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.

I remember that one, too. Remember someone (her mum)? saying that she just lived life a bit faster than everyone else.

This is the one that always stays in my mind.

Also one that's very topical - the distant barking of dogs. It's about a boy and his grandmother living in Donbas. The grim tedium (and tragedy) is beautifully bought to life.

There was a film I watched called We Were Children, where First Nation Canadian children were forced from
their tribes and made to go to a
Christian school to learn the “proper” values.

The children were then sexually abused whilst at this church school.

This only stopped in 1997

I watched this, Athlete A maybe? It was so grim, poor girl.

There was a docudrama about 10 or so years ago that really struck me but I cannot remember the name of it. I wonder if anyone recognises it?

I think it was on Channel 4. It was a reconstruction of a terrorist bomb plot. All of the script was taken directly from the court records, police reports and contemporary media accounts. It was shown as a recent muslim plot but was in fact a case from the 1800s/early 1900s. It was fascinating because the hatred being spewed back then from The Daily Mail against foreigners was completely believeable when quoted word for word in a modern day situation.

Oh I love documentaries.

Ones which I remember:

The Boy Who Lived Before, about a boy who lives in Scotland and claimed to remember his past life where he lived on the isle of Barra. He would talk about "my Barra mum".

Ghosts on the Underground - about various ghostly sightings and happenings on the London Underground. Brilliant, I've seen it three times.

I remember the Three Girls drama/reconstruction, that was awful.

The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off was really touching. I knew a girl with this condition, she came to our drama club when she was well enough. Sometimes she used a wheelchair. The while time I knew her, she never had any fingers. When I first saw her I was a bit afraid (being a child) and didn't understand, then once it was explained to us I was always scared to touch her in case I hurt her. But generally it was fine and we all got used to it and were careful around her, although we didn't invite her to come out with us because we didn't know what she was able to do. She died aged 17 of skin cancer, and we all went to her funeral. It strikes me now that we weren't that close; she probably didn't have very many friends outside of school and this group. Her brother shared that when they knew she was dying, he took her out to smoke next to a sunset. There is now enough knowledge to screen for this condition in the womb.

Oh it's not Athlete A, but I know which one you mean.

I'll add Athlete A to the list then.

Currently making notes on my phone!

One about chimpanzees that were being so horrible to an outcast.
I've refused to watch nature documentaries since and it's been many years.
My heart broke for the outcast.

Life in the red light district on iPlayer and the keepers and the innocent man on netflix

Blackfish. About the killer whales in captivity.

Fourteen days in May. It’s on YouTube and I recommend it to anyone. It’s quite old but basically a British human rights lawyer tries to get a man from deaths row conviction overturned in the last few weeks before the execution. The unjustness of the whole thing is maddening, even the death row guards believed he was innocent.

For Sama. A look at the Syrian conflict through a woman doctors eyes, there’s a scene in the hospital after a awful explosion of a mum cradling a toddler (who had died) begging him to wake up and she’ll make him lunch. Doctors and her husband had to drag her away in the end as the missile strikes were getting closer

Yesterday I just watched a documentary on Netflix about the three mile island nuclear account, was interesting

I was going to post this one too.
I know many people who really should watch it.

@Soubriquet that specific section of that documentary has always stuck with me too.

Oh and I forget the name, but one about Amish teenagers doing Rumspringa in the UK - that was absolutely fascinating. The way they were so shocked but curious about modern life.

Also, one where they swapped children from an elite private school to a sink state school. One bit from that that stuck with me was when one of the sink school kids was standing around chewing on the string from his hoodie, and the private school boy, without thinking, confidently pulled it out and said "Don't do that, it makes you look stupid" or something. I half expected the other boy to react with violence but he didn't.

One boy from a really chaotic household thrived so much in the private school that they offered him a scholarship as a boarder.

Night Will Fall about the liberation of the concentration camps.

Catherine: The Story of a Young Girl Who Died of Anorexia. I remember watching it as a child and it stuck with me.

The Chernobyl tapes. Heartbreaking and horrifying

Louis Theroux BBC Mother's on the Edge

Having been though severe PND and anxiety (thankfully not as bad as the mothers in the documentary), I found it very emotional to watch but also found the support given incredibly heart warming and it was great to see the mothers come out the other side.

Same here and the guy saying 'why don't you sip' and he says 'no I don't sip'

Katie Piper's story - truly inspirational.

Dreams of a life has always stuck with me.

There was one about children in an orphanage in Bulgaria and they were all so institutionalized it was horrific, this little child just wanted to be held and when he finally got a hug from one of the filmmakers it was just heartbreaking to see how he melted into them, that's all he wanted, some contact. I broke my heart crying watching that. It was on YouTube, Bulgarias Abandoned Children.

A documentary on Netflix about the attempt to have cat declawing outlawed in the US. I had no idea how horrific declawing is. The people organising to achieve this thought the Veterinarian Association in the US would get behind them. How wrong they were. Too much money in it. It has now been banned in a few states, including California I think.

Cuba and the Camera Man.
So good!

Also, another BBC 4 documentary - Arena Painted with my hair. All about US life imprisoned Donny Johnson who survived solitary confinement by making a paintbrush out of his own hair and using the food dye from M&Ms to paint with.
Absolutely fascinating and a real insight into the US prison system.

Just olacemarking so I can find this thread again easily. There are so many I want to watch