Documentary Thread #2

[davertfnewman]

"I thought he was gay."

"Hey! HEY! You can pack that in as soon as you like!"

[wordsfromlee]

There's a documentary called "I Think We're Alone Now" which is a similar premise but about two "super fans" of 80s pop star Tiffany.

When I say super fan, I mean it as in "has the restraining order framed on their wall with a sense of pride" type of fan.

 

[Chili]

53 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

There's a documentary called "I Think We're Alone Now" which is a similar premise but about two "super fans" of 80s pop star Tiffany.

When I say super fan, I mean it as in "has the restraining order framed on their wall with a sense of pride" type of fan.

 

Oh yeah I remember this, somehow way more uncomfortable, I think because they're not so evidently out of their tree.

[DCW]

On 9/18/2026 at 9:59 PM, Devon Malcolm said:

I've spent the last couple of months watching all of Frederick Wiseman's documentaries. They're all available on ok.ru and I think several of them are on Mubi.

I wasn't intending to but I watched a couple, was blown away by them, so I thought I might as well. It's an incredible body of work. So varied and with the ability to make you interested in subjects you might not have cared about beforehand.

Almost impossible to pick a 'best' one, the standard is so high. Out of the 44 of them, I gave 17 of them 4.5 or 5 stars on Letterboxd, and another 21 4 stars. There's no particular jumping in point if you're interested in trying his films - maybe start with the shorter, earlier ones (Law & Order and High School are especially excellent) because his longest one (Near Death) clocks in at 6 hours. But even as a long-time long film disliker, they never felt like they outstayed their welcome.

Hard to imagine there's ever been a better or more infuential documentarian.

Cheers. I never heard of him before. I watched Welfare today and thought it was excellent. The variety of the people and the staff and how they interact was so interesting. Also amazing how much more capable people seemed to be able to converse respectfully back then for the most part, even people obviously living in desperation and on the bones of their arse.

[Devon Malcolm]

56 minutes ago, DCW said:

Cheers. I never heard of him before. I watched Welfare today and thought it was excellent. The variety of the people and the staff and how they interact was so interesting. Also amazing how much more capable people seemed to be able to converse respectfully back then for the most part, even people obviously living in desperation and on the bones of their arse.

That's one of his very best, so it's a great starting point. Public Housing might be a good follow-up to watch with this. I just watched them all in chronological order though, you do get some connecting themes across a couple of runs of films in there.