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 googled some of these and found this site:

documentaryheaven.com/

I know what I'll be doing for the rest of the day - thanks OP!

Just remembered Don’t Fuck With Cats as well. Fascinating

Great thread! I am busy compiling a list, thank you 😁

Another one for "Fourteen Days in May". I watched it as a teenager, and if ever there were an irrefutable argument against the death penalty - not just moral, but legal - this would be it.

When they see us - drama depicting the real life story of The Central Park 5. Will never forget it

@qazxc
“Tell me who I am” is a good one.

I met their mum a few times as a teenager and it’s my permanent reminder that charming delightful people can sometimes be total monsters underneath.

A Lion in the House. Which i see is mentioned above.

An old BBC one about 22 years ago about children living in poverty in the UK.

Another one swansea love story.

Torn ! It’s about a climber who lost his life and the consequences on his wife and sons.

The Mummy diaries following the lives of a group of terminally ill Mums and their families. My own DC were only young at the time and I absolutely sobbed my eyes out. I remember one of the women with very young DC saying how she wanted them to know she would never have chosen this, that she would never ever leave them if she had a choice. Christ it was a hard watch.

Beautiful Young Minds a documentary about these maths whizzkids entering the Maths Olympiad. Some have ASD - we were awaiting a diagnosis for my son when we saw this.

I remember one from my teenage years QED I think, where a woman called Susie had caught AIDS and was dying. Heartbreaking, I remember my dad having to comfort me cos I couldn't stop crying.

Three Girls also traumatic and sickening but needs to be seen.

Another one for the doc about the Chinese twins. Also Storyville are great with their docs. Staircase one definitely

I can’t remember the name of it but it was about a non verbal teenager who was killed by his so called friends,broke my heart

Oh, also the Chris Packham one on his Aspergers.

I saw that last year, it's excellent, but awful too.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

Its very very sad and a hard watch

HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis - on iPlayer - taught me a lot of info on the world that I'd missed

A brilliant documentary about war correspondents. I think I saw it in the mid noughties and haven’t been able to track it down since - doesn’t help that I don’t know what it’s called. It featured Jeremy Bowen, Christiane Amanpour and a number of others.

Touching the Void - about the absolutely incredible survival of an injured mountain climber in the Peruvian Andes. The book is very good too.

Last Breath
Agree with lots of documentaries above...but this one still blows my mind. I grapple with the enormity of the guys situation. Maybe cos I'm not a water baby.... but omfg... 🤯

Three Identical Strangers

I was coming to say Touching the Void! I think I just sat still with my mouth open for two hours. It was mesmerising.

was coming to say Touching the Void Haha, I know Joe!

@HangingOver I hope he is just as amazing in real life. How he managed to survive is just beyond my imagination!

State of Mind about the mass games in North Korea stayed with me. It's brilliant. I've watched it a few times.

I'll be me, a documentary about the last tour Glen Campbell did (I'd never heard of him and have negative interest in country western music), after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The song at the end, "I'm not gonna miss you" makes me cry every time.

I see it's been mentioned a couple of times already but Three Identical Strangers is fascinating and disturbing.

Don't Fuck with Cats was one scene after another of WTFuckery.

There is a documentary film called The Flat.

The film opens as the director and members of his family are gathered in the apartment of his mother's mother, Gerda Tuchler, a short while after her death, to clear out the contents. His grandmother lived in the same apartment for 70 years, ever since she and her husband, Kurt, left Nazi Germany in the 1930s and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine.

As he goes through her belongings he uncovers some astonishing secrets about her friendship with a high ranking Nazi official. I found it all incredibly moving.