Documentaries that have stuck with you.

[LetsGoCrazyPurpleBanana]

I remember in the early 9Os watching a documentary about 2 men who were partners, living with and ultimately dying from AIDS. Found it on YouTube and watched it again at the weekend. I've not stopped thinking about them. It's called "Silverlake life,the view from here" 😭

Also another one,again early to mid 1990s called "The dying room" about China's orphanages.

One child nation - about women being taken away and forced to have abortions in China and the fact they dumped the foetuses, not years ago, fairly recent!

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez

What that poor child went through. Just a really hard watch 😢

I remember watching a documentary called 14 Days in May over 20 years ago. It was about a man on death row, counting down the last 2 weeks before his execution. He was protesting his innocence desperately and trying to get new evidence to the courts. He was executed and there was text afterwards which showed he had been innocent all along. It was so incredibly moving.

The Falling Man - about the people who jumped from the Twin Towers. I just couldn’t imagine having to make that choice.

And also Broken Harts about children being murdered by their adoptive parents.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_family_murders

Dementia and us, a two part BBC doc that was out last year. Absolutely fascinating and heartbreaking to see the decline over two years I think? 4 very different dementia sufferers, one was a young man, one was a comical old Jamaican woman.

I watched Julia Grant's story (and read the book)- very moving.
Also watched The Family- maybe a bit like early reality TV???
Man on Wire - loved it.
Murdered by my Boyfriend- harrowing, including one scene I'll never forget but wish I could 😢
Thanks to the pp for the documentary website 🙂

Another vote for 3 identical strangers

Life and Death Row on iPlayer, really unsettling.

Placemarking

Utopia by John Pilger 2013
The plight of the Aborigines.

Blackfish

Stevie. It was about a young man that had a troubled upbringing and how he went on to become a sex offender. Sad and rather bleak but very interesting

LGC/PB Apologies,
Didn't get further than Your actual post.

The Dying Rooms simply broke my heart, not sure if the naivete of the reporter camera person/crew simply made it so honest and open that you could feel their astonishment/incredulity at what they were seeing in the orphanage and actually on the streets of Chinese cities (where babies, dressed in swaddling clothes were left to perish in the gutter, by twilight, soon after birth).

Those images have never left me.

It was shown on a week night, and it affected me so much that colleagues asked me the next day if anything was wrong. I did say to those who I thought were particularly sensitive that they should think about watching any repeat(no streaming then only video recorders) with someone.

It did not contain graphic scenes as such, but the seeming normality of what was filmed was sadly breathtaking.

Out of this documentary a charity called The Dying Rooms Trust was created.
I was a member of it for a number of years, contributing by Direct Debit.
I think it may have changed its name in the late nineties early 00's ?

One Love
One World
Pb

At the Heart of Gold and Athlete A.

My daughter was a gymnast. It was all sadly far too understandably to believe how it happened (still mental abuse happening regularly - it's the awful culture of the sport)

Britains's Youngest Boarders has already been mentioned.

One has stuck with me about orphanages/institutions in the Eastern Bloc. There was a young teenage girl who had been living with her family but was put into one. She started out quite chatty, independent, wanting her own things (everything was communal, even showers and clothes) and one of the staff gave her an old handbag she carried everywhere. Later she had regressed, withdrawn, and started to rock like her peers. I think she did get out into some sheltered group housing later. I hope she did, anyway.

Terry Pratchett choosing to die. About assisted suicide.It really stuck with me it was so tragic.

The Bridge. It's about suicide jumpers. I was very hesitant to watch it. I've had loved ones die through suicide. This documentary really helped me with that.

Camp 14 - Total Control Zone. Shin Dong-Huyk was born in a North Korean re-education camp and suffered from hunger, beatings, and forced labor. He knew nothing about the world until he escaped when he was 23 and made his way to South Korea. He suffered absolute hell. His story is jaw dropping, as are his conclusions after escaping.

The one about Leah Garfitt who had Neaman Picks disease (sp?) about 10 years ago - she did her Year 6 sports day with all her friends and they went off to high school but she went off to a special school.
She ‘peaked’ around 10 years old and then deteriorated.

It was replayed a couple of years later and the last scene confirmed she had died.
I couldn’t stop crying.

I wrote her mum a card but I could only guess her address in Fleetwood so she probably never go it. I often think about Leah.

@Sodie @TidyDancer Was that the teenager with her sister on the sea front with the baby in the buggy ? It was years ago but I remember her sister just being on her own with her niece at the end.

I remember her Mum coming downstairs and just crying on the chair and no one said anything but we knew she’d died.

I wonder how they all are.

I've not read through the whole thread
..... so 8ts probably already been said....but my most memorable one is the Boy David ....think esther rantzens husband was the narrator

It wasn’t a documentary but a program on cbbc about a family that bought a zoo. It was supposed to be jolly but the mum of the family had recently died of cancer.

The voice over tried to be all cheerful and the dad showing the camera crew round the new house and zoo and showed his sad bedroom with a single bed. The girl was about 10 and just burst into tears saying she missed her mum but the voiceover kept being all jolly about the sodding zoo. I and both my primary aged kids ended up in tears.

Yes that was another one I’ve watched that has always stuck with me.

That and The Falling Man

To think what those poor people in the twin towers must’ve gone through. I cry everytime I watch them.

Thanks OP for starting the thread, and to every one else for the suggestions!

Brian's Story. About a high flying ad executive with bipolar who crashed badly. It was incredibly moving.