I don't watch TV per se, to plagarise J Michael Straczynski I don't watch TV. It's a cultural wasteland filled with inappropriate metaphors and an unrealistic portrayal of life created by the liberal media elite. However I do like good films, TV drama series (on DVD!) And documentaries, which is a segue in to asking which documentaries you have watched and would recommend, and why.
Any topic and language goes. Share the gems you have found on your travels. Please provide links (imbd.com) And or pics so we can easily find anything you recommend, with a brief description too.
The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled after early 20th-century aviation prizes, and aimed to spur development of low-cost spaceflight.
Created in May 1996 and initially called just the "X Prize", it was renamed the "Ansari X Prize" on May 6, 2004 following a multi-million dollar donation from entrepreneurs Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari.
The prize was won on October 4, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch, by the Tier One project designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, using the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne. (Wikipedia)
Black Sky follows the men and women behind the winners of the Ansari X Prize, from the genius designer of the spacecraft - Burt Rutan, to the pilot Mike Melvill who has gonads so big they generate their own gravitational field.
Designing a spacecraft capable of surviving the extreme heat (3,000 °F) Generated when a spaceship enters the Earths atmosphere took NASA billions (trillions?). Burt Rutan did the same on a shoestring budget, and his solution made NASA's look somewhat archaic by comparison - just by using clever aerodynamics.
It really is fascinating watching, I would like to think for all, but certainly for those with a space penchant.
The blue nosed part of Spaceship One detaches once the aircraft achieves suitable altitude, and rockets fire it up up and away. Upon reentry it actually changes shape!
Super Size Me was the documentary that really pushed the health craze at MacDonalds and by extension many other fast food chains.
Fat Head is a counterdocumentary that tries to debunk super size me's claims.
You can chose who you want to believe.
If science documentaries are allowed I really loved Nova. Pretty much every episode was amazing but in particular the string theory one was interesting. I also enjoyed the ones that tried to predict the future and the ones on artificial intelligence.
It's basically a man who's documenting the legal process of his friend who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, as well as interviews from his close friends/families/classmates/coworkers/ etc.
Follow the link. A brilliant documentary about chaos theory and its application to science by Jim Al-Khalili.
"Its about how inanimate matter, with no purpose or design, can spontaneously create exquisite beauty."
Excellent documentary. Another with Jim hosting is Atom. Which looks at the discovery of the Atom. Can't rate this one highly enough for the science heads out there.
The King of Kong - great doc about competitive arcade gamers, funny insights into human nature
My Winnipeg - Guy Maddin directs this great docu-fantasia about his hometown which he loves and loathes in equal measure
Anything by Errol Morris - great film-maker who was a student of Werner Herzog. his documentaries share a lot of similarities with some of Herzog's. I recommend Vernon Florida, Gates of Heaven, Standard Operating Procedure and Mr Death .
Really interesting interview lasting 106 minutes in which McNamara goes into alot of detail about national crises and how decisions are made, including his roles in WW2, the Vietnam war and Watergate. Can't recommend highly enough if you like history or politics.
The Super Rich blames the wealth inequality in first world countries on the rise of investing in the 70s. When people started creating derivative(?) equations it created the investment industry according to the documentary. This led the 1% to go from having 6% of the wealth, its lowest ever, to 90%, and climbing. The justification was that you needed wealth to create wealth because investing required risk and the only ones willing to take the risks with the overhead fees, were those who had money to begin with.
Stephen Fry The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive
Stephen Fry is a bit of a national treasure over here on British Shores. Highly intelligent and erudite, a writer, host and actor. And in this documentary (which won an Emmy for best documentary in 2007) We follow him as he tries to unravel and learn more about a mental health condition that he has suffered from for the majority of his life.
I find this journey so wonderfully well written and presented as he explains his own episodes of mania, from the peaks of his success in the media world to the lows of attempted suicide. He interviews those who suffer from this debilitating condition, their families and friends and those left behind following one of their family members suicide.
Robbie Williams, Richard Dreyfuss and Carrie Fisher (yes Luke, that one) Whom suffer from this very condition, are interviewed - and it really is eye opening to see a minuscule glimpse in to the world of a manic depressive. A fascinating documentary in all ways, and the best bit is that I found it on youtube for you lazy lot.
Third Reich: The Rise and Third Reich: The Fall are a pair of documentaries that air on the History Channel now and then. They're pretty much the best WW2 documentaries out there.
On February 15 2015 05:49 Millitron wrote: Third Reich: The Rise and Third Reich: The Fall are a pair of documentaries that air on the History Channel now and then. They're pretty much the best WW2 documentaries out there.
This VOD is along the lines of the Stanford Prison Experiment, wherein some British volunteers (some Muslim) Were put into some of the same conditions as those who were being held in Guantanamo Bay as 'enemy combatants'. It's very eye opening, and at times disturbing - not because of any graphic content - but through actually seeing some of the authorised interrogation techniques and procedures in action, and bare in mind anything that could happen in this theater would likely pale into insignificance next to actually living in such situations for real.
One volunteer was very much in favour of Guantanamo Bay prior to this, yet after, that view had done a 180. In one part a guy is stripped naked, with his hands cuffed (and if I recall correctly bound to his ankles) Forcing him into a squatting position, with loud white noise being played through headphones all whilst having a fan blowing cold air over his body. He said that after only two hours of this he thought he was seeing Disney characters. In Guantanamo Bay prisoners would endure this day after day for 6-8 hours at a time, some were there for 4 years. It must of been truly mind shattering.
Prisoners in regular jails have gone mad from just being in solitary, but this.. must of destroyed people's minds for life.
I'm very much ambivalent over this. Even after watching. Can it ever be justified?