Documentaries

[Librarian]

I love documentaries. I spent an hour last night adding a bunch to my Netflix queue. I was hoping some of you would recommend some. Here's my top five.

Grey Gardens A must see! They recently made this into a broadway play and it is going to be a film. Little Edie has also inspired the fashion industry.

Brother Keeper OMG! It has been years since I saw this, but it is still so effective.

Saltmen of Tibet

Don't Look Back Pennebaker's documentary about Dylan

Lost Boys of Sudan


Other notable ones -

Spellbound
True Meaning of Pictures

So do you guys have any recommendations? I like doc's with a strong narrative and no a political agenda.

[hutchshottie]

The only documentaries i like are about the Titanic, even though they all say the same thing
We had one here in england that was called Beyond The Grave.
They wanted to try and identify 3 unknown people buried in Nova Scotia, using DNA (which they didn't have back then)
The most intreging was the one of the unknown child. A 1 year old that noone could identify, now they have. Its quite moving.

[Natalie]

I absolutely love parrots, and I loved the "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill". It's not anything political or anything...just a guy and wild parrots in San Francisco. I enjoyed it a lot because I adore parrots, but you all might not.

[Librarian]

Those both sound great! Thanks. Adding them to my netflix queue!

[Librarian]

I just recently saw Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light - great documentary. Highly recommend it. It is like a cross between My Dinner with Andre (especially since Andre Gregory has a lot of screen time with Avedon) and Woody Allen's Manhatten. But at the same time giving you great insight into Avedon and folks that admire / study his work.

There is just one small glimpse of Laura - the picture of her on the hay stack with Avedon standing next to her. Other Avedon assistants were interviewed though.

[texasgal]

A bit off-topic but regarding DNA analysis: I'm not a DNA expert, but it's not a question of this technology not existing in the early 20th century. It's a question of taking material from old bodies and matching/not matching them with present material.

This was the only way to expose the woman who claimed to be Anastasia as fraudulent - although she was very very good at portraying Anastasia. And this is the same technology that was used to identify some bodies found in Russia as being members of the Romanov royal family.

I hope this might help clear up some things.

[texasgal]

Librarian, I heard about a new documentary today on NPR. It is about Hurricane Katrina by Spike Lee, and it will be broadcast on HBO. The documentary was reviewed today on NPR:

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5683578

Sounds very good but, unfortunately, I don't have HBO. (Maybe I should get Dupree to move in... hee hee)

[Gage51]

I watched "Flight 157: The World Trade Center" on TLC last night. Very sad. However, it was very informative too-a lot of information was presented that I hadn't heard before.
I've seen documentaries depicting the events of that day and the experiences of firefighters (lost an old friend of mine), police and family members of the victims, but nothing like this before.
The documentary dealt with this particular flight-which hit the 2nd tower. What astounds me is that looking back, how truly naive and innocent we all were before this happened. Listening to the airport security staff, air traffic controllers, the 'flight experts' etc. There was also a great interview with the two F16 fighter pilots that were assigned to catch-up with the plane. I'd never given those pilots much thought before, but its clear when you watch them and listen to them talk, that they are still horribly haunted by the events of that day. They also had a heartwrenching interview with the elderly parents of one of the passengers. Their son was on Flight 157 with his wife and baby. The father was literally on the phone with his son when the plane crashed. It wasn't some awful hot dog reality t.v. kind of interview-it was incredibly well done. Lots of technical speak too-a bit hard for me to follow but it interested my husband greatly.
This documentary is repeating on TLC and I recommend it highly. It's not easy to watch but I think its well worth watching.


Beth
lost my High School classmate and friend Joe Spor, firefighter
died in WTC 1

[Librarian]

Oh wow, Beth! I need to see that. And I am sorry to hear about your friend. I also want to see the movie World Trade Center!

It is so true regarding our naivety. I remember flying right after 9/11. It was overwhelming seeing all the guardsmen in the terminals walking around with automatic rifles. And I remember noticing how everyone looked each other in the eye. How we all talked to one another - now we are back to ignoring each other. Trying to create some kind of personal space in the cramped world of flying.

