Curiated archive of free documentaries
Absolutely free documentaries, and it actively tells users to get uBlock Origin if there are ads for them while viewing.
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I Am Not Your Negro (2016) - 5 out of 5 stars
James Baldwin: The story of the Negro in America is the story of America, and it is not a pretty story.
Here is a description of the movie, written by Jwelch5742 on IMDB:
In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, "Remember This House." The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished.
I admit struggling to find words for this film, as it is so important to tell stories which I have zero direct experience with. But it is a reminder that a movie which came out seven years ago about an intellectual who died almost forty years ago, and discusses the lives of three great men who died longer ago than that - is still timely and important today.
James Baldwin: Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it has been faced. History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history. If we pretend otherwise, we literally are criminals.
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The Booksellers (2019) - 2.5/5 Rare Books
Watched from LA to Seattle today. I came across it on Amazon Prime and downloaded to my plane for the flight.
Overall it was interesting, but there was no central tentpole aside from looking at rare book buyers, etc. It starts to suggest books are dying, then it points out they aren't. It says the book buyers are the final generation, and then has some who are optimistic.
It was an interesting insight into these people, but yeah - it meandered and left me at the end wondering what I could have watched instead.
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The Lost Leonardo (2021) - 4/5 Mona Lisas
I ended up watching this documentary on the way down from Seattle to LA and found it quite interesting and entertaining. It's an interesting story with a lot of twists and turns along the way.
It follows a story about a possibly discovered lost painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, the "Salvator Mundi" aka "The Savior of the World" which depicts Jesus Christ. I was recounting the documentary to friends last night and it is a wild story. It also puts, front and center, the very real truth that high end collector art is used for washing funds (central to this story is a Russian oligarch) and also for general tax evasion, etc.
It also definitely reminded me how much I enjoy documentaries. Need to watch more.
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A beautiful documentary video on a man's work renovating two stone cabins in the alps. Stunning vistas. It's slow, so highly recommend it for background viewing, but still inspirational.
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Noclip about Black & White
I never played Black & White but I know a lot about it. My not playing it was a byproduct of not having a computer able to play it and then getting distracted with other things. But I remember reading and hearing a lot about it.
This was a fascinating insight into the game and its development.
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I am greatly enjoying the Ken Burns Ben Franklin documentary, though I must also note I am thankful that it is not one of Burn's epic 14-part series. Two episodes feel largely right.
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PBS's documentary, "The Codebreaker" about Elizebeth Friedman was excellent
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I highly recommend you take an hour and watch it.
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