Let's watch Awesome Documentaries, 201X edition

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

doctor 7: Oct 10, 2003; In the grim darkness of the future there is only Oakley.

Filthy Monkey posted:

Just watched "Earthlings" which had been recommended a couple times in this thread. While I certainly agree with the main message about treating animals better, the entire video is mostly an appeal to emotion. You get clip after clip of slaughterhouses and the like, but it doesn't usually give you much of a frame of reference, or back up a lot of what it says with sources. A brief blurb in the video about each clip such as "This is facility XXX in location XXX which does XXX, recorded at date XXX. This facility produces xx% of the meat for brand XX" would at least help you identify what you are looking at. You don't get any real idea if the clips you are looking at are standard practice or exceptional instances.

While I have no doubt that animals are treated much more poorly than they should be by factory farming, simply because it is cheaper to do so, the movie doesn't really provide you with much support of that in the way of concrete, well supported fact.

Scientific research on animals is included in their criticisms, but they don't necessarily clarify what their argument is here. Are they against all scientific research on animals? Do they think it is generally okay, but some sorts of research go too far? I am generally unwilling to believe their broad statements about the lack of value of scientific research on animals when the film itself presents itself in such an unscientific manner.

On a different note, I've seen a few recommendations for vbs.tv mini documentaries. I've watched a good chunk of what is on that site by this point. Some of their work is pretty well done, but others are done fairly poorly. They will either be ill researched, such as The radioactive beasts of chernobyl, or have their reporters acting immature and generally unprofessional, like garbage island.

For a few vbs documentaries I would recommend watching

Obama's War - Has the crew going out on patrol with some American soldiers in Afghanistan. Generally doesn't try to BS you, or sell you a particular viewpoint, as it is mostly the soldiers who do the talking. Still, no doubt they slant it a bit with the editing.

Guide to North Korea - I think this one was already recommended here, but it is a pretty interesting documentary on their visit to NK.

Guide to Liberia - Talks about the history of liberia, and interviews some of the warlords.

Mecca diaries - A video of a guy going on a hajj to Mecca with his parents. Pretty interesting if you don't really know what a hajj involves.

The thing about Earthlings you have to keep in mind is that the footage is taken from corporate farms and not smaller local farms that do, in fact, still exist in farming communities. I walked away from Earthlings not going "I'm never eating meat again!" but instead going "I'm not going to eat meat from those kinds of places." No McDonalds or fast food, frozen dinners or giant chain restaurants. I'm lucky because I live in a farming community so there are farms out here where we can go out and buy beef and pork from places where you can actually see the cows and pigs.

I have friends that own dairy farms and while cows are kept in tightly spaced areas this is only when weather is bad. Outside of that they are allowed outside to graze. Additionally they wash the poo poo off the floor every day to prevent it from becoming a cesspool. Hell they even have names for all their cows (over 50) and can tell them apart.

Again, Earthlings is a good documentary to shock you into the reality of corporate farming. Pigs with open cancerous wounds get ground up into your meat and disease ridden downs form your McDonalds burgers. However there are still farms out there with farmers that do care about their profession and the animals they work with. Earthlings says "every farm is like this" which is a lie. However the farms it refers to do exist.

PS - The thing about scientific research is absolute bullshit. They simply ask the question "Can research on animals tell us what happens to humans?" Then instantly answer "NO!" This is a complete and utter lie.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2010 20:15

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 12:25

doctor 7: Oct 10, 2003; In the grim darkness of the future there is only Oakley.

Casca posted:

The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan
Its about a old Afghan tradition of pederasty called bacha bazi where underage boys are made to dress as girls and dance at parties. If you've read The Kite Runner you may be familiar with it. Link goes to Frontline but its also available on Netflix if you prefer.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/

I met an afghan refugee who came to Canada on a Christian refugee status. He went back to Afghanistan for his wedding and mentioned one of the guests brought a "dancing boy" to it. He explained it as kind of a concubine/stipper/shared boy type deal and there wasn't much you could really do if a guy showed up with one.

Later on a watched this and it's a great documentary but holy Christ is it a terribly horrible subject.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2010 07:49

doctor 7: Oct 10, 2003; In the grim darkness of the future there is only Oakley.

Gringo Heisenberg posted:

I keep hearing good things about Dear Zachary, but I have no interest in actually seeing it. What I do have interest in is people keep saying not to read up on X person or it'll ruin the movie. Do they mean not to read about how Turner killed herself and the child? Was that not in the movie? Sorry if this is a weird question, I'm just curious about what it is.

Dear Zachary is a really, really amateurish documentary so missing it isn't a big deal, honestly.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2011 08:17

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