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Thanks for the documentaries recs! I've seen and enjoyed Being Elmo, but will look up the others.

Oh boy oh boy, I love documentaries. I'm looking through my four- and five-star ratings on Netflix...

OT: Our Town is about a high school in Compton that puts on Our Town. Heartwarmingness ensues. I don't actually remember a lot of details about this one but I do remember liking it a lot.

If you liked Being Elmo, you might enjoy The World According to Sesame Street, which is about Sesame Workshop, which works with local producers to put together versions of Sesame Street for different countries. They do one in Sri Lanka and one in I think Sarajevo (where they of course run into some unique issues).

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is about an offbeat dude in San Francisco who starts taking care of and getting to know the parrots who live there -- no one is sure how they arrived but there are colonies of them living in San Francisco. He's a really interesting character and the parrots are neat and it's a good one.

If you haven't seen March of the Penguins, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. In the nature vein, I really liked Winged Migration, which is mostly gorgeous footage of birds flying and some interesting science, but is not, y'know, super action-packed or anything.

Spellbound is about kids in the National Spelling Bee. They are all weirdos. Good times. DO I SOUND LIKE A MUSICAL ROBOT

More kids: To Be and to Have is a French documentary (yep, subtitles) about a teacher in a tiny elementary school in France. Not a lot happens but it's very sweet.

Standing in the Shadows of Motown. It profiles the session musicians that played on all the famous Motown songs, but who never became famous or anything, and who now are all old and still awesome. Joan Osborne (bias alert: I totally love her) (but if you only know her from the What If God Was One of Us song, I promise she is a totally ridiculous blues singer) sings with them a few times. Heavy on the musical performances; totally feel-good movie. I didn't realize how much I liked Motown until watching this.

Young at Heart: Some old folks have a choir in Northampton, MA. There is a little bit of sadness in this because, well, sometimes sad things happen to old people. :/ But overall it's very uplifting.

Very dear to my heart: Trekkies. It's about Trekkies. A lot of Trekkies are weirdos. Obviously they picked the weirdest ones for this doc. And some of them are very weird. There is a bit of a "making fun of the nerds" element, which bothered some nerds. It didn't bother me and I think it's hilarious and good-humored.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party. Dave Chappelle throws a block party. Block parties are fun. New Yorkers are weird. The Roots are there.

This is TV and I don't actually know if they're available for renting, but 30 Days was a documentary series by Morgan Spurlock, who did Super Size Me (which I liked but am not putting in the list because, while cheerful, it a righteous-outrage kind of movie). In every episode someone spent 30 days with a person with some kind of opposite or different lifestyle/belief system. An anti-Muslim guy spent 30 days in a Muslim household, an anti-gay guy spent 30 days with a couple of dudes with a bunch of kids, etc. I think the most moving one to me was the Minuteman guy who spent it with a family of illegal immigrants. The first one is Morgan and his girlfriend living on minimum wage for 30 days. I'm including it because usually (I can't guarantee always because I don't remember well enough) there is a lot more understanding between the people at the end. I wish this series had made more episodes. Michael Moore makes me uncomfortable sometimes but Morgan Spurlock, while sort of in that same vein, is much less confrontational and more even-keeled.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Just kidding, this is the most depressing movie of all time.

I loved 30 Days and wish it had continued for many seasons. That minimum wage ep really blew my mind years ago because I remember that Morgan has some minor injury that somehow costs him thousands of dollars, which he and his girlfriend don't have since they're living paycheck to paycheck at that point. It just freaked me the hell out and made me fear ever being in that position.

Spellbound is excellent, so I support that rec! I believe there's also a doc about crossword puzzles that I saw a few years back, but I can't recall the title unfortunately. And for anyone who enjoys typography, there's a film called Helvetica about the ubiquitous font that gets used on pretty much everything everywhere.

I don't know about positive, but if Cocaine Cowboys doesn't make you want to fly a Cessna to Medellin then you have no pulse.

