Don't miss movies or documentaries ?

[Rhea]

I tried searching but had no luck.

 

Please tell me what you think are the don't miss movies or documentaries for any time period. Or please point me to where this has already been answered. :001_smile:

 

Last year we watched the John Adams miniseries and it engendered a lot of questions and a desire to learn more in my eldest. Not so much the younger two, but they did enjoy the series. ;) I would like to incorporate many more this year.

 

Thanks so much!

Rhea

[Alphabetika]

Are you looking for any particular subject matter? This would help in giving recommendations.

 

In the realm of US history, we've greatly enjoyed the Ken Burns documentaries about Lewis and Clark and about the Civil War.

[MGK]

This is a blog that has Netflix movies linked to Story of the World - a chronological list of suggested movies by time period. I'm planning to use her list this year to supplement our Ancient History studies.

 

http://runofthemillfamily.blogspot.com/p/story-of-world-resources-for-volume-one.html

[JennW in SoCal]

The BBC series on WWI is one of the best documentary series I've seen. I've watched it twice now as I had each kid watch it for history and I was impressed and learned so much each time. You can find it at Netflix: The First World War

 

Ghandi is a terrific movie that was as informative and fascinating for my teen as it was when I first saw it in the theaters way back when...

 

Disney has an interesting set about its role in the war effort during WWII, called Walt Disney: On the Front Lines There are documentaries produced by the company and some shorts.

 

The PBS series on the history of Broadway ties together cultural and political history in a seamless manner. If your kids have any interest in theater, they'll enjoy it.

 

I love all of Ken Burns' series, but my kids found them very slow.

 

NOVA on PBS has had some terrific episodes, and some duds. The ones that stick out in my memory are:

Secrets of Lost Empires There are two sets of these, which have modern engineers try to build ancient monuments using period technology and material

Newton's Dark Secrets About Newton's dabbling in alchemy

DNA: Secret of Photo 51 About Dr. Rosalind Franklin's contribution to the discovery of DNA

The Pluto FilesNeil deGrasse Tyson's fun episode on Pluto's recent demotion.

 

Other movies that have been hits here:

Master and Commander

The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! (a cold war comedy)

Dr. Strangelove

Casablanca

It's a Wonderful Life

Sands of Iwo Jima

[Rhea]

Ladies, you are wonderful! Wow.

 

Are you looking for any particular subject matter? This would help in giving recommendations.

 

In the realm of US history, we've greatly enjoyed the Ken Burns documentaries about Lewis and Clark and about the Civil War.

 

Any time period, any subject matter. We're not going to worry about it matching where dd15 is in history. I just want good films that inform, and/or inspire and/or engender questions.

 

This is a blog that has Netflix movies linked to Story of the World - a chronological list of suggested movies by time period. I'm planning to use her list this year to supplement our Ancient History studies.

 

http://runofthemillfamily.blogspot.com/p/story-of-world-resources-for-volume-one.html

 

That is a great resource. Thank you MGK.

 

The BBC series on WWI is one of the best documentary series I've seen. I've watched it twice now as I had each kid watch it for history and I was impressed and learned so much each time. You can find it at Netflix: The First World War

 

Ghandi is a terrific movie that was as informative and fascinating for my teen as it was when I first saw it in the theaters way back when...

 

Disney has an interesting set about its role in the war effort during WWII, called Walt Disney: On the Front Lines There are documentaries produced by the company and some shorts.

 

The PBS series on the history of Broadway ties together cultural and political history in a seamless manner. If your kids have any interest in theater, they'll enjoy it.

 

I love all of Ken Burns' series, but my kids found them very slow.

 

NOVA on PBS has had some terrific episodes, and some duds. The ones that stick out in my memory are:

Secrets of Lost Empires There are two sets of these, which have modern engineers try to build ancient monuments using period technology and material

Newton's Dark Secrets About Newton's dabbling in alchemy

DNA: Secret of Photo 51 About Dr. Rosalind Franklin's contribution to the discovery of DNA

The Pluto FilesNeil deGrasse Tyson's fun episode on Pluto's recent demotion.

 

Other movies that have been hits here:

Master and Commander

The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! (a cold war comedy)

Dr. Strangelove

Casablanca

It's a Wonderful Life

Sands of Iwo Jima

 

Thank you Jenn! We will definitely watch the BBC series on WWI and probably a few others on your list. Btw, we loved Master and Commander. Rented it so many times we finally bought it.

