iCM Forum's Favourite Documentaries 2019 (Nominations, Jan 26th)

[joachimt]

iCM Forum's Favourite Documentaries



The deadline is 26th January 2019
Countdown till deadline

• Shorts, mini-series and TV-episodes from anthology series where the episodes are unrelated, are allowed. Tv-series aren't allowed.*
  *IMDb will be leading in this, but if you have good arguments exceptions to the rule can be made in consultation
• IMDb lists and iCM lists are accepted. (If you can't make one of those, ask another user to help you out.)
• Lists can be any length.
• Each nominee can only be named once (of course).
• Your list may be ranked, unranked, or partially-ranked. In a partially-ranked list, the top X films are ranked and everything after that point is unranked. When not specified I will consider a list as ranked.
• Mocumentaries (e.g. This is Spinal Tap) are not allowed.
• Stage shows (stand-up comedy, concerts, ......) are not allowed. Documentaries about artists in which stage shows are part of the movie, are allowed. In doubt, just ask.
• For all boundary cases: ask yourself "if I want to recommend a documentary, would I recommend this as a documentary?". Don't try to bend the boundaries too much.

List length and halflife to be decided later. Last time it was a top 200 and 30.

2015:
results thread
top 200 on iCM

Some help:

Documentaries you rated on IMDb sorted descending by your rating

Official Lists
100 Documentary Films (BFI Screen Guide)
IMDb Documentary Top 50
Harvard University's Suggested Film Viewing List: Non-Fiction Films (2012)
Sight and Sound -The Greatest Documentaries of All Time

Some Unofficial Lists
About Film: Recommended Movie-Themed Documentaries
Academy Award Best Documentary Feature Nominees
Academy Award Best Documentary Feature Winers
All Essay-Films
Brighton Film Academy's 100 Documentary Films to Watch
Cinematic Essay Filmography by Peter Thompson
Criterion Collection Themes - Documentaries
Current TV's 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die
DFI's Top 100 Danish Documentary Films
Documentaries About the Environment and Ecology
The Documentary Blog's Top 50 Documentaries of the Decade
Documentary films about Agriculture
Filmspotting Top 100 Documentaries
Flavorwire's 50 Best Documentaries of All Time
Football documentaries
The Guardian's 50 documentaries you need to see
iCM Forum's Top 250 Highest Rated Documentaries
iCheckMovies' Most Favorite Documentaries
Kansu's List of Documentaries for an Educated Mind
Kasparius' Favorite Documentaries
Metal Documentaries
One Hundred Great Documentaries (OUP)
Paste Magazine: The 100 Best Documentaries of All Time
Rock Documentaries and concert films
Sundance Film Festival - Documentary Grand Jury Prize
Time Out New York 50 Best Documentaries
Top Music Documentaries (RYM)
True crime documentaries
Viennale's The Way of the Termite: The Essay in Film 1909-2004

Participants: 53

72allinncallme (unranked20)
albajos
allisoncm
bal3x
beasterne
blocho (unranked)
Caracortada (unranked50)
Carmel1379
Cinepolis
Cocoa
Coryn
Fergenaprido
frbrown
Gorro
gromit82
GruesomeTwosome
hurluberlu
insomnius
jeff_v
Jimi Antiloop
jvv (unranked)
klaus78
Lammetje
Lonewolf2003
Mate_cosido
mathiasa
maxwelldeux (unranked89)
Melvelet (unranked27)
mightysparks
monclivie (unranked10)
Mothravka
nimimerkillinen
OldAle1 (unranked50)
Onderhond
Opio
outdoorcats
PeacefulAnarchy (unranked105)
Perception de Ambiguity
rnilsson19
sacmersault
sebby
Smoover
sol
St. Gloede
sushantv10
TajSamKojiJesam
Teproc (unranked)
tourdesb
Traveller
TraverseTown
Wonderful Rainbow
XxXApathy420XxX
zuma

[Onderhond]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/best ... onderhond/

Ranked of course ... bit of a sad list really, but while I find docs easy to watch, I find them extremely difficult to like. Maybe there aren't enough docs about subjects I care for, but I fear it's really just a combination of sappiness, lack of journalistic value and downright appalling propaganda.

