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.

That stuck with me too

Trigger warning - SA/R#pe

One that has stuck with me for years and years, I’m not sure the name of, was about gay men in Russia. It showed how they were hunted down and raped with objects/forced to self-rape with objects whilst being filmed and outed to their communities. It has stuck with me all this time as being traumatic to watch and horrendous for them. 😢

A very good documentary was The President’s War Room. Not my type of thing at all but it stuck with me for being so good and so informative.

Don’t F#ck With Cats - Probably one of the wildest documentary series I’ve ever seen, and I’ve watched hundreds. Just gobsmacking.

Finally, The Girl Who Because Three Boys. Also WILD, came out years ago and it’s just…wow. I rewatched it a few weeks ago to confirm it wasn’t just a wacky dream.

Long time ago now .Mid 70s? Johnny Go Home about teenage runaways going to London.Inevitable happened and they ended up as Rentboys .Very sad and chilling .

I thought last years 9/11 only plane in the sky featuring president bush and his inner circle was utterly compelling

Mumma Courage was a radio documentary that had me absolutely gripped and moved. Jessica Pidsley suffered from post partum psychosis but recorded herself at the time (as part of the psychosis) and so the narration is interspersed by hearing her raw distress and panic. The link is below but sadly it's been taken off iPlayer, I wish it hadn't been, it was so important.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pgnjr

There is however a TedX talk where she tells her story - I strongly recommend you watch it.
www.ted.com/talks/jessica_pidsley_have_the_courage_to_birth_your_life

I can’t remember the name off the top of my head, but the recent one about the Thai cave rescue. Absolutely amazing that they all got out safely - the odds were so stacked against them, even more than I think the news showed at the time. It’s on Disney+.

Also interesting that the twin in Norway was much taller, due to fresh air and healthier food. Such a good documentary!

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez (Netflix documentary).

The story of a lovely little boy who was completely and utterly failed by social services and died after months of horrific abuse.

I cried for days afterwards and still think of him often.

Recently, the 24h in police custody about baby Teddy (11 weeks I think) who died from repeatedly being beaten by his step father. I think it was based in Cambridgeshire.

And a documentary I watched years ago in my studio at university about a woman who had to fly abroad to repatriate her sister's dead body (the sister who had died was living abroad). The sister had been murdered by the bf and dismembered and dissolved into acid tubs with the help of bf's mate. I'll always remember the bit where the living sister watches from the arrival bays as the coffin is being offloaded from the plane onto the airport tarmac. I have a sister and my god... I will never forget this. So so sad.

Yes this is on YouTube. It's so odd how the mum didn't want her daughter to board, but went along with it anyway. Awful.

This inspired Steven Wilson’s album ‘Hand. Cannot. Erase.’ a brilliant piece of work, well worth a listen if you haven’t already.

Drugs map of Britain on iplayer

also IPlayer (storyville)huntress about a young eagle hunter in mongolia

also yes to rain in my heart

louis Theroux heroin town

freeze on IPlayer about young British ice skaters trying to make the Olympic team

tina

the storyville one about Tonya Harding

death row iplayer

Orchid18
Thanks, I had read that before but I've never heard it, I'll have to give it a go.

Cruel Sea - about the Penlee lifeboat disaster in 1981. In Cornwall, it's always shared a lot on social media around the anniversary, just before Christmas. It's devastating.

I used to love Child of Our Time on BBC1.

And the other one that, unfortunately, stays with me is an anti-abortion video we were shown at my (Catholic) secondary school. Having said that, I can't remember much about it anymore, I can just call to mind being in the room and feeling horrified that they were allowed to show it to us.

Placemarking

100%.

@seasaltstripes was it “The Silent Scream”?
if so, I was also shown it in my early teens at one of the Catholic youth Bible study things I was forced to attend. I was shook.

Alexei Navalny, currently on iplayer

When my son was thinking of studying economics last year we watched a few old Evan Davis documentaries and I was struck by his interview with Boris Johnson in one called "Mind the Gap: London Versus the Rest". Let's just say his views on "Levelling Up" for the North were very different when he was Mayor of London!

The panorama documentary about the Baby P case. I watched it about 7 years ago now and it still makes me feel sad and disgusted now.

Have you read Sammy Woodhouse's book 'Just A Child'. She is a survivor of grooming and she wrote a book which describes her experience. It's honestly heartbreaking. One of the documentaries was based on her story

This! 🥺💔

Yes, this one. I also liked Stop At Nothing, the first Lance Armstrong doc. The narcissism displayed is unbelievable. It also has great stories from teammates.

My Octopus Teacher on Netflix
Tell Me Who I Am
Don't F* with cats
Storyville (I think) documentary about Pablo Escobar's son

@Ringmaster27 Yes, I think that was it! (Though not prepared to google it - would not want my teenagers anywhere near it.) What were they thinking??