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Couldn't find a random docu thread, so here it is!

 

here's an unaired HBO one, i didn't get through it but it's supposed to be pretty dark.

 

 

Sen watches a ton of these on Netflix streams, ill ask her to post her favorites sometime.

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Chernobyl Reclaimed – The Animal Takeover

 

 

 

What would happen if the world were suddenly without people, if we vanished off the face of the earth? How would nature react and how swiftly?

This documentary takes place at the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, hastily abandoned by panic-stricken humans. On April 25 and 26 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant 128 kilometers north of Kiev in the former USSR (now Ukraine) lost control of one of its four reactors, creating a series of explosions.

A devastating fireball blew off the reactor’s heavy steel and concrete lid. Highly radioactive fall-out flooded everything within a 32 kilometer radius. 35,000 cattle and 135,000 people were evacuated and only wild animals remained. While humans have made life in this land impossible for themselves, the animals have found a way and they have not just survived, they have thrived.

 

 

 

I haven't watched this one all the way through yet, I hear there are some dramatized forced emotional parts a la those Disney nature docs, but I'm willing to overlook it.

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I've been watching a lot of docs lately as well. A lot of them on North Korea and that whole area's history. Netflix has a few good docs on the subject, but really the best one I saw that shows how truly fucked up N. Korea is was The Red Chapel, where two Dannish-Korean (i think it was Denmark) comedians and a Dannish producer/comedian go to North Korea to try and put on a sketch comedy show The comedy is not really what the doc is about, because see one of the Dannish-Korean comedians is a "spastic" and in N. Korea there are no people with hanicaps or retardations of any kind. To see how they treat him and his fully "healthy" counterpart is some of the most fucked up shit ever. They are OBVIOUSLY trying to indoctrinate the healthy guy into coming and being a part of the regime. While they say nice platitudes to the "spastic" he in reality knows he would have been killed at birth or as soon as his condition became apparent. It is a very good look into modern N. Korea.

 

There is another one called the "Juche Idea" or something close to that, which kind of explains Kim Jong Il's theory on making movies. The good thing about that doc is that you actually get to see some N. Korean movies and shows, something not many americans get the chance to do.

 

Moving into a different realm "Darkon" is about a bunch of Nerds in Baltimore that have basically turned the city into a LARP game. The trials and tribulations of one man and his force vs. the "King" of Darkon and his force and allies is quite interesting. You get it all, from 5 minutes of some kid pretending to be fighting stuff in his living room, to the political underpinning of the whole Darkon realm. If you are a nerd it is pretty funny as well. Especially the one kid who joined Darkon for his first ever human interaction.

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Nick, I got through about 5 min. of that then Wiki'd it. Some controversy around it being largely staged. I'll pass.

 

Axel's: I've heard of that one. Just added it to my Netflix queue.

 

Some docs (all on Netflix) I can recommend:

*Grizzly Man: I just finished this one, and it was a little difficult to get through w/ Wernor Herzog's thick German accent narrating it. However, it's an interesting examination of a delusional if not dedicated man named Tim Tredwell who lived for 13 summers w/ grizzly bears in Alaska until one ate him and his girlfriend. Not only is it a bio about Tredwell, of course it has some spectacular footage of the bears and foxes that befriended him.

 

*Transcendental Man: An interesting look at the inventor and semi-new age techno guru, Ray Kurzweil.

 

*Dear Zachary: I think La Lindsay recommended this one to me. It's fucking brutal. If the end of this doesn't make you weep then you have no soul.

 

*The September Issue: The very limited knowledge of the fashion world I have comes from the few episodes of Sex in the City I've seen and this doc. It's also an interesting portrait of the infamous Vogue editor Anna Winters and some of her key staff at Vogue.

 

*Man on a Wire: I shouldn't have to sell you on this one. Just put it in your queue and watch it.

 

*Exit Through the Gift Shop see above.

 

*Art of the Steal: Another la lindsay recommendation. Interesting look at one of the world's most prestigious private art collections and how the government basically confiscated it.

Edited by Mr. Hakujin
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Man, I've seen Grizzly man a few times now. That's a good one. I wish I had a dollar for everytime I was forced to yell "You ignorant fucking hippy" at the screen.