I could've added Otaku no Video maybe, but that felt like cheating.

[joachimt]

Stats so far:
Number of participants: 1
Total films voted for: 1
Average list length: 1

I guess I'll be using a half life of 1.

[Onderhond]

Guess what film I'll be pushing?! Well it's Antarctica: A Year on Ice of course (you really should see it, it's quite impressive).

[TajSamKojiJesam]

Ranked: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/top+ ... kojijesam/

[jvv]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls041544046/ (UNRANKED)

[Teproc]

Unranked

[Coryn]

What's a halflife exactly?

[joachimt]

What's a halflife exactly?

viewtopic.php?p=428450#p428450

[72aicm]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/my+f ... inncallme/

First 20 are ranked, rest unranked. Probably forgot a couple. Most likely some shorts.

[mightysparks]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls006734655/

[Smoover]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls041549286/

[joachimt]

I'm thinking about not even voting myself. Did some filtering in Excel, so I have a starting list now, but I need to go through it. I want to be selective and not include movies that I don't value as a doc, but more as something else. Because of this, I wouldn't even vote for A Man With a Movie Camera, because I value that mostly because of the camerawork and cinematography, not because it's telling a well structured story. That can be said about more experimental docs as well. But A Man... was #1 on the last poll and it's on several documentary-lists. Would feel stupid to exclude it, since I love it. But by excluding it I could give other "true" documentaries more chance. AAAARGGGHHH, why is this so hard?!

[mathiasa]

lots of new entries and a new #1, my first and only succesful dtc nomination: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/fav+doc/mathiasa/

[hurluberlu]

Do you manage group ranking as well ?
If yes, my groups would be 1-55 and 56-102.
Thanks!

my list

[Perception de Ambiguity]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls076984175/

[rnilsson19]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls047876777/

[Pretentious Hipster]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls041706845/ Ranked

[blocho]

unranked
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls072536261/

[gromit82]

Here's my list, ranked.

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls041757737/

[joachimt]

Do you manage group ranking as well ?
If yes, my groups would be 1-55 and 56-102.
Thanks!

my list

No. The script doesn't handle group-ranked lists. Please specify otherwise.

[hurluberlu]

Do you manage group ranking as well ?
If yes, my groups would be 1-55 and 56-102.
Thanks!

my list

No. The script doesn't handle group-ranked lists. Please specify otherwise.

Ok, all ranked then.

[albajos]

The Living Planet (1984)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135096/
I would call this a mini-series, as it is only 12 episodes. Imdb's automated system has the cut-off at 4, I think, so they call it a TV-series.

Can I add it?

[joachimt]

The Living Planet (1984)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135096/
I would call this a mini-series, as it is only 12 episodes. Imdb's automated system has the cut-off at 4, I think, so they call it a TV-series.

Can I add it?

I'll allow it.

[albajos]

Great, here it is then

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls041759998/
ranked

(it could have been longer, but I have excluded all Making of a Single Movie Documentaries.)

[sebby]

What's a halflife exactly?

So when you are walloped in the melon with the stinging bolt you’ve batted away with admirable dexterity for years but now you are not so agile and oh fuck also on the wrong side of 35/45/55, now seeing in 4K the opportunities to be happy and fulfilled and to sign your name to an existence that leaves a footprint of any depth whatever that you missed or bungled and certainly will never have again, your only bit of visible light now a stab at well received mediocrity but heeeey you’re too tired even to grip a sharp implement, your only pleasure now the daydream of taking the artist’s plunge into a ceaseless slumber, your enduring aggravation a knowledge that you won’t and will instead flaccidly rub away each now to reveal the next, smaller and duller than the one it replaces until you’re left with the last, a grey and fading torn and stained miniature sheet of onion skin you will cling to when the monsoon arrives even though you don’t want the damn thing.

