re: What are your top 3 favorite documentaries and why?

It's three very different ones for me:

1- The Civil War (Ken Burns) - probably the first one I saw which used the vintage photographs and reading from letters and journals. That stuck with me.

2- The Best that Never Was - For me this was the most stark and in a way the most poignant of the ESPN productions

3 - Meerkat Manor (I know this is really stretching the definition of documentary but I thought it was pretty great. If it doesn't apply, then maybe The Leopard Son).

I can't remember the name of it but there was a documentary about people that have committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge that was fascinating.

The Civil War and Baseball both by Ken Burns are excellent.

Tough choice, but I'll go with.

Brother's Keeper - Story about 2 illiterate rural brothers accused of murdering another brother.

Undefeated - A terrible urban high school footbal team is turned into winners by a volunteer coach.

We Were Here - A look at the aids epidemic in the 1980's

Honorably Mention
The House I Live In - A doc about the war on drugs in America.

The Thin Blue Line

The War Room

Dogtown and Z-Boys

Honorable Mention:

Man on Wire; Cat Dancers; Spellbound; Hoop Dreams; Murderball; Capturing the Friedmans; Crumb; Dear Zachary

quote:

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It's called "The Bridge." And yeah, it's very good.

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Well

Obvious title is obvious I suppose.

1. Iditarod documentary by Discovery.

2. Undefeated

3. Two weeks in hell.

1. Hands on a Hardbody
2. Kings of Kong
3. When we were Kings

1. The Best That Never Was





2. Cocaine Cowboys
3. Restrepo, or A Player To Be Named Later

I liked Roger & Me. But it wouldn't be in my top 3.

1. The Dust Bowl- It's amazing what you think you know about stuff.

2. Freakanomics- Was just a really neat doc and had some interesting takes on things. I had also read the book already.

3. Appalachian Trail- Nat Geo doc. Not especially touching or life changing, but my son and I watched it together and we will definitely be hiking some of it at some point.

Honorable mention to Trek Nation. Not just for Trek fans. Good father/son type of doc.

Also, Endless Summer and Endless Summer 2. Just a cool insight into the surfing world.


Not sure if it is a Doc, but WW2 in HD may be the best thing I have ever seen on the History Channel. Follows the tours of individual soldiers and is much like a Ken Burns doc. The last 15 minutes of the epic 10 part series tells you what happened to all the soldiers and it is Band of Brothers-like awesomeness.