The Aristocrats is fun if you like toilet humor.

Vernon, Florida and The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia are good for some train wreck laughs.

I also loved Wordplay - about crossword puzzle nerds! - and King of Kong - about video game nerds! I love nerds, basically.

There is also Mad Hot Ballroom which is about little kids in new york public schools doing competitive ballroom. It is very fun.

My favorite documentary of all time is Hoop Dreams, and it really is a magnificent film. It is also deeply depressing in many ways but both kids turn out all right so if you watch it with that knowledge its a lot more comforting.

I also really loved Page One: Inside the New York Times which is about the process of putting out the New York Times and the changing newspaper industry.

There is also Paris is Burning which is about drag queens in the early 90s and is fantastic.

Unzipped which is super fun and follows Isaac Mizrahi as he puts on a show for New York Fashion Week. His freak out when Naomi Campbell shows up with a belly button piercing is FABULOUS.

ANVIL! The Story of Anvil which is about a Canadian heavy metal band that almost made it and kind of gets rediscovered.

Madonna: Truth or Dare is pretty fascinating. And includes that awesome Warren Beatty line "Talk off camera? She doesn't want to LIVE off camera!"

I love documentaries too, and totally support the recommendations for Spellbound, To Be and To Have, and Page One, but one of my all-time favourite is Young at Heart. Yes, it makes me cry, but it's very uplifting too. Wordplay is also interesting.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog is interesting. Scientists found a cave in French with the earliest known human paintings in them, and Herzog is one of the few non-researchers ever allowed to go in there. I saw in 3D in theatres. It was really moving and stunning to see.

I also really responded to The Interrupters last year, which is by Hoop Dreams's director Steve James, but it's not exactly upbeat. It shows people trying to do something to address gang violence in Chicago though, and in that sense, I found it inspiring.

I would add that a lot of people like Man on Wire, which is a caper-like documentary about a French wire walker who, in 1974, decided to put a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center and to walk on it. I personally didn't care for it (and much prefer Project Nim by the same director but that's not an uplifting story!), but it made a lot of critics' top ten list that year and I know a lot of people who find it a super entertaining watch.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Just kidding, this is the most depressing movie of all time.

I was so gutted and angry after seeing that. Ugh.

Ahhh, Wordplay, that's it! That was a really fun doc to watch if I remember correctly.

I'm loving this thread right now. I can't believe I forgot Hoop Dreams, which is like the founder of the modern era of uplifting documentaries, and Mad Hot Ballroom, which was super delightful.

I LOVED Cave of Forgotten Dreams (and I love Werner Herzog deeply). I too saw it in 3D and it was amazing. I don't know how good it would be at home on TV, because it is slow. And mostly footage of people walking through a cave and filming cave paintings.

I am so happy katesti reminded me of King of Kong, which I have been meaning to watch and will put on my Netflix queue right away. I of course love nerds as well. ANVIL! too. (That reminds me that the Metallica documentary, whose name I forget, was also pretty riveting.) My favorite documentaries are like my favorite New Yorker articles: close looks at a world I don't know very much about, in a way that brings that world to life and makes it fascinating. Page One also sounds really good, and so does The Interrupters. I gobbled up Project Nim too, but yeah, that was a melancholy one. I think we may have similar tastes, Morning Angel: I haven't seen Man on Wire but it doesn't sound super appealing to me.

I'm trying to remember, and it doesn't seem possible but I'm not sure I've actually seen Wordplay yet, despite having heard a ton about it and feeling like I have basically seen it. I bet it's on my queue but hasn't come up yet.

I love Truth or Dare because I am a Madonna fan 4 Lyfe. There was another one that came out a few years ago, and it was striking to see the difference between her then and her now-ish -- even though she was pretty goddamn famous when Truth or Dare came out, she struck me as so much more of like, an institution in the second one.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Chris Rock's Good Hair? It's a really interesting look at African American women's haircare. It's not a complete one (they sort of skimmed over braids, IMO) but I thought it was pretty cool. It taught me a lot about the stuff I do to my own hair and almost made me want to stop getting relaxers.

