Any topic, what are some great and interesting documentaries to watch?
John Berger's Ways of Seeing, a Marxist art documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk&t=2s
The Shock of the New, a fantastic overview of modernism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3ne7Udaetg
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, a sociocultural overview of cybernetics and mass culture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgADKpMStts
Baraka, a snapshot of life across the globe in 1992: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15NLms8Gyq0
Koyaanisqatsi, the same idea of Baraka but it's about the disharmony of modern development. It also has Philip Glass' first truly good work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-K-arVl-U
The book forms of that and The Shock of the New are what made me a modern art nerd. Especially when Berger gets to Walter Benjamin and Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, just brilliant shit.
Man, Baraka was my favourite movie when I was younger, I must have watched it dozens of times.
I will always love the film for its ingenuity and beautiful cinematography and music, but now I can't help but think that the movie is really fundamentally anti-modernity, and in a subtle way kind of misanthropic. It kind of suggests that human civilisation can bring only chaos and death, and almost in an anarcho-primitivist sort of way seems to suggest a return to pre-modern civilisation as preferable.
I like the way it frames that juxtaposition between modernity and premodern/natural systems. Both are coexisting at the same time, both are represented, and without any kind of narration we're left to gravitate toward whatever feels more right. While it favours those other systems, so does Marxism ultimately. Those indigenous cultures are an anticolonial argument, those premodern cultures are a re-establishment of the commons, those monkeys in the hot spring are a case for animal liberation.
Concerning Violence: 9 Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defence (2014) is a great documentary. The guys who did the Black Power Mixtape found a bunch of old archival footage from like 7 or 8 different global south independence movements from labour to militance, really interesting footage. Meanwhile Lauryn Hill reads sections of Frantz Fanon’s essay “On Violence”.
In the Year of the Pig (1968) is a great antiwar Vietnam documentary.
The Act of Killing (2012) follows the aging lumpen Indonesian thugs who performed massacres of left in 65 as they recreate their massacres for film. Required viewing for the left, great companion piece to Vincent Bevin’s The Jakarta Method.
Theatres of War (2022) is about the CIA/Pentagon influence of Hollywood scripts and storytelling. It is actually kind of a shit documentary on some ways (like Michael Moore vibes but toned down), but seeing all these FOIAed docs right next to clips that were directly inserted by the military will get you pretty :picard-direct-action:
I Am Not Your Negro (2016) is a cool doc about James Baldwin, Samuel L. Jackson reads one of his unfinished books intercut with footage of Baldwin being cool af.
Sir, No Sir advances the thesis that the reason for the eventual pullout from Vietnam was because of war resistors in the ranks of drafted troops. Turned out so many troops were letting off grenades in their CO’s quarters they had to invent a term for it lol. :boots-riley: and Tom Morello did a song for the soundtrack called Captain Sterling’s Little Problem about icing your CO
ALL of the above films can be streamed for free on Kanopy if you have a library card.
Let the Fire Burn (2013) is a great documentary about the Philly pigs bombing and burning down like an entire residential city block in their attack on the MOVE complex in 85. They have great footage from the committee that investigated it.
If you don’t want something political, Crumb (1994) is probably the best non-political doc I’ve seen, about Robert Crumb.
Also Frederick Wiseman has like 50 great documentaries about the US if you care about the US - there almost all can be streamed for free on Kanopy. I watched Law and Order (1968) recently shit was cool (CW on that clip - pigs assaulting a sex worker)
Edit: I forgot Paris is Burning (1990) is a blassic
The Act of Killing was amazing, having just finished The Jakarta Method a month ago. The documentary brought me to tears. Thanks for the recommendation
Carts of Darkness (2009) - This documentary follows a group of homeless men who have combined bottle picking with the extreme sport of racing shopping carts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi-f_J6hV-g
King Corn. A documentary about agricultural subsidies in the United States. It's exactly as dry and boring as you think it is but by god is it eye opening about what American agriculture is like today and how it affects global food production
gonna be that guy again and say that by far the best and most important documentary you can watch is dominion (cw: unfathomably graphic violence)
it is absolutely not a fun watch, but anyone who eats animals and doesnt think its that big a deal absolutely needs to watch it. you think you know what its like, but you dont until youve actually seen it
I am well aware that if I ever watch Dominion I will be slamming the vegan button in the process
that was me as well, i put it off for ages because subconsciously i knew that being confronted with the consequences of my actions would compel me to make a change in those actions. watching it is hard, but turns out pushing the button is much easier and less scary than you think though
Hypernormalisation by Adam Curtis
Century of Self by Adam Curtis
The Power of Nightmares by Adam Curtis
Can't Get You Out of my Head by Adam Curtis (the first episode is a bit dry but it picks up afterwards)
Attica (2021) was one of the most harrowing and horrifying things I've ever watched
I knew this country was evil, I knew NY state was evil and I knew the ruling class including the Rockefeller family was evil but seeing this really crystallized what I mostly already knew
Serious content warning, they show real graphic footage from the massacre and the interviews with survivors only make it worse
I really liked the following for the way the stories were told and the passion of the interviewees...
Called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by Thomas Edison, the Linotype revolutionized printing and society. The film tells the surprisingly emotional story of the people connected to the Linotype and how it impacted the world.
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A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture.
You don't have to be interested in something like design. You don't even have to like documentaries. Both documentarians really know how to tell a story.
my favorite documentary is hoop dreams because the vibes are kind of....cozy? It's completely without pretention.
I'll be the stem lord and mention the Connections series
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(British_documentary)
Haven't seen it in decades, but iirc it did a good job of putting the history of tech into a fairly materialist perspective albeit with a bit of great man theory on the side. It shows how small incremental discoveries and inventions over time accumulate in novel ways to create new theories and technology.
John Bergers essay on those Cave paintings may be even better than this doc tho.
Thanks for the tip!
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/oct/12/art.artsfeatures3
