Documentaries that made a difference

[Simon_Cowbell]

This seems as good a place as any to praise Evil...Orville Redenbacher for starting today's two most popular threads within 90 minutes of one another.

And for being, behind DisembodiedOwlHead, my second-favorite nonsensical SportsJournalists.com username.

To me, it's lawrenceofalabia, and then everyone else... way back.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

I know these wouldn't qualify as "important," but a few docs that haven't been mentioned that I loved:

Capturing the Friedmans
Brother's Keeper
Paradise Lost
The Times of Harvey Milk
The Bridge

These are all, in some way, monumentally forked up movies.

I also watched Shut Up & Sing last week, the Dixie Chicks doc. I liked it a lot.

Also to add: When We Were Kings and American Movie.

Tremendous input, Jones.

 

[HC]

I know these wouldn't qualify as "important," but a few docs that haven't been mentioned that I loved:

Capturing the Friedmans
Brother's Keeper
Paradise Lost
The Times of Harvey Milk
The Bridge

These are all, in some way, monumentally forked up movies.

I also watched Shut Up & Sing last week, the Dixie Chicks doc. I liked it a lot.

Also to add: When We Were Kings and American Movie.

Capturing the Friedmans. Great doc.

 

[buckweaver]

When We Were Kings ... damn, I can watch that 1,000 times and never get tired of it.

 

[sportschick]

I know these wouldn't qualify as "important," but a few docs that haven't been mentioned that I loved:

Capturing the Friedmans
Brother's Keeper
Paradise Lost
The Times of Harvey Milk
The Bridge

These are all, in some way, monumentally forked up movies.

I also watched Shut Up & Sing last week, the Dixie Chicks doc. I liked it a lot.

Also to add: When We Were Kings and American Movie.

Capturing the Friedmans. Great doc.

That was an amazing movie. Totally showed how unreliable eyewitness testimony is.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

I'm surprised we've gotten this far with only one mention of Scared Straight.

My god, I remember watching that when I was a kid and if you don't think that had an impact on an 8-year-old......my cousins lived in the same town as the prison that was filmed at, Rahway State Pen in New Jersey. Damn well better believe that was always a topic of conversation when we visited.

Titicut Follies was, is, and always will be the best documentary I've seen. No soundtrack, no narration, just this is what it is. I mean, it was the only documentary ever banned in this country not because of national security. My aunt worked in a state hospital for 30+ years as a nurse and she said they were very aware of that documentary; certainly because Bridgewater State Hospital (where it was filmed) was only one state over. I've been dying to see High School by Wiseman.

Before ESPN took ESPN Classic and crumpled it up, stomped on it and flushed it down the toilet, they used to show the documentary on deck Schaap's life. That was always a good watch.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Haven't seen my favorite mentioned (unless Fenian was referring to it): "Gates of Heaven" by Errol Morris, a documentary about pet cemeteries. He made it before "A Thin Blue Line." Roger Ebert put it on his list of the 10 greatest films ever made. I'd summarize it, but Roger has the Pulitzer so I'll let him do it:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19971109/REVIEWS08/401010320/1023

Seems to me it's tough to top "A Thin Blue Line" or "Titicut Follies" if the list is really supposed to be films that made a difference.

 

[Mighty_Wingman]

It's very hard to be persuasive in a democracy when one of your main arguments is "most people are stupid."

The Democratic party as a whole seems to have figured this out, sadly. I guess you missed the memo.

I'm not trying to be persuasive. Just stating the facts.

So, per you, it's a "fact" that most people are stupid? God knows I'm sure we all wish we were as smart as you.

 

[John]

When We Were Kings ... damn, I can watch that 1,000 times and never get tired of it.

Same here. I finally got the DVD a couple of years ago.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

F 9/11 dropped...Power of Nightmares in. (Why We Fight...awesome stuff as well. Iraq for Sale is also quite shocking stuff).

Roger and Me is Mike's best...If anyone has lived through a similar situation in their hometown they would understand.

As for music docs...Decline of Western Civilization I and II. In one we have Darby Crash...in the other it's Chris Holmes in a pool. There is no way I ever forget those guys because of those films.

I'm not loving Triumph of the Will because I think Leni Reifenstahl's Olympic films are better.

The Other Final is my favorite sports documentary...See it if you can.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

It's very hard to be persuasive in a democracy when one of your main arguments is "most people are stupid."

The Democratic party as a whole seems to have figured this out, sadly. I guess you missed the memo.

I'm not trying to be persuasive. Just stating the facts.

So, per you, it's a "fact" that most people are stupid? God knows I'm sure we all wish we were as smart as you.

If you voted for Bush twice you are either a) stupid or b) without a conscience.

 

[audreyld]

Two thoughts:

It's very hard to be persuasive in a democracy when one of your main arguments is "most people are stupid."

The Democratic party as a whole seems to have figured this out, sadly. I guess you missed the memo.

I'm not trying to be persuasive. Just stating the facts.

So, per you, it's a "fact" that most people are stupid? God knows I'm sure we all wish we were as smart as you.

If you voted for Bush twice you are either a) stupid or b) without a conscience.

I'd like to believe I'm neither stupid nor lacking a conscience. I did vote for him twice, and though I deeply regret it now, at the time I felt it was the best option.

As for the original topic at hand, I don't know if these 10 movies made a difference socially, politically or otherwise, but they certainly made a difference in the way documentaries are made.

Perhaps, then, the list title is accurate, in that they are some of the most influential films within the sphere of documentary filmmaking.