[Farmgirl70]

These are not documentaries, but do incorporate lots of true things in the stories. One of my three particularly seeks heroes and these movies have inspired us:

 

"Invictus" (Nelson Mandela/South Africa/apartheid)

"Amazing Grace" (William Wilberforce/slave trade)

"The Young Victoria" (Queen Victoria and Albert)

"Bright Star" (John Keats and Fanny Brawne)

 

There are undoubtedly more, but these come to mind right now : ).

[Rhea]

These are not documentaries, but do incorporate lots of true things in the stories. One of my three particularly seeks heroes and these movies have inspired us:

 

"Invictus" (Nelson Mandela/South Africa/apartheid)

"Amazing Grace" (William Wilberforce/slave trade)

"The Young Victoria" (Queen Victoria and Albert)

"Bright Star" (John Keats and Fanny Brawne)

 

There are undoubtedly more, but these come to mind right now : ).

 

Thank you, FarmGirl70. We saw Invictus and The Young Victoria last year. We read a fair bit about Queen Victoria after watching that one. The other two looked really good, I think we just forgot about them. Thanks much!

[lisabees]

Someone on this board suggested A State of Mind. Probably the most eye opening documentary I've seen in a while.

 

We also really love anything by Michael Palin. Connections is also fun.

 

When We Left Earth is also amazing.

 

Oh! Almost forgot.

. And another. We Shall Remain.

 

So many good ones. These are ones I recall most vividly...at this moment.

[Ester Maria]

My daughter found online a BBC documentary called "Dangerous Knowledge" on mathematics of infinity, Cantor, etc. I was pleasantly surprised with it.

 

We're not much of a movie family so I can't give many suggestions, but this one popped into my head as the most recent thing we saw some months ago.

[Rhea]

Thank you, Lisa and Ester Maria! Our list of possibilities is growing...

 

Rhea

[Corraleno]

I'm homeschooling an AS/MR adult who wants to get his HS diploma, so I've been trying to put together a mostly-documentary-based American History course for him. So far I have these:

 

Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower (this was excellent)

Conquest of America (History Channel)

Liberty! The American Revolution (PBS)

Revolution (History Channel)

Washington the Warrior (History Channel)

Ben Franklin (PBS)

Thomas Jefferson (Ken Burns)

John Adams (HBO)

The Civil War (Ken Burns)

Lewis & Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery (Ken Burns)

We Shall Remain (PBS)

The West (Ken Burns)

World War I in Color

The First World War: The Complete Series

The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)

The War (Ken Burns)

American Presidents (History Channel)

The Supreme Court (PBS)

 

 

A few World History documentaries:

Legacy: The Origins of Civilization

Decisive Battles of the Ancient World

Infinite Secrets: The Genius of Archimedes (NOVA)

Engineering an Empire: Complete Series

Rome: Power & Glory

The Roman Invasion of Britain

The Dark Ages (History Channel)

Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxons

The Germanic Tribes

The Normans

The Vikings (NOVA)

Empires (PBS)

The Plague (History Channel)

Terry Jones trilogy: Medieval Lives, Barbarians, Crusades

 

The Story of Math

The Story of 1 (Terry Jones)

 

I find the search feature on Netflix to be pretty worthless for general browsing, so I usually search on Amazon to find interesting documentaries, then search for the exact title on Netflix to see if they have it. I think they do have most of the above documentaries.

 

Jackie

Edited September 1, 2010 by Corraleno
added videos

[lagirl]

I purchased "The History of US" from the History channel, however you could simply Tivo them as they are aired. We are enjoying them as we study American History.

[Chris in VA]

The movie/miniseries HBO made on Temple Grandin just won a bunch of Emmys--certainly worth a look for its depiction of a fascinating woman who has autism.

 

Although it may be labelled sensationalism, the documentary Food, Inc., is wonderful. It's available on Netflicks on the Wii, if you have that instant thingy.

