# Interesting documentaries



## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Following on from the Frozen Planet thread, I thought I'd start up a thread for interesting documentaries.

Here's one about large pharmaceutical companies and some of the tricks they get up to. After all, in America companies are legally obliged to put their shareholders first, which is an interesting concept when you're supposed to be helping the population with its ills.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/big-bucks-big-pharma/


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Here's another, two brilliant people, in one body:



> Although they are two completely separate people, these accomplished teens share a body and have just two arms and legs between them.
> Born in 1990, the girls have been brought up in a small, tightly knit community in Minnesota, almost completely protected from prying eyes and inquisitive stares.
> To their friends and family, they are distinct people with very different personalities, needs, tastes and desires.
> But to the outside world they are a medical mystery - particularly given the fact that they can do virtually all the same things as their friends, including playing the piano, riding a bike, swimming and playing softball. "Their personalities make them inspirational," says their mother Patty.


http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/twins-share-body/


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## Kell (May 28, 2002)

I've not seen that documentary about the twins, but I have seen a documentary about them before.

It's really hard to fathom, but I'm sure the biggest mystery is how they actually get about. I believe one of them controls one arm and one leg and the other, the others. How they then co-ordinate the limbs to make them walk is incredible.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

It is fantastic. Even more impressive when they're playing ball and bend down to pick the ball up, turn and throw totally naturally. Not remotely like each controlling half of their body, and yet they do. It's good that they aren't subject to loads of research, yet also a pity as potentially there is a lot that could be learned which may be of benefit. Just great people though and what seems like a really decent community too


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Tunneling under the Alps;



> To most of the world, the majestic Alps present a scene of wonder. But to European merchants and truckers, they present a troublesome and costly roadblock. Enter the ambitious AlpTransit Tunnel.
> 
> At just over 56 miles, this Swiss monster is the longest tunnel in the world. That is, it will be once workers complete this enormous project. Follow a team of miners as they risk death beneath billions of pounds of mountain, slowly but surely carving out massive support and maintenance tunnels. For the main channel, engineers use custom-designed TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines) - 250 feet long, 33 feet in diameter, with 500-pound drilling heads that pound the rock into submission.
> 
> But, it's not as simple as digging a hole. In this subterranean world, rock actually explodes, walls crumble, floods erupt and great rivers of mud are seemingly everywhere. Watch as technicians outfit their men with special laser imaging equipment that helps workers forecast potential fractures and cave-ins. Once a section has been dug, concrete walls are thrown up to keep the newly carved portion from collapsing - but if the concrete dries too fast, it implodes under the pressure, and the mountain comes crashing down. It's just another day at the office for the world's most extreme engineers.


http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/tunnelin ... -the-alps/


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## Dotti (Mar 9, 2003)

Currently thoroughly enjoying the frozen planet series [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Did you know that:
The pretext for America's declaration of war with Spain in the late 19th century was false?
Same for the Great War (Lusitania).
The Second World War (Pearl Harbour).
The Vietnam War (one of the two Tonkin incidents).
The Gulf War.
And the War on Terror.
And of course the second invasion of Iraq.
?

Or that pretty much none of the money for Iraq's rebuilding was used for that purpose?

This interesting documentary goes behind the mainstream media and presents interviews, testimonies, declassified documents and more footage than is shown in the news to bring what could well be a more accurate view of the world you live in than the primary-coloured diagrams and soundbites shown on the news, providing a comprehensive and well-referenced history.

Worth watching in chunks if you don't have time for one sitting.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Like diet or other sugar-free drinks and food? The chances are you're consuming Aspartame, formerly NutraSweet. You may recall they stopped calling it that after health concerns decades ago. It's still in alsorts of foods.



