Re: E-V.com list of best documentaries

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

I'm not really compelled to watch the ones from this list that we haven't
already seen, honestly.

 > From: Noelle <noelle>
 > Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2025 07:16:24 -0700 (PDT)
 >
 >      Nanook of the North (1922): If you're going to teach a class 
 > about documentary film, you have to show at least part of this one. 
 > The filmmaker did things that would later be verboten, like stage 
 > some scenes, but nonetheless, this is considered to be the starting 
 > point for documentary films.
 > 
 >      Triumph of the Will (1935): In that documentary film class, you 
 > also have to show part of this one. The message is reprehensible, of 
 > course, but to tell the visual story she wanted to tell, Leni 
 > Riefenstahl created a toolkit that is used by documentary (and 
 > non-documentary) filmmakers to this day.
 > 
 >      Hearts and Minds (1974): This one is almost certainly the most 
 > brutal film on this list—you should not watch it if you are faint of 
 > heart. It's also one of the first attempts to come to grips with the 
 > Vietnam War, and set the stage for the brutal Vietnam War films 
 > (both fiction and non-fiction) that would come after. In particular, 
 > the folks who made Deer Hunter a few years later clearly watched 
 > this film many times.
 > 
 >      Koyaanisqatsi (1982): If you don't know the film, it's not easy 
 > to describe. Extremely abstract/surreal, it's probably as close as a 
 > person can come to an acid trip without taking acid.
 > 
 >      The Atomic Cafe (1982): The most powerful film ever made about 
 > nuclear war. Remarkably, it is 100% clips from other films; there 
 > was no original material (other than title cards) created for this 
 > documentary.
 > 
 >      Ken Burns' The Civil War (1990): It's showing its age a bit 
 > these days, but there has never been a better example of a 
 > documentarian who does a better job of having one foot in 
 > "accessible to a broad audience" and the other foot in "scholarly 
 > rigor."
 > 
 >      Hoop Dreams (1994): There are some who consider this 
 > fly-on-the-wall film about two high school players who hoped to play 
 > in the NBA to be the greatest documentary ever made. Those people 
 > might be right.
 > 
 >      The Fog of War (2003): Errol Morris is among the best 
 > documentarians ever, and this is his masterpiece. It's the story of 
 > the Vietnam War through the eyes of Secretary of Defense Robert 
 > McNamara, and it's very compelling. It also makes for a very good 
 > pairing with Hearts and Minds, showing how two films about the same 
 > subject can be very different, and yet... also very similar.
 > 
 >      Spellbound (2002): This film might reveal more about modern 
 > American culture than any other on this list. It's about the Scripps 
 > spelling bee, and the pressure placed on the child participants in 
 > that event.
 > 
 >      Bowling for Columbine (2002): You really can't explore 
 > documentary films without taking a look at the work of Michael 
 > Moore, and this is his best. That said, Sicko and Fahrenheit 9/11 
 > are also acceptable options.
 > 
 >      Super Size Me (2004): Like Moore, Morgan Spurlock is (well, was) 
 > a modern-day muckraker. You have to be impressed with a guy who 
 > brought the McDonalds Corporation to its knees, and essentially 
 > singlehandedly forced them to make big changes.
 > 
 >      Grizzly Man (2005): Werner Herzog is in competition with Errol 
 > Morris as the best living documentarian, and this is his magnum 
 > opus. Is the untrained bear "expert" Timothy Treadwell a nut case, 
 > or just a guy who was following his passion? Maybe both.
 > 
 >      An Inconvenient Truth (2006): Al Gore's global warming 
 > documentary is very well done, and was very, very impactful on the 
 > world at large.
 > 
 >      Planet Earth (2006): When people hear the word "documentary," 
 > they are very likely to think "nature documentary." And of the many 
 > thousands of exemplars in the genre, none is better than this (now) 
 > 11-part BBC series. David Attenborough is a treasure.
 > 
 >      The Aristocrats (2005): A case study in how a relatively small 
 > thing (in this case, an off-color joke) can be turned into an 
 > examination of both a profession (comedians) and a culture (modern 
 > America). It hasn't aged as well as some of the others on this list, 
 > but it's still very impressive.
 > 
 > We recognize that this list skews towards a few timeframes. Demand 
 > for documentaries tends to ebb and flow, and there have been a few 
 > "golden ages" for the form.