[lisabees]

I'm homeschooling an AS/MR adult who wants to get his HS diploma, so I've been trying to put together a mostly-documentary-based American History course for him. So far I have these:

 

Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower (this was excellent)

Conquest of America (History Channel)

Liberty! The American Revolution (PBS)

Revolution (History Channel)

Washington the Warrior (History Channel)

Ben Franklin (PBS)

Thomas Jefferson (Ken Burns)

John Adams (HBO)

The Civil War (Ken Burns)

Lewis & Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery (Ken Burns)

We Shall Remain (PBS)

The West (Ken Burns)

World War I in Color

The First World War: The Complete Series

The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)

The War (Ken Burns)

American Presidents (History Channel)

The Supreme Court (PBS)

 

 

A few World History documentaries:

Decisive Battles of the Ancient World

Engineering an Empire: Complete Series

Rome: Power & Glory

The Dark Ages (History Channel)

The Germanic Tribes

The Normans

The Vikings (NOVA)

Empires (PBS)

Terry Jones trilogy: Medieval Lives, Barbarians, Crusades

 

I find the search feature on Netflix to be pretty worthless for general browsing, so I usually search on Amazon to find interesting documentaries, then search for the exact title on Netflix to see if they have it. I think they do have most of the above documentaries.

 

Jackie

 

How cool are you??? :hurray: You just helped me out so much!!

[Brilliant]

I love all of Ken Burns' series, but my kids found them very slow.

 

 

 

All of us here like Ken Burns. But...we admit they can get a little slow. My kids do like to make fun of his movies because of a Jimmy Neutron episode in which Miss Fowl shows an 80-hr Ken Burns documentary about Egypt: "Sand...so much sand..." :D

[Rhea]

Thanks for all the great suggestions! Through this thread we've learned of quite a few we didn't know about.

 

All of us here like Ken Burns. But...we admit they can get a little slow. My kids do like to make fun of his movies because of a Jimmy Neutron episode in which Miss Fowl shows an 80-hr Ken Burns documentary about Egypt: "Sand...so much sand..." :D

 

This gave us a good laugh this morning. Thanks for that. :D

[Time for Chocolate]

The John Adams - HBO doc. that Jackie mentioned is incredible!!

 

Thanks for the thread. Lots of awesome suggestions!

[cathmom]

Eyes on the Prize, about the Civil Rights movement. It's 14 hours long, and when we finished the last episode, dd asked if we could watch it again!

[Imprimis]

We recently watched (and truly enjoyed!) Backstairs at the White House, the miniseries based on the lives of Maggie Rogers and her daughter, Lillian Rogers Parks. They worked as maids in the White House for eight first families---Taft to Eisenhower.

 

Features a wonderful cast including Leslie Uggams, Olivia Cole, Cloris Leachman, and Louis Gossett, Jr.

[emubird]

http://www.navigatinglife.org/historybusters/id47.html

 

This website supposedly has 1000 historically accurate films. But you have to check for appropriateness. Some are even beyond me, and I'm pretty open.

 

 

 

We've never managed to get through a Ken Burns documentary. They're not just slow, they're repetitive. There must have been other photos, other music, etc from those time periods that could have been used. And the civil war one tended to be a lot of battle strategy, which just did not interest us. There wasn't enough analysis of historical events for us.

 

We just tried to get through an Ansel Adams documentary, done by Ric Burns. Couldn't finish that one either. We were hoping for info on photographic techniques, history of the Sierra Club or Yosemite or San Francisco ... actually almost anything.

 

 

 

We've watched 2 documentaries on John Adams. One was really good. The other was kind of so-so. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one was which. But if you get one and it's boring, you might try to search out a second one to see if it's the more interesting one. (Liberty! and the Ben Franklin PBS series were both good.)

 

 

Michael Woods does some ok documentaries, although a few of them do get too much into just watching him walk around in his all terrain outfit.

 

 

David Attenborough has done some very nice nature videos. (Although the ones he's only the narrator on aren't as good. Look for the ones where he appears on camera. He had more hand in the making of those and they come off better.)

 

There's a nice video on the cichlids of Africa called The Jewel of the Rift (I think).

 

I haven't watched it yet, but I've heard Hummingbirds:Magic in the Air is interesting.

 

A few others are:

Einstein's Big Idea (although I wish they'd spent more time on the science and less on his wreck of a personal life)

Darwin's Dangerous Idea (and the other PBS videos that were part of this series)

and there was a series PBS did on the discovery of basic physics principles which I wish I could remember and find again (if anyone knows what it is, fill me in! I know Faraday was covered. I think also Maxwell and Meitner and a few others.)

[Murphy101]

How cool are you??? :hurray: You just helped me out so much!!

 

 

I second that - thank you!

[SAMom]

with Jimmy Stewart.