Ben and I love documentaries. We watch all sorts--political, prison, gangs, and drug usage.
Last night we chose to watch Bigger, Stronger, Faster. It is advertised as a documentary about anabolic steroid usage in sports, but delves deeper by exploring the competiveness of American society. Chris Bell talks about the use of drugs in practically every performance imaginable: music, porn, modeling, and even the military. I went in with a pretty strong bias against using performance enhancing drugs, and came back with a fresh look at how the media have instilled this bias within us, when it comes to sports. Oh, and that our government sanctions it in certain situations. Like war and the Olympics. A very provocative documentary, the type of film I enjoy.
If you are looking for other documentaries, here are a few I really enjoyed. I do recommend you watch these films with an open mind. You never know what you will learn.
Expelled (A definite bias; however, I appreciated how they talked about how creationism and intelligent design have become culturally prohibited from the arena of academic pursuit. In fact, mere public mention of these ideas by scientists can get them fired and/or blacklisted from other prestigious universities.)
With God on Our Side - George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right in America (I appreciated this unbiased view of what made Pres. Bush tick. An excellent film that doesn't demonize or glorify our former president; instead, the producers provide us with his history and let us determine how it changes our opinions of him.)
I.O.U.S.A. (Finally, a documentary that looks at the national debt from neutral ground. As Ben said, "It's life changing." I agree.)
Any documentaries you'd recommend? Ben and I are pretty open.
9 hours ago
You're the second person to recommend IOUSA to me this week. I'm actually pretty excited to see it.
ReplyDeleteFood Inc.
ReplyDeleteWatch it - and your life will be forever altered.
I'm still coming to terms with what I saw!
I just watched one on Netflix the other day, but of course it included photography. It was a documentary on the life of the National Geographic photographers. It was absolutely amazing, and believe it or not made me grateful for my day job. Weird, I know. :)
ReplyDeleteThe Devil's Playground is interesting. It's about the Amish tradition of Rumspringa, where they allow 16 year-olds to go out into the world, and they decide if they want to continue to live that lifestyle, or come back.
ReplyDeleteHmmm....I don't usually watch documentaries. I can't think of one except for Michael Moore's...I like those! ;)
ReplyDeleteI like documentaries too - the last one I watched was 'The Yes Men Fix The World'. I watched it from a stream that someone linked me, and they have made it available on Creative Commons, so it was even legal! Really opened my eyes to a few things, without being patronising and hypocritical like Micheal Moore's stuff (sorry @Tiffany, I can't stand the guy!).
ReplyDeleteWe enjoy documentaries also.
ReplyDeleteI second Food, Inc. It is life altering. Also King Corn. Watch King Corn first, as it provides a little background knowledge for Food, Inc.
Love to get documentary film recommendations! I like fun ones: King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is one of my favorites, along with Wordplay (the crossword puzzle doc with Will Shortz, etc.). I loved Winged Migration, too, though be warned if you haven't seen it that it really is all about birds.
ReplyDeleteFood Inc and Supersize Me are both quite interesting. I love documentary recommendations. The one about the steroid use and competitiveness sounds like something I will be checking out.
ReplyDelete