What is your favorite documentary film?
There are so many, and most of them are foreign language documentaries. There's an African one about a former Warlord in either Liberia or Sierra Leone. It's called The Redemption of General Butt Naked. It's a fascinating tale of a former brutal man, in charge of an army of machete wielding AK47 carrying child soldiers. General Butt Naked got his sobriquet from going into battle high on drugs, and completely stark bollock naked apart from an AK47 and a large panga. ( note to readers, that's not his penis, but a large West African machete), anyway, after years and years of hideous slaughter, he found Christ, became a wandering Preacher and went from being a monstrous tyrannical evil bastard, to a humble man of God, totally transformed and desperate to make amends.Another fantastic documentary is the Brazillian “Dance With The Devil”, this film is a kind of three way telling of life in one of Rio de Janeiro’s slums. The protagonists are several members of a Favela drug gang, most notably the gang’s number two, Spiderman, and his Boss, Tola. There's also a former gangster turned Evangelist/Pastor in the Favela, and several members of a militarised Police Unit. It's a genuinely eye opening film, and it showed me that rarely is anything black and white, in real life, most things are various shades of grey.Finally, there's an American documentary by the Maysles brothers. It's called Grey Gardens, and is about the lives of a mother and daughter who've fallen on hard times. They're Little Edie and her mother, Big Edie Bouvier Beale, cousins of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. At the time of filming, they'd been living in a delapidated mansion in the Hamptons as recluses for decades. The house was falling down, the roof was leaking, the mother and daughter rarely had any visitors; they just lived there, in a kind of threadbare isolation, with dozens of cats. It's a fascinating story, very well told. The two women are, as you can imagine, incredibly eccentric; but they've also got a great sense of humour, and in truth, they're pretty loveable.So there you have it, three documentaries, two of them available for free on YouTube, and all worth watching.
What is your favourite documentary on India?
Partition: The Day India BurnedDocumentary about the effects of Britain's withdrawal from India in 1947 which triggered one of the biggest migrations in history. 15 million were displaced and more than a million lost their lives. The story is told through the testimony of people who lived together for centuries, but were forced out of their homes as one of the largest and most ethnically diverse nations in the world was divided. Dramatised reconstructions evoke some of the mistrust, violence and upheaval that ensued.Source: IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities
What is your favourite documentary at the moment?
Breakthrough, about the Texas doctor who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine most recently and found a cure for malignant melanoma. His biggest hurdle was getting the big drug companies to test it so it could be marketed and approved. He moved about 4 times to try to help push through the cure, which was very impressive (Many testimonials from people cured). I saw it at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March. It should be on some streaming service soon.
Why is your favourite type of documentary?
nature, animals....they tend to be freer of marketing, speculation, and suggestions for how to think (though not completely free)
What is your favourite program/documentary about space?
It definitely has to be Cosmos by Carl Sagan. It’s in simple language and has the trademark music which will get you hooked, from the beginning.Other notable documentaries are (ones that I’ve seen) :Wonders of the Universe : Brian Cox.The Fabric of Cosmos : Brian Greene.Cosmos(new) : Niel deGrasse Tyson.The Universe : Television Series.A lot of other good documentaries are available on YouTube as well.Cheers.
Who is your favourite documentary presenter?
me. obvs. :D
What is your favorite UFO documentary of the 1990s?
Of the 1990's? hmmmm, I don't see too much from the 90's. Our good old government has pretty much tried to squelch any new information. I became interested in 1972 when Erik von Daniken came out with his book "Chariots of the Gods." It opened a whole new world of thinking for me. All the things I didn't believe began to take on new meaning and made so much more sense to me. It was then easier for me to understand the magnificence of God/Yahweh, rather than the cut-and-dry version the Bible contains. There's always more than meets the eye.
What are your favourite business documentaries?
Thanks for the compliment of the A2A.I like to use these questions to point out overlooked examples out of the mainstream, ones below the “Peroni line” of 6000 votes on IMDb. That gives me 2 recommendations:American Dream (1990). Outstanding movie about a labor strike in Minnesota in 1985. As Roger Ebert put it:The people in this film are so real they make most movie characters look like inhabitants of the funny page. …A nobility creeps onto the scene, as people make enormous financial and personal sacrifices simply for what they believe is morally right. Our hearts are torn, because on the basis of this film we are not sure they have chosen the wisest path.Big Men (2013). Documentary about the machinations around who gets to drill in a newly discovered oil field in Ghana. Again quoting RogerEbert.com:In interview after interview, we hear people ponder how self interest relates to the greater good. Is brutal self interest at the expense of others an inherent part of human nature? Is there a way to harness self interest for the greater good? What makes people act against their own self interest? As the documentary closes, the rich have gotten richer and the fate of the poor of Ghana remains an unanswered question. But it's those bigger questions about our nature and our capacity to think beyond self interest that will stick with you.