Online documentaries?
June 29, 2010 11:41 PM Subscribe
Do you know any sites with a wide variety of social documentaries that aren't overly partisan?
I've been on a documentary kick and now I've seen a pretty wide variety I'd like to narrow things down to what I like most.
Do want:
1. Stuff like Journeyman Pictures does, only I paid a fiver for a couple of weeks and watched everything I could so other sites like this would be brilliant
2. Full length documentaries about different societies/ordinary people (ie I really liked the prostitution in Iran one) rather than celebrities or major politicians
3. Films that let the camera do most of the speaking, maybe without a narrator at all or a narrator with not too much egregious bias
Do not want:
1. Michael moore style stunt docs
2. LOLxtians, LOLweirdos-with-bizarre-habits stuff and no half hour 'inside the mind of a killer' specials
3. geography or animal kingdom stuff unless it's really really well done
4. CSI style fancy graphics
I don't mind paying but $5 for a week is more than I'd like to pay every week. Are there many sites like this or any tv channels with online content that I should be paying attention to?
I've been on a documentary kick and now I've seen a pretty wide variety I'd like to narrow things down to what I like most.
Do want:
1. Stuff like Journeyman Pictures does, only I paid a fiver for a couple of weeks and watched everything I could so other sites like this would be brilliant
2. Full length documentaries about different societies/ordinary people (ie I really liked the prostitution in Iran one) rather than celebrities or major politicians
3. Films that let the camera do most of the speaking, maybe without a narrator at all or a narrator with not too much egregious bias
Do not want:
1. Michael moore style stunt docs
2. LOLxtians, LOLweirdos-with-bizarre-habits stuff and no half hour 'inside the mind of a killer' specials
3. geography or animal kingdom stuff unless it's really really well done
4. CSI style fancy graphics
I don't mind paying but $5 for a week is more than I'd like to pay every week. Are there many sites like this or any tv channels with online content that I should be paying attention to?
Response by poster: Wow, I love the way that's organised and I'm going to be late for work watching the Appalachia one now, thanks :)
posted by shinybaum at 11:49 PM on June 29, 2010
posted by shinybaum at 11:49 PM on June 29, 2010
Check out The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan and College, Inc., too. There were Metafilter threads about both of those, I believe...
posted by mr_roboto at 11:58 PM on June 29, 2010
posted by mr_roboto at 11:58 PM on June 29, 2010
Best answer: PBS' Point of View series is probably what you are after, though only a handful of the films they show are online.
A lot of PBS is available free, though most of it will be heavily narrated. The American Experience has some interesting topics and some Nova episodes are pretty good.
The Auteurs (renamed "Mubi", which is awful) has some great documentaries - some free, some for $.
posted by milkrate at 12:16 AM on June 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
A lot of PBS is available free, though most of it will be heavily narrated. The American Experience has some interesting topics and some Nova episodes are pretty good.
The Auteurs (renamed "Mubi", which is awful) has some great documentaries - some free, some for $.
posted by milkrate at 12:16 AM on June 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Netflix streaming has a lot of good docs, but you will have to sort through content that hits those 4 points to find it.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 1:09 AM on June 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by furiousxgeorge at 1:09 AM on June 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Try MediaStorm.com Lots of great stuff there.
posted by captainscared at 3:35 AM on June 30, 2010
posted by captainscared at 3:35 AM on June 30, 2010
Best answer: Arte Channel has docs available for a week after they're aired and also Vod.
Mubi also has many documentaries available for a fee.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 3:55 AM on June 30, 2010
Mubi also has many documentaries available for a fee.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 3:55 AM on June 30, 2010
Oh sorry, missed The Auteurs answer...
posted by lucia__is__dada at 3:56 AM on June 30, 2010
posted by lucia__is__dada at 3:56 AM on June 30, 2010
Netflix has a lot of documentaries available streamed from online.
posted by arcticseal at 5:03 AM on June 30, 2010
posted by arcticseal at 5:03 AM on June 30, 2010
Best answer: It sounds like you’re interested in film documentaries that are online, not online documentaries. (Documentaries that are native to the online format.) If you become interested in the latter, American RadioWorks is my favorite.
posted by ericc at 6:26 AM on June 30, 2010
posted by ericc at 6:26 AM on June 30, 2010
Best answer: The NFB (National Film Board of Canada) has hundreds of documentaries online.
Hot Docs has also put a lot of documentaries online that have screened at the festival (it's the biggest doc festival in the world). I think this was previously on the blue.
posted by Beardman at 6:37 AM on June 30, 2010
Hot Docs has also put a lot of documentaries online that have screened at the festival (it's the biggest doc festival in the world). I think this was previously on the blue.
posted by Beardman at 6:37 AM on June 30, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:45 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]