Informative Documentaries

[ShogunRua]

I like watching documentaries. Unfortunately, after completing many of them, I learn absolutely nothing new.

Or, failing that, I don't learn anything that couldn't be gleaned in 5-10 minutes of reading articles on the Internet. While this is especially a weakness of American documentaries, I have noticed that this is a problem for the genre as a whole; most documentaries are so damn uninformative!

In fact, this is a problem I have found with many critically acclaimed documentaries, like The U and to some extent, Hoop Dreams.

Rare examples of documentaries that are highly informative include both The Real Rocky and Through the Fire.

And yes, I realize that all of my examples are sports documentaries. I'm open to any documentary, though, so long as it doesn't suffer from heavy political bias of some kind.

Focus- What are some insightful documentaries from which the viewer can actually learn something?

[Stewball]

Well an exemplary example would be An Inconvenient Truth . Of course its exemplification is derived from the information it imparts unintentionally, like a comedy that didn't intend to be funny.

A more momentous example would be Exit Through the Gift Shop, one of my all time faves, in which Banksy cleverly turns the camera on the documentation, thereby ironically exposing our superficiality through, among other things, graffiti. I highly recommend it, seriously. 8/10 (There are 23 100s logged for it here by Criticker critics, with an average tier of 7.66!)

[mattorama12]

Unfortunately, after completing many of them, I learn absolutely nothing new.

Or, failing that, I don't learn anything that couldn't be gleaned in 5-10 minutes of reading articles on the Internet.

This is definitely true, I'd say for every documentary I've ever seen (I can't comment on either The Real Rocky or Through the Fire as I haven't seen either). However, what makes the documentary form interesting is that it not only provides the information that you could get from reading a Wiki article, but it also provides an emotional context and message that you can't be delivered as effectively in print. I think if you just want the information, you're better off avoiding documentaries entirely in favor of reading.

I won't try to convince you to like Hoop Dreams, but what makes it great to those of us who do like it is that you really get a sense of what the kids go through, what their lives are like, and how central basketball is to their entire existence. It's certainly not as informative as reading a book about socio-economic depression or even an article on the effect of professional sports in the inner cities, but it is more impactful and more memorable (at least for me).

[ShogunRua]

This is definitely true, I'd say for every documentary I've ever seen (I can't comment on either The Real Rocky or Through the Fire as I haven't seen either). However, what makes the documentary form interesting is that it not only provides the information that you could get from reading a Wiki article, but it also provides an emotional context and message that you can't be delivered as effectively in print. I think if you just want the information, you're better off avoiding documentaries entirely in favor of reading.

Oh, I totally agree. My two favorite documentaries ever, The Greatest That Never Was and Once Brothers, are both very emotional tales. But what makes them so good is that they also feature plenty of facts and information. It's not simply overdone melodrama, with attempts at getting the audience to cry, as so many documentaries are.

These documentaries present information-rich, fact-supported tales, and let the emotions of that affect the viewers.

I won't try to convince you to like Hoop Dreams,

I do like Hoop Dreams, though. I gave it a score of 69, T8. Of the 70-odd documentaries I have seen, I have only rated about 10 higher. But what would have truly made it an exceptional documentary is if it presented some unusual or interesting information, which it didn't.

but what makes it great to those of us who do like it is that you really get a sense of what the kids go through, what their lives are like, and how central basketball is to their entire existence.

I agree. However, in my case, none of this was new to me. I even personally knew several (then) current or former prep basketball stars, a couple of which came from the same background Gates and Agee did.

In most cases, though, I don't think there was all that much to their stories. How much has one really seen and experienced by high school, unless they have seen war or had to work from youth? It's still a largely sheltered existence, and they're still largely immature, undeveloped human personalities (I know I was back then!), even if they live in the ghetto.

[CMonster]

I would recommend The Thin Blue Line and Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. You aren't going to get any good statistics for the world as a whole, but you will get a lot of straight up facts about the individual events. I'd say the former is a bit more deep in facts and the latter has a bit more of an emotional basis, but both go deeper into each event that you would get on wikipedia. I do have a slight morbid fascination with documentaries about murder so it can be taken with a grain of salt when I say these are my two favorite documentaries, but if if you want to get deep into the facts of one event and you find murder or the legal system interesting, you won't do better than these.

[CMonster]

Also I would recommend Dogfights. There is one season of it on Netflix. It's a pretty cool documentary tv show that breaks down air warfare. A lot of it is WWI and WWII stuff, but there is also things from other wars. The narration is a times a little over dramatic, but as far as I've looked into stuff after seeing it on the show it seemed pretty accurate. It also has some really good interviews with veterans.

[ShogunRua]

I would recommend The Thin Blue Line and Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. You aren't going to get any good statistics for the world as a whole, but you will get a lot of straight up facts about the individual events. I'd say the former is a bit more deep in facts and the latter has a bit more of an emotional basis, but both go deeper into each event that you would get on wikipedia. I do have a slight morbid fascination with documentaries about murder so it can be taken with a grain of salt when I say these are my two favorite documentaries, but if if you want to get deep into the facts of one event and you find murder or the legal system interesting, you won't do better than these.

Honestly, I don't find either murder or the legal system interesting documentary subjects, but I added "The Thin Blue Line" to my Remembered Films list anyways, since it seems like an interesting story. Thanks.

Also I would recommend Dogfights. There is one season of it on Netflix. It's a pretty cool documentary tv show that breaks down air warfare. A lot of it is WWI and WWII stuff, but there is also things from other wars. The narration is a times a little over dramatic, but as far as I've looked into stuff after seeing it on the show it seemed pretty accurate. It also has some really good interviews with veterans.

Thanks again, added this to my Instant Queue just now. Now, if only they had a good show about military weapons and armor... (And no, "Deadliest Warrior" doesn't count)

[mattorama12]

I'm not sure if the BBC documentary series Planet Earth and Life would qualify for this discussion but, as they are included on this site, I'll go ahead and throw them out there. In addition to providing some great scientific insight into geology, evolution, adaptation, and animal behavior, they have some of the most beautiful images ever captured. I would highly, highly recommend seeing them on blu-ray so you get the full 1080p experience. Both come in American and British variants. The British versions are both narrated by David Attenborough, so they're both solid. Planet Earth's American version is narrated by Sigourney Weaver, and in my (I think minority) opinion is actually better than the British version. The American version of Life is narrated by Oprah. I don't much care for that version, but it's still completely worth seeing if you can't get your hands on the British version.

[TheDenizen]

If you like musical documentaries, two of my faves are "American Hardcore" about (unsurprisingly) the US Hardcore Punk scene of the early to mid 80s, and "Such Hawks Such Hounds" about the stoner/psychedelic rock scene from the 70's to modern day. You can watch SHSH in its entirety on Youtube.

Both of them featured lots of info that was new to me, and tons of great tunes...assuming you dig punk and stoner rock.

[ShogunRua]

The American version of Life is narrated by Oprah.

Well, I know which version I am avoiding like a plague! I'm a scientist myself, so I'm usually frustrated by scientific documentaries, as they tend to be littered with inaccuracies and nonsense. Probably how you would feel seeing a documentary on a landmark trial.

Both of them featured lots of info that was new to me, and tons of great tunes...assuming you dig punk and stoner rock.

They're okay, but I'm a metal guy through-and-through, as you know. Still, both sound like they're worth checking out, thanks.