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2:40:29HyperNormalisation 2016
2.3M views • 10 years ago
crisalist
Adam Curtis's 2016 BBC documentary HyperNormalisation, about 160 minutes long. It cuts together roughly forty years of politics, finance and technology to argue that people have retreated into a simplified fake world.
59:31The Story of Tetris
4.9M views • 8 years ago
Gaming Historian
Gaming Historian recounts how Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in the Soviet Union and how a fight over publishing rights spanned the West, Mirrorsoft, Nintendo and the Cold War. It runs about an hour with chaptered parts.
11:00The Truth About Homelessness in San Francisco
1.9M views • 6 years ago
Christopher F. Rufo
A short documentary by Christopher Rufo presenting a conservative account of homelessness, addiction and public disorder in San Francisco.
30:33Origins of Precision
3M views • 8 years ago
Machine Thinking
Machine Thinking traces where mechanical precision comes from, from flat surface plates and the three-plate method up through lathes and early measuring tools. It is the first in a series on recreating the first micrometer.
6:53Building The World's First Computer - Greeks, Clocks and Rockets - Antikythera Mechanism Episode 1
1.1M views • 9 years ago
Clickspring
The first episode of Clickspring's series on reproducing the Antikythera Mechanism by hand, laying out the plan and the history. The series follows a machinist building the ancient Greek device with traditional tools and methods.
44:40MiniDisc - An Appreciation
2.2M views • 9 years ago
Techmoan
Techmoan's 45-minute retrospective on Sony's MiniDisc, covering the first and last machines, ATRAC, MD-LP, Net-MD and HiMD. It argues the format deserves more credit than its US failure narrative suggests.
14:44The Insane Battle To Sabotage a New Apartment Building Explains San Francisco's Housing Crisis
1.5M views • 7 years ago
ReasonTV
ReasonTV tells the story of Bob Tillman, who spent nearly five years and $1.4 million trying to convert his San Francisco laundromat into apartments. It walks through the permitting, appeals and neighborhood opposition he faced.
39:21BBS The Documentary: Episode 1 of 8: BAUD (The Beginning)
40K views • 6 years ago
Jason Scott
The first episode of Jason Scott's eight-part BBS documentary, covering the predecessors and beginnings of the dial-up bulletin board system. It includes interviews with pioneers such as Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, who created the first dial-up BBS in 1978.
1:16:56The Part of History You've Always Skipped | Neoslavery
6.2M views • 4 years ago
Knowing Better
A long documentary-style video arguing that slavery in the US effectively continued through convict leasing and the prison system until around 1942. It covers the constitutional carveout and the history of neoslavery.
1:13:54RetroAhoy: The Secret of Monkey Island
3.2M views • 8 years ago
Ahoy
A roughly 75-minute video essay from Ahoy's RetroAhoy series on the making and history of The Secret of Monkey Island. It covers the small LucasArts team, the game's development and its sequel.
1:44:10Vaccines and Autism: A Measured Response
13.2M views • 5 years ago
hbomberguy
hbomberguy's long video dissects the anti-vaccine movement, analyzing Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent MMR-autism study, the media's role and Wakefield's loss of his license. It combines detailed research with humor.
40:43Birth of The Transistor: A video history of Japan's electronic industry. (Part 1)
1.2M views • 12 years ago
RC286
First part of a four-part video history of Japan's electronics industry, covering the birth of the transistor and the rise of Japanese semiconductors. It appears to draw on NHK documentary material.
13:32The Super-Fast Logistics of Delivering Blood By Drone
1.1M views • 7 years ago
Wendover Productions
A Wendover Productions documentary-style video on how Zipline delivers blood and medical supplies by drone in Rwanda. It covers the catapult launch, parachute drop and the logistics behind it.
1:53:34The History of Tetris World Records
7.3M views • 2 years ago
Summoning Salt
Summoning Salt's roughly two-hour documentary traces the history of Tetris world records, from early play through the modern competitive scene. It is a long, well-researched narrative about the players and techniques that pushed the records.
9:19The Gun Markets of Pakistan with Suroosh Alvi
14.3M views • 15 years ago
VICE
A VICE report from 2011 in which Suroosh Alvi revisits the gun markets in Pakistan's tribal areas, a stronghold of the Taliban. It shows weapons being made and sold by hand and a country described as a powder keg.
6:54NASA | Earthrise: The 45th Anniversary
2.3M views • 12 years ago
NASA Goddard
NASA Goddard recreates the Apollo 8 Earthrise moment using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data, narrated by Andrew Chaikin and synced with the astronauts' recorded conversation. It marks the flight's 45th anniversary.
25:30No Béarla Series 1, Episode 1.
256K views • 14 years ago
An Ghaeilge
The first episode of the Irish TV series No Bearla, in which native Irish speaker Manchan Magan travels around Ireland trying to get by using only Irish. It documents the highs and lows of the attempt.
8:11Appalachian English
8.4M views • 18 years ago
The Language & Life Project
An excerpt from the documentary Mountain Talk on Appalachian English. Residents of Southern Appalachia talk about their dialect and give examples of its distinctive words.
36:08Afghanistan War Exposed: An Imperial Conspiracy (Full Documentary)
197K views • 6 years ago
Empire Files
An Empire Files documentary by Abby Martin presenting a critical account of the Afghanistan War, from the CIA's role in the 1980s to the stalemate of the 2010s and 2020. It argues the war was driven by imperial interests.
12:29Why Evangelical Christians Love Israel | VICE on HBO
4.3M views • 8 years ago
VICE News
A VICE on HBO segment in which Thomas Morton joins a tour of born-again Christians in the Holy Land. It examines the end-times beliefs behind evangelical support for Israel.
