Remember: no warez

As the title says, this is a thread for recommending documentaries. I'll start us off with a couple.

Title: The Birth of Empire: The East India Company
Broadcaster: BBC
Air date: 2014
Genre: History
Number of episodes: 2
Summary: Two-part documentary that goes around India tracing the history of the East India Company from formation to the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It doesn't go too deep into anything but it's a nice overview.
Official link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b042w0xt
Worth Googling: No

Title: The World At War
Broadcaster: ITV
Air date: 1973
Genre: History
Number of episodes: 26
Summary: Probably the greatest documentary series of all time, covering the Second World War, with a large amount of primary video footage and interviews with significant figures involved in the war.
Official link: N/A
Worth Googling: Yes

 

Title: Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Air date: 2011
Genre: Culinary?
Running time: 81 minutes
Number of episodes: 1
Summary: It's about the quest of a man, Jiro, in perfecting the art of sushi.I recommend it even if you aren't particularly interested in sushi or the creation of food; it's more about the lifelong battle of improvement, of striving towards an unattainable goal.
Link: It's on Netflix.

 

I quite enjoyed this one, although I haven't watched it for some years.

Title: Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
Broadcaster: BBC
Air Date: 2003
Number of Episodes: 7
Summary: A documentary examining feats of engineering that have occurred since the Industrial Revolution.
Link
Worth Googling: What the fuck does this even mean? I'm reccing it, aren't I?

 

Title: Ken Burns' Baseball
Broadcaster: PBS
Air Date: 1994
Number of Episodes: 9, each about 2 hours long
Summary: An incredibly in depth look at the history of baseball from the formation of the American League and its merger with the National League in 1902 all the way to the end of the 1993 season -it's chock full of anecdotes and classic footage and it's just so great.
Link
Worth Googling: Oh god yes. It's my pick as the best documentary of all time.

 

I will recommend some "indie" documentaries. These are human experience documentaries and not your typical "Here are some facts about topic X" type documentaries.

Title: The Act of Killing
Air Date: 2012
Availability: Netflix DVD
Summary: The film focuses on the perpetrators of the Indonesian killings of 1965-66 in the present day. Specifically, the film interviews and follows Anwar, a leader of a death squad in North Sumatra, as he recounts his experiences killing, and reenacts scenes depicting their memories and feelings about the killings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Act_of_Killing

Title: The Look of Silence
Air Date: 2014
Availability: Netflix DVD
Summary: Companion piece to "The Act of Killing"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Look_of_Silence

Title: Meru
Air Date: 2015
Availability: Amazon Prime
Meru chronicles the first ascent of the "Shark's Fin" route on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas. A group of climbers attempt the feat and fail, almost dying in the process, and one is badly wounded in a subsequent avalanche accident. But digging into all corners of their emotional and spiritual reserves, the trio attempts to brave the mountainside one last time. This film has stunning visuals and a fabulous narrative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meru_(film)

Title: Tim's Vermeer
Air Date: 2013
Summary: Tim's Vermeer is a film about inventor Tim Jenison's efforts to duplicate the painting techniques of Johannes Vermeer, in order to test his theory that Vermeer painted with the help of optical devices.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim's_Vermeer

 

The Take (2004) directed by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis
Availability: Pretty much DVD only although it's on Youtube
Summary: It's a documentary about the co-operative movement in Argentina that followed the financial crises of the early 2000's. After declaring bankruptcy, the owners of a car parts factory start selling assets illegally which prompts the workers to occupy the factory in order to hopefully save their jobs and then they start to go through the process of attempting to legally run the factory as a co-operative. It's an excellent look at a movement that fascinates me but might not be everyone's thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Take_(2004_film)

Call me Kuchu (2012) directed by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright
Availability: DVD
Summary: Follows the activities of Uganda's first openly homosexual man, David Kato and several other lgbt activists. It's really hard hitting, the activist group he organised in Uganda had to and still has to put up with some awful stuff and to me it's extremely inspiring to see their perseverance. One of the best films I've watched, honestly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_Me_Kuchu

 

Title: Objectified
Air date: 2009
Summary: Basically a documentary on the role design plays in our day to day lives even without us knowing it. Don't just think pretty art, but things like a well designed chair to the iPhone. Features quite a few famous industrial designers, Dietar Rams, Jon Ivy etc.
Official link: http://www.hustwit.com/category/objectified/

 

Title: Walking with Monsters: Life Before Dinosaurs
Air date: 2005
Genre: Historical, I guess or science
Running time: 90/127 min
Number of episodes: 3
Summary: It's about the animals before dinosaurs came along, it explores evolution a bit too.
Official Description
This Emmy-winning program takes you 500 million years back in time, when gargantuan fish, reptiles and sea scorpions ruled the earth.
Link: It's on Netflix.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xknl8f_bbc-walking-with-monsters-1-of-3_tech

Was actually pretty interesting for a documentary.
Worth Googling: Found out it won an emmy, also apparently the correct genre is Documentary.

 

Title: Spy in the Wild
Air Date: 2017
Genre: Nature
Running Time: 5 hours
Number of Episodes: 5
Summary: A film crew uses animatronic animals to get close up footage of various creatures in their natural habitat. These include the now famous scene where an orangutan uses a saw and a troop of Langur monkeys mourn the robot when they think it has died. Narrated, of course, by David Attenborough.
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088t67m/episodes/player

 

Perhaps not what you were looking for as it was released in the manner of a feature film.
I have little to no interest in Formula 1 but was engrossed by Senna:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424432/
"A documentary on Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the F1 world championship three times before his death at age 34."

 

Watch Inside Obama's White House.

The part on the economy (Episode 1) is well worth watching for anyone who thinks Obama didn't achieve anything - it's so easy now, to forget how the economy was going off a cliff in 2008/9 as it shed like half a million jobs a month, and we were all shitting our pants at the thought a 2nd Great Depression.

The part on Obamacare (Episode 2), meanwhile, is worth watching for supporters of the President who nonetheless think the public option or even single payer were achievable. They really weren't, given Republican intransigence over their own plan (Heritage/Romneycare), along with the political leanings/insurance industry connections of some of the democratic coalition (chief amongst them: Lieberman).