Instant Monkeys wrote:This is TV and I don't actually know if they're available for renting, but 30 Days was a documentary series by Morgan Spurlock, who did Super Size Me (which I liked but am not putting in the list because, while cheerful, it a righteous-outrage kind of movie). In every episode someone spent 30 days with a person with some kind of opposite or different lifestyle/belief system. An anti-Muslim guy spent 30 days in a Muslim household, an anti-gay guy spent 30 days with a couple of dudes with a bunch of kids, etc. I think the most moving one to me was the Minuteman guy who spent it with a family of illegal immigrants. The first one is Morgan and his girlfriend living on minimum wage for 30 days. I'm including it because usually (I can't guarantee always because I don't remember well enough) there is a lot more understanding between the people at the end. I wish this series had made more episodes. Michael Moore makes me uncomfortable sometimes but Morgan Spurlock, while sort of in that same vein, is much less confrontational and more even-keeled.

I love Super Size Me and mostly enjoyed 30 Days. Morgan and his girlfriend did 1 episode per season. There was the minimum wage one and prison one, which was really good. It focused a lot on the overcrowding. I think at one point he was wondering around trying to find a cell with room and you could some where guys were sleeping on the floor.

Personally, I thought the series was a little too indulgent with episodes that were really just about differences in polical et al views. Here's a pro-choice woman, let's have her stay with a super Christian family! Here's an anti-immigration man, let's have him live with a Mexican family! Here's a (fill in the blank extreme view) person, let's have them live with a family of the opposite view!!! and on and on and on... It felt repetitive.

I really liked the IT guy who lost his job and moved to India to live with a family that worked at a company that took his outsourced job and he also worked there. The man and woman who were over indulgent in using up resources and moved to a commune that was all natural, no electricity or running water. I will say the homophobic man episode did have some interesting parts though. There was a part where the couple took him to a gay bar and ended up getting pissed that no one was hitting on him and he took his shirt off and started dancing on a table to get attention. Then at the end of the episode he was back with his family and they were asking about what it was like and were like, "So, what do they do?" And the guy had to reply back that they have regular jobs just like them. Growing up and still living in the San Francisco area that made me laugh really hard.

I loved Good Hair.

The Metallica one is very good and is entitled Some Kind of Monster. They literally go to marriage counseling and its so fascinating to see the dynamics of a band that has been that successful for that long. It really is like a marriage. My favorite part is when they bring in Dave Mustaine and he is STILL bitter.

I adore Madonna too and loved that second documentary also. The recent George Harrison doc that Scorscese did for HBO was also super excellent. The parts with his family and the remaining Beatles will break your heart.

In that vein there are a lot of great tv documentaries. I loved HBO's Magic and Bird: A Courtship of Rivals which discusses the rivalry between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and how they eventually grew to be very close friends. McEnroe and Borg: Fire and Ice is also great for that. They became so entertwined that when Borg left the tour McEnroe become deeply depressed.

The ESPN 30 for 30 series is also fantastic. A lot of top directors and they do an excellent job. Some are NOT uplifting though, but they are all fascinating. Reggie Miller vs the Nicks is truly fabulous though and funny.

The most fun part about Page One was David Carr. I loved his book the Night of the Gun about his addiction and he has this wonderfully raspy voice and has seen it all and does not give a fuck. Its fantastic.

I also very much enjoyed Waking Sleeping Beauty about the history of Disney Animation and also in particular the history of the revival it got in the late 80s through to 2000 via Roy Disney and Katzenberg. Its fantastic to hear the history and see how something like Oliver and Company was the first hint of a commercial success. It also goes into the origins of all these movies too. I also loved PBS' Broadway: The American Musical. Its available on dvd and is 6 hours long and covers the history of broadway till 2004. Its fantastic. They devote sections to all the big things that happened (the 90s are Rent and the disney revival for example). There is also Showbusiness: The Road to Broadway which covered a really interesting season in broadway in depth, leading up to the tonys. It was very fascinating.

