January 10, 2012

100 documentaries in 2012

Taking a break from my baking posts...here's something I'd like to share with you. We've  been just a bit addicted to documentaries in this house for the past couple of weeks. I've always liked documentaries, but haven't really sought them out. Well, now we're on a roll.


I'm seeking, watching, and enjoying various documentaries... and not planning on stopping any time soon! You never know what you are going to learn. Sometimes documentaries leave me feeling just a bit smarter than the day before. For me, the best source for documentaries is Netflix.

Oh ya....about the 110 documentaries in 2012 thing...it was just an idea I just blurted out...we should watch 100 documentaries in 2012...my husband said...okay...and I then said...okay...and there you have it.

Here's what we've watched so far,and my own opinion of each:

#1  Ride the Divide  http://www.ridethedividemovie.com/about/
the Great Divide Route is a mountain bike route, 2700 miles along the Continental Divide from Canada to New Mexico, USA of which 90% of the route is on unpaved roads ...beautiful scenery, peaceful, extreme endurance, it held my interest til the end, I found myself caring about and routing for participants.

#2   Between the Folds  http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/between-the-folds/
absolutely stunning and mind blowing origami designs...like nothing I ever knew existed!!!... beautiful and mesmerizing art mixed with geometry....very enlightening!

#3   Cycle South  http://paracinema.net/2011/07/cycles-south-1971/
Well, what should I say about this one?! It's rather "groovy" and a little bit "far out"! Filmed in 1971, nothing is politically correct in this one. Nothing majorly insulting...just basically some free love and happiness and female stereo type nonsense. It was really quite humorous! This film was about 3 young men taking  a motorcycle trip as far south as Panama. Some things were staged and were just silly and hokey. We took a chance on this one, got a lot of laughs out of it, but....not really the kind of documentary I'm looking for. Having said that, I was entertained and found myself shaking my head and my jaw dropping open at times. Enough said. LOL! I mean, I'm not sorry I watched it...it was just....well, groovy, outdated and odd.

#4  Sweetgrass  http://sweetgrassthemovie.com/
Montana sheep herders at work, really enjoyed this, scenery was beautiful, very few words throughout film, peaceful, interesting, some foul language at times from the cowboys when they are having a tough time getting sheep to cooperate!!! other than the choice words at times...very good film, held my interest to the end...yes I would reccomend...but not for children's ears!!!

So, do you like documentaries???
Do you have any you would like to recommend???

8 comments:

  1. LOVE, love documentaries, my favorite kind of programming. One of my favorites that comes to mind that I think you might like is called "A Midwife's Tale" based on a diary kept by a midwife in the 1700s. Another is one I just saw about Dolley Madison, what a fascinating woman she was. There are some really good documentaries (including Dolley Madison) you can watch online on the PBS website, American Experience. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/1/
    Another of my favorites is called Abraham and Mary about the Lincolns. Mary was quite a trip, you'll feel so sorry for Abraham after you watch that one. I'm going to look into the ones you mentioned as well. We love NETFLIX too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, and I forgot my very favorite documentary of all time: The Donner Party. Fascinating true story about a group of pioneers on the Oregon trail. You can watch it here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/donner/

    ReplyDelete
  3. We wwatch alot of documentaries ourselves..we just got done watching...HOW BEER SAVED THE WORLD...It was quite "dumb"..LOL. U would really crack up at some of the theories!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I do like to watch documentaries. I thought Sweet Grass looks like a good one. Thanks for sharing. If i come across a good one I'll let ya know.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll have to check out some of these. After watching the best 100 documentaries special last year we've been watching a lot of documentaries too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Life in a Day (looks at people's lives all over the world over the course of one day), Taking Root (Life of an amazing woman who "greened" Kenya), Herb and Dorothy (two oddball average joe folks who collected tons of famous art work) Check out independent lens website- they are the folks that made Between the Folds, tons of interesting documentaries. I can't wait to see what else you watch!

    ReplyDelete