Awesome Documentaries

Vox introduces us to Clint Buffington, who has found not just one of those fabled messages in a bottle that washed up on a beach, but 83 of them. Learn how he does it, and how he seeks out their senders. Check out that ocean current simulator here.

Along with vinyl, cassette tapes are staging their own comeback, with ongoing interest from electronic musicians who find the analog sound and hiss complements rather than detracts from their music. The Vinyl Factory explores this growing movement. (Thanks Paul!)

“Tasogare means twilight – a time of ambivalence…” Musician Lia Mice recently performed at Tasogare, a music festival held at Komyoji, a Buddhist temple in Tokyo. She spoke with Tasogare’s founders to find out the origins and ideas behind this unorthodox gathering.

“There’s only 450 jobs man.” A short documentary about the D-League team Raptors 905 and their rookie head coach – two-time NBA All-Star Jerry Stackhouse. A great behind-the-scenes look about what it means to be a coach on and off the court.

(PG-13: Language) Anthony van der Meer claims he worked with the developer of an anti-theft Android app to monitor a phone that he purposefully left to be stolen. We suspect this is a viral ad, but it’s also a riveting film about voyeurism and technology’s threat to privacy.

A moving short documentary about Andy, a man who lost his vision after a brutal assault, and the fascinating new technology which is helping him to regain his lost sense by sending electrical impulses to his tongue.

BRIC TV introduces us to Fred Nelson, an elderly man who found his true love late in life, bringing a much needed sliver of joy and happiness into the world using his feet, shoes, and an old piece of wood.

While you might think those goofy dancing inflatable guys you see at car dealerships were the brainchild of some advertising genius, they actually got their start as moving sculptures during an Olympic opening ceremony 20 years ago. Great Big Story shares the details.

Once a year, a crowd of hard-working and dedicated fans gather at the Tejano Super Show in Odessa, Texas to show off their low-riders with their crazy jacked up suspension systems. Director Ben Steinbauer’s slice of life documentary is basically the exact opposite of Petrolicious.

Shot in Galapagos, this excerpt from Planet Earth II sees a newly hatched marine iguana surrounded by racer snakes, which had already devoured most of the hatchling’s kin. Apparently, this is the first time that snakes have been seen hunting en masse. More here.

Andrew Jones is a serious stud. Not only is he more physically fit than most people we know, he’s a model, and he doesn’t let the fact that he has to live with an artificial heart while he waits for a transplant donor match get him down in the least.

Atlantium is a tiny self-declared sovereign state about 4 hours from Sydney, Australia, with about 3000 citizens in its current ranks. It was formed in the interest of creating a place where people of all kinds from around the world are welcome, and that values freedom above all.

“In 2040, you will be able to sail over the North Pole.” Fisher Stevens’ documentary about Leonardo DiCaprio’s three-year journey to enlighten himself about climate change is currently available on National Geographic’s YouTube channel for free.

Director Iqbal Ahmed’s fascinating and beautifully filmed short documentary introduces us to Steven Kutcher, a man full self-aware of his quirks, who has found a way to make a living – and art, through his love for insects.

Craryville, New York’s Camp Sundown is a summer camp for children who can’t go out during daytime. The kids suffer from Xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare disorder that renders their bodies unable to repair damage caused by exposure to ultraviolet light.

Check out some of the most jaw-dropping close ups, slow motion and tracking shots you’ll ever see in the extended trailer for BBC’s upcoming nature documentary Planet Earth II. Hans Zimmer made an original score for the film, so it will melt your eyes and ears at the same time.

The snowboard is based on the snurfer, an American invention from 1965. But Wrkshrt and Patagonia heard of Petran, a remote town in Turkey where snow surfing has been around for nearly 300 years. So they went there to check out the snowboard’s forgotten ancestor.

YouTube channel Freethink has a new series of brief documentaries about private space technology companies. The first episode is about XCOR and its Lynx, an airplane-like rocketship that could one day make four flights a day, five days a week.

BBC’s chill and beautiful nature series returns. Filmed over the course of three years, Planet Earth II used the latest camera technologies to explore “the unique characteristics of Earth’s most iconic habitats and the extraordinary ways animals survive within them.”

John McAfee rose to fame building anti-virus software, but the tech-savvy millionaire would go on to become a drug lord living off the grid in Belize, and somehow later would run for the U.S. presidency. Now learn about the bizarre path he chose in this Showtime documentary.

“We’re knowingly doing this.” In this documentary, actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio travels around the world to speak with politicians, scientists and fellow advocates and witness first hand the effects of climate change. Premieres 10/30/16 on Nat Geo.

From Selma director Ava DuVernay comes a Netflix documentary about America’s problems regarding mass incarceration and the privatization of its prisons, both stemming from the abuse of the US Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment. Drops 10/7/16.

Petrolicious introduces us to lifelong gearhead Hans-Michael Gerischer. He started with VW Beetles, then moved on to a Porsche 964 to try track racing. As he got better at driving, he would tweak his car to suit his needs. Now he restores 911s as a side gig.