#this is such a good documentary

[lunar-years]

I’ve moved on to watching Miss Americana I’m literally about to cry

[3liza]

love when im watching a documentary and im like "yep thats an egyptologist alright"

[andoutofharm]

new old mcr footage in the green day american idiot 20th anniversary documentary!

[venusinmyrrh]

You said you love a good fashion doc- do you have any more to recommend?

Designers and tastemakers

Very Ralph (2019). The preeminent American designer of our time, one of the very few who can stand toe to toe with the titans of Paris and Milan. To call Ralph Lauren's work "sportswear" is to call the Sistine Chapel "kind of a big painting".

Halston (2019). Speaking of going head to head with Paris, Halston did it first. Skip Ultrasuede-- this is a much better doc about the king of American 70s disco glam.

McQueen (2018). When people talk about fashion as an art form, chances are they're thinking of Alexander McQueen. Worth watching for the pulse-pounding runway shows alone.

Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (2018). Obviously you already know about this one, but it's gotta go on any comprehensive list. Without Vivienne Westwood, punk would have been nothing but a handful of noisy assholes.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011). My icon, my north star, my personal hero. The empress of taste and high priestess of personal style. Watch this doc whenever you need encouragement to do and wear whatever the hell you want.

The Gospel According to André (2017). Diana Vreeland's protegé and a godfather of style in his own right. If it happened in fashion in the last fifty years, André Leon Talley was there for it.

Lagerfeld Confidential (2007). I have a high tolerance for difficult and unpleasant people as long as I like their work. Your mileage may vary, but Karl Lagerfeld's immaculate, relentless taste cannot be denied.

Institutions and events

The First Monday in May (2016). Witness all the hustle, bustle, savvy, and stress that goes into planning the Met gala!

The September Issue (2009). Same as the above, but for the famous September issue of Vogue. Watch this to learn who Grace Coddington is.

Dior and I (2014). How do haute couture collections get made? In 8 weeks from start to finish, I guess, if you're Raf Simons during his first season at the House of Dior. A documentary and a thriller.

Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's (2013). No matter what other retailers might want you to think, Bergdorf Goodman is the last great department store. A portrait, already halfway to a time capsule, of what luxury shopping used to be.

Peripheral, but may be of interest

Nose (2021). The passionate, delicate art of perfume creation for the House of Dior. The French landscapes where they source their materials will make you swoon.

Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story (2017). As the makeup artist to pretty much every single icon of the 80s and 90s, Kevyn Aucoin invented the image of that era as much as any designer.

Fabergé: A Life of Its Own (2014). Come for the dazzling jewels and sumptuous objets d'art; stay to find out how this illustrious name ended up on hair care products in the 70s.

Crazy About Tiffany's (2016). Another luxury jeweler whose name alone is the stuff dreams are made on.

Bill Cunningham New York (2010). The original street style photographer, since before "street style" was even a thing. A love letter to curiosity, and a testament to the power of taking an interest in the world around us.

Still on my watchlist

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams (2020). Directed by Luca Guadagnino, which is enough to put this Ferragamo doc at the top of my list.

Advanced Style (2014). Portraits of seven women aged 62-95 with truly fab personal style. Top Letterboxd review is seething about how out of touch they are with the real world, which means I am probably gonna love it.

Suited (2016). A study of gender through clothing in modern culture.

Dries (2017). A year-- and four collections-- in the life of Dries Van Noten, who, interestingly, doesn't see the point of clothes that people can't buy to wear, and so does not do couture.

Yellow is Forbidden (2018). This doc about Guo Pei appears to use her career as a framework to understand the gatekeeping of global culture by the West. Dope as hell, if it can pull it off.

American Style (2019). The political, social, and economic history of America through its fashion. Another one that could be really awesome if done with insight and panache.

Quant (2021). She may share the credit for inventing the miniskirt with two other people, but it cannot be argued that Mary Quant invented 1960s Swinging London. And for that we say thank you Dame Mary.

[psykopaths]

The Hidden Life of Trees, (2020)

[yesterdayiwrote]

Robbie Williams' open letter to his former manager after they both appeared in Louis Theroux's Boybands Forever documentary is really quite something...

