When did your addiction to docs start? Michael Moore films? PBS? Or was it when you saw Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth?

For me the fascination began when my history teacher played educational movies in class. While my friends dreaded the boring videos, I was hooked learning about the life and times of Roosevelt and Jefferson, or the Depression Era, or even Roman Emperors. Whatever the topic, I was simply paralyzed not aware of the world around me.

One of the earliest doc that I can recall (and find a full vid of on the net) is The Prize. An eight part series based on the book of the same name.

The Prize has been called the “definitive” history of the oil industry, even a “bible” [1]; some critics, though, consider the book too sympathetic to the perspective of the oil industry, of which the author is, in a way, a part. The Prize was the basis for a six hour documentary television series titled “The Prize - The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power”, narrated by Donald Sutherland. The series is frequently used as a source material in Middle Eastern studies classes and is said to have been seen by 20 million people in the United States.

Above is the first part.

Wikipedia:

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is a 1997 book by Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at UCLA. In 1998 it won a Pulitzer Prize and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book. A documentary based on the book was broadcast on PBS in July 2005, produced by the National Geographic Society.

According to the author, an alternative title would be A short history about everyone for the last 13,000 years. But the book is not merely an account of the past; it attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations, as a whole, have survived and conquered others, while attempting to refute the belief that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that: the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences amplified by various positive feedback loops; and that, if cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example Chinese centralized government, or improved disease resistance among Eurasians), it is only so because of the influence of geography.

Part 1 of 18 on YouTube

Official Site

Wikipedia

IMDB

Only one documentary quenches my thirst for art, architecture, history and gangster films — “Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance.” If you paid attention during history class, you’re aware that the Medicis were patrons to some of the most renowned artists of all time — some of them include Botticelli, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael. They practically sponsored the renaissance period.

This four part series tells the story of how the generations of this family rose to become one of the most powerful financial and political force to reckon with. And how it took violence, political maneuver and a bit of luck at times to maintain remaining on top.

Birth of a Dynasty: The Magnificent Medici: The Medici Pope: Power vs. Truth