5 docs that will make you think
I love a good doc that gets me thinking: What is life? And then makes me question everything I'm doing.
Zoolander: God?
Ballstein: What the shit are you talking about? It's me, Maury.
The following are some serious docs that explore different cultures, countries and how to get closure.
- The Lovers and The Despot: Find out what is was like for a filmmaker and his actress wife to work for Kim Jong-il in North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. The bizarre account is retold by family and friends, and illustrates what life was like under a temperamental and eccentric communist leader.
- The Sunshine Makers: Join Nick Sand and Tim Scully on their journey to "turn on the world" by making LSD. The doc follows them as they move from lab to lab, creating Orange Sunshine, and evading the law. Sand and Scully, now in their 70s, retell the tale of how it all started and where they ended up.
- (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies: Why do we lie? A professor studies and exposes how people justify lying and the effects it can have on society. The doc also includes interviews with famous liars, like cyclists who lied about blood-doping and two people who ran an insider trading scheme.
- The Cuba Libre Story: Okay, well, this is a docu-series -- but I'm including it in this list of docs. It includes the island's history, from the time Europeans discovered it to the present time. Learn about the political leaders, revolutions, and the rise of Fidel Castro.
- The Witness: The story of the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese is retold by her brother, Bill, whose mission is to find out exactly what happened decades ago. Her death has left a hollow gap in his heart, especially because of the many witnesses who allegedly heard her screams, but did nothing to help. Bill dives into his own investigation that is both heartbreaking and liberating, moving and terrifying.
All of these documentaries are available to screen now on Netflix.
