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Comment by blumentopf | Hacker News Reader

Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the...

March of the Penguins (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_the_Penguins

Code Rush (2000) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Rush

Losers and Winners (2006) http://www.losers-and-winners.net/index_en.htm Documentary about the dismantling of a German coking plant, the most modern in the world, by Chinese workers in 2003, who shipped the plant to China and built several clones of it there. The plant was sold to China for a minor sum when the steel price was at an all time low and politicians believed the price would stay there. The steel price has since skyrocketed.

Weltmarktführer (2004) http://www.weltmarktfuehrer-derfilm.de/ Excellent documentary about the rise and fall of IT-startup Biodata and its founder Tan Siekmann during the dotcom boom and bust, alas only available in German.

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"Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room" seconded! It is by far my most favourite documentary.

In addition, I like the following documentaries:

- "Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1638362/

- "Planet Earth" IMHO one of BBC's best productions with some of the most amazing nature shots ever (e.g., a [presumably stratospheric] shot that looks like fog or fire but is really a swarm of flies) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795176/

- BBC has also two of the best documentary series regarding the second world war: "The World at War" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071075/) and "The Nazis: A Warning from History" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0207907/)

- Errol Morris' "The Thin Blue Line" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096257/) and "The Fog of War" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317910/)

Really? I thought "The Smartest Guys in the Room" was very boring -- I learned literally nothing about the Enron scandal other than "some guys were pretty greedy." Most of the documentary was segments of people describing how unethical management was, while barely elucidating on what actually happened.

The World at War is a series that I believe shaped large parts of my life. It still colours my thinking to this day; particularly with respect to the Middle East.

I was 11 or 12 when this series first aired in the UK. It was on quite late at night, but my parents decided I should "stay up" and watch it. Good parents. The war was still raw with them, though they were tiny kids at that time. My mum was born in 1937, my dad was as bit older.

It is graphic, honest, and a since folk rewrite history as time passes, an essential historical document of what transpired in those times.

I urge you to watch it. Our recent history is the most relevant.

But let me put this in perspective. The American Civil War started 100 years before I was born. WWII started 72 years ago. What seems almost unreachable history, becomes almost tangible as you get older. And I'm not that old!

Watching Code Rush now - thanks for the recommendation!

If you liked it, the Mozilla Memory Project offers even more first-hand accounts on Mozilla's history: http://mozillamemory.org/

I've found the interview with Mike Pinkerton (nowadays at Google working on Chrome for the Mac) to be particularly interesting because of his candidness: http://mozillamemory.org/detailview.php?id=7277

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