Anything related to the arts outside of traditional gaming and otaku spaces. Discuss literature, music, cinema, painting, etc. Also feel free to share your own creative endeavors (whether they are moe moe or not).
Who doesn't love a good documentary? Let's share your favorite lesser known masterpieces with fellow docu enjoyers. Don't be afraid to share your favorite even if you're uncertain about whether it classifies as "lesser known" or a "documentary" (longer in depth YouTube videos of excellent quality are fine too) -- I just want to stay focused on the ones outside the biggest mainstream as most docu lovers probably have seen Grizzly Man and Down the Rabbithole series, but it's still better to post it than leave a masterpiece be overlooked
I'll have more to share but let me start with a lovely 2011 documentary that's available on YouTube, called Resurrect Dead - The mystery of the Toynbee Tiles[. It is about Toynbee Tiles, mysterious asphalt tiles with cryptic messages appearing around different cities in the US. The documentary tries to track down the man behind them and his motives for doing so. If you like schizo vibes of stories like that of Terry Davis or Gene Ray, you'll love it.
Poto and Cabengo is a documentary about two American twins who invented their own language and exclusively spoke in it, even to their family. Their names are Grace and Virginia Kennedy, but they called themselves Poto and Cabengo. The documentary is made by Jean-Pierre Gorin, who was an associate of Godard during his Maoist radical period. On top of the fascinating subject matter, it's kind of a funny fish-out-of-water time capsule of this French artiste in the middle of the American south. Also, he sounds EXACTLY like Tommy Wiseau when he speaks English, which is a bit distracting but also funny:
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That's exactly the stuff I'm looking for, I'll probably watch it in the following few days
Here are two more documentaries that are perhaps a little better known but I haven't seen them until my brother showed them to me and they both highlight an interesting topic that can further be delved into: unrealized ambitious movie projects. We watched both of these with my brother one weekend and it hit me with a strange realization that there have been many failed attempts at works of art that might have very much changed the course of our culture, and most of them we don't even ever hear of. Both of the movies here were very promising, had a great vision and by today would most likely have been a cinema classic, but they were struck by incredibly bad luck. I just had to keep thinking about how the pop culture would be different if these movies got made.
First docu is Lost in La Mancha (2002) about the attempt at adaptation of Don Quixote that was to star Jean Rochefort and Johnny Depp:
And the second one is Jodorowsky's Dune (2013) about what was to be a very visually rich adaptation of Dune. I think this reimagining could have been quite revolutionary and might have spawned a wave of similar movies but yeah, it didn't happen.
My brother just sent me this and I'm only a few minutes in, though it already looks worth sharing. It is about Orientalism, a genre of music that's made to sound oriental to westerners but doesn't actually sound familiar to the people living in those parts of the world.
Another one I'm in the middle of watching right now. I was looking for this documentary after listening to this interview and had hard time finding it. It is now screen grabbed on YT, I suppose it may get taken down soon.
Superstar at 14 - Beckii Cruel ベッキー・クルーエル (2009): Docu about a girl from Britain that in 2000s went viral and became an idol in Japan.
EDIT: LMAO the most precious moment happens at 27:03. The horror when she finds out through YouTube demographics that the majority of her audience is 45 to 54 year old males The fuck did she expect
Last edited by drummyfish on Sat Jul 11, 2026 11:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
okay, so there's this documentary by Adam Curtis called HyperNormalization. the best way i can describe it is that it's sort of about the "fake" systems that governments have entrapped us with - it's difficult to explain, so you're better off just reading its Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalization. it seems to very obscure, at least in the mainstream sense - i only heard about it myself because a friend brought it up in a conversation. i have yet to see the documentary myself but it's basically the exact kind of weird "this belongs right on nighttime Adult Swim" stuff i enjoy, like Alan Resnick's kooky movie projects (sidenote, if you ever want to watch a weird-ass and occasionally disturbing webseries, look up AlanTutorial on YT).
additionally, the YT channel Ahoy makes some great, high quality documentaries about video game history. his videos are never just stale rehashes of encyclopedia articles like most youtuber """documentaries""" but instead fully researched. in the Polybius video he even goes so far as to contact the numerous people who have given supposed accounts of Polybius machines. really great stuff:
If an administrator is reading this, please ban my account immediately; I am under the age of 18. Ban length only need be ~2 years. Please excuse my retarded ass for not reading the rules, sorry in advance.
it's basically the exact kind of weird "this belongs right on nighttime Adult Swim" stuff i enjoy, like Alan Resnick's kooky movie projects (sidenote, if you ever want to watch a weird-ass and occasionally disturbing webseries, look up AlanTutorial on YT).
Alan Resnick is great! I would recommend "This House Has People In It" to anyone here. "Unedited Footage of a Bear" is also pretty good and "Live Forever as You Are Now" is pretty funny.
Lesser known/underrated/obscure documentaries
The fuck did she expect 
