APT: Best Documentary Films

[BoSoxGal]

I'm a huge fan of documentary film. I've seen many, but always looking for new ones to view. Please share some of the best you've seen.

I'll share one I've just finished watching:

Silverlake Life: The View From Here

Documents the love and life shared by Tom Joslin & Mark Massi, lovers of 22 years who both suffered from & died of AIDS.

Gutwrenching, heartbreaking, beautiful.

[Lord Jim]

The Military Channel has been running a British made documentary series focusing on Nazi collaborators the past few weeks; a number of whom I was familiar with and some I was not...(I've found the segments on French Premier Pierre Laval, and "Operation Green" focusing on IRA members who collaborated with the Nazis, to be particularly well done.)

I highly recommend the series for anyone interested in that period of history. (I believe it was put together by the same production company that produced "Hitler's Bodyguard", another excellent documentary series.)

[BoSoxGal]

What is it called? I don't have cable, so I'll have to see if it's available on Netflix.

[Scooter]

It's called Nazi Collaborators. It was quite interesting, a side of the war you don't often hear about.

I like David Starkey's documentaries on British history, particularly Monarchy by David Starkey and The Six Wives of Henry VIII. He has a way about him that makes history very accessible and entertaining.

[Lord Jim]

The series is just called "Nazi Collaborators" BSG....

Here's a link to an episode guide:

http://www.tvnow.ie/episodeguide.asp?ti ... laborators&

[loCAtek]

I enjoy documentaries of all kinds.

Travel: Hands down one of the best/funnest- Palin's Travels

Yes, this is THE Micheal Palin, famed Monty Python trooper; who's made an extended, second career to travel the world a few times over. ...and he seems to know what he's doing; you'd think he'd been to these places before. Always gamely marching off the beaten track; he's not stopped by bad weather, nasty beasts nor bomb threats, ...and who else but Palin will take a moment to admire native plumbing facilities?

Ever undaunted, one of his hardest to film was Himalaya, as the 'interesting bits' were all going through a touch of war:

Himalaya was not just about high mountains but high anxiety as well as we visited some of the political flashpoints of southern and central Asia. The Pakistani border, the disputed region of Kashmir, Tibet and Nagaland were all tense at times, but, ironically, the nearest we came to a dangerous confrontation was in tourist-friendly Nepal, where Maoist insurgents abducted our Ghurkha officers during filming.

Somehow he manages to make that all sound like so much fun!

I think it was in Afghanistan he wanted to stop and witness the Annual Royal Polo match, and Bull Races. This was not long after the WTC bombing which the locals obviously thought that, that was what a film crew was there to talk about. Not Palin, he wanted to talk- horses and equestrianship. His genuine interest, and complete disregard for the hostilities, soon had him sitting in the 'Lord's Box' watching the following Bull Contests ...when a rampaging bull knocked it over, he took that as just another enriching experience.

[dales]

While not the "best" documentary film, I believe the subject matter it dealt with is as relevent today as in 1946 when it was produced. This film was originally banned until the 1970's. I had a chance to view it in film school.

United States Army

Let There Be Light
AVA04168VNB! - PMF 5019 - 1946

About 20% of all battle casualties in the American Army during World War II were of a neuropsychiatric nature.

The special treatment methods shown in this film, such as hypnosis and narcosynthesis, have been particularly successful in acute cases, such as battle neurosis. Equal success is not to be expected when dealing with peacetime neuroses which are usually of a chronic nature.

No scenes were staged. The cameras merely recorded what took place in an Army Hospital.

http://www.archive.org/details/gov.ntis.ava04168vnb1

If you're a WW2 obsessed neurotic, such as myself; I highly recommend veiwing from the URL site.