I just finished watch Q: Into the Storm and really want some more slop.
def recommend q into the storm btw, tho it does make Q seem even more cringe than it already was
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. On the ground reporting from Venezuela during the 2002 US backed coup against :chavez-guns:
The Corporation. Probably a lot of (olderish) people here were radicalized by this film.
Cause I'm a sports bro, The Battered Bastards of Baseball. It's not politcal, but it's kind of fun to watch some proles working regular jobs join an independent team and kick the shit out of the teams full of players drafted by MLB, or as the Mavericks called them, "Bonus babies."
I've been watching "The Anarchists" - it's about libertarians trying to establish a community in Acapulco. Full of :brainworms: and one guy is basically the Navy Seal copypasta come to life.
The Act of Killing is the high water mark for me. Exploring the mass anti-communist killings in Indonesia that established the junta by following the still-living, still proud perpetrators. Real wild stuff.
I was listening to a podcast and the (stupid) host brought it up, and had taken away that the mass killings were against those merely accused of being communists (which I don't doubt plenty were) but the implication he made was that communism was a boogeyman, no one's willingly a communist, you dumbass, yada yada. Does the documentary deal with that better, and his interpretation just :brainworms: ?
The film does a real tight focus, in that it largely follows a group of low-rent gangsters selling forged movie tickets who became one of the more notorious death squad during the years of the progroms. These guys are old men now, never suffered any consequences, and are still considered heroes - happily bragging about the people they killed, re-enacting how they executed people while mugging to the camera. The film deals with the self-conscious amnesia of a country unable or unwilling to confront its trauma, the horror of your neighbours being the people who murdered your family, the performativity of violence. It doesn't do a deep dive into the broader ideology of the events - for that I'd recommend The Jakarta Method, which gives a more thorough context.
Damn, I knew it was a rough watch but that...
My first real introduction to the genocide was in Vijay Prashad's The Darker Nations, which I recommend anytime it's relevant. I mean to read the Jakarta Method someday, and I'll probably have to watch this too, though I can see how with that focus ideological motivations are lost. The bad guys stay winning
I'm not a big docu-head. I recently saw Oliver Stone's JFK: Destiny Betrayed. It's a 4 part series on the assassination plot. It's good but it gets pretty lib at times. I'd rather have that kind of lib than "um sweaty, rich people don't plan to do stuff it just happens."
I've seen almost all of Adam Curtis' stuff going back to the 90s. Again, it gets lib but it's a good primer to look stuff up. Goes into the father of PR in Century of the Self, capitalist science in Pandora's Box. The media propaganda around Iraq/Afghanistan in The Power of Nightmares. Breaks down some British burgeoise history in The Mayfair Set.
I also recently saw Free Solo and it was more interesting than I thought it would be.
Tim's Vermeer was interesting even if it was bunk.
There's a series called Alone in the Wilderness/Silence and Solitude. A guy with a troubled personal history (had a falling out with his kids/family) goes to Alaska. He builds a couple of cabins and lives off the land. It's comfy, if a bit yeoman-brained.
Pump Up The Volume - the history of house music from its origins in Chicago and disco to its progression into techno, acid, breakbeat, jungle, drum n' bass and beyond. A three-part docu series from the UK, ca. 2001. Interviews with all the important people - Jamie Principle, Joey Beltram etc.
The third part that charts breakbeat and jungle is fucking amazing. Goldie describing making Timeless and how he played Inner City Life to Derrick May in his car is just incredible.
The Coming War on China - This film was not made by a socialist, but an interesting film that for some reason was what got me to reconsider my position on China.
John Pilger has been doing documentaries documenting the crimes of US imperialism for a long time. I never dug deep into his politics, but at the very least he's a fellow traveler. He's a regular in Left media, and I've seen him appear in various Marxist conferences organized by the Aussie Left (mostly Trots).
You're right, I looked into him a little further and he is way cooler than I remember for some reason.
I just watched The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On and strongly recommend it. On the Criterion Channel and YouTube .
Hotel Terminus is essential. From the director of The Sorrow and the Pity.
Harlan County USA
Anything by Agnes Varda. Black Panthers and Uncle Yanco are very short but are nice places to start.
Been meaning to watch The Battle of Chile
the most important documentary to watch is dominion (cw: extremely graphic violence)
American Hardcore is fun if you like punk music. Haven't seen it in like a decade though. Fun interviews at least.
I really liked “Rodents of Unusual Size” (meansTV) about Nutria, and “City of Joel” about suburban politics and an ultra-orthodox enclave (free to stream from PBS)
The Sasquatch docuseries on Hulu is very cool and interesting.
Paris is burning is a classic, CW ppl dying from AIDS and just horribleness of 80s LGBTQ policies in US tho.
Also seconding Man With A Movie Camera.... It's pretty revolutionary.
The fog of war is kinda libshit but getting MacNamara on tape about Vietnam is an achievement.
The king of kong, a fistful of quarters has the greatest documentary villain ever, the :gamer-gulag:
This is a Soviet documentary about the rise of nazism in Germany. https://youtu.be/MLR3g6E2pZA
