Tell Me What to Watch
Over the last year, Bart and I have started watching more documentaries. We usually try and watch them on Sunday evening, after Ella’s gone to bed, as a nice way to wind down the weekend.
We certainly don’t watch one every weekend, but when the stars align and we have both a chosen movie AND a free evening, it’s been something we’ve really enjoyed.
A few we’ve watched:
- Forks Over Knives
- The Hobart Shakespeareans
- Food, Inc
- The Business of Being Born
- Two Angry Moms
- Ten9Eight
- From the Earth to the Moon (a childhood favorite of mine, which is actually a docu-drama produced by Tom Hanks)
The main downside is that the poor girls I run with on Monday morning get to hear WAY more than they ever wanted to know about whatever movie we just watched the night before.
So now the question is. . . .what documentaries would YOU suggest we watch? You can see we tend to like ones about education, history, and food, but we’re happy to take titles. And then run them through the very reliable filter of “what does our library own?”
Have y'all seen The Pixar Story? Fascinating look at how they got started, the animation, etc. Very cool!
This is an older one that you may have already seen, but "Spellbound" about the National Spelling Bee is great. (Not to be confused with the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name.)
I also loved "Wordplay", which is a documentary about the world of competitive crossword puzzling.
(I am a word nerd!)
I second both these suggestions!!!
Great post! I would highly recommend a documentary called The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby. Carl Colby's father was the head of the CIA and his family lived in Italy and Vietnam in the 60's. His father was a spy for the United States and his story is fascinating. Carl Colby's mother recounts her perception of their lifestyle during those days and hearing her stories were very touching. He was an intriguing man, and not at all what I expected a high level spy to be.
Nursery University is a documentary about the crazy ridiculousness of parents obsessing over what nursery school their children get into. It's insane the lengths they go to (and the tuition they pay)! If I ever am accused of being a helicopter parent, I can point to the parents in this documentary and say "at least I'm not THAT bad." We watched this on Netflix, BTW.
I recommend Waiting for Superman (about education in the US) and The Way We Get By (a group of civilians that support the military).
If you're up for more guided documentary stuff (think PBS) I really liked "The Ascent of Money" which is basically an overview of Western financial history, and not nearly as boring as it sounds.
Along the same PBS lines, I liked "The Fabric of the Cosmos," which is a fabulously understandable introduction to physics.
Neither of these were topics that I really understood (or frankly cared to) so I was surprised that I found them so interesting. Not quite documentaries, but quite good.
How is "The Business of Being Born?" I've been curious to see it, but so far too lazy.
We love a good documentary too. Have you seen "Babies" yet? The cinematography is breathtakingly beautiful. I love how they show the vast differences between civilizations and end it by connecting us all through the common string of love between mother and child. So well done.
Also super interesting is "Food Matters" and "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead".
And (exposing my inner 6 year old) I loved "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Jouney". I am amazed at how many different ways people can be talented! Puppeteering is so fascinating .
I loved Wordplay, too!
Years ago, we saw the documentary, Endurance, which is about Ernest Shackleton and his crew who survived being shipwrecked in the south pole in the early 1900s. The film is especially good because they had a photographer on board (!!!), and the filmmakers digitally restored the pictures and used them. So the whole thing is incredibly authentic and almost real-time. I got the coffee table book for us, and it is really beautiful.
The World According to Sesame Street. Very cool look at the cultural and educational impact of Sesame Street across the world.
I also second Waiting for Superman!
We went through a documentary kick, too, and we enjoyed some of those that you listed and others commented about as well. Another education one that we liked was Waiting for Superman.
They're a hefty set, but we LOVE the PBS documentaries about the National Parks. Tyler is really into National Parks and hiking, which I enjoy, but am not CRAZY about like he is. I thought I'd find these totally boring, but I was entranced and found myself staying up long after he had fallen asleep to finish them.
We really enjoyed Buck, which is (nominally) about a horse-trainer who uses no violence in breaking horses, but is actually about relationships and forgiveness and finding peace. We found plenty of good parenting lessons.
http://www.buckthefilm.com/
You must, must, must watch Last Train Home. As well as Inside North Korea. Both were life changing for me.
I loved Babies too! I also recommend Wordplay, which is about Will Shortz, people who love or make crossword puzzlesm and a crossword puzzle tournament. It's on Hulu right now. If you want a good political thriller, Our Brand Is Crisis is fascinating. If you want something ridiculous, King of Kongs and Trekkies are both really fun.
Whoops! I just saw that someone else had already recommended Wordplay. BUT I stand by my reliable information about it being on Hulu. I found it after we watched Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, which was also pretty entertaining if you like Morgan Spurlock.
Aren't documentaries the best? Two that I've enjoyed recently are Life in Day (available on YouTube. I can't really explain it to do it justice. But it's essentially a day in the life of all the people on earth, really interesting) and 1900 House (a sort of documentary/reality TV show about a modern family that spends 3 months living in a 1900 era home in suburban London).
And I second the vote for Endurance. Shackleton is a pretty interesting fellow and played by Kenneth Branagh is pretty awesome.
I thought Being Elmo was utterly fascinating.
Between the Folds is a really cool documentary about the art and science of origami. It is available on Amazon Prime unlimited streaming. It is also available on Netflix. I used this one as a last week of school activity when I taught art a couple of years ago. We watched the movie and then learned some origami. The kids LOVED it and so do I.
I second Food Matters, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, & Being Elmo. (I haven't seen the Elmo one, but I heard it's fantastic.) I'd also suggest Hungry for Change. This is a great list! I'll have to jot down a few of these. We love documentaries, too 🙂
We watched Being Elmo last month on a Sunday with our 3 1/2 year old. We all loved it. Depending on how nerdy you guys are, you may enjoy Darkon (available on netflix as well). We thought it was entertaining to watch. I can't believe you got your husband to watch The Business of Being Born. My husband would die if I made him watch it with me.