Synthetic Pleasures (1995)

Director:
Iara Lee

IMDB

Synopsis:
In this high-tech world, people have many different ways to add pleasure or change their lives for the better. This lightning-paced documentary offers a montage of such technology that ranges from new drugs to enhanced natural environments. The film is divided into three sections. The first looks at natural environments and takes the viewer to such places as Treasure Island in Las Vegas and Japan's Ocean Dome. The second section looks at genetic engineering, plastic surgery and at both patients and practitioners. The final segment goes into the world of mood and mind-altering drugs. It also looks into the shadowy world of virtual sex via Internet, and CD-ROMs.

Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher (2005)

Director:

David Di Sabatino

IMDB

Review:

Lonnie Frisbee was a young hippie seeker fully immersed in the 1960s counter culture when he claimed to have experienced an encounter with God while on an acid trip. This event so transformed him that Lonnie became an itinerant Christian evangelist, something of a John the Baptist of Southern California who compelled thousands of fellow spiritual seekers to make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. During the 1970s Lonnie Frisbee became widely known as California's "hippie preacher," the quintessential "Jesus freak" whose pictures frequented such magazines as Time and Life as the media told the story of a burgeoning "Jesus movement." Lonnie Frisbee provided the charismatic spark that launched the Calvary Chapel church into a worldwide ministry and propelled many fledgling leaders into some of the most powerful movers and shakers of the evangelical movement. During the 1980s Lonnie was at the center of the "signs and wonders" movement.

The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose (2006)

Director:

Sam Wainwright Douglas and Paul Lovelace

IMDB

Review:

From their origins in New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene and their involvement in the “Easy Rider” soundtrack, to the lost years of constant drugging, endless touring and a final shot at redemption, The Holy Modal Rounders... Bound To Lose recounts the unique forty-year history of these true American originals. With startling intimacy, the film also documents the band’s arduous, amusing, and sometimes heartbreaking struggle to capitalize on their recent resurgence in popularity, culminating in an unpredictable 40th anniversary concert in Portland, Oregon.

You're Gonna Miss Me (2005)

Director:
Keven McAlester

IMDB

Review:
Documentary about rock n roll pioneer Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson, whose band the 13th Floor Elevators coined the term "psychedelic rock" in the 60's. Struggling with drug abuse and schizophrenia, he spent 3 years in Rusk State Hospital after pleading insanity on marijuana charges. His new band, Roky Erickson and the Aliens managed to stay vital during the 70's with a darker and more aggressive rock sound. After losing interest in music, he became a recluse, living in poverty and filth. The movie details the rise and fall of Roky Erickson and his brothers struggle to get Rokys life back on track.

Bigger Stronger Faster* (2008)

Director:
Chris Bell

IMDB

Review:
Finally an honest look into the steroid world. These days in order to compete with your peers/teammates, you almost have to take some sort of performance enhancing drugs. If you don't, you'll fall behind. Standard case of "keeping up with the Jones's". I feel it is very obvious to the world and sports fans that this is going on, but NO ONE is honest about it! And when one guy gets busted, he's looked down upon and singled out. Not fair to single them out and criticize when everyone else on the team is doing it.  This doc doesn't really detail team sports, but it is still the same concept. You finally get a good look into this world and a good look into why people do these types of drugs. Very informative, well done documentary. I am so glad to have seen it, and for anyone curious, it's worth watching.

Ram Dass, Fierce Grace (2001)

Director:
Mickey Lemle

IMDB

Review:
 Harvard professors Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary made countercultural history in 1963 when they were fired from that institution for conducting controversial psychedelic drug research. In the purple haze aftermath, Alpert journeyed to India and found his guru Maharaj ji, who renamed him Ram Dass ("Servant of God"). Best known for his 1971 bestseller BE HERE NOW, which was a spiritual touchstone of the era, Ram Dass became an inspiration to people across the globe. Filmmaker Mickey Lemle--who has known his subject for more than twenty-five years--intersperses vivid archival footage from hippiedom's glory days with intimate glimpses of Ram Dass today, as he continues to remake his life since being--in his words--"stroked" in 1997. Named by NEWSWEEK as one of the Top Five Non-Fiction Films of 2002, RAM DASS FIERCE GRACE is an engrossing, poignant meditation on spirituality, consciousness, healing and the unexpected grace of aging.

