Hacker Cinema
Rivers and Tides
2001 · Film · documentary · 90 min
Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer
Portrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature.
3 positive1 neutralfrom 4 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
Here is the list from the thread: --- 1. A Man Named Pearl
2. Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
3. Microcosmos
4. Crip Camp!
5. Keep The River On Your Right
6. All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
7. Harlan County USA
8. Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story
9. Good Night Oppy
10. We Met in Virtual Reality
11. All That Breathes
12. Still
13. Can’t Be Stopped
14. The Amazing Jonathan Documentary
15. Searching for Sugarman
16. AKA Mr Chow
17. The Pigeon Tunnel
18. Little Richard: I Am Everything
19. I Know That Voice
20. Genghis Blues
21. Kings of Pastry
22. 20 Feet From Stardom
23. Stevie
24. Anvil: the Story of Anvil
25. Searching for Sugar Man
26. King of Kong
27. The Gleaners and I
28. Touching the Void
29. Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
30. 20 Days in Mariupol
31. Minding the Gap
32. How to Survive a Plague
33. Speciesism
34. Free Solo
35. Jim Allison: Breakthrough
36. Seven Up! series
37. Bowling for Columbine
38. The Fog of War
39. Rivers and Tides
40. Capturing the Friedmans
41. Spellbound
42. King of Kong
43. Crip Camp
44. Jesus Camp
45. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
46. Flee
47. Man on Wire
48. Queen of Versailles
49. The Thin Blue Line
50. Time Indefinite
51. The Gleaners and I
52. My Life as a Turkey
53. Happy People
54. Grizzly Man
Top 5
1. First Contact (1982) - Possibly the best documentary ever made https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085544/
2. Rivers and Tides (2001) - Beautiful meditation on the art of Andy Goldsworthy, with music by Fred Frith https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307385/
3. This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I'll Ever Make (2002) - The story of Popcorn Sutton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA
4. Alone in the Wilderness (2004) - Mostly original footage and commentary by Richard Proenneke https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437806/
5. Apollo 11 (2019) - Narration-free documentary on the first moon landing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8760684/
Bonus picks:
Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) is a dramatization but an incredibly accurate one https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/
If mockumentaries count, everything by Christopher Guest is obligatory. There's also this short gem on the Centrifuge Brain Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeHxUVkW4w
Grizzly Man (2005) is not a mockumentary, but like most Herzog documentaries, it's not exactly straight https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/
Finally, I'm a huge fan of first-nuclear-era documentaries made by the U.S. government, e.g.
Army Nuclear Power Program (1963) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPWDMHH4rY4
SNAP 8 Reactor (1963) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82nCRWawfhQ
SNAPSHOT (1964) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9jI1Hdl5Yw
Remote Maintanence of Molten Salt Reactors (?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHT-w2x6dDg
and many more.
Yeah, I think one of the issues people have with lack of intrinsic meaning is that they experience it as a loss.
My parents weren't religious, so I grew up an atheist. I never believed that there was intrinsic meaning, intrinsic purpose. That was intimidating in my youth, as I was learning about the vast scale of the universe. Now it seems great. The universe is a blank canvas: we can create meaning for ourselves.
One related thing I especially love is the art documentary "Rivers and Tides", about the work of Andy Goldsworthy. It does a great job of conveying beauty and meaning even when it is transitory. Especially when it is transitory. It's only when give up the belief in vast, universal meaning, that meanings we create for ourselves and one another can be seen in their proper scale.
Rivers and Tides, a documentary on the amazing Andy Goldsworthy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQiHfgFnY_A
I mainly disagree with this.
It is extremely hard to comprehend how short life is. Most people actively avoid knowing. They tell themselves stories about eternal life, or they act like they have all the time in the world. When circumstances conspire to wake us to the transitory nature of life, it can be incredibly valuable.
I violently disagree with the notion that the heat death of the universe "means that it really, really doesn't matter what you accomplish." That's like saying it isn't worth cooking a beautiful meal because 48 hours later it will all be poop. That there's no point to love if the body will soon be dust.
Nothing lasts, but that doesn't mean that nothing matters. If you want intuitive proof of that, go rent Rivers and Tides:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_and_Tides
It's a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy. Much of his art is ephemeral. The transitory nature of it make is more beautiful, not less.