Documentaries are usually the go-to crash courses to understand how the world operates.
The mainstream voices will yap away about how boring it is to spend time on documentaries when there are great TV series out there.
TV series are customarily dependant and vulnerable to the state of their respective script/screen writer’s guilds, actors’ contract disputes and changes of directors and producers.
An example of Prison Break and Heroes in the late 2000’s: there was the whole Writers Guild strike fiasco that happened back then and actors decided to go for the bigger pay cheque elsewhere. Season one was great but their story plots went down the drain during the strike and characters got killed off just because the actors didn’t want to continue.
As a result, I stopped watching TV series and decided to spend time on documentaries (and anime) instead.
I’m just going to put down a few basic ones down. If you do have recommendations or any awesome ones you would love to share, please post it in the comment box below.
1. The Baltic Tragedy – Nazi and Soviet occupation in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
It’s dark, solemn and gritty but it’s a must watch especially if you did not grow up in a post-Soviet country. If you are OK with watching Schindler’s List, you should be fine with this too.
2. Global Financial Meltdown
I would recommend to watch the several financial crisis domentaries that are available on Youtube. Key in “financial crisis documentary” in Youtube and you will get a whole list of options.
Euro Crisis? Checked.
1997 Asian Crisis? Checked.
Icelandic economic crisis? Checked.
3. Four Horsemen
FOUR HORSEMEN is a documentary which lifts the lid on how the world really works.
4. * Any documentary about a country’s demise or rise.
I personally like China: A Century of Revolution
A comprehensive documentary everybody should watch to understand that the Chinese are not as simple as you think they are.
5. *Any basic introduction of Economics
Estonia had their elections recently and the bulk of people who doens’t understand or know where to cast their votes to is partly attributed to their lack of knowledge in the economics department. This issue does not only exist in Estonia, this exist everywhere. I’m no economics expert and neither do the world expects you to be one, it’s still essential to know the basics.
In whichever fields you are in, you will be able to find certain types of documentary that you will like.
Use the top documentary or 100 documentary movies websites to ignite your love for documentaries.
Besides those, I also recommend Bill Gates’ 13 favourite TED Talks.
Not exactly documentaries but still compelling to know what one of the richest guys on earth fancies these days.
The viruses are spreading around this period of time, so lock yourselves up and start clocking in those documentaries’ hours!