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.

The Keepers on Netflix. I was swearing at the telly, constantly. The Catholic Church knows.

I remember one called Tennis Girls, 1980s I think this was (when Sue Barker was British no 1). It was about the life of teenage girls trying to make it as tennis professionals and it portrayed a dreary, dispiriting world of dank changing rooms, constant knock-backs and injuries, and very little in the way of high quality professional support.

The Up series (7, 14, 28 etc) - they were a bit older than my eldest DB and feel almost like distant relatives. I still wonder how some of them are getting on.

On a similar note, I remember Child of Our Time, but mainly for how uncomfortable I felt with the intrusiveness and judgement it involved (largely absent from the Up series, which was much more sensitively done). When it was canned, I was a bit disappointed not to find out more about the children’s lives, but not that sorry it had finished. That kind of publicity is no good for families.

Me too!

I watched the dying rooms last night, really hard watch, but worth it.
I started Rain in my heart, I’m going to finish it today.

some great recommendations on here

@mumsnet I recommend this thread for classics

that one about Genie Wiley (the "wild child" who was shut away and tied up for 13 years. Never learned to speak.

Cathy Come Home also v harrowing especially the ending!

Over time, I’ve randomly seen Don’t Fuck With Cats pop up as a recommendation. Have just never got around to watching it. This thread reminded me, so I started tonight.

I prefer not to google things before watching, as I’ve been caught out before by spoilers. So, in my naivety, I had a vague assumption that it was going to be a documentary along the lines of things like declawing still be legal in some places.

Have now watched two episodes, saving the last one for this weekend. How wrong could I have been! The cat elements are just heartbreaking. I’ve cuddled my idiot even more tonight.

However, if you’re not a fan of cats, don’t let the title put you off. So far, this is a fascinating insight into the mind of evil. And interesting to see how social media was back then. Even that long ago, SM was horribly manipulated but also seems to have played a part in investigations.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the video that set it all off. Even though you, thankfully, can’t see it all - the idea of it is awful.

I must have been asleep back when this happened, as none of it rings any bells for me.

Just remembered a doc about a residential school for children with severe SEN in the US called Willowbrook. It was directed by Geraldo Rivera in the early 70s. The neglect and abuse of those poor children was heartbreaking.

Can people please stop mentioning Cathy Come Home. IT WASN'T A DOCUMENTARY, IT WAS A DRAMA.

So what if Cathy Come Home was a drama? It mirrored what went on at the time (and may still do..) I watched it when I was very young & have never forgotten it.

Thanks for all the ideas of what to watch - awesome!

But this is a thread about documentaries.

In complete agreement with previous recommendations especially my skin & me, stayed with me forever. Haven't seen a mention for Eyes of a Child - shocking poverty documentary from 1999 same people that made the Dying Rooms www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/09/doc-s11.html
See also 'Poor Kids' BBC and 'Growing up poor' dispatches. Not the usual poverty porn that is played out on certain channels. Also I have loved 'Born to Be Different' on C4. Fascinating and heartbreaking insight into lives of families & children with disabilities.

I just remembered another one that was truly awful as well I can't remember what it was called. But it focused on the roma children. Who were frequently removed from their families fir far less than any other child would be. No one would give the parents jobs, as a result they were unbelievably poor and as a result they had their children removed as they couldn't pay to feed them. Then the poor children ended up in care homes where the staff were pimping them out😭

I always remember to hell and back. It was about a poor woman who was abused by her dad for years. He was eventually jailed but just horrific.
Also the challenge anneka on the Romanian orphanage has never left me.

I think I have seen this recently was it a Stacey Dooley documentary?

I think so . I've seen a few of her documentaries. She also did one on the missing indigenous women that the police gave no shits about and by the time they asked for the footage it had been taped over.

She had a meeting with a social worker or someone amd it was very clear instantly about the prejudice against the roma families. If there was that meeting then it was the same one.

@PloptheBarnOwl thank you thank you thank you!

I was going to post about a documentary I saw in the 80s in college about a heroin addict but I couldn't remember the name, but I remembered her sleeping in the toilets at Piccadilly Circus. But you've found it for me and I rewatched it last night.

Yes I've seen that on YouTube. Tragic. There was also a follow up after it closed.

As well as the terrible conditions the kids lived in, while the documentary mentions the high number of children with infective hepatitis the reality not mentioned was they were deliberately infected so they could test out treatments on them.

Watching Our Father and I can’t believe the judges went to gently on him.

All those children were genetic conditions because he was so narcissistic that he believed he should father every child.

Great thread.
I'd never heard of Joyce Vincent - how awful.
Do they find out what happened to her ?

A lovely young blind woman who adopted this adorable little girl.

Her body was too badly decomposed to carry out an autopsy on, but she had asthma and shortly before she died was in hospital with a stomach complaint which I don't think they got to the bottom of.

This thread is amazing I adore documentaries !

Suffer the Children. Set in South Africa.

What's this called please
Almot finished watching dreams of a life. So far leaving more questions unanswered than answered. Fascinating though.