I’ve watched lots of documentaries only on YouTube and I just wanna hear some random recommendations on anything worth watching please
Israelism is a 2023 documentary directed by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen examining how American Jewish attitudes towards Israel are formed, taught and, for some younger Jews, increasingly questioned.
The film follows Simone Zimmerman and Eitan, who both grew up in strongly pro-Israel Jewish communities in the United States. Eitan goes on to serve in the Israeli military, while Zimmerman becomes involved in pro-Israel advocacy on American university campuses. Experiences in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories eventually force both to reconsider aspects of what they had been taught growing up.
Through their stories, alongside interviews with Palestinians, Jewish activists, academics and political figures, the documentary explores Jewish education, Zionism, military occupation and the growing generational divide within American Jewish communities over Israel and Palestine.
Contributors include Peter Beinart, Noura Erakat, Noam Chomsky, Cornel West and former Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman. Importantly, the film was conceived and premiered before 7 October 2023, documenting debates that were already taking place well before the current war.
Directors: Erin Axelman & Sam Eilertsen
Year: 2023
Country: United States
Runtime: 84 minutes
IMDb: Israelism (2023)
The Doctor Who Hears Voices follows clinical psychologist Rufus May and a young doctor known as Ruth, who is experiencing disturbing and persistent voices.
May’s interest in the subject is deeply personal. As a young man he was himself diagnosed with schizophrenia and admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He later trained as a clinical psychologist and became associated with approaches that question whether hearing voices should automatically be understood purely as a symptom of illness.
The film follows May as he works with Ruth outside the conventional medical model, encouraging her to engage with the voices rather than simply suppress them. Their relationship raises difficult questions about diagnosis, medication, professional responsibility and how psychiatry distinguishes between unusual experiences and mental illness.
Directed by Leo Regan and first broadcast by Channel 4 in 2008, the documentary combines observational footage with reconstructed scenes, with Ruth Wilson portraying the real Ruth to protect her identity. It remains an unusual and provocative examination of how people experiencing psychosis are treated, and whether recovery always has to mean eliminating the experience itself.
Project Slingshot is a campaign group working against factory farming. Its stated goal is to expose the practices of industrial factory farming and end factory farming by 2040. It's backed by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney of Meat Free Monday.
In this BBC documentary, Louis Theroux travels to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to investigate a small but committed movement of ultranationalist Israeli settlers who believe they have a religious and political obligation to establish Jewish communities throughout the territory.
Travelling between Hebron, East Jerusalem and isolated hilltop settlements near Nablus, Theroux meets individuals whose understanding of history, religion and territorial ownership places them at the centre of one of the world’s longest-running political disputes. His encounters reveal the beliefs motivating settlement activity and the tensions between settlers and the Palestinian communities living alongside them.
Among those interviewed are Daniel Luria, an Australian-born activist working with the organisation Ateret Cohanim, and young settlers establishing outposts in the West Bank. Through extended conversations and observations of everyday life, Theroux explores the relationship between religious conviction, nationalist ideology and competing claims to the land.
Employing his characteristic combination of curiosity, humour and understated questioning, Theroux allows his subjects to explain their positions in their own words. The resulting documentary offers an examination of the Israeli settler movement as it existed in 2011, providing historical context for understanding subsequent developments in the region.
Director: Andy Wells
Presenter: Louis Theroux
Production: BBC, United Kingdom
Year: 2011
Israeli filmmaker Avi Mograbi examines two stories deeply embedded in Israeli national culture: the defenders of Masada, who chose death rather than submission to Rome, and Samson, who destroys himself along with his enemies after being captured and blinded by the Philistines.
Mograbi then places those stories alongside contemporary life in the occupied Palestinian territories during the Second Intifada. Israeli school groups and tourists celebrate ancient resistance to foreign domination while, elsewhere, Palestinians wait at checkpoints, confront soldiers and experience the restrictions imposed by a military occupation.
The documentary does not rely heavily on narration or conventional argument. Instead, Mograbi repeatedly places these images and ideas beside one another and allows the contradictions to emerge through the people being filmed.
Released in 2005, the film screened at Cannes and was directed by one of Israel’s best-known political documentary filmmakers. It is uncomfortable precisely because much of its argument is built from Israeli history, Israeli mythology and conversations with Israelis themselves.
Best fact-checked/decolonized documentaries
I love a good BBC or National Geographic documentary, but they can be a bit out-dated, or clouded by subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) agendas. I'm looking to populate my library with as much truly accurate ones as possible.