King of Kong is awesome, though it has a very clear villain, and it got me really angry, heh.
I also love The September Issue, even though I am not all that interested in fashion.

I know I'm the one who asked for non-heavy documentary recommendations, but seeing the rec for the September Issue (which was fun), reminded me of Bill Cunningham New York. That was really interesting too.

One of my favourite documentaries of all time is My Best Fiend about the relationship between director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski. They are both quite mad, with Kinski perhaps being slightly more insane and it is a very funny film about two people who managed to bring out both the best and worst in each other. There's one anecdote in the film of when they were filming somewhere in Peru (making Fitzcarraldo)and Kinski was being such a drama llama nightmare that the tribal natives offered to kill him for Herzog, who considered it but realised he needed him for the rest of the production.

mokey75 wrote:King of Kong is awesome, though it has a very clear villain, and it got me really angry, heh.

I KNOW! I don't know what amused me more - that someone made an interesting movie about Donkey Kong, or how wound up I was about it.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is also very fascinating. I also really enjoyed Shut Up and Sing about the Dixie Chicks fallout.

TiffanyNichelle wrote:I don't think anyone has mentioned Chris Rock's Good Hair? It's a really interesting look at African American women's haircare. It's not a complete one (they sort of skimmed over braids, IMO) but I thought it was pretty cool. It taught me a lot about the stuff I do to my own hair and almost made me want to stop getting relaxers.

YES. That's the one I forgot last night.

Also, the Metallica doc is Some Kind of Monster, and seconding the recs for Joan Rivers, The September Issue, Anvil!, Mad Hot Ballroom, and Shut Up and Sing (and, basically, anything else anyone else has mentioned - Murderball, YAY).

Has anyone mentioned Girls Rock!? It's about a rock camp for girls, with Beth Ditto as one of the counselors, and it is just pure joy and fun. And, of course, Babies.

TiffanyNichelle wrote:I don't think anyone has mentioned Chris Rock's Good Hair?

That was really good too.

ANVIL! is also a really fun one to watch. It's basically This is Spinal Tap coming to life! lol

I gobbled up Project Nim too, but yeah, that was a melancholy one.

So sad. But the craziest part about watching this for me is that one of my former professors was one of the interviewees in that doc. I knew she had worked on sign language in chimps, but I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I saw this! (I was glad to see that she was one of the better people in it too.)

There's also a very interesting series of documentaries by Michael Apted called the Up series. It's a British project, and they film the same people every 7 years, and have been doing so since the participants were 7 years old so the docs are titled 7 Up, 14 Up,... I haven't seen all the installments, but what I've seen of this series was really interesting. They've reached 56 Up this year.

I really like American Bellydancer. It's about Miles Copeland putting together the Bellydance Superstars touring group and getting the show off the ground, with a little background on bellydance in America.

Kiran wrote:I loved Good Hair.

The Metallica one is very good and is entitled Some Kind of Monster. They literally go to marriage counseling and its so fascinating to see the dynamics of a band that has been that successful for that long. It really is like a marriage. My favorite part is when they bring in Dave Mustaine and he is STILL bitter.

Some Kind of Monster is even better if you hate Metallica.

Metalapocalypse is ten times funnier after seeing it.

Some Kind of Monster is even better if you hate Metallica.

Seriously! And I can't remember if it is this doc that touches on it but the only reason their band exists is because of mixtapes so shut the fuck about napster! I am not even objecting to the notion that bands can't hate on illegal pirating but a band who only continues to this day because of the only available pirating of the time-mix tapes- and who makes crazy bank on concerts, sit the fuck down.

