What documentary should everybody watch?

I recently saw "Dear Zachary : A letter to his son about his father ". I stopped the documentary at one particular part and just cried. The narrators voice cracks while addressing Zach about the actions of his mother and it dawned on me the next day that was probably the best take he could get.

I couldn't believe how recently this had all happened and how grossly negligent the Canadian court system was. After crying uncontrollably this documentary also had me yelling at my TV.

Its just one of the most emotionally compelling documentaries I've ever watched and would recommend it to anyone interested in how badly custody cases can go in Canada and the U.S.

 

Talking about court systems: Have you seen The making of a murderer yet? Now that got me going and raging and shouting at my TV too. Court system? Law? Police planting evidence, making low IQ boys confess to anything they are told, deliberately hunting down a family on prejudice alone. I watched the first 5 episodes of this 10 hours documentary all in one and felt sorry I had to go to sleep.

 

HEAVY: The Story of Metal. It's for individuals who are fans and not actually fans of the genre. The Documentary film takes you back to the time Ozzy Osbourne's Black Sabbath is being formed which really hooked me up since I was a fan. It also included groups like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Motorhead. It's a huge help for people who are extremely beginning to like the genre yet don't have any thought regarding how it all began. I have watched it for 5 to 8 times since I've learned about it.

 

I think that "Alive inside" is a great documentary. It's a documentary about these men who go to nursing homes to figure of what type of music elders listened to as they were growing up. With this experiment they realized that music was important, and that it helped them to remember certain times in their life. Some of them said they didn't remember it, but as soon as their favorite songs started to play their memories growing up came back to them.

 

It's stereotypical and very cliche, but Food Inc. is one of the best documentaries I have seen in a long time. It examines how food corporations produce the products we consume each day. We must remember we are taking in the products these companies create, prepare and distribute and putting them into our bodies. These can lead to some very adverse effects.

Another great documentary is A Certain Kind of Death which can be found right at that link. It is a great documentary about people who have died without next of kin. It is about 15 years old (circa 2001) but still is a great depiction of people who die in those circumstances. Several years after I first saw it, it still sits with me and reminds me how lucky I am to have someone who will give a damn when I die.

 

Planet Earth. It is one of the greatest documentaries that I have ever seen and truly shows how amazing our world is.