Hofmann's Potion (2002)

Director:
Connie Littlefield

IMDB

Review:
Researchers try to establish the medical benefits of LSD. The documentary about LSD and how it was created, what usage it had, and how the early experiments were carried out by Albert Hofmann, Timothy Leary and others.

Alter Egos (2004)

Director:
Laurence Green

IMDB

Review:
Alter Egos (2004), directed by Laurence Green, is a documentary about the making of Ryan that includes interviews with both Larkin and Chris Landreth as well as with various people who knew Ryan at the peak of his own success. Ryan was a very successful animator that at the peak of his career gave away to drugs and alcohol which eventually lead to a total destruction of his life and career. Very interesting documentary... My recommendation.

Devil's Playground (2002)

Director:
Lucy Walker

IMDB

Review:
The Devil's Playground is a fascinating and moving documentary about a little-known aspect of Amish life. Amish are not permitted to join the church until their late teens, and have to do so of their own volition. The film explores rumspringa, wherein young Amish are given the opportunity to explore the "English" way of life. Filmmaker Lucy Walker tracked a few of these young people over the course of their experience. The film shows how difficult it is for them to break away from the church. Many of them "act out," exploring not just Nintendo and rock music, but alcohol, drugs, and sex. But almost all of them return to the church, and this fairly balanced documentary makes it clear that despite the church's stance, there is tremendous pressure, both economic and emotional, on these kids to return to the fold. The film focuses on a young man, Faron, who develops a serious drug problem and decides not to get baptized, and a young woman, Velda, who was baptized, and then later, suffering from acute depression, made the difficult decision to leave the church. Walker successfully captures the compelling details of this formerly closed and forbidding world, and the essentially ordinary kids who inhabit it.

I Was Possessed by God (2000)

Director:
Caveh Zahedi

IMDB

Review:
On Valentine's Day, 1993, Caveh Zahedi decided to ingest 5 grams (a very large dose) of hallucinogenic mushrooms. For the first time in his mushroom-taking history, he had an experience of "divine possession," in which he felt that a divine being took possession of his body and spoke through him, in a voice that was not his, and with knowledge that he himself did not possess. He later tried several times to repeat the experience. I WAS POSSESSED BY GOD is the documentary record of one such attempt.

Attack of The Happy People (2006)

Director:
Nadav Harel

Review:
Ecstasy, which started out as a psychotherapeutic drug, has now become one of the most consumed recreational drugs around. This film by Nadav Harel documents the flourishing ecstasy party culture in Israel today. Navel says that Israel has one of the world's highest drug consumption rates. Affected by wars, an aggressive marketplace economy and very powerful religious forces, young people in Israel escape their harsh reality through excessive drug consumption. Ecstasy is particularly widespread. Many of the young Israelis interviewed for this documentary refer to it as “the drug of love” and say that when you're on it “everything becomes rosy; you're in a fantasy world; you love everyone you see...” This program features experts who believe in the therapeutic uses of the drug and also opponents of the drug who believe ecstasy use characterises our consumer-driven society, as many products such as music, clothes, dance parties and so on are being promoted through this drug trend.

Ben: Diary of a Heroin Addict (2008)

Director:
 Olly Lambert

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1316530/

Review:
Ben: Diary of a Heroin Addict is the best documentary about heroin addiction that I have watched so far. The documentary covers 2 last years of Ben's life and reveals all the hard times he had with his 15 year addiction. The interesting thing about this documentary is that Ben has filmed it by himself. Of course he didn't know that it will become a documentary. I cannot describe to you how greatly done is this documentary so take my word on it and watch it. You wont regreat it.

Prisoners of The War on Drugs (1996)

Director:
Marc Levin

Review:
A documentary that goes behind the walls of three of America's toughest penitentiaries to reveal how drugs are bought and sold, as well as used and abused, by a majority of the convicts serving time.

Rollin: The Decline of the Auto Industry and Rise of the Drug Economy in Detroit (2010)

Director:
Alan Bradley

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1616162/

Review:
Once the heart of the "American Dream", Detroit began to crumble, and as the jobs evaporated, crime set in, & with illegal drugs, the city became hell & has never been the same since!... Learn about corrupt narcotic cops, the infamous YBI, White Boy Rick, & the Best Friends Murder-For-Hire Gang, as well as many others. 

