Documentary Thread #2

[DEF 774]

The Vow - NowTV

9 part documentary about the Nxivm sex cult that Alison Mack was in. Utterly mental. It goes into detail of what happened and how Nxivm used self help to create a horrific pyramid of abuse. It has crazy amount of footage from the actual place because Keith Raniere (the cults master) had his people document absolutely everything. It's really interesting but it's way way too long. If you are interested I would skip eps 6 and 7 as it really rehashs a lot of stuff.

Seduced: Inside The Nxivm Sex Cult - StarsPlay/Amazon

This one started the week after The Vow finished but is from the perspective of one of the indoctrinated slaves. Much more palatable 4 episodes in length and I think because of that it's the better of the two. Having said that I'd recommend watching The Vow first. 

Both are fascinating and you won't get the full picture watching one or the other. Some of the stuff this guy says in front of hundreds of people cheering him is absolutely unfathomable. 

[Chest Rockwell 7,273]

Cool Fela Kuti documentary on BBC2 this evening.

[Keith Houchen 16,679]

16 hours ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Cool Fela Kuti documentary on BBC2 this evening.

Nice, will iplayer that!

HERZOG! You have to read this in his voice. 

 

[Hannibal Scorch 2,901]

Oooo. I like the album* so I’ll give this a watch

*my daughter likes it and I’ve heard a lot of it being played in her room

[Keith Houchen 16,679]

There is no shame in admitting you like it. It’s album of the year. 

[Hannibal Scorch 2,901]

2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

There is no shame in admitting you like it. It’s album of the year. 

It's not a shameful thing. I listen to some right embarrassing dross, so this is a step up. I didn't really bother listening to Swift in that typical "I'm too old for this" fashion. But we've had it on in the car a couple of times, and she'll listen to it on her Amazon Echo. Once she got it I read up on the making of it and was amazed she did it in the way she did, hence being excited for this making of/concert.

Is the Netflix documentary good, and is it kid friendly? 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Hannibal Scorch

[SuperBacon 7,501]

This is so fucking good. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000nwrq/storyville-pepe-the-frog-feels-good-man

Matt Furie seems like a good soul, and the story of how Pepe was hijacked and 4chan and all that, is wild.

Storyville always has great documentaries under its banner and this is no exception. Just seen The Two Escobars is on there as well, and everyone should watch that.

2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

There is no shame in admitting you like it. It’s album of the year. 

Album of any year. It's a cracker. Shame it bought out the creepy boring Bon Iver type fans to 'Actually-she's-quite-good-isn't-she' in that faux snarky passive aggressive manner, but that's not her fault. Or his I suppose.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE 348]

Finally got round to watching the Everton documentary Howard's Way as I'd recorded it off Sky on Sunday, fantastic bit of work about the club's golden period in the mid 80s and highly recommended to any football fan. There were a few laughs hearing some of the stories from behind the scenes during that time and archived footage of Freddie Starr waking the squad up to entertain them in the hotel courtyard on the morning of the 1984 final. Hits you with a proper gut punch at the end though talking about the day Howard Kendall passed away in 2015 and showing footage from his funeral

[BigJag 361]

This goes live on Vimeo and other sites today. I think a VPN will be required if your watching from outside the UK.

[Magnum Milano 852]

The Mystery of D.B. Cooper (2020, HBO)

For anyone unaware, D.B. Cooper was the name of a man who hijacked a commercial Boeing 727 flight back in 1971, demanded a $200,000 ransom and then parachuted from the plane never to be seen again.  It remains the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history.  The documentary details the events of the hijacking interspersed with interviews from family members and friends of people who believe they know who Cooper was (concentrating on four specific suspects).  There are no ground breaking developments here, we don't get a definitive answer of who Cooper was but it's a decent watch of a fascinating story, one that has gripped folk in the US for nigh on fifty years.  FWIW, Richard McCoy is my prime suspect.

[SuperBacon 7,501]

5 minutes ago, Magnum Milano said:

The Mystery of D.B. Cooper (2020, HBO)

For anyone unaware, D.B. Cooper was the name of a man who hijacked a commercial Boeing 727 flight back in 1971, demanded a $200,000 ransom and then parachuted from the plane never to be seen again.  It remains the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history.  The documentary details the events of the hijacking interspersed with interviews from family members and friends of people who believe they know who Cooper was (concentrating on four specific suspects).  There are no ground breaking developments here, we don't get a definitive answer of who Cooper was but it's a decent watch of a fascinating story, one that has gripped folk in the US for nigh on fifty years.  FWIW, Richard McCoy is my prime suspect.

Also on iplayer. 

[Devon Malcolm 13,224]

The Ripper (Netflix)

I've become tired of Netflix's crime docs but this was less flashy and making less of an effort to ape The Imposter than their usual stuff. Focuses a lot more on how awful the police were during the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe and that any of them chose to take part in this shows some nerve. Really well put together and a bit more sensitive than I was expecting.

[ElCece 655]

52 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

The Ripper (Netflix)

I've become tired of Netflix's crime docs but this was less flashy and making less of an effort to ape The Imposter than their usual stuff. Focuses a lot more on how awful the police were during the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe and that any of them chose to take part in this shows some nerve. Really well put together and a bit more sensitive than I was expecting.

I was surprised at how unaware of their incompetence they were. Saying that it was better than expected, it was alarming the tone and way they talked about the "prostitues".

Edited December 19, 2020 by ElCece

[Chris B 4,031]

If you haven't seen the Sutcliffe documentary on iPlayer, it's superb. The focus on women and police incompetence is really well done.

[Astro Hollywood 3,351]

16 minutes ago, Chris B said:

If you haven't seen the Sutcliffe documentary on iPlayer, it's superb. The focus on women and police incompetence is really well done.

Echoing this, it's fantastic. The Netflix one (obviously I guess) covers the same ground and mostly the same interviewees, mostly leaving big Pete out of it like the BBC did, to the point I even checked to see if it was a retitled re-edit. But where Netflix's really falls down is the unnecessary zooming and cropping of all that gorgeously grim period footage. The BBC version, leaving it all in its native 4:3, has some of the best and most evocative 70's local news footage I've ever seen, which Netflix ruins by artificially letterboxing to the point you can only see about a third of it.