[vague-in-vegas]

I think the Saw fandom always overlooks one very important tboy 😔

[ominouspuff]

handsss

[that-butch-archivist]

"Ruth Ellis, Golden Threads Celebration 1995," from the documentary Golden Threads

source: The Wild Good: Lesbian Photographs & Writings on Love, edited by Beatrix Gates

[broken-risk-assessment-module]

rip secunit 3 😔😔😔 you're not dead but you would have loved saving the lives of a whole colony of innocent humans by making a factually honest and emotionally compelling documentary 😔😔😔

[kitmarlowe]

[cheddar-baby]

I love Disfarmer he was a strange mean photographer from Arkansas who did cheap portraits for families and he was known specifically for having long awkward completely silent photoshoots where he would be under his dark cloth silently working until he abruptly pulled out a bell and would start violently ringing then immediately take a photo. So you end up having lots of these photos of scared looking children and people caught off guard, looking at the camera confused and slightly scared. No one knew much about him and he barely talked to people he just churned out these photos and minded his business then died.

[prolibytherium]

The absolute lowest caliber of nature documentaries are the ones that are like, styled as tournaments debating which 'scary' animals would win in a fight. I kind of love them. They're always like:

NATURE'S BADDEST

Narrator who perpetually sounds like he's in a nerf gun commercial: THE RHINOCEROS IS UP TO 3000 POUNDS OF SHEER MUSCLE AND ANGER. THEY CAN CHARGE AT OVER THIRTY MILES AN HOUR, ENOUGH TO TRAMPLE ANYTHING UNLUCKY ENOUGH TO BE IN THEIR WARPATH.

[footage of a rhino charging] [footage of a rhino tossing its horns]

Interview clip of whatever actual biologist they got for this: Yeah you probably could not outrun a rhino.

Narrator: YOU CAN'T RUN......AND YOU CAN'T HIDE.

[footage of a rhino chasing a dude] [footage of a rhino chasing a lion]

Interview clip of a guy who got attacked by a rhino once: I was attacked by a rhino once.

[shaky reenactment footage showing closeups of an actor screaming and flailing in some bushes, presumably from rhino POV]

Narrator: IS NOTHING SAFE FROM THESE BOISTEROUS BADDIES?

Interview clip of whatever actual biologist they got for this: Most species of rhino are threatened, and a few species are critically endangered and very close to extinction. They're subject to a lot of pressure from poaching and habitat loss.

Narrator (momentarily kind of solemn): IT SEEMS EVEN THIS UNRULY UNGULATE CAN'T STAND UP TO EVERYTHING LIFE THROWS AT IT..........

.....EXCEPT PERHAPS... A CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[footage of a rhino flipping over a car]

[same footage of a rhino flipping over a car in slow motion] [car crash sfx] [screaming sfx] [guitar riff] [inexplicable bear roar sfx]

Narrator: THIS TON AND A HALF MASS OF MUSCLE, HORN, AND FURY MAY BE BAD... BUT HOW DOES IT FARE AGAINST OUR NEXT CONTENDER... THE TARANTULA?!!

[footage of an utterly harmless spider set to scary music]

[hacked-wtsdz]

So tired of jk rowling demonisation. Yeah the woman hates trans people. She also spent amounts most of y’all have never seen on humanitarian causes and charities. She is not a one hundred percent horrible person deserving of shunning. Are people allergic to nuance

[worstloki]

love the idea of the Avengers adding new members but being stingy about rooms so the OG Avengers each get their own but Bucky and Loki are forced to share one under the guise of it being 'healthy interaction'

[fictionadventurer]

I'm fascinated by the ways in which the things a creator is good at making don't necessarily line up with the kind of art that they respect or even enjoy.

This has haunted me ever since I saw a Youtube video about the downfall of The Band Perry, a country band that I had liked until their music got weird and they kind of fell off the face of the earth. Well, it turns out that they tried to reinvent their image and their style of music several times before the band finally fell apart. When they started, they had this weird Southern Gothic homeschooler style that really worked for them and was reasonably popular, but then they tried to switch to a cooler type of pop music--a style they supposedly admired and enjoyed--and it just did not work at all. They failed because they chased what they wanted to make instead of sticking with the style that they were good at.

It's a tension that's present in all creative work. At one point does "going outside the box" go too far? Can one be happy making good work even if it's not the kind of stuff they like or admire? Are the techniques and styles that are most appealing to us appealing because they're things that we can't create ourselves? As in, our minds don't work that way, so seeing these things from other creators is exciting, but the fact that our minds don't work that way is exactly why we can't imitate those things. Where's the line between creative integrity--pushing yourself to make better things--and pride--wanting to make something more prestigious and impressive instead of humbly making the type of art you're best suited to make? Can one even clearly see what they're best at making, and appreciate the good that's there rather than chasing after styles and techniques that seem better? There are no solid answers, which is why I'm going to be endlessly thinking about this.