One of cinema’s greatest powers is to educate. If you want to plunge into the center of lives, industries and systems you might otherwise never know about, here are the top instructive movies and shows to stream now.
Dir. David Hinton
Is there anything more lovely than hearing Martin Scorsese talk about cinema? Maybe it’s just the film nerds in us–…
With a wolf deity, wheat harvesting rituals, and farmtown folklore, it may seem that Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the…
Dir. D. Smith
The idea of representation in movies is often limited to superficial gestures of putting on screen people who look a…
Dir. Reuben Hamlyn & Sophie Compton
Sophie Compton and Reubyn Hamlyn’s British-American documentary about the harm of deepfakes won the SXSW Special Jury Award for its…
Dir. Alexandre O. Philippe
Swiss filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe gave us the free-flowing fandom doc The People vs. George Lucas in 2010 and hasn’t…
Dir. Julie Cohen
Even with its haphazard construction and occasionally unnecessary and corny flourishes (what’s with all the mellowed-out covers of pop songs?),…
Dir. Jesse Short Bull & Laura Tomaselli
Using the documentary form with supreme clarity and righteous fury, Lakota Nation vs. United States distills hundreds of years of…
Dir. Sam Pollard
An essential documentary for sports fans but one that may be too specialized for casual viewers, The League continues director…
Dir. Edward Buckles
If Katrina Babies seems like a somewhat disjointed account of the myriad responses to Hurricane Katrina and the U.S. government’s…
Dir. Shaunak Sen
Though it doesn’t proceed like most animal/nature-centered documentaries that you’ve seen, the Oscar-nominated All That Breathes is instantly memorable in…
Dir. Geeta Gandbhir & Sam Pollard
By retelling a vital chapter of the civil rights movement from the perspective of an entire community—and not just through…
Dir. Emily Kunstler & Sarah Kunstler
Although Who We Are is essentially a professionally recorded masterclass interspersed with additional interviews, it only emphasizes Jeffery Robinson’s skill…
Dir. Ben Klein & Female director
Through her irreverent, no-bullshit point of view, Chinese documentarian Christine Choy balances out The Exiles’ painful reckoning with a traumatic…
Dir. Jeremiah Zagar
Adam Sandler rarely plays a role straight, but when he does, you know it’s good. In Hustle, Sandler is Stanley…
Dir. Glenn Barden
After delving into the secrets of giants under the sea, James Cameron and National Geographic now explores the giants above…
Dir. Joanna Hogg
After 2019’s The Souvenir—a drama about a toxic, suffocating relationship—director Joanna Hogg brings back her protagonist (played by a superb…
Dir. Jessica Kingdon
Though it doesn’t provide a more holistic view of Chinese society even in the context of work and industry, Ascension…
Dir. Marilyn Agrelo
For kids and kids-at-heart who find Jim Henson’s technical mastery of puppets riveting, this documentary on the classic and still-contemporary…
Dir. Sanjay Rawal
This insightful and uplifting documentary is about a growing movement within indigenous communities: obtaining food sovereignty by going back to…
Dir. Adam Carolla & Nate Adams
“They called me uppity. Uppity n*****. And I loved it”. That’s how this excellent documentary, about the first professional black…
Though it primarily revolves around the conservative, anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly (portrayed as a fascinatingly contradictory character by Cate Blanchett), Mrs.…
Dir. Arthur Jones
For those of us who don’t lurk on internet message boards and participate in social media culture, a documentary about…
Dir. Jerry Rothwell
For better or worse, The Reason I Jump isn’t a documentary made for autistic viewers but for a neurotypical audience…
Dir. Alex Winter
Frank Zappa’s creative scope could barely be defined – a mix of rock, composition, design, and in his early days…
Dir. Werner Herzog
The sooner you adjust your expectations for Nomad—and realize that this isn’t a travel documentary but Werner Herzog’s own wonderfully…
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