TG, I plan on watching that tonight.

[Gage51]

librarian said:

I am sorry to hear about your friend. It is so true regarding our naivety. I remember flying right after 9/11. It was overwhelming seeing all the guardsmen in the terminals walking around with automatic rifles. And I remember noticing how everyone looked each other in the eye.

Thanks-Joe was a great guy. Like so many other victims, he left behind a family-a wife and four young children.

One thing that the documentary mentioned was how the terrorists jumped up immediately after the seatbelt sign went off. One of them was seated in first class and two more were located in the front row of economy class and the other two were located on the right hand side in the third row-also in economy class. Seatbelt sign went off-boom! They were up and charging the cockpit.

I thought that if that happened today, those men would be jumped by fellow passengers before they ever reached the cockpit door. Passengers are on guard now. Unfortunately they are looking for this kind of thing-they fear that this could happen. Passengers will not tolerate it. Even if the terrorists had guns, I truly think that enough passengers would jump them and try to stop them any way they could. Of course we also now have Air Marshals.

The other thing that stuck out for me was the fact that the cockpit door was not usually shut until right before take-off. That used to give anyone sitting in first class or the first few rows of economy class a wonderful view of the cockpit, the controls, how many pilots etc. They also mentioned how easy it was for the terrorists to kick in the cockpit door. No more! Now they have steel/bulletproof doors. Like I said, it was a very different time. So much has changed.

Beth

[texasgal]

Wow, thank you, Beth, for your comments. And I'm very sorry for your loss of your friend.

I watched "Flight 93" Saturday night when it was shown on A&E. It too has a somewhat documentary feel to it. It is quite incredible when you remember that there are no eyewitnesses to verify exactly what happened on the plane, when it happened, or what was said. The entire movie is based on conversations with air traffic controllers, the flight recorder, and phone conversations between the passengers and their loved ones on the ground.

It's chilling to think how easily any one of us could have been on one of those 4 planes.

"Flight 93" was listed as being one of Owen's favorite movies. He has good taste (but we knew that).

I recommend it too although, like Flight 157, it's emotionally wrenching.

Immediately after that, A&E broadcast a very detailed, technical program describing exactly what happened to the towers that caused them to collapse and what structural designs and materials were deficient. Interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors of the towers were included.

[texasgal]

I just watched a fascinating documentary on the History Channel about the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII. How ironic that these same men who, as children, had been brutally punished for speaking their native tongue - yet, as adult code talkers were crucial to American success in the Pacific in WWII. The Navajo code was so successful that the first corp of 29 talkers had grown to 400 by the end of the war. The talkers ranged in age from 15 - 35. When the code talkers returned home, they received no thank-you's, no citations, no nothing. The Navajo didn't even gain full voting rights until the 1950's!! Imagine.

The Navajo code is the only military battlefield code that remains unbroken to this day.

In Europe, Commanches were used as code talkers. The Choctaw language had been used as a code in WWI but, by WWII, there were no longer any Choctaw-speakers.

[Natalie]

I missed the documentary TG, I was out. Too bad, I would have liked to have seen that. The "Windtalkers" movie, with Nicolas Cage is going to be played on the History Channel now. I guess because it's about the same subject matter.

[texasgal]

Yes, I watched The Windtalkers too. It was after the Windtalkers that the documentary was broadcast. Unfortunately, the Windtalkers was a bit of a disappointment as it was more about Nicholas Cage's character than it was about the code talkers.

[Librarian]

I finally saw Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hills. It was fascinating. I had no idea there were flocks of parrots in so many cities. I thought I would feel sorry for the lost 'pets'. But they seem to be having a grand time and surving just fine. It was cool to learn that they somehow find their own species -- and then breed.

I did feel bad for the lone blue headed parrot that ran / flew with the cherry headed parrots, but no one would be his mate or groom him. #sad#

Thanks for the suggestion, Nat!