UKC

Hi all. 

Looking for recommendations for films about trave, and the culture of far-flung countries. Yak in the Classroom looks good, but other suggestions for something like that pls. We enjoyed the film about a young Mongolian woman becoming a champion eagle handler too... 

So not necessarily expedition, but travel... 

Cheers, Lex

180 South

Documentaries? 

My apologies - your thread title states documentaries. Somehow I hadn't spotted that, in my haste.

They are old, and not documentaries, but if you want an immersion in another culture you could try the films of Satyajit Ray. The Chess Players is a good introduction, but try Pather Panchali if you really want to see life from a very different perspective.

Agent of Happiness

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00256ws 

Thanks all, they look great. 

We were going to watch Yak in the Classroom (beautiful uplifting film set in the stunning Himalaya) at the weekend but ended up watching Ken Loachs' The Old Oak (set in a ex-mining village hear Durham, racist locals vs refugees, with tiny proportion of hope to lift the film from utterly bleak).

So very much looking forward to all the above recommendations...! 

Cheers,

Lex

Although I've just read about Pather Panchali and it seems like Satyajit Ray is the Ken Loach of India!

Journey of a Red Fridge (2007), 50 min documentary following a 17 year old porter carrying a Coca Cola fridge for repairs.

No, absolutely not - Ray is far better. Loach is a polemicist, Ray isn’t. 

Not exactly travel, but try Honeyland. It's a Macedonian documentary about an old lady who keeps wild bees in a remote mountain village.

These films sound great, thanks so much all. Any further suggestions gratefully received! Although soktice is only two weeks away, there's still a lot of winter to get through, and it's not all going to be cold and snowy! 

Not sure if this fits your bill as it's BC, but I enjoyed This Mountain Life. 

It's probably not the kind of thing you're looking for, but you could do a lot worse than checking out the Simon Reeve back catalogue on BBC iPlayer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=simon+reeve