Ask HN: What are some of your favorite documentaries?

18 points by austengary ↗ HN

13 comments

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Earthlings is by far the best documentary I have ever watched. Must watch it. Probably available on youtube and torrents.
I would say Jiro Dreams of Sushi while not really a documentary, more of a biography, will make you re-evaluate (if only temporarily) your life.
If you'll count mockumentaries then Supervolcano, it was about the magma chamber(s) under Yellowstone Park.
Smartest Guys in the Room (about Enron) Cocaine Cowboys (about the drug boom in Miami during the 70's)
BBC's Tiger Island: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHOxXOeCI0Y

I found a lot of this film incredibly interesting. But just seeing the behavior of wild tigers in the presence of humans (especially compared to what many of us have likely seen in a zoo) was incredible. The look they give to humans just screams pure murder and unexplainable hatred.

Anyway, watching that documentary also made me watch other tiger related ones, of which this one ranked pretty well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LljDuIUtvbQ (Operation Snow Tiger) also by BBC (and I recall correctly it is in 2 parts).

Mixtape, Inc. -- I know it's nowhere near tech related but I was involved.
Werner Herzog's documentaries, for example Grizzly Man, My best fiend (not sure it exist in English), Wings of Hope (That is, if you don't mind a heavy German accent which after watching quite a few I strangely enjoy now as it becomes kind of his trademark)