If you don’t watch and enjoy documentaries already, you probably think of them as boring edutainment, laced with boring things like “facts” and “ideas.” Well, you’re only half true. These days, the documentary genre contains all sorts of different films, many of which are some of the most entertaining things you’ll watch. We discuss the benefits and dangers of this genre. We also herald the return of the CAPCAs (Christ and Pop Culture Awards), handing out awards to all sorts of different kinds of documentaries.
Every week, Richard Clark and Ben Bartlett acknowledge and respond to the big issues in popular culture. We love feedback! If you’d like to respond you can comment on the website, send an email to christandpopculture@gmail.com, or go to our contact page. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now! Subscribe to us in iTunes by clicking here. While you’re at it, review us in iTunes! We’ll love you forever!
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Pop Culture is everywhere. We just acknowledge it. Christ and Pop Culture is an attempt to discuss and think rightly about the common knowledge of our age. 
Here are a number of documentaries that I’ve enjoyed or found helpful. I can safely recommend each of these for one reason or another. I’ve included asterisks for each of the films available on Instant Watch (as per Rich’s tic). I thought about doing a top five list and I could still do that, but this might be a more helpful list. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to give a synopsis for each of these.
Film:
American Movie (1999)
A Decade Under the Influence (2003)
Hamster Factor and Other Tales of the Twelve Monkeys (1997)
Lost in La Mancha* (2002)
Music:
Buena Vista Social Club* (1999)
Danielson: A Family Movie* (2006)
Ken Burns Jazz* (2001)
Monterey Pop (1968)
The Sporting Life:
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
Endless Summer II* (1994)
Mad Hot Ballroom* (2005)
Politics:
Fog of War (2003)
Manufacturing Consent (1992)
Waltz with Bashir (2008)
Others:
Crumb (1994)
Helvetica* (2007)
Spellbound (2002)
*sigh* The only problem with podcasts is their lack of scan-ability. I want to see what documentaries you guys mention, but not enough to listen to the whole thing again. You should provide show notes!
Probably true, The Dane. We’ll work on that.