Every minute 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube and 3.25 billion hours of video are viewed per month worldwide. These figures make the streaming service one of the most popular sites when it comes to looking for any type of content to pass the time, whether on the mobile phone, on the television or on the computer. You can find everything from music, through conferences, reports, channels with cooking recipes, to complete films or documentaries.
If you are interested in this last topic, on YouTube there are hundreds of documentaries for you to learn and have fun at the same time. In addition, the themes are very varied. From the most popular of World War II, in which they explain Hitler's rise to power or the Nazi holocaust, as well as others related to the cosmos, prisons, aliens, animals, dictators or places in the world. There are so many to choose from that you are going to have it very complicated. To make it easier for you, in your expert we want to help you and we have prepared a selection of ten of the best that you cannot miss. Are these.
1. Shoah
The French Claude Lanzmann is the director of “Shoah” (“annihilation” in Hebrew), an impressive 9 and a half hour documentary about the Holocaust in which there are no fictitious recreations or archival images, only a detailed narration of the experiences of witnesses and victims. During the nearly nine and a half hours that the viewing lasts, the viewer will have to make great efforts to bear the harsh words of horror, pain and anguish of the real stories of all those who lived the cruelties of the Nazi death camps.
It should be noted that this documentary is long and relatively slow, but we cannot deny that it is an essential and overwhelming historical document that you cannot miss. It is available on YouTube in two parts with integrated subtitles.
2. Syria and the (Islamic State)
The war in Syria has different actors, both globally and regionally, but without a doubt, civilians have the main role. The population is experiencing the real consequences of this horror film for those of us who look at it from the other side , whose premiere took place in March 2011, but without it now seems that it will end at some point. In this time entire parts of cities such as Aleppo, Homs, Palmyra, Deir or Ezzor have been destroyed. The dead can be counted in the thousands, as can the refugees and displaced people, who have had to leave their cities to escape the barbarism.
This documentary from the Odyssey channel, available in full on YouTube, takes us a week to know the day-to-day life of the jihadist groups in Syria. Seven days in which we will witness how they act between kamikaze actions, bombings and Islamic prayers. These autonomous groups, created by former members of Al-Nusra and ISIS, are fighting in the northwestern region of Syria. Together with ISIS, they pursue common goals: to overthrow the political regime and establish a great caliphate.
3. The toughest prisons in Russia
Russia has some of the harshest prisons in the world. Its maximum security cells isolate prisoners, to the point of keeping them in inhumane conditions. For the first time, the government of the country has allowed an international film crew to enter three Russian prisons so that we can witness the way in which convicts spend their day to day. The situation in these prisons is far from those of our country, for example. Discipline and extreme security are the main weapons the country has to eradicate crime and murder. The big question we ask ourselves after watching the documentary is, are these prisons useful for reinsertion?
4. Journey to the limits of the universe
If you are interested in the cosmos, you cannot miss this YouTube documentary in which they try to unravel all its mysteries. This visual document invites you to immerse yourself in the secrets of space, on a journey like you have never done before. Wandering from our planet to the farthest corners of the universe, the documentary has been made from the combination of real images with others created by computer. You will be able to see sequences never seen before, captured by some of the most outstanding telescopes in the world (such as Hubble) or from spacecraft.
5. The most evil dictators: Franco
National Geographic aired a series of documentaries looking at some of the most cruel and evil dictators in world history. This one in particular is dedicated to Franco. It recounts from the moment of the military coup of 1936, which was proclaimed the winner on April 1, 39, overthrowing the legitimately elected government, until the subsequent years of dictatorship in which Spain was plunged into the most absolute repression and backwardness with respect to other European countries. There is also a prominent part of the mass graves of their victims, a legacy of their criminal regime, which to this day continue to be exhumed.
6. The mechanics of dreams
Dreams are an everyday thing in our hours of rest, but have you ever wondered what exactly dreams are or why we dream? Are they a rational product of our brain or a window into our unconscious? This documentary attempts to address these and other questions with the help of neuroscientists, sociologists, doctors and specialists in artificial intelligence.
7. The strangest part of the ocean
Nature and animal documentaries are really interesting and beautiful. This one in particular transports us to the seabed to get closer to some of the biggest predators on Earth. Although a priori this area seems monotonous and lifeless, it is undeniable that there are species that you never thought would exist. Do you want to know some?
8. Climate change
What could happen if we don't curb the impact of global warming? This is what is proposed in this BBC documentary that you can see in full on YouTube as soon as you have a gap. Through interviews with experts from around the world and images, we will be able to understand a little better what climate change is and what future awaits our planet and its species if urgent measures are not taken.
9. The Caveman
28,000 years before Jesus Christ was a tough time to stay alive. Low temperatures took hold of the planet while the peak of the last Ice Age reigned. Also, large predators were everywhere, so caves were the only safe places to take refuge.
In this documentary, divided into two parts, we will be able to contemplate the authentic confrontation that existed between species ... a war of thousands of years for survival.
10. Substitutes
Japan is today one of the most important industrial societies in the world, with an infrastructure and technology typical of a truly advanced country. However, the large population centers and the submissive and reserved nature of its inhabitants has caused that today it is one of the most misunderstood and extravagant societies on the planet.
This documentary narrates life with the surrogates, plastic dolls that serve as company to many Japanese who try to end their loneliness in a country full of people.