Hollywood can sure spin an enchanting web of surreal fantasy and intoxicating fiction to enrapture the masses, but then again, sometimes it's the little stories; the one's focusing on Amish kids hooked on crystal-meth, deluded stuntmen in rocket cars, volatile out-of-control rockers, hedonistic porn stars, religious megalomaniacs and insane film directors contemplating blowing their brains out that can really steal the show.

Here is a small selection of unwavering documentaries that will open your eyes and minds to fantastic and amazing realms where real people and real stories shed a light on truths more stranger than fiction.

10. THE DEVIL AT YOUR HEELS (1981)

Evil Knievel has always reigned supreme in the dangerous world of unprecedented stunts and he even inspired a precious few to strap themselves into strange contraptions that helped propel them over the threshold and into a 2-way split between death or glory.

Enter into the fray Ken Carter aka 'The Mad Canadian', a veteran in the field of leaping cars in beat-up Buick's in front of backwater townsfolk. Ken has a dream - one final stunt to cement his name in the pages of history and the main components of his vision are a gigantic ramp, a rocket propelled car, a river that is over a mile wide (it separates Canada and America) and a bed of roses to land in.

Knievel even shows up and says that Ken's crazy to try it. There's only one problem, Ken's never done a stunt over 50 miles an hour and his coup de gras requires 270 miles per hour to make his dream come true. Enter into the strange world of a truly eccentric fellow who talks the talk, but little else.
 



9. JESUS CAMP (2006)

The kids are gonna' be alright...or are they? Welcome to the bizarre world of children who have been sent to Charismatic Pentecostal Summer Camps (Jesus Camps) to learn and practice their 'prophetic gifts' and become empowered to 'take America back for Christ'.

To the observer, it's a whacked out insight into the Evangelical Christian 'tools' of scaring kids to near death with visions of an eternity spent roasting in the bowels of Hell. Within mere weeks, relatively normal children are encouraged to 'speak in tongues' and generally make the little possessed girl from The Exorcist look positively tame. It's a scary view into a world were gay people burn in hell, Osama Bin Laden is the Anti-Christ and George W. Bush is God's right hand man. Truly fucked up!




8. NEW YORK DOLL (2005)

Virtually ignored in their most visceral and electrifying years, The New York Dolls disbanded in a toxic fallout of booze, drugs, death and severed friendships. The kooky looking bassist, Arthur 'Killer' Kane went off the rails after bitterness infested his very soul and drove him to jump through a window. He survived, but knew he had to change and with the help of the Lord, Arthur moved to Utah and worked in the Births, Deaths and Marriages department of the Latter Day Saints. He's a humble fellow but deep down, he still wants to rock out like a motherfucker with the Dolls. He must have prayed cuz' Morrissey gets to curate a music festival in London and the boy with the thorn in his side wants his all-time heroes back together. A few calls are made and before you can say 'Clark Kent', Arthur's already undoing his tie like a dog wrangling himself free from a leash. Will the Dolls put their differences aside? Can Arthur still shred? And what about the single old biddies at his old job who've just realised that they had been working next to a bonafide rock god all along? Mormon groupies ahoy! Sad, funny, utterly insightful, you will laugh and you will cry, but don't fret cuz' it's all gonna' work out for the best.
 



7. DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND (2002)

If you think Amish folk are just a close-nit bunch of Luddites who prefer horse carriages to cars, candles to light bulbs and selfless devotion to religion over mindless consumer capitalism, you'd be right. Well this revealing doco lifts the lid on a little known Amish tradition known as Rumspringa (rite of passage), and what this encompasses is a raucous coming-of-age for Amish teens when they turn 16. This is their one and only chance to ditch the peasant garb and head for the mall, and boy do some of these repressed teens take to their new found freedom with a vengeance. From here on out it's a volatile cocktail of overactive hormones, endless parties, drugs, booze, cars, electricity and most important of all MUSIC! The star of this unchained madness is Faron from Indiana, the son of a preacher who's just snitched on some methamphetamine dealers so as to deal himself out of going to prison. Will Faron and his uber hot Amish girlfriend return to the fold, or will they suffer retribution for squealing to the cops?

File under: No parents! No Horses! No Rules!




6. GUERRILLA: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2004)

This is the jaw-dropping true story about Patty Hearst, a wealthy publishing heiress who was abducted from her plush Berkley home in 1974 by a left-wing group of urban guerrilla's known to the U.S. Government as the S.L.A. (Symbionese Liberation Army). The S.L.A. quickly contact Hearst's father and request that he donates 400 million dollars for the distribution of food to poor people in California. Old man Hearst only coughs up $6 million and the S.L.A. bag him out for providing sub-standard food before splitting town with their captive. Fast forward a few months and your eyes do a double-take when you see footage of Patty dressed up in army clothes, wielding a Carbine rifle, whilst she and fellow S.L.A. members rob a bank. It becomes apparent that Miss Hearst has developed what is known as The Stockholm Syndrome, a condition resulting in the hostage showing loyalty to the hostage-taker. It's a wild ride for Patty and her band of self-styled revolutionaries as they try to overthrow the government by whatever means necessary.

Extremely compelling.
 



5. HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)

Apocalypse Now was one hell of a war film and it's portrayal of the Vietnam War gone pear-shaped has left an indelible mark in the history of cinema. As harrowing as it is to watch, it's nothing compared to what was actually happening behind the cameras. Hearts of Darkness was filmed by Francis Ford Coppola's wife Eleanor, and she inadvertently manages to capture a sweeping array of turmoil, anguish and unforgettable moments onto 16 millimeter film. This doco tells the daring story of a ruthless visionary director and his desire to transpose Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness onto what was happening in Vietnam. He wanted to show the gradual undoing of a small group of soldiers going up river in a small boat and the ensuing madness of becoming primal in the jungle, but ends up just as crazy as the actors he's trying to film.

Coppola's mettle is tested to the limits amidst a never ending deluge of drug-fucked actors, tangible bankruptcy, civil war, typhoons, head-hunting natives, heart attacks and a prim Donna actor who demands 3 million dollars for three weeks work, yet has not bothered to read the script and of course the maddening echoes of the jungle. Truly epic stuff.




4. WACO: The Rules of Engagement (1997)

This tragedy was well documented when the news first broke the story about the stand-off between the Davidian Religious Sect and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives on February 28, 1993. ATF agents tried to storm the Sects massive compound at Waco near Houston Texas and a gunfight ensued in which four ATF personnel were killed and six Dravidian's sent to the Heavens. The ATF was acting on the grounds of illegal weapons stored at the compound, but it was reported that former Davidian's had stated to authorities that their leader, David Koresh was advocating polygamy and engaging in child abuse.
This documentary is chilling because it shows a vastly different perspective than the one shown by the media. It begins by showing life inside the compound and the beliefs shared by its numerous members as well as plenty of footage of its charismatic 'last prophet', David Koresh.

Towards the end of this shocking film, you are exposed to a damning amount of footage, first-hand reports from both sides and experts showing that the Davidian's were never going to make it out of there alive.

Heart wrenching.




3. DIG! (2004)

Spanning a tumultuous seven year period, Dig! is a wonderful fly on the wall doco that captures two emerging indie rock bands and the ever apparent trajectory of their separate endeavors to attain adoration and glory. Front man Corey Taylor of The Dandy Warhol's narrates Dig! and does his dandiest to come across like an overt tosser of the highest order as he recounts his initial friendship with the space-cadets who comprise The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Taylor is blatantly enamored with the crazed 'Charles Manson' like genius of Anton Newcombe, the volatile messiah of the Jonestown boys who is constantly at war with friends, band mates, lovers, fans, heroin and the law. This is a classic example of one group hitting the big-time while the other and seemingly more deserving one ends up in the gutter. With an array of self-obsessed ego-maniacs to rival Napoleon himself, Dig! is like watching a Molotov cocktail being thrown at a petrol station. Dangerous and wild stuff indeed.


 

2. WADD: The life & times of John C. Holmes (1998)

Holy shit-balls! This brutally honest retrospective of the man with the massive 'wang' is a double-edged razor, which shows that John 'The Man' Holmes was not only one of the world's most lauded porn stars of the '70s but also a notorious liar and drug fiend. Tall, lanky and hung like Satan himself, John Holmes took a long hard naked look in the mirror one day and realised that he had a tremendous gift dangling between his legs that he wanted to share with the world.

Ditching his prudish middle class wife, John headed straight for the Hollywood hills in search of acting work. Not exactly Einstein in the brain department, Johnny boy landed a slew of film roles that didn't require great acting skillz or complicated dialogue, all he had to deliver on was the "Oh my Lord, is that thing real?" factor.

Things started to fall apart for Holmes when he was witness to the Wonderland Murders in 1981 as well as an ever increasing drug habit. It all went tits-up when John contracted AIDS in the early '80s and as his career began to plummet, so did his moral choices, which included flying to Italy to do a porn film without telling anyone about his condition.
 
Brimming with classic Holmes footage and interviews with friends and family, Wadd is a compelling look at a reckless man whose brain apparently lived inside his penis.




1. GRIZZLY MAN (2005)

Timothy Treadwell is a man who is a tad out of sorts with the world. He's a recovering alcoholic who's found sobriety through the selfless act of living up in the Alaskan wilderness to be a 'protector' of wild Bears.

It's a noble cause and witnessing the self-taped footage that master filmmaker Werner Herzog has compiled for this compelling doco is a testament to the dreams of individuals who want to make a positive difference. The only problem is that Treadwell is man with delusions of grandeur that borders on the shores of the insane. After a while you begin to realise that for a time, it's really the bears who are 'in a way' looking after this sick man and not the other way around.

Treadwell eventually manages to impress the pants off a lady with his fearless ideals and convinces her to come along to witness his 'connection' with the bears. On this particular stay Treadwell is clearly beginning to annoy the living piss out of the bears and as winter sets in and our stupendously brave (crazy) hero with the bandanna looks about as welcome as Pee Wee Herman would be if he were trying to buy crack off gangsters in Compton. We never get to 'see' what happen to Tim and his lady, but the torturous shrieks and ravenous growls will never leave us.



- Story by Jordan Bloomer