What’s the most interesting documentary you’ve ever watched?

Bretrick

Bretrick

Well-known Member
Location
Perth Western Australia
I have several I found to be really educational
-The Ascent of Man. Presented by J Brownowski, 13 Episodes, over 11 hours. 1973
-Civilisation. Presented by Lord Kenneth Clark, 13 Episodes, almost 11 hours 1969
-The Ascent of Money. A Financial history of the world. 6 episodes, 2009
 

I'm on an ancient kick lately and recently watched A History of Ancient Britain and Orkney: Britain's First Capital, both were very compelling. My all time favorite though was an episode of Nova about building a trebuchet and I think I watched it dozens of times. Another one I watched that I didn't realize I'd be engrossed in was The Story of One by Terry "Monty Python" Jones.

The Story of One | Impossible Pictures
 

Way too many of them to recall their titles. I like documentaries, about many things. Two that are easy for me to remember are:

Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb. Covers a recent dig, and quite orthodox, standard archaeological consideration, of an Egyptian tomb. Tomb dates to pretty much the same era as the famous Tutankhamun tomb. (Watched this on PBS or Netflix, forget which.)

Builders of the Ancient Mysteries
Watch BAM Builders of the Ancient Mysteries | Prime Video
I liked it for the stunning cinematography of astonishing ancient structures in various parts of the world... I don't think anything like "aliens" was mentioned, and I don't subscribe to iffy theories — the images and commentary are valid in themselves. The doc may also be available streaming online, which is how I saw it.
 
Most of us have been watching television documentaries all our lives with little ability to recall any but those of most recent years. PBS has always produced many. Thus a too broadly posed question. That noted, I was particularly awed watching the PBS NOVA March 2011 documentary of the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami just 2 weeks after the quake since the Japanese were able to provide such amazing videos. Way way more impressive and realistic than any Earth disaster movie.

 
Later yesterday went on youtube and searched with "japan 2011 tsunami". Although I watched a few documentaries right after that earthquake, I never went back to watch any more. Apparently many more in following years have since been added especially from ordinary Japanese citizens that watched their cities become demolished after escaping, with some absolutely incredible.

Although the 9.1 quake struck at 2:46pm JST the tsunamis didn't strike until 10 minutes to an hour later before which time cities all had loud sirens blaring. Despite that, some just continued to go about their business so when the sea rushed in, many were caught walking about and trying to escape in vehicles stuck in traffic apparently thinking water would only reach near shore areas because most of those cities had seawalls. However the seawalls were not meant for so large an earthquake.

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami - Wikipedia

The official figures released in 2021 reported 19,759 deaths, 6,242 injured,and 2,553 people missing. The leading causes of death were drowning (90.64% or 14,308 bodies), burning (0.9% or 145 bodies) and others (4.2% or 667 bodies, mostly crushed by heavy objects)...

The degree and extent of damage caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunami were enormous, with most of the damage being caused by the tsunami. Video footage of the towns that were worst affected shows little more than piles of rubble, with almost no parts of any structures left standing... A report by the National Police Agency of Japan on 10 September 2018 listed 121,778 buildings as "total collapsed", with a further 280,926 buildings "half collapsed", and another 699,180 buildings "partially damaged".


This particularly fascinating 25:48 minute video showing how some areas did not experience just a few giant waves but rather a set of rising turbulent black seawater surges with increasing amounts of amazing debris including many floating building and vehicles. The main river channel first shows water draining away oddly leaving bare muddy ground. Although sirens were blaring, some amused people initially just watched confident they were safe behind seawalls as a first minor wave up the river appeared minor, pushing small docked boats into each other.

But seawater levels kept growing with more surges because the earthquake caused the actual seabed many miles offshore to tilt up causing the ocean to flow into land areas that the earthquake tilted down. Finally the video person climbed up stairs with others at a large multistory building where they were increasingly in utter awe. Later the surge slows and then begins reversing flowing back out. At the end, massive fires broke out at distant petrochemical plants where burning oil spread atop seawater.
 
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Bretrick said:
I have several I found to be really educational
-The Ascent of Man. Presented by J Brownowski, 13 Episodes, over 11 hours. 1973
-Civilisation. Presented by Lord Kenneth Clark, 13 Episodes, almost 11 hours 1969
-The Ascent of Money. A Financial history of the world. 6 episodes, 2009
Click to expand...
 
My two favorites are "The Life and Times of Harvey Milk" and "The Thin Blue Line". I like politics and the extensive archival footage in "Milk" is extraordinary; the footage of Dianne Feinstein as a City Supervisor announcing Mayor Moscone's murder (and Milk's) is riveting. "The Thin Blue Line" actually resulted in an innocent man (Randall Adams) being released from prison where he was on Death Row.
 

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