But hey. you still have access to blueberries and karagarga and a big comfortable rectangle to lay on. And there is also that dog that licks you like an ice cream cone when you see him.

That is, essentially, a half-life.

I think there is also a more sciencey definition of the term but I’m sure that’s not what you’re looking for when you inquired.

Welcome to the forum btw.

[Coryn]

What's a halflife exactly?

So when you are walloped in the melon with the stinging bolt you’ve batted away with admirable dexterity for years but now you are not so agile and oh fuck also on the wrong side of 35/45/55, now seeing in 4K the opportunities to be happy and fulfilled and to sign your name to an existence that leaves a footprint of any depth whatever that you missed or bungled and certainly will never have again, your only bit of visible light now a stab at well received mediocrity but heeeey you’re too tired even to grip a sharp implement, your only pleasure now the daydream of taking the artist’s plunge into a ceaseless slumber, your enduring aggravation a knowledge that you won’t and will instead flaccidly rub away each now to reveal the next, smaller and duller than the one it replaces until you’re left with the last, a grey and fading torn and stained miniature sheet of onion skin you will cling to when the monsoon arrives even though you don’t want the damn thing.

But hey. you still have access to blueberries and karagarga and a big comfortable rectangle to lay on. And there is also that dog that licks you like an ice cream cone when you see him.

That is, essentially, a half-life.

I think there is also a more sciencey definition of the term but I’m sure that’s not what you’re looking for when you inquired.

Welcome to the forum btw.

The explanation I was looking for.

[bal3x]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls072509542/

[Opio]

Although the last list includes the concert film "Stop Making Sense", should I still keep it off my list, given the rules of the poll?

[joachimt]

Although the last list includes the concert film "Stop Making Sense", should I still keep it off my list, given the rules of the poll?

Stop Making Sense is not allowed, although it is in several documentary lists. Decision is to exclude stage shows.

[GruesomeTwosome]

Just gonna make sure I throw my hat into the ring now before I forget...just started this list and will add more to it in the coming days/weeks.

Ranked: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls041711589/

[blocho]

Although the last list includes the concert film "Stop Making Sense", should I still keep it off my list, given the rules of the poll?

Stop Making Sense is not allowed, although it is in several documentary lists. Decision is to exclude stage shows.

A lot of people are including concert movies. Are you just going to exclude them when you download?

[joachimt]

Although the last list includes the concert film "Stop Making Sense", should I still keep it off my list, given the rules of the poll?

Stop Making Sense is not allowed, although it is in several documentary lists. Decision is to exclude stage shows.

A lot of people are including concert movies. Are you just going to exclude them when you download?

Yes, I will go through the full list once I've calculated the results and remove them from the results. It would be better if people just didn't include them.

[maxwelldeux]

Woodstock OK?

[joachimt]

Woodstock OK?

Yes. That is a documentary about a festival and performances are part of it.

[albajos]

It's been a long time since I saw The Last Waltz, but if if it is no backstage footage there I'll remove it.

[joachimt]

It's been a long time since I saw The Last Waltz, but if if it is no backstage footage there I'll remove it.

Been a while for me as well, but I remember a concert only.

[Traveller]

Ranked.

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls041740508/

[albajos]

It's been a long time since I saw The Last Waltz, but if if it is no backstage footage there I'll remove it.

Been a while for me as well, but I remember a concert only.

I just skimmed it. There are interviews between most of the songs,

[maxwelldeux]

It's been a long time since I saw The Last Waltz, but if if it is no backstage footage there I'll remove it.

Been a while for me as well, but I remember a concert only.

I just skimmed it. There are interviews between most of the songs,

I just watched it. The stage stuff is only about half of it.