The Silver Screen Oasis

What type of documentary do you like?

I prefer documentaries about the arts as opposed to nature and science documentaries:

• Movies (e.g., The Celluloid Closet)
• Actors (e.g., My Best Fiend)
• Musicians (e.g., Gimme Shelter)
• Artists (e.g., The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story)
• Writers (e.g., The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table)

EP Millstone wrote: ↑December 7th, 2022, 10:47 am What type of documentary do you like?

I prefer documentaries about the arts: movies (e.g., The Celluloid Closet), actors (e.g., My Best Fiend), musicians (e.g., Gimme Shelter), artists (e.g., The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story), writers (e.g., The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table) as opposed to nature and science documentaries.

I love ones about the arts as well-

Listen To Me Marlon (2015) about Brando and the best one I have seen on any actor

Imagine John Lennon (1988) The best documentary on Lennon and the Beatles, with tons of rare film and interview.

Nico Icon (1995) A fascinating look at the mysterious, beautiful German singer of The Velvet Underground, a chance to show even failure can be interesting.

Though my favorite documentary film maker is Frederick Wiseman, who films mostly ordinary people doing ordinary things, yet I find it fascinating. He does not insert himself into the films, no leading questions or any agenda, just lets the camera roll and have the audience decide.

EP Millstone wrote: ↑December 7th, 2022, 10:47 am What type of documentary do you like?

I prefer documentaries about the arts: movies (e.g., The Celluloid Closet), actors (e.g., My Best Fiend), musicians (e.g., Gimme Shelter), artists (e.g., The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story), writers (e.g., The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table) as opposed to nature and science documentaries.

"The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table" is in the American Masters series, and I enjoyed it very much. Frankly, I can't think of a single one of the programs in that series which I have not liked at least a little bit, and many of them are simply outstanding. Some of my faves in the series include the bios on: Miles Davis, Joseph Pulitzer, Lorraine Hansberry, Eero Saarinen, Dashiell Hammett, Tennessee Williams.

I think if I had to name my absolute favorite bio docs, I'd say David McCullough: Painting with Words (2008), and Never Too Late: The Doc Severinsen Story (2020).

I really enjoy nature docs, and anything David Attenborough does is wonderful. His Life of Birds (1998) was fantastic.

I'm grateful for nature docs, to have the opportunity to see flora and fauna that I'll never see in person. Though I could go to many of the places I've seen in docs, I suspect that I'd not choose the proper location or correct time for viewing a snow leopard, and that would be painful. Most gorgeous cats on the planet, in my opinion.

I generally like every type of documentary. My personal collection consists primarily of musician bio-docs, and concert films. I've admired some true-crime docs like Paradise Lost, but that genre has been largely diluted by the glut on television. I also like off-kilter slice-of-life things like Vernon, Florida, or the 7UP series. I enjoy the cinematography of the nature docs, and recently watched the BBC Blue Planet series on Blu-ray. I have several others from the same filmmakers that I haven't watched yet, but am looking forward to.

I have never seen a Wiseman film, despite hearing his praises for decades. I just haven't run across any yet.

I watched a documentary on weed last night. I think that is how I will watch all documentaries from now on.

Biographies and art documentaries are not to my taste.

I much prefer documentaries on how people do/did things.

Secrets of the Castle (2014) is about the archaeology experiment: Guédelon. They are building from bare ground a Medieval castle using only the tools and materials available in the 13th Century. This documentary series shows a team from England living on the site for months and assisting with the work. It covers all manner of things from how rushes are best laid on the floor of a living hut to how stone is carved and laid for a Gothic window.

Ruth Goodman has been active in many such documentaries depicting how people lived at various periods of history. It is all of day-to-day hands-on things rather than pompous and self-serving edicts of the politics and personalities of the time.

The Mummy Who Came in from the Cold (2007) shows how archaeologists disinter a mummy and the steps of their investigation in establishing certain aspects of the society and her place in it by examining the artifacts with her.

I love the concept of documentary series such as: How It's Made (2001-) but I generally find the execution boring and there are grievous inaccuracies for the sake of not becoming overly technical.

I agree, my favorite documentaries are the ones made about the movies

My favorite documentary is probably the relatively recent one where Michael Palin of Monty Python visits resort spots in North Korea. It is actually a lot less sensationalist than most stuff of this nature. It includes interviews with natives and offers their perspective on the political issues facing the country.

Masha wrote: ↑December 7th, 2022, 5:31 pm I watched a documentary on weed last night. I think that is how I will watch all documentaries from now on.

I love the concept of documentary series such as: How It's Made (2001-) but I generally find the execution boring and there are grievous inaccuracies for the sake of not becoming overly technical.

This reference might be a bit obscure but that show (How Its Made) always reminded me of the cartoon “Quasi at the Quackadero” where the cartoon rabbit thing Quasi is watching on his television, people in a factory make cakes or something equally inane and then looks at the camera and says “I loooove watching pictures of people working .”

I like documentaries about Nature, especially Wildlife. I never get tired of watching shows like Nature, National Geographic, Planet Earth, etc.
I also like shows about Astronomy, like Cosmos and The Universe.

Give me David Attenborough and a BBC Planet Earth (and its various sequels) and I will be busy for a while.

movieman1957 wrote: ↑December 9th, 2022, 8:57 am Give me David Attenborough and a BBC Planet Earth (and its various sequels) and I will be busy for a while.

Masha wrote: ↑December 9th, 2022, 11:09 am

movieman1957 wrote: ↑December 9th, 2022, 8:57 am Give me David Attenborough and a BBC Planet Earth (and its various sequels) and I will be busy for a while.

Interesting. Ya see, while reading this meme I DID in fact imagine it being said in David Attenborough's voice, but once again found myself falling asleep by the time I got half way through it.

(...zzzzzzzzzzz)

Dargo wrote: ↑December 9th, 2022, 12:12 pm
Interesting. Ya see, while reading this meme I DID in fact imagine it being said in David Attenborough's voice, but once again found myself falling asleep by the time I got half way through it.

(...zzzzzzzzzzz)

That should not be surprising. People react differently to tone and cadence. Some find a narrator's voice instills a sense of trust and authority while others find the same voice to be soporific.

A professor at university had the dual reputation of being one of the most interesting lecturers in any of the colleges and of being able to put students to sleep within minutes. He gave me a little present at end of term because I was the first student ever to fall asleep at nearly every lecture and still pass the course with excellent marks.

Masha wrote: ↑December 9th, 2022, 2:36 pm

Dargo wrote: ↑December 9th, 2022, 12:12 pm
Interesting. Ya see, while reading this meme I DID in fact imagine it being said in David Attenborough's voice, but once again found myself falling asleep by the time I got half way through it.

(...zzzzzzzzzzz)

That should not be surprising. People react differently to tone and cadence.

Uh-huh, AND ya know what ELSE I've discovered over the years, Masha? It's that people not ONLY react differently to tone and cadence, BUT that they ALSO react differently to the use of INFLECTION as WELL! LOL

(...AND, is probably the very reason why I always prefer watching documentaries in which the narrator seems to understand this, as I've always felt that there's NOTHING more boring than listening to a narrator who DOESN'T understand this and drones on and on in the same tone)

I like documentaries that examine a bygone era. For example, an excellent one I recently saw was Automat, about the Horn and Hardart restaurant chain.

I also like ones that illuminate, without being bombastic. The one that comes to mind is Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, by Werner Herzog, about the positive and destructive forces of the digital age.