PickVidsBest Documentaries & storytelling Videos
The 202 Documentaries & storytelling videos here were recommended by different people across different months. Choose by who it is for: 4 introductory, 0 intermediate, 198 for a general viewer, and 0 for someone who wants the harder derivation. Most of them are a documentary. What they share is that the people and the sequence of events are put back before anyone argues. Channels you will keep seeing include Tom Scott, Mark Rober, BobbyBroccoli.
The Century of the Self (Full Adam Curtis Documentary)
Adam Curtis' multi-part documentary on how Freud's ideas and Edward Bernays' public relations shaped consumer culture and political control.
Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop
Nate Harrison's 2004 video history of the Amen Break, a six-second drum sample from a 1969 b-side that became the basis of hip-hop sampling, jungle and drum and bass.
James Burke Connections, Ep. 1 "The Trigger Effect"
The first episode of James Burke's 1978 BBC series Connections traces modern dependence on complex technological networks, starting with the 1965 New York blackout, and moves through ancient agriculture to Kuwait's oil-driven leap.
AlphaGo - The Movie | Full award-winning documentary
Feature-length documentary following DeepMind's AlphaGo program as it prepares for and plays the 2016 match against Go champion Lee Sedol.
TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time (4K)
A 29-minute cinematic timelapse by melodysheep that journeys trillions of years into the future, covering the death of the sun, the end of stars, proton decay, black hole evaporation and the fate of the cosmos.
The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines"
The first part of Adam Curtis' documentary series on Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays, who invented public relations.
Dick Proenneke in Alone in the Wilderness
A condensed film of Dick Proenneke's footage of building a cabin and living alone in the Alaskan wilderness, using hand tools and local materials.
The Secret War
A compilation of the 1977 BBC series The Secret War, a documentary on British scientific and technical efforts in WWII, including radar, German navigation beams and V-weapons.
8. The Sumerians - Fall of the First Cities
Episode 8 of the Fall of Civilizations podcast, a roughly two and a half hour history of the Sumerians.
1. How Buildings Learn - Stewart Brand - 1 of 6 - “Flow”
The first episode of Stewart Brand's 1997 BBC series based on his book How Buildings Learn, covering how buildings change after they are built.
Powers of Ten™ (1977)
The Eames Office's 1977 film Powers of Ten starts at a picnic in Chicago and zooms out by a factor of ten every ten seconds to the edge of the universe.
TempleOS | Down the Rabbit Hole
Fredrik Knudsen's 86-minute documentary on Terry A.
Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans | A Film by Jeff Gibbs | Full Documentary
Planet of the Humans, a full documentary by Jeff Gibbs presented by Michael Moore, arguing that the green movement has been co-opted by corporate and wealthy interests and that techno-fixes are not enough.
I promise this story about microwaves is interesting.
Tom Scott investigates the claim that the microwave was invented to heat hamsters, and interviews James Lovelock about freezing and microwave-thawing hamsters in the 1950s.
The House I Live In Official Trailer #1 (2012) Drugs Documentary Movie HD
Official trailer for Eugene Jarecki's 2012 documentary The House I Live In, an investigative look at America's war on drugs and its effect on the criminal justice system.
HyperNormalisation 2016
Adam Curtis's 2016 BBC documentary HyperNormalisation, about 160 minutes long.
Moleman 2 - Demoscene - The Art of the Algorithms (2012)
Moleman 2 is a feature-length documentary about the demoscene, tracing its rise from 1980s Commodore 64 culture to modern real-time art.
James Burke Connections, Ep. 4 "Faith in Numbers"
Episode 4 of James Burke's Connections series, tracing how commercialism, climate change and the Black Death shaped the move to the Renaissance.
FarewellEtaoinShrdlu
A documentary on the last day the New York Times was printed with linotype machines in 1978, following the process from the newsroom to the press.
The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel
Jenny Nicholson's roughly four-hour review of her two-night stay on Disney's Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser immersive hotel.
Happy People | Spring (part 1) [Happy People Documentary | Spring in Siberia Part 1
The first part of Dmitry Vasyukov's four-part Russian documentary series about trappers and villagers living in the Siberian taiga.
England: South Sea Bubble - The Sharp Mind of John Blunt - Extra History - Part 1
The first part of Extra History's animated miniseries on the South Sea Bubble.
The man who almost faked his way to a Nobel Prize
BobbyBroccoli's first of three parts on Jan Hendrik Schon, the Bell Labs postdoc whose fabricated organic semiconductor results nearly won a Nobel Prize.
Alexander Pope Wrote a 35-Page Takedown of a Historian
CGP Grey tells the story of Alexander Pope's long takedown of a historian, Thomas Hearne, framed around the quirks of library books and archival research.