What are some good quality, fact-checked documentaries you love? History, nature, science.. any subject that isn't a propaganda or anti-something take. All political spectrum and cultures are guilty of it, whether they are aware of it or not.. but some documentaries really stand out as having really done the deep research to just provide straight real facts.
I especially love history documentaries that tell the stories as we've recently uncovered truths behind them, since the longer time goes on, the more we discover about histories where truths were hidden to follow certain agendas of their time.
New science documentaries where we've found new info about animals, or show that the scientific discoveries weren't the only info, and that the local peoples living with the animals or locations also have valuable knowledge glossed over by the older scientific societies..
Things like that :D
Filmmaker Christian Blackwood studies three motels in New Mexico, Arizona and Death Valley.
Dairy farms across Wisconsin produce over 25% of the United States' cheese.
So if these cows are so important, why are they under attack from some of the most powerful people in the world?
We drove two hours north to Port Washington, Wisconsin to investigate Big Tech's secret war on cows.
In 1914, Ernest Shackleton set out to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. His ship, Endurance, was trapped in pack ice and slowly crushed until it sank, leaving 28 men stranded on the ice with no radio. There was no rescue coming, and nobody in the world would know where they were.
One of these men was Frank Hurley, the expedition's photographer and cameraman. He had brought a collections of camera and film gear to document the crossing. When the crossing turned into a survival story, he just kept shooting.
The wreck of Endurance was then finally found in 2022, three kilometres down in the Weddell Sea. The photographs and diaries that made it home became a detailed record of 28 men fighting to stay alive while it was happening.
In March 2002, as the Second Intifada entered one of its most violent periods, American filmmaker Oliver Stone travelled to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories to document a conflict that had intensified following the collapse of the Camp David peace negotiations.
Armed with a camera crew and an ambition to speak directly to those involved, Stone sought interviews with political leaders on both sides. The resulting documentary features conversations with former Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister Shimon Peres, and Palestinian political figures, including Yasser Arafat.
The film also ventures beyond official politics, incorporating encounters with members of Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, alongside footage of military checkpoints, Palestinian communities and the everyday consequences of the conflict. Stone’s presence is an important part of the documentary: rather than presenting himself as an invisible observer, he frequently appears on camera, pursuing interviews and asking questions.
Originally broadcast as part of HBO’s America Undercover series, Persona Non Grata is an interesting historical record of the Second Intifada as it was unfolding. More than two decades later, it offers an opportunity to revisit the arguments, personalities and competing accounts that shaped international discussion of the conflict at the time.
IMDb: Persona Non Grata (2003)
This documentary episode covers the 'Third Force' aspects of the unrest that occurred in early 1990's South Africa, the Third Force being white supremacist elements within the South African Security Forces that were assisting in stoking violence between the ANC, IFP, AWB, and the Government forces. This documentary is the 2nd part in a 3 part series called "The Death of Apartheid".
On 4 October 1992, El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft travelling from New York to Tel Aviv via Amsterdam, crashed into two apartment blocks in Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer district. Forty-three people were officially recorded as killed. Although the mechanical sequence that brought the aircraft down was established, questions about its cargo and events surrounding the disaster continued for years afterwards.
Broadcast by the Dutch investigative programme Zembla in 1998, Raadsels rond de Bijlmerramp examines some of those unresolved questions. The programme looks at reports that the aircraft was carrying military material, the special status enjoyed by El Al's security operation at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, and discrepancies surrounding what authorities initially said about the cargo.
The documentary also explores more controversial allegations that emerged after the crash, including claims concerning Israeli intelligence and Mossad involvement, reports of unidentified men at the crash site, and concerns surrounding depleted uranium associated with the aircraft. Some of these claims remain disputed, and the programme approaches them as questions to be investigated rather than presenting every allegation as established fact.
This is a Dutch-language documentary. YouTube's automatic subtitles can be translated into English: enable captions, select Settings > Subtitles/CC > Auto-translate > English.
Edit: typo
Submission Statement:
The Fight to be Heard is a new documentary by Amnesty International UK that charts the changing landscape of protest in Britain. From record-breaking prison sentences for peaceful protesters to fears of surveillance and criminalisation, The Fight to be Heard looks at the growing pressures faced by protesters in the UK today – and asks why we continue to do it, despite the risks.
At a time when it’s never been more vital for us to come together, this film is a rallying cry to make sure we continue to have our voices heard.
An amazing look at legendary 50s wild man Screamin Jay Hawkins as he tells some made up stories and jokes around all while being highly entertaining