Not to mention the entire time I wanted a commentary from the Rolling Stones that imagine would have been "yes, Mick has a crazy fucking ego like Lars, we dealt with Richards annoying drug habit, and Woods going off the rails and marrying a girl who could be his child, sit down and play some fucking songs!!!! Without the fucking drama and treating Kirk like shit even though has been with the band for all the mainstream hits!" Lars and James are ridiculous asshats.
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I imagine Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic watch that and are like thank god we didn't have to deal with that bullshit therapy!

All these doc recommendations are awesome! There was a time a few summers ago when I was obsessed with documentaries and watched a ton of them, and it seems that obsession might be reawakened, thanks to all you fine folks!

Morning Angel wrote:

I gobbled up Project Nim too, but yeah, that was a melancholy one.

So sad. But the craziest part about watching this for me is that one of my former professors was one of the interviewees in that doc. I knew she had worked on sign language in chimps, but I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I saw this! (I was glad to see that she was one of the better people in it too.)

I have been fascinated since I was like, ten with the whole primate language acquisition things. I was super into Koko the Gorilla and I read a bunch of books/articles about other experiments about Washoe, etc. and certainly Nim. Of course now I realize that much of it was horribly, horribly misguided at best and...worse than that at worst. But I remain fascinated by it. I was a rollercoaster of emotion watching that movie. To me it's almost like space exploration, that same desire to connect with another universe, that same feeling of being almost able to get there but not quite able to bridge the distance. I was terribly sad when the pendulum started swinging back to the idea that all of these experiments were frauds or at least stupid and useless. Helped in no small part by dillholes like a lot of the Nim people seemed to be. (Sometimes I watch things about lefties in the '70s and I really understand why Reagan was such a hit.) My own opinion is that it's a fascinating thing, and I don't think it's a fraud or that every single sign was being "cued," but I do think the experiments were a mess and that they did themselves no favors by doing it the way they did, and that as fascinating as it is it doesn't really serve a larger purpose other than a kind of "let's see if we can do it" curiosity, and that probably isn't really enough. All the shit about raising the chimp as a human child, gawd. That would be so ridiculous today. And I mean, it's a pretty wide and well-lit path from "really a human lady shouldn't be nursing a chimp, that is creepy and crazysauce" to "maybe we should just NOT pluck animals out of their natural environment to see if we can train them to do things, even if we are curious and even if it is 'science' rather than Ringling Bros.?" It's easy to say that shooting hairspray in a chimp's eyes and then leaving it in a cage to cry and fester with sores is cruel. It's less easy to say that having it wear overalls and sit at the dinner table and eat macaroni and cheese while trying to teach it the sign for macaroni and cheese is cruel, and it isn't in the same way, but it still kinda is, and I'm glad that awareness of that idea, and the notion that maybe you should tread more carefully when messing with nature, has increased. I know that these people meant well and had love for Nim, but they were very misguided. (As was I when all I wanted was to teach monkeys sign language when I was a kid.)

Anyway. That is SO cool to see one of your profs! You didn't know she was going to be in it?

I really want to watch the 7Up films and one of these days I'll get around to it. I love that idea.

I don't know that many of the ones I'm about to mention are uplifting, but they are really good.

I don't think it's available for streaming on Netflix (but they do have the DVD, apparently), but Hot Coffee is a really good documentary about civil lawsuits, tort reform and how the media reports on those things versus how they actually work. The name comes from the McDonalds coffee case that people always talk about when mentioning frivolous lawsuits and....well, it wasn't frivolous.


There's also Double Dare, which is available on Netflix streaming, about stuntwomen Zoe Bell and Jeannie Epper, which I think is relevant to the interests of many people on Snarkfest. Other documentaries I haven't watched but really want to get to include Bhutto (about Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her assassination), Lost in La Mancha (Terry Gilliam's attempts to make the movie Man of La Mancha), Food Inc. (about agriculture as big business) and Maxed Out (about American debt and the deterioration of the middle class).

I do love documentaries.