TopDocumentaryFilms said:


> Aspartame is an artificial sweetener, an additive. And it's a chemical. It's not a natural product, it's a chemical. The molecule is made up of three components. Two are amino acids, the so-called building blocks of protein.
> 
> One is called Phenylalanine, which is about 50% of the molecule and the other is Aspartic Acid, which is like 40%. And the other 10% is so-called Methyl Ester, which as soon as it's swallowed becomes free methyl alcohol. Methanol. Wood alcohol, which is a poison. A real poison.
> 
> Excellent documentary showing how dangerous artificial sweetner Aspartame is. From its history, to its effects this video is enough to shock anyone into really looking at there food labels next time they shop. Aspartame is a toxic food that came into the world as an investment by Donald Rumsfeld, while ignoring the deadly effects the tests showed. Take a good look at this video, it could save lives.


http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/sweet-mi ... ned-world/


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## Kell (May 28, 2002)

On a related note to the tunnelling one. Did yoiu ever see the documentary about the Hoover Dam? They first had to divert the flow of the river, so had to dig a tunnel around where the dam would eventually sit. That seemed the most dangerous part, but the building of the dam itself was not without incident.

Think 112 people died during construction - but it depends on the source.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

I haven't. Was it this one? 





Tonight on Channel 4/HD at 9pm is a documentary about Alan Turing, which could be good.


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## Kell (May 28, 2002)

It wasn't that one - may have used some of that footage, but the production and narration was modern. Sure it was part of a series about 6-7 years ago.

*Indsustrial wonders of the world *rings a bell, but I've searched for that with no luck.


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## SalsredTT (Jan 8, 2011)

Mega something Kell = I've seen that one recently on Quest.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Here we are:


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

The Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film written by Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary is critical of the modern-day corporation, considering its legal status as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychiatrist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

The Shock Doctrine
Based on Naomi Klein's book, The Shock Doctrine argues that America's 'free market' policies now dominate the world through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. Contains graphic images that some may find disturbing.


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

I just had to add this...






Hopefully it will help those interested understand the Apple culture.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

War Made Easy - How They Keep Spinning Us to Death


> In real time, officials have explained and justified these military operations to the American people by withholding crucial information about the actual reasons and potential costs of military action again and again, choosing to present an easier version of war's reality; a steady and remarkably consistent storyline designed not to inform, but to generate and maintain support and enthusiasm for war. War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.


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## YoungOldUn (Apr 12, 2011)

I have been watching a fascinating series on the wildlife of Papua New Guinea called the 'Lost Land of the Volcano' on the Sky Eden channel, it is also on the BBC iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004hfsb.

I found it absolutely brilliant how the animals had no fear of humans as they had never encountered them before.


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## roddy (Dec 25, 2008)

Broadcast Blues,,,,,,,,,, as seen on RT


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## Kell (May 28, 2002)

Currently really enjoying Earthflight.


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## SalsredTT (Jan 8, 2011)

Caught the last ten ninutes of that tonight Kell - going to be an iplayer job - looked great.


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## Kell (May 28, 2002)

Busy watching Bobby Fischer against the world.

About the American Chess Grandmaster and his battles with, amongst other things, Spassky and fame.

Far more intersting than it might sound.


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## hibster (Feb 23, 2012)

Kell said:


> Busy watching Bobby Fischer against the world.
> 
> About the American Chess Grandmaster and his battles with, amongst other things, Spassky and fame.
> 
> Far more intersting than it might sound.


what's that on?


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## Kell (May 28, 2002)

hibster said:


> Kell said:
> 
> 
> > Busy watching Bobby Fischer against the world.
> ...


It's on my iPhone. ;-)

But it was an HBO documentary.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Here's another. The Home Project:


> Internationally renowned photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand makes his feature directorial debut with this environmentally conscious documentary produced by Luc Besson, and narrated by Glenn Close. Shot in 54 countries and 120 locations over 217 days, Home presents the many wonders of planet Earth from an entirely aerial perspective. As such, we are afforded the unique opportunity to witness our changing environment from an entirely new vantage point. In our 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has hopelessly upset Mother Nature's delicate balance. Some experts claim that we have less than ten years to change our patterns of consumption and reverse the trend before the damage is irreversible. Produced to inspire action and encourage thoughtful debate, Home poses the prospect that unless we act quickly, we risk losing the only home we may ever have.


Trailer:





Full documentary (can't be embedded):


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## YoungOldUn (Apr 12, 2011)

Just watched the first in a series called Andy McNab's Tour of Duty (http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=142323) these are factual documentaries commentated by Andy MsNab and cover outstanding combat actions carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan by British and American soldiers.


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