Let's watch Awesome Documentaries, 201X edition

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Let's watch Awesome Documentaries, 201X edition

Casimir Radon: Aug 2, 2008

zeroprime posted:

A Rough History of Disbelief
A rather interesting documentary by Jonathan Miller that touches on the philosophy and politics of atheism, deism and skeptical/rational thinking throughout the program, but mainly focuses on the history of what is commonly call atheism. He is a very good narrator and does well to remain thoughtful and introspective when talking about his own philosophy. I'll leave it to the video descriptions to describe each segment's content.

If anything getting to see what the balconies in the British Museum's reading room look like, that's a good start.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2010 04:20

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 03:18

Casimir Radon: Aug 2, 2008

The Fog of War is a documentary where form Secretary of Defense Robert Macnamara explains the 11 lessons that he's learned about war, largely through the failings of the Vietnam War. I was introduced to it last summer in a thread talking about his death. I'm really surprised it hasn't been brought up so far. Early on you learn just how close the world came to blowing up during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is absolutely loving scary. There's also no animal abuse in this movie.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2010 15:03

Casimir Radon: Aug 2, 2008

LandryForPresident posted:

Do any goons know of documentaries about Bob Denard, or more generally, mercenaries working in sub-saharan Africa?

You're in luck. Once Upon a Coup is Wide Angle about a failed attempt by a group headed by Simon Mann, and financed by the likes Mark Thatcher, to change the regime in Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea is an incredibly oil rich country on the west coast of middle-Africa and run by a tyrant who has one of the worst human rights records in the world. They were planning to replace him with an exiled opposition politician who would have granted generous oil rights to the companies the financiers of the coup were associated with.

Fun fact: In Frederick Forsyth's novel The Dogs of War the fictional country of Zangaro was based on Equatorial Guinea. Forsyth has a reputation for meticulous research and it's rather ambiguous today whether he was carrying out research for the book, or was really planning out a coup attempt.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2011 03:30

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Let's watch Awesome Documentaries, 201X edition