Which non-indian film u saw recently has made u post here???

[VENKIRAJA]

Enna madhiri documentaries?

Related to Architecture, Graphic Design, Photography or Filmmakers.. anything will do. Those which are very well shot, no subject in particular.

[KV]

I don't know if this can be classified under documentaries, but naa paathu maanjupOna oru padam Baraka. Visual spectacle, one of its kind experience.

[Querida]

Venkiraja nice avatar! Recently went to see "the descendents" and friend kept asking if we were seeing the "the despicables"

Anyways depressing outset from the get go...the bgm...I honestly tried to like it...usu I pride myself on embracing world music...but this just didn't do it for me...Hawaiian folk music just isn't my thing I guess...but the scenery it made me soooo homesick for M'asia....now to the movie at hand...All Eyes on Clooney (he's easy on them too ) what can i say, he carries the movie, the oldest daughter got some fire in her...a deplorable situation indeed but somehow all of it coming together in a kind of safe "let's not make this messier than it is" kind of way...some language thrown in to show the "dysfunction"...

[kid-glove]

Baraka is a great non-narrative piece of filmmaking. As is Koyaanasqatsi. On a slightly lesser pedestal, Chronos & Powaqqatsi. Aforementioned would fall in line with 'no subject in particular'. So don't curse us! And especially for you Venki, they're available in Blu-ray/HD rip formats.

The documentaries that are more than just lip-service but also concerned with form, that it's so intimately tied to the content. The ones that get the dialectic right to my eyes, Triumph of the Will. Night and Fog. Man with the movie camera. Salesman. The Sorrow and the Pity. The Hour of the Furnaces. Battle of Chile. Of Time and the City. All predominantly Black and white, save for sparse usage of color to contrast the 'present', are essential viewing. The documentaries of one Chris Marker, together with Asian filmmakers (Wang Bing, Jia Zhang-ke, Kore-eda & Kazuo to name some), the non-narrative experimental stuff of Brakhage, James Benning expand the horizon more.

The problem in suggesting these documentaries is when you're faced with 'rejetted' posts.

So to save the trouble, suggesting works of Adam Curtis like 'Power of nightmares' might be the way to go. Instructive (I say that with all humility) documentaries like Hearts and Minds, Woodstock, Century of the self, Manufacturing Consent, Manufctred Landscapes, The God Delusion, Taxi to the dark side, Exit thro' the gift shop, Iraq in fragments, War Photographer, Crumb, Capturing the Friedmans wouldn't go wrong. There are inspired photography & flourishes in some of these documentaries as well. But they are not really medium-defining IMHO. Educational documentary mini-series like Cosmos, How Art made the world, Human Body, Planet Earth, World at War, Atheism tapes are like daily fodder.

You would find only parts in youtube. The aforementioned are all available in mvgroup http://forums.mvgroup.org

Not quite sure they still allow registration. Alternatively, you could get their uploads using torrents. In fact, I'd suggest checking out most of their uploads. Part of my curriculum, until couple of years back when I switched to TV series, was to collect their latest release. They eat up your real-estate, but you could afford those GBs if you're really desperate like me to hog as much stuff as you could. Some I haven't even got around to. I look forward to, in near future. In particular the PBS works of Ferederick Wiseman (who is considered a master). One thing for sure. You're packed for life, even if the internet loses its autonomy & we, the pirates, have no seas to coast through.

Documentaries on film is a whole new genre in itself. Godard's History of Cinema, Hell on Earth (RIP Ken Russell), Heart of darkness, Burden of dreams, Pervert's guide to cinema, Chris Marker's documentary on Tarkovsky (This OTOH transcends to something else, see below), Voyage to Italy, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies. Ranging from Godard's bazin-esque historical panache to Scorsese's Popeye-esque spinach to cinema.

Couple of German filmmakers like Herzog & Wim Wenders make documentaries that fall in line thematically with their fictional films. You might want to check out their stuff if you dig their films. They've both recently made 3D documentaries ('Pina' perhaps qualifies as non-fiction). I also consider Scorsese's documentary Italianamerican & American Boy very instructive & integral to his films. Marker's docu on Tarkovsky is again integral to Tarkovsky's oeuvre & filmmaking. It's a tribute that embodies the subject of its tribute & therefore truly eulogizes (in visual terms) the art of Tarkovsky.

Sports documentaries is a HUGE (& seperate) genre as well. Youtube should have 'When we were kings', 'Wrestling with Shadows' to 'Magic of Bird', 'Mane Garrincha'. It's the recent releases that face copyright issues. You don't have Arsenal's season review videos. Or the much recent 'Senna' by Asif Kapadia, which is very good btw!

[kid-glove]

Citizen Kane. On big screen.

Still a relatively poor transfer. But the accentuated DOF of Welles-Toland makes up for it. No matter what kind of Hi-Def TV or blu-ray player you hold, it deserves to be seen in big screen.

[Bala (Karthik)]

KG
It shouldn't be -ing but still....

[groucho070]

Citizen Kane. On big screen.

Enakku kuduttvaikkala. Vonly small screen, athuvum antha kAlattula vAngguna VCD.

[KV]

KG, thanks for that truck load of recos!
btw, where did you get to see CK on big screen? Special screening edhaachu irundhucha?

venki, some kosuru: music related docus is again a vast subset. If you like (or at least can tolerate) rock/metal, check out Flight666 (Iron Maiden's) and Some kinda monster (Metallica).

[KV]

//
Pics from deivam's still photography years. I've never seen this set before, some superb captures.
http://english.mashkulture.net/2011/11/30/stanley-kubricks-photos-of-1940s-new-york/
//

[kid-glove]

FVR'la parthEn. Missed Taxi Driver (print was worst-u it seems), Goodfellas (print was okay I heard).

Music-related documentaries is a genre I haven't done much, save for 'Woodstock' (which turns out to be a portrait of the era), 'Gimme Shelter', 'Joy Division' (which turns out to be a portrait of the city!)* & educational stuff like 'The Blues' (Wenders, Eastwood, Scorsese have all contributed). 'Wild man Blues' is available in youtube, for WA fans but here he is a clarinet player.

* - in this regard a work like 'Los Angeles plays itself' is going to be influential. Thorn Anderson cares about realistic, authentic portrayal of LA in film, but even more he sets out to rectify/instruct some misrepresentations (like Chinatown, for eg.). Someone ought to make a 'Chennai plays itself' for TFI.