Recommended Documentaries

Recommended Docs

  • Public

This is a topic where you can say which documentary has really impressed you, and why people should see it. Can be a recent one or an all-time favourite. Can't be your own though, sorry...

Praise the work of others, not your own. If you want to beat the drum for your own documentary, please don't do it here. Professionals have their own Shameless Self-Promotion topic.

We also have a Documentary Films topic for our Professionals where the debate is private and possibly more controversial. This topic here is for recommendations to the documentary-interested public.

Summers Henderson

Nice moment at 5:13, the first instance of the "Ken Burns effect," it's a near-seamless dissolve from a live footage tilt-and-pan to a tilt-and-pan across a still.

Another nice KBE at 12:49, with a tilt-and-pan across the photo, before cutting to a wide shot of the full photo.

Matt Dubuque

I agree Summers, it was a revelation to stumble across this pioneering film, which still has some of the finest examples of the technique I have seen. A real master class.

Those are two great exemplars you mentioned. And it's interesting how at 13:15 it's a jump cut to the wide shot in its entirety, which is done very well.

And John is correct. The entire catalogue of the National Film Board of Canada is really quite a treasure trove of free clinics with the masters.

Nick Higgins

That was really great- thanks for posting it. What a gem having that old guy nattering with his mates with a saw in his hand. I love the shooting that they did up there in 1958 and plan on channeling it.

Nick Higgins

What a treasure trove. I enjoyed the switchman too. And this one about Paul Anka by the same guy that made City of Gold Wolf Koenig http://www.nfb.ca/film/lonely_boy

They are all shot so well, super solid and they hold their shots forever which has to be every editors dream and a great reminder to do the same.

Nick Higgins

I'm addicted to the Canadian National Film Board archive. Thanks for hooking me up. This one is a 15 minute gem that we watched with our daughter. Its about a family in canada with 12 kids....12 kids.......yikes!

It's Just Better

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