 

 

Kati, who likes to hurt herself, looked up the actual recording of him being mauled. She comes back into the room with her eyes wide and teared up like a child who witnesses a clown rape. I'm really into some disturbing shit, but that particular thing I just don't want to ever have in my mind. I got pretty broken up just watching the reaction to it in the film.

 

 

Those N. Korea docs up there sound pretty cool, and I've never heard of them.

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Man, I've seen Grizzly man a few times now. That's a good one. I wish I had a dollar for everytime I was forced to yell "You ignorant fucking hippy" at the screen.

 

 

Kati, who likes to hurt herself, looked up the actual recording of him being mauled. She comes back into the room with her eyes wide and teared up like a child who witnesses a clown rape. I'm really into some disturbing shit, but that particular thing I just don't want to ever have in my mind. I got pretty broken up just watching the reaction to it in the film.

 

You would be a wealthy man indeed. And the "supporting cast" are almost equally wackadoo.

 

 

Damn, that actually leaked out?!?!? I thought the blonde chick (Jewel Palovak) from the doc had the only copy. Guess I interpreted that incorrectly. But that was a powerful scene w/ Herzog listening to the tape while she watched. I'm not sure if I totally agree w/ him leaving it out of the doc. I definitely understand the decision though. I'm off to do a google search now...

*edit*

Seems I was right. The only audio I found out there appears to be fake.

 

Edited by Mr. Hakujin
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There is this thing on netflix called The Grizzly Man Diaries. I haven't checked it out yet, but it seems to be a collection of all of his tapes like an actual nature show as opposed to a documentary. It's in the queue so I need to jump on that.

 

Not sure if this counts, but all of Kevin Smith's "Evening Withs" are great. His latest one Too Fat for Forty is on Netflix (unless its been taken off). It wasn't as good as the last 3, but still fun to watch.

 

Bigger Faster Stronger: about steroid use

 

American Grindhouse: history of grindhouse cinema.

 

Jesus Camp: about a summer at a fundamentalist christian summer camp for kids.

 

Wal Mart- the High Cost of Low Price: about wal-mart being a dick.

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oh, and the bill hicks doc was awesome.

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child...looking back, I was on some sort of weird art kick i think. the three art docs i watched (this one, exit through the gift shop and the art of the steal) solidified my notion that art critics and many art collectors are a bunch of trendy assholes.

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Oh that reminds me of another one called My Kid Could Paint That. It basically is a little girl doing pollack splatter drawings and her parents exploiting her. There is more too it, but i think that would get a bit spoilery even for a documentary. But yeah, it shows the huge douche side of the art world. Who The F**k is Jackson Pollack is another good art movie :)

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Dear Zachary

 

Exit Through the Gift Shop

 

Art of the Steal

 

Man on Wire

 

gift shop was great, steal and wire have been on my list for a minute. zachary sounds rough. glad you dug the bill hicks one too!

 

by the way, Still Bill (the Bill Withers docu) is streaming on netflix, i don't think they got the Tribe one yet though.

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The Day After Trinity

 

 

I've seen a lot of shit on The Bomb. I'm sure we all have. I've never seen anything quite like this though. Interviews with Hans Bethe, Stirling Colgate and Freeman-fucking-Dyson, among others. It adds weight to that point in time where we suddenly became 15 minutes away from death at any given moment.

I think it helped me understand Oppenheimer a little better in the process. He is not his brother.

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My Sex Robot

 

 

Just finished this one. It's about some guys who have a fetish for robotic women. I lost count of how many "WAT" moments I had. There's a great part about halfway in where a guy is describing the process he's had creating these fuck-bots, and says how one of his early prototypes ended up "violently strong" and incredibly dangerous, like trying to have sex with a piece of farm equipment.

 

It's not very long, and I found it highly entertaining. And more than a little creepy.

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Anyone seen "Shut Up Little Man?" Basically about two guys who recorded their neighbors fights back in the mid 80's San Fransisco. I found a few recordings, but if anyone knows anywhere I can find more that would be great. I will buy it eventually, but for now I must hear more, it's addicting!

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