paskievich
10 A Day in the Death of Donny B (1969) Fick

Honourable Mentions:
Night And Fog (1955) Resnais
César's Bark Canoe (1971) Gosselin
Hearts and Minds (1974) Davis
Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child (1986) Obomsawin
Brother's Keeper (1992) Berlinger & Sinofsky
The War Room (1993) Hegedus & Pennebaker
Baseball: A film by Ken Burns (1994) Burns
Fog of War (2003) Morris
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) Jarecki

I need to bone up on Wiseman.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2009, 05:52:18 PM by matt the movie watcher »
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pixote

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #67 on: April 11, 2009, 03:30:11 AM »
10 A Day in the Death of Donny B (1969) Fick

Wake up, everyone!  This is on TCM is fifteen minutes!

edit: Where's Degrassi Talks: Sexuality?

pixote
« Last Edit: April 11, 2009, 03:33:05 AM by pixote »
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¡Keith!

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #68 on: April 11, 2009, 03:33:35 AM »
I have Capturing the Friedmans here... why does my DVD say 235 minutes?  Is there an extended version on the DVD?  IMDB only lists it as 107.

wow, totally blown away by this.

pixote

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Re: Top 5 Documentaries
« Reply #69 on: April 11, 2009, 03:34:03 AM »
I have Capturing the Friedmans here... why does my DVD say 235 minutes?  Is there an extended version on the DVD?  IMDB only lists it as 107.

wow, totally blown away by this.

Thank you for calling MovieFone.

pixote
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