So like I have been saying…I believe that education can be found in all areas of life, and documentaries are an area I can’t recommend high enough! Here I will be continuing to input suggested documentaries that I believe are well worth the watch. These will vary from movies to Tv shows. Unfortunately I can’t stream many of these for your pleasure due to copyright and the lack of a channel, but I’m sure these documentaries can be found online!
Andrew Marr’s History of the World
Andrew Marr’s History of the World is a 2012 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers 70,000 years of world history from the beginning of human civilisation, as African nomadic peoples spread out around the world and settled down to become the first farmers, up to the twentieth century.
This is such a great documentary series which examine’s all human existence; from the creation of the needle to the destruction of the world and beyond. This 8 part series is a must for history enthusiasts!
The Blood of the Irish
A two-part documentary series that seeks the truth about the Irish.Broadcaster Diarmuid Gavin travels to the heart of Africa and beyond in a quest to find the very origins of the Irish people. Who are the Irish and whose blood flows in our veins?
A landmark series for RTÉ One, Blood of the Irish explores the most fundamental questions about the Irish population; who were the first people to settle here and where did they come from? Why are the oldest Irish human remains less than 10,000 years old when just 100 kms away in Britain, human traces go back 700,000 years? Did the first Irish arrive overland on an ice bridge, or on a small fragile boat blown ashore by the winds of chance? The series combines cutting edge science, the latest archaeology and superb visuals to bring this enthralling topic to our screens for the first time.
The Story of Ireland
The Story Of Ireland is a five-part landmark history of Ireland, to be presented by Fergal Keane.
Ireland is living through a significant period in its cycle of history – since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the island has been at peace. This is unprecedented in the history of modern Ireland and so seems like a perfect time to reflect on the Irish as a people now, as a modern European nation, and how we got to this place.
The big ambition of this telling of the story is that it should be expansive and outward looking. When the previous television history series was told by the historian Robert Kee in 1981, Ireland was in a very different place, at war with itself in the north and economically ravaged in the south. The series naturally reflected those conditions and primarily viewed our story through the prism of our troubled relationship with our nearest neighbour.
This series will show us that this view is narrow and self – limiting. The Story of Irelandwill look at the evolution of the country in a world context and will show that as an island people our very DNA has been formed by successive waves of peoples coming from outside and that we in turn have travelled and influenced world events for nearly 2000 years.
As a BBC foreign correspondent, Fergal Keane has nurtured a world view of current affairs and history for over 20 years and will act as a knowing and trustful guide for this new Story of Ireland.
The story of Ireland is vivid, exciting and immensely varied. It is far more than the sum of old cliches and myths which set the Irish as a people who were prisoners and victims of history. This series sees Ireland as an international island which is both changed by and helps to change the world beyond her shores. As a foreign correspondent who has traveled on every continent I have tried to bring my experience of the wider world to this story of Ireland and. I have tried to see our past with a clear eye and an open heart.
The World at War
The World at War is a 26-episode television documentary series on World War II and the events leading up to and immediately following it. It was produced by Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Laurence Olivier and its score composed by Carl Davis. A book, The World at War, was written by Mark Arnold-Forster to accompany it.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
In 1994, a group of scientists discovered a cave in Southern France perfectly preserved for over 20,000 years and containing the earliest known human paintings. Knowing the cultural significance that the Chauvet Cave holds, the French government immediately cut-off all access to it, save a few archaeologists and paleontologists. But documentary filmmaker, Werner Herzog, has been given limited access, and now we get to go inside examining beautiful artwork created by our ancient ancestors around 32,000 years ago. He asks questions to various historians and scientists about what these humans would have been like and trying to build a bridge from the past to the present.
The Fog of War
Documentary about Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, who subsequently became president of the World Bank. The documentary combines an interview with Mr. McNamara discussing some of the tragedies and glories of the 20th Century, archival footage, documents, and an original score by Philip Glass
This is not a “throw it on documentary.” Plan your weekend around it! Claude Lanzmann directed this 9 1/2 hour documentary of the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage. He interviews survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis (whom he had to film secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio). His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive and well in many people who still live in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere