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.

@maddiemookins16mum I remember that! He wanted a tin of beans on the coffin just to make people wonder why. Such a hard life he had but was so loved and had such a amazing sense of humour.

.I love a good documentary . this program has always stuck with me but not so much a documentary. Remember anika rice? She did one about the Romanian orphanages . I was a kid at the time and it did actually traumatise me for many years

Young wives club? That's the one I saw around the anniversary. The stories were so sad especially from parents who weren't going to send their children in but did..

Madness in fast lane. About the twin sisters who went running around on the motorway. Got hit by cars and then one went onto kill a man think the day after she had been released.

One day in May. Story of the Bradford City fire. Heart breaking and scary seeing how it went from a small fire to the huge one in about 4 minutes?

Yes. I must have watched this 3 or 4 times. Never ever want to go back to drinking (recovering alcoholic)

I was going to say Dreams of a Life. The saddest documentary I've ever seen. How a young woman could be so alone and lie there for all that time with no one noticing. Heartbreaking.

The Imposter.
Hands down the most insane thing I've ever seen. It's about a missing American child and a French guy who claims to be him as an adult. I can't say any more and I would urge you not to Google the story because it's so absolutely nuts and with so many unexpected twists and turns it's what makes the film so amazing. It used to be on Netflix but isn't now. YouTube maybe? Honestly it's jaw dropping.

Jonestown - the BBC Storyville one.

The Imposter

Jesus Camp

The Act of Killing

Oh, snap Ursula.

The silent scream is a hoax, just for the people who remembered it and were upset by it. You can Google to read about it. The images in the film do not represent what they are said to represent. And it's no longer shown to teenagers in schools.

There is a really good mini documentary channel on YouTube called fascinating horror. Those are really well made.

@seasaltstripes I’m as pro-choice as they come, and am not remotely squeamish…but showing that to a bunch of pre-teen/teenagers in order to push an agenda is vile. I didn’t mention it to my parents, because I was already pushing the limit of their patience with my religious questioning at that time, but there were a few of my peer group’s parents who either taught at the youth Bible study or chaperoned it, and were presumably on board with the whole thing 🤯

@BertieBotts yes, I became aware a few years after seeing it that it wasn’t a true representation and was just anti-choice propaganda, designed to shock!

Definitely Dreams of a Life,
Growing up gay on bbc i player
Making a Murderer
The staircase

My Last Summer, I still sometimes think about the participants, it managed to be life affirming and heartbreaking at the same time
When They See Us: An awful, terrifying miscarriage of justice..

For non depressing documentaries I also enjoyed fantastic fungi ( it's on netflix).
Or the ponds, also on netflix, about the ponds on hampstead heath.
Both worth a watch if you feel like something a bit "lighter".

One I saw about adoption. There was a little boy whose foster family, who clearly adored him and would have done anything for him, applied to adopt him and were blocked at the last minute by his birth mother, who was a heroin addict and not capable of looking after him in any capacity. The heartbreak of the boy and the whole family was so upsetting. And then there was a family of three children who had been passed from pillar to post for years, and had finally been found an adoptive family. The youngest was telling the reporter how excited he was, and how he was going to have his own bedroom and his new mum and dad really loved him. And then there was a postscript at the end of the film saying that the adoption had broken down within six months. It’s making me cry now just thinking about it.

‘Chosen’, about three men who were abused at a public school. Harrowing.

Also, Stacey Dooley’s programme about immigration from Mexico to America. What got me was how she could travel between the two countries easily, whilst others were risking their lives for the same journey.

And also a channel 4 documentary about dogging - most bizarre documentary ever.

The most wtf documentary I ever watched was " abducted in plain sight" . It seemed to weird to be true.

The ponds is such a lovely watch. So soothing and relaxing - although I still can't believe they swim in just a normal cozzie when there's ice on the water .

Oh yes I love Fascinating Horror.

Disturban History is also great,but can be quite graphic (they also have a true crime channel which is too much for me - the crimes covered are extremely disturbing!)

The boy who’s skin fell off, it’s stayed with me since watching as a child. The pain he suffered daily was truly horrific. He had such a good sense of humour.
Queen’s song Don’t stop me now reminds me of him whenever I hear it. It was played at his funeral.
also he loved baked beans which was carved into his coffin.
The Rochdale documentary of the poor girls which was abused and not listened to.

Last Breath (Netflix) It’s about a deep sea bell diving accident

don’t fcuk with cats (Netflix) very disturbing

Best ever was one in the '90's about a Japanese man going to find Einstein's brain in America. It was just hilarious and sweet at the same time and never met anyone who remembers it.
Also - one about the lovely guy in Scotland that had Tourette's syndrome. So brave to go in tv at the time and I think it went a huge way to help people understand. He's a bit of a hero in my eyes.

I've been thinking about a documentary I saw about 20 years ago and wonder if anyone else saw it. It was about a youngish girl (maybe 19/20) who was going to America to try and make it as a porn star. She seemed so naive and innocent, and was clearly being taken advantage of. It has really stuck with me, and I've never known anyone else who saw it. I'd love to know what happened to her

I honestly can't remember the name of the documentary but it was about a young woman called Caraline (spelt just like that) with an eating disorder, she weighed around 4st I think and sadly is no longer with us. She had suffered terrible abuse as a child. I'll never forget her or how sad her story was.