Awesome Documentaries

We’ve seen a floating city and a condominium city. Here’s an underground town. The South Australian mining town Coober Pedy has about 1,500 residents living in underground homes aka dugouts to escape the scorching daytime heat on the surface.

Filmed over the course of seven years, Pieter-Jan De Pue’s The Land of the Enlightened is a documentary about two gangs of children in Afghanistan and how they survive and dream in their war-torn land.

When you need Santa Claus to show up for a Christmas event, the company you turn to is Arvada, Colorado’s Noerr Programs, who doesn’t just dress white-haired, rotund men in costumes, but actually offers them a four-day course on how to be a good Saint Nick.

(PG-13: Language) “It’s worth whatever a fool is willing to pay for it.” Supreme addicts make Apple fans look reasonable. The brand’s style and limited releases mean resellers get away with up to 1200% markups. Complex takes a look at this underground economy.

Filmmakers Flora Lichtman and Katherine Wells look a look at a 100% off-grid community outside of Taos, New Mexico founded by architect Michael Reynolds. What makes these sustainable, solar structures unique is that they’re built from garbage like tires and cans.

Back in 2000, bar worker Jan Vokes convinced her neighbors in a poor village in South Wales to breed a racehorse – a rich man’s hobby – just for the heck of it. Director Louise Osmond shares their story in this feel good documentary.

The Oceanic Preservation Society – the team behind the anti-dolphin hunting film The Cove – infiltrated black markets that sell endangered animals and blasted infographics at the buildings of companies that harm animals. Airs on the Discovery Channel on 12/2/15.

(PG-13: Language) Line 22 is the only 24-hour bus line in California’s pricy Santa Clara Valley. As a result, homeless people take its 1.5 hour route to and fro at night to sleep in relative safety. Elizabeth Lo filmed the night crowd for a week to make her revealing short film.

“I seen that everybody… was talking to themselves.” Otis Johnson went to prison in 1970. He was released only in 2014, and he’d lost contact with his family. So when he got out it was like he had traveled to the future, and to a bittersweet beginning.

In his final days, an old man teaches his grandson how to gather and cook a rare mushroom. Åsa Blanck and Johan Palmgren’s simple but powerful documentary reminds us to maintain and strengthen our bonds with the people we love.

(PG-13) “You get charged as an adult at 16. Why you gonna put me in there with murderers and think that I would come out different?” Carmelo Anthony and Vice Sports visited the infamous jail to talk to young inmates and remind us that everyone deserves a chance to change.

Retro Report looks back at Ray Mancini’s infamous bout with Duk Koo Kim and wonders if American football is close to a similar tipping point, as the NFL continues to deny the mounting medical evidence of the sport’s serious health risks.

Before Scary Movie and Scream, there was There’s Nothing Out There. Rolfe Kanefsky’s 1991 horror comedy copied horror movies to poke fun at them. But as Charlie Lyne notes in this documentary, Rolfe’s life took a bizarre turn when another movie seemingly copied his.

Micah Ganske’s art is inspired by technology and the future: space stations looming over old factories, a ghost town in an orbital colony, spaceships that form a giant humanoid structure, etc. Video by Alex Amoling and Anchor Light for Distinct Daily.

Artist Jake Weidmann possesses a truly special craft – he’s the youngest of only a handful Master Penmen in the entire world, with the hard-earned ability to create insanely intricate illustrations and calligraphy from the tip of his fountain pen.

Musician and sculptor Andy Thurlow has created not just one or two, but dozens of unique musical instruments, each of which makes strange and unusual sounds. He says he built them because he was tired of everything else sounding the same.

Mark Goffeney is a talented guitarist, especially when you consider that he plays using his feet. Born without arms, Mark’s disability made him an outcast in the ’80s rock scene. But that setback made him believe in sincerity and the power of music even more.

David Boswell’s Reid Fleming, the World’s Toughest Milkman, was a popular comic book during the ’80s. In 1987, Warner Bros. bought its movie rights but rejected Boswell’s script. Charlie Tyrell’s feisty documentary gives us an insider’s look at what happened.

The trailer for Junun, a documentary by Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood) about the making of the eponymous album by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, poet Shye Ben Tzur and The Rajasthan Express. Watch it on Mubi. The album is also on iTunes. More here.

After a tragic accident, Jason Barnes had his hand and wrist amputated. As if that weren’t challenging enough, Jason plays the drums. But thanks to Gil Weinberg, and the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, he can play entirely new styles with his new robotic hand.

Jamie Brightmore went to Banksy’s satirical theme park three times to preserve the temporary exhibit in film. He says that as depressing as it looks, the park is actually a lot of fun, and it’s all too easy to “for­get about the under­ly­ing mes­sages being presen­ted.” 

Tucked in a dusty garage in Gowanus, Brooklyn are 58 rare classic cars and hundreds of car parts owned by Lenny Shiller. Lenny finds it relaxing to take apart and maintain his collection, aware that he’s just taking care of them for their future owners.

This past Earth Day, artist Mac Premo teamed up with skateboard makers Sanford Shapes to create a series of decks using old plastic paint buckets as their medium. They made forty boards, and gave them away to kids in NYC and LA.