Man, I saw this awesome documentary four years ago...

May 4, 2006 7:37 AM

Help me find documentaries that aired 3-6 years ago...

Recently, I've had cause to look for a couple of documentaries that I saw on Britain's Channel 4 a few years ago (this one, and this one) and it's got me thinking. One or two of the documentary film-makers I'm interested in sell DVDs of their work, but generally, despite being listed in IMDB, they can't be found in the usual outlets (for me) like Amazon.co.uk. Neither can a trace of them be found on the websites of the TV channels that commissioned them, which isn't really surprising given some of them are 3 or more years old.

My question is, is there any sort of online resource, store or download site which specialises in documentaries, short films and other 'shown once in 1998 at 1:05am on a Tuesday on Channel 4' type stuff?

posted by Happy Dave to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Best answer: You could try DocFinder which is on it's way to becoming the resource you describe, but I'm not sure if it's there quite yet (if you track down your docs, make sure you enter them in the database). DocFinder was set up by Dochouse who might be able to point you in the right direction, although they're very busy and probably won't answer your email. University libraries often have good collections of obscure TX material, and you could get lucky doing a trawl through the libraries of universities with active documentary research programmes (Goldsmiths and Royal Holloway would be good places to start in London, presuming you're UK based). Most universities will allow some sort of temporary access to materials if you ask nicely. And the BFI has a large archive of material to which you can get access if you're a member.
posted by gravelshoes at 8:00 AM on May 4, 2006

If you can get a login into uknova.com (a website listing torrens specialising in UKTV programmes old and modern) some enterprising person might be able to help.
posted by badlydubbedboy at 6:44 PM on May 4, 2006

Another good documentary torrent source one is mvgroup.org
posted by snarkle at 7:00 AM on May 5, 2006