Methadonia (2005)

Director:
Michel Negroponte

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485777/

Review:
METHADONIA is the borderland between high and straight, where recovering heroin addicts on methadone “maintenance” exist. Passing the time on benzos and other prescription drugs that enhance the methadone, addicts find themselves in Methadonia for years, or decades. Selected for the prestigious New York Film Festival and featured on HBO, this unflinching, intimate film reveals the culture of addiction through the eyes and lives of men and women stuck in Methadonia, holding on to the hope they will wake up one morning and not think about getting high.

Haschisch (2002)

Director:
Daniel Gräbner

IMDB

Review:
A small village high up in the mountains of Ketama, North Morocco. For centuries the life of the people that live here is intricately tied in with the drug hashish. Hashish as daily labour, hashish as a bartering good, hashish system, hashish as the medium of dreams and hashish as the reason for stagnation. The film sketches a portrait of this life: a look at work and daily family life; the drug; music and landscape as a metaphysical projection surface; the question of freedom in a globalized world; and, at the core of the film, the stories of the people.

Party Monster (1998)

Director:
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141716/

Review:
Party Monster: The Shockumentary is a 1998 documentary film detailing the rise of the club kid phenomenon in New York City, the life of club kid and party promoter Michael Alig and Alig's murder (with Robert "Freeze" Riggs) of fellow club kid and drug dealer Angel Melendez. The film is based in part on the James St. James book on the murder, Disco Bloodbath, and combines interview footage of Alig from prison, St. James, scene watchers like Michael Musto and a number of other former club kids with archive footage from various parties and dramatic re-enactments. The book and this film also served as bases for the 2003 film, also called Party Monster.

Cocaine Cowboys (2006)

Director:
Billy Corben

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380268/

Review:
In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago - and it put the city on the map. "Cocaine Cowboys" is the true story of how Miami became the drug, murder and cash capital of the United States, told by the people who made it all happen.

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/347976185/COCAINE_COWBOYS.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/347986119/COCAINE_COWBOYS.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/347996351/COCAINE_COWBOYS.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/348006741/COCAINE_COWBOYS.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/348016940/COCAINE_COWBOYS.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/348026168/COCAINE_COWBOYS.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/348035460/COCAINE_COWBOYS.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/348035514/COCAINE_COWBOYS.part8.rar

No password

Dope Sick Love (2005)

Director:
Felice Conte

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451041/

Review:
"Dope Sick Love" is a really remarkable documentary made for HBO about two pairs of heroin addicted lovers roaming the streets of NYC. There is no narration and we never see any interviews with the subjects, the camera just follows them around, like a third eye, completely detached. The people being followed don't even seem aware that they're being filmed! (or, at least, they don't seem to care). The footage is amazingly candid. This is as real as it gets. The nuts and bolts of what its like to be on the street and addicted to heroin. We watch them score dope, shoot it, make up, hustle, and even impersonate cops to rob people, and about a million other tiny details that less observant documentary filmmakers would leave out.

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/346494248/Dope_Sick_Love.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346507203/Dope_Sick_Love.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346517729/Dope_Sick_Love.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346528797/Dope_Sick_Love.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346537884/Dope_Sick_Love.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346547104/Dope_Sick_Love.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346556406/Dope_Sick_Love.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346556691/Dope_Sick_Love.part8.rar

No password

Divine Trash (1998)

Director:
Steve Yeager

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0150338/

Review:
The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters. Intercut with a 1972 interview of Waters are clips from his first films and recent interviews with his parents, his brother, Divine's mom, actors and crew, other directors, film critics, a film curator, psychologists, and Maryland's last censor, who shudders at the memory of Waters's pictures. Also included is footage of Waters making his early movies, culminating in an up-close and in-depth look at Pink Flamingos: the script, the set, the filming conditions, its editing, its distribution, and its impact. In sweet ways, this documentary is also a celebration of Divine (1945-1988).

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/346332426/John_Waters_-_Divine_Trash.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346357745/John_Waters_-_Divine_Trash.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346384363/John_Waters_-_Divine_Trash.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346413713/John_Waters_-_Divine_Trash.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346442079/John_Waters_-_Divine_Trash.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346464693/John_Waters_-_Divine_Trash.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/346482456/John_Waters_-_Divine_Trash.part7.rar

No password