2:46:48Hypernormalisation | Full Documentary | Adam Curtis
622K views • 3 years ago
Adam Curtis Documentaries
Adam Curtis's 2016 BBC documentary arguing that politicians, financiers and technologists retreated into a simplified, fake version of the world because reality became too complex. It ranges across Trump, Brexit, Syria, Surkov's Russia and more.
7:46The Bronze Age Collapse - Before the Storm - Extra History - Part 1
3.9M views • 9 years ago
Extra History
The first part of Extra History's series on the Bronze Age Collapse, introducing the Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, and Mycenaeans and their interlinked system of trade, agriculture, and war before the Sea Peoples arrive.
1:29:11This Is What Winning Looks Like (Full Length)
10.4M views • 13 years ago
VICE
Ben Anderson's VICE documentary shows embedded reporting on Afghan security forces and US Marines in Helmand during the troop drawdown, exposing incompetence, drug abuse and corruption.
47:25Thoth's Pill - an Animated History of Writing
1.3M views • 11 years ago
NativLang
NativLang's 47-minute animated documentary traces the birth and evolution of writing, from early cave marks to modern scripts. It presents the history of the world's writing systems as a story.
1:19:04Francis Bacon: A Brush with Violence (2017)
4.8M views • 9 years ago
Wei Yu
A BBC documentary on Francis Bacon, the loud, hard-drinking British painter, drawing on people who knew him. It explores the haunted man behind the Roaring Boy persona.
1:32:48General Magic (1080p) FULL DOCUMENTARY - History, Technology, Business
73K views • 4 years ago
Gravitas Documentaries
A feature-length documentary on General Magic, the 1989 startup that envisioned the smartphone and handheld connected devices, featuring Tony Fadell, Andy Hertzfeld and Marc Porat. It covers the company's vision and eventual failure.
30:36Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone (Full Documentary)
1.7M views • 4 years ago
The Verge
The Verge's documentary on Handspring and its Treo, a smartphone that came a decade before the iPhone. It tells how a small team tried to build the modern smartphone and was held back by carriers and timing.
28:51What Went Wrong in the South Korean Ferry Disaster? | The New Yorker
17.7M views • 7 years ago
The New Yorker
A New Yorker short documentary about the 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry in South Korea, based on the film In the Absence. It examines the failures in the rescue and the political aftermath.
50:00Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism | VPRO Documentary
4.7M views • 6 years ago
vpro documentary
A VPRO documentary in which Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff explains her book on surveillance capitalism. It covers how Google and Facebook turn personal data into raw material for prediction and behavioral influence.
58:46The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines"
2.9M views • 10 years ago
JustAdamCurtis
The first part of Adam Curtis' documentary series on Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays, who invented public relations. It shows how Bernays used Freud's ideas to link mass-produced goods to unconscious desires and create modern consumer persuasion.
53:51The Engoodening of No Man's Sky
26.5M views • 6 years ago
Internet Historian
Internet Historian tells the story of No Man's Sky, from its over-hyped and badly received launch to years of updates by Hello Games that redeemed the game. It is a long, comedic mini-documentary.
41:29Flight of the Navigator | VFXcool
3.2M views • 5 years ago
Captain Disillusion
Captain Disillusion's VFXcool episode, led by Alan Melikdjanian, takes a 41-minute nostalgic look at how the visual effects of Flight of the Navigator were made. It covers early computers, motion control, in-camera effects and practical crafts.
5:22:14The Complete History of the A Button Challenge
2.4M views • 3 years ago
Bismuth
A five-hour documentary history of the Super Mario 64 A button challenge, which aims to beat the game with as few A presses as possible. It covers the bugs and exploits discovered over the years.
11:27This Swiss Builder uses NO INSULATION...
857K views • 7 years ago
Matt Risinger
Builders Matt Risinger and Jordan Smith visit a Swiss cross-laminated timber factory that makes thick all-wood walls with no traditional insulation and wooden nails instead of glue or chemicals. The video is sponsored by Siga.
25:51The Lobby P1: Young Friends of Israel l Al Jazeera Investigations
1.2M views • 9 years ago
Al Jazeera English
The first part of an Al Jazeera undercover investigation into the Israel lobby in Britain, covering efforts to influence youth groups and the National Union of Students, including a smear campaign against its president.
42:30The man who almost faked his way to a Nobel Prize
4.2M views • 6 years ago
BobbyBroccoli
BobbyBroccoli's first of three parts on Jan Hendrik Schon, the Bell Labs postdoc whose fabricated organic semiconductor results nearly won a Nobel Prize. It covers his rise and the context around Bell Labs.
1:43:00Disney's FastPass: A Complicated History
27.3M views • 4 years ago
Defunctland
A feature-length Defunctland documentary on the history of Disney's FastPass and FastPass+ expedited queue systems. It covers how the systems evolved and how they were designed, with simulation of their effects on park lines.
29:54[Epilepsy Warning] Choco Mountain: The History of Mario Kart 64's Most Infamous Track
5.4M views • 8 years ago
Summoning Salt
Summoning Salt traces the speedrunning history of Mario Kart 64's Choco Mountain track and its famous shortcut, through the successive record holders and discoveries. It carries an epilepsy warning for flickering lights.
7:21Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed: Feb. 13, 1957)
1.8M views • 18 years ago
fireurgunz
A 1957 Walt Disney film in which he explains and demonstrates the multiplane camera, the animation tool that gave 2D films depth. It is a short behind-the-scenes piece from Disney's archives.
58:59British Airways Boeing 747-400 in D-Check
9.7M views • 14 years ago
JDProductions INC.
An Engineering Giants documentary episode following a British Airways Boeing 747-400 through a D-check, the heaviest maintenance inspection, in Cardiff. The aircraft is stripped down and inspected nearly everywhere.