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Fortean Documentaries

Justin_Anstey

Gone But Not Forgotten
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What do you make of them, are they worth bothering with at all? Of course, they may not have much to say to the veteran paranormal interestee, but at least you may get to see what the actual people and places involved are like. There have been a couple of different ones about Roswell over recent months, for example, which were worth it because they actually included recent footage filmed in the area.

I think there is a real reason why we should pay attention to them, particularly the ones that turn up on prime time terrestrial TV. Surely they have an enormous influence on public perception and the subsequent reports they make. Perhaps it should be considered what things the public are and, indeed, are not being told by these things.

The major recent ones, I guess, would be the Timewatch episode about Britain's X-Files on Friday 9th Jan. on BBC2 and the one on the same channel about JFK's assassination with the computer simulations.

Are there any particular series that you think are good? 'Beyond The Truth' with/by Bruce Burgess, whose episodes occasionally turn up on ITV seems to be one. The Discovery Channel series Critical Eye is another, I would say. It is hosted by William B. Davis (The X-Files-smoking man) and was produced in cooperation with CSICOP and the Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
 
My problem with the ones I've seen are that they either believe everything (like the ones on Channel 5) or they only get enough time to scratch the surface (like the Timewatch one). I'd like to see a whole series on these subjects, with balanced views. And maybe a few unbalanced views as well, just to even things out.

I never saw Beyond the Truth, though.
 
I like the ones that just present a lot of evidence and let you make up your own mind.

The ones with 'expert interviews' and dramatic reconstructions are pants. The best fortean documentaries I have seen are the ones that are 45 minutes of near-constant footage of UFOs and things :)

Give me evidence!
 
from outer space to you

The contactee documentary Farewell Good Brothers, with appearances by George King and the Big Rock, is worth a look. It's mocking but in a strangely sentimental way..
 
I've not searched for a prior thread for documentary films, but if there is one I suggest it get sticky status.

We have a series on our local multicultural TV station here in Australia called "As It Happened". Tonight's doco is on Tunguska. German production.

Link here: the Tunguska doco is called "Big Bang in Tunguska". Now sure if these can be viewed outside Australia. Often the productions are French, and always fascinating.

I watched one a while back on the Oak Island treasure hunt history, which is available at the megasite linked at the bottom of this post. There are regular updates on Roswell research too.

I thought it might be good to have a thread where you can share the most accessible documentary film resources on Fortean subjects to be found, and hopefully downloadable / directly playable, online. Especially given how much is free to view these days.

Here's an extensive online database of a variety of documentaries, with embeded Youtube / Vimeo / etc uploads. I've linked the page on docos focussing on 'Mystery' subjects. There's some cool stuff here.


http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/category/mystery/
 
Hmmm.

We don't appear to have a 'Fortean Documentaries'-type thread, so I'll make this it (hence the re-titling): if you come across anything appropriate that's free-to-view on the web, please post the links here (no torrents).
 
Cheers, WhistlingJack.

BTW, I did a search afterwards and did locate a thread from 2004 here. Interesting how much more exponentially there is available now than there was then. I love Internet 2.
 
Vice

A Youtube documentary channel with edge. Not a lot of Fortean in there, but something for everyone.
 
Although those really looking can see Richard Freeman on their documentary about the Olympics (he's talking about the terror in the river Lea)
 
I found this after I did my posting on C4's Alien Investigations which is on the Ufology page. Should have gone here.
 
Ufo the untold stories on National Geographic, old fashioned style programme style and mercifully European only sightings. Definitely a cut above.
 
rynner2 said:
bunnymousekitt said:
Standing With Stones, a documentary about megaliths in the British isles. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL383D32A611C2E70B

It's pretty awesome, I've watched it three or four times by now. :D
Sounds interesting - I've bookmarked it!
I've now watched it. Yes, very thought provoking. The music quietly emphasises the sense of mystery (we really know sweet FA about a lot of this stuff!) without being overpowering.

But I'd not heard of Ballowall Barrow in Cornwall before, so my next project is to visit there. It's near St Just, not Lands End. I think my legs may last the walk there - if I expire there, it seems a good place to be buried!

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballowall_Barrow

EDIT2: Since the video dates from 2007, there's no mention of the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 35#1263535
 
rynner2 said:
I've now watched it. Yes, very thought provoking. The music quietly emphasises the sense of mystery (we really know sweet FA about a lot of this stuff!) without being overpowering.

But I'd not heard of Ballowall Barrow in Cornwall before, so my next project is to visit there. It's near St Just, not Lands End. I think my legs may last the walk there - if I expire there, it seems a good place to be buried!

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballowall_Barrow

EDIT2: Since the video dates from 2007, there's no mention of the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 35#1263535

Good luck on your visit. Hopefully your legs will hold up and Ballowall Barrow
won't be your final resting place quite yet! :)
 
The Man Nobody Knew
A doco about CIA director William Colby who commited apparent suicide in 1996. Time Out New York called it a "tour of queasy, morally questionable intelligence endeavors over the last 50 years from the perspective of the spook community’s grand pooh-bah" (source: Wikipedia). This is as good a film as the one made about MacNamara 5 or 6 years ago. Excellent documentaries both.


WARNING: the second half dealing with Vietnam is extremely graphic.


This youtube account also terminated
 
Last week I watched a doco called The Imposter and found it very disturbing. In 1994, 13 yo Nicholas Barclay disappeared from San Antonio, Texas. He apparently turned up in Spain three years later. What happened after that is truly sad, compelling and so bloody inconceivable that I don't really know what to say about it. What I learned about the capacity for human self-deception is shocking. Be warned, there are no redeeming characters at all in this story. It's very very bleak. I lost a little something of my remaining innocence through the viewing.

The film itself is brilliantly crafted.

Reviews: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_imposter_2012/
 
skinny said:
Last week I watched a doco called The Imposter and found it very disturbing. ... It's very very bleak. I lost a little something of my remaining innocence through the viewing.

I have that queued up in Netflix. Now I'm afraid to watch it. :( Maybe I can look up the case and read about it instead.
 
i've seen that, highly enjoyable! :D

All the way through, I was thinking what are they doing! It's obviously not him! :lol:

The reason for the family's acceptance of the imposter is worrying though.
 
Well, that's good to know. I'll watch it then. I was afraid it would be soul destroying, but if it's more a study of people's motivations... well... that's par for the course in a documentary. ;)
 
It's one of that new strain of documentaries like Searching for Sugarman or Tabloid which relies on you not knowing too much about a sensational case before you watch it.

I had read about the Imposter case in the FT a few months before I saw it, though the dodginess of the family and their possible reasons for accepting what happened as the truth was new to me. You're supposed to be more shocked than soul-destroyed, I'd say, because by nature you recognise the case is far from common.
 
I watched Cropsey recently. It was an exploration of an urban legend come true - a murdered child found near an abandoned mental hospital on Staten Island. I liked that it focused more on the community than the murderer. The early 80's were a strange time here because of the shift from mental hospitals to group homes and shelters.

I also liked Girl 27 about a young MGM chorus line dancer in the 30's who was raped during a party for salesman and then was brave enough to go public so the salesman would be prosecuted.

Like Cropsey, this isn't about the rapist, it's about Patricia Douglas herself and it's about us - the type of circumstances that can lead to prosecutors and families selling out. It's about what we believe and how we react to allegations of rape, people in power, and the news.

I've been on a documentary binge lately.
 
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