What To Watch
25 Documentaries to Stream, from Deep Dives to Celebrity Spotlights
Immerse yourself in these fascinating real-life stories.
By Mary Sollosi
Nov. 18, 2024
25 Best Documentaries on Netflix to Stream Right Now - Netflix Tudum
Whether you’d like to learn something without feeling like you’re in school, or you’d like to be entertained but also feel mentally enriched, or you just want to re-create the thrill of showing up to class as a teenager and discovering you’ve been blessed with a movie day, the answer is the same: It’s time for a documentary.
Though sometimes wrongly maligned as a tedious, serious counterpart to narrative features, documentaries are just as diverse in subject matter and feeling. There’s no reason you can’t queue up a sports doc that’s hilarious or heartbreaking; a historical one that’s inspiring or enraging; or a nature film that might be scary or tenderhearted.
With such a wealth of options (and so many things to learn!), it can be hard to choose. So we’ve rounded up a list of 25 features, all now available to stream, that can speak to any mood you’re in or area of study that strikes your fancy. So gather some snacks and get comfortable — there won’t be a quiz at the end.
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13TH
Named after the 13th Amendment — which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime — Ava DuVernay’s sobering documentary argues that slavery still exists in the United States in the form of mass incarceration, enabled by the criminalization of Black Americans. Nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, the film discusses the economic trap of the prison-industrial complex and illustrates how America’s shameful racial history has by no means ended, but only evolved. 13th is not easy viewing — but it’s essential.
American Symphony
Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste provides the subject of Matthew Heineman’s intimate 2023 film, but it would be a mistake to assume American Symphony is your average music doc. The movie follows Batiste and his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, throughout a year in which the couple faces the sweetest triumphs and darkest fears. As Batiste celebrates success at the 2022 Grammy Awards and works on composing a symphony bound for Carnegie Hall, Jaouad struggles with the return of leukemia, with which she was first diagnosed in 2011. The two artists share in each other’s joy and pain, and Heineman’s film about them becomes an affecting portrait of a couple navigating life together.
Athlete A
One of the more disturbing sports scandals to emerge in recent memory, the revelation that USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar had been sexually abusing his patients — and that the organization often failed to report abuse allegations to authorities — came out in a series of investigations by reporters at The Indianapolis Star in the mid-2010s. Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s distressing but powerful documentary follows The Star’s team of journalists as they uncover the abuse and corruption as well as the courageous world-class athletes who suffered from it.
Black Barbie
After the launch of the first Barbie doll, it took more than 20 years — and three trailblazing women — for Black Barbie to hit shelves. Lagueria Davis’ 2024 documentary, produced by Shondaland, revisits the development and release of the doll, celebrating her legacy as a cultural icon whose launch marked an essential step forward for representation and a landmark moment in the history of the Barbie brand. With the stories of the main players who guided Black Barbie into the world in 1980, the film brings the doll to vibrant life.
Chasing Coral
Take your viewing underwater with Jeff Orlowski’s powerful documentary, the winner of an Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017. Coral reefs are rapidly disappearing — the beautiful and diverse ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to climate change, human pollution, and other elements that pose a threat to our planet’s well-being — and Chasing Coral portrays the investigation into their decline, following the work of the scientists, divers, and photographers who are committed to documenting the disappearance, and hopefully helping to stop it.
Daughters
Get ready for a very big night with Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s tender 2024 film. Daughters revolves around a group of little girls who reunite with their incarcerated fathers at a father-daughter dance, part of a special program in a DC prison. Winner of an Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the moving documentary follows four young daughters as they get ready to go to the ball, and their fathers as they prepare to receive them. Be sure to have tissues on hand.
The Deepest Breath
Two people find love, glory, and tragedy — all underwater — in Laura McGann’s gripping 2023 documentary. Alessia Zecchini and Stephen Keenan met through free diving, a perilous sport in which divers go deep underwater while simply holding their breath, instead of breathing through an apparatus like scuba divers. McGann followed Zecchini, a champion free diver, as she tried to set a new world record with the help of Keenan, a safety diver, on a notoriously dangerous dive in Dahab, Egypt. In addition to its deeply human story and thrilling extreme-sport element, the film features extraordinary footage of the depths of the ocean.
Descendant
Margaret Brown’s moving documentary reveals and reclaims a piece of American history that had long been obscured. In 1860, 52 years after the prohibition of the Atlantic slave trade, the last known illegal shipment of enslaved Africans arrived on US soil; the ship, the Clotilda, was destroyed. The wreckage was not found until 2019, at which point Brown and her team continued to explore its legacy — in particular the descendants of the Africans who had been on the ship, some of whom established their own community in Alabama called Africatown.
The Greatest Night in Pop
In January 1985, a recording session took place that could never be replicated, assembling a group of artists so collectively legendary it sounds like music-industry fan fiction. Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, and dozens more sing on “We Are the World,” a charity single written by Jackson and Richie, produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian, and recorded to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Bao Nguyen’s Emmy-nominated 2024 documentary looks back on the making of the iconic track, with insight from many of its participants.
HOMECOMING: A film by Beyoncé
There are only so many live concerts in human history that everyone knows about, whether or not they were actually there; Beychella is one of them. Beyoncé’s headlining set at Coachella in 2018 became a cultural moment that transcended its form and venue, and the concert film Homecoming — written, executive-produced, and directed by the artist and released a year after the fact — documents the stunning, profoundly layered show from development through execution.
Icarus
This astonishing, Oscar-winning documentary begins as a fairly straightforward investigation into a sports phenomenon, but unexpectedly balloons into something with greater global implications. Filmmaker and cyclist Bryan Fogel sought to investigate illegal doping in competitive sports, and his research connected him with Russian scientist Grigory Rodchenkov — who, it turned out, oversaw a state-sponsored Olympic doping program in Russia. His involvement, Fogel realizes, may be putting Rodchenkov in danger.
Into the Inferno
When learning about a new subject, there are few better guides than Werner Herzog. With Into the Inferno, the filmmaker dives into active volcanoes — “dives into” as an area of study, that is. With volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, Herzog surveys active volcanoes around the world — and shares awe-inspiring, often-terrifying footage — and examines the belief systems and spiritual practices inspired by them.
The Menendez Brothers
Though it’s been almost 30 years since Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of murdering their parents, their trials and sentencing have remained topics of widespread interest and controversy. Alejandro Hartmann’s 2024 documentary gets as close to the case as possible — by interviewing the brothers themselves, who have been serving life sentences since 1996, as well as relatives, journalists, and jurors. Released amid a new wave of attention to the case (including from Ryan Murphy’s true-crime drama series about the brothers) and just weeks before a date was set for a resentencing hearing, the film became must-watch viewing.
My Octopus Teacher
One of the unlikeliest (nonfiction) friendships you’ll ever see gives My Octopus Teacher (which won the Oscar for best documentary feature) its heart. Directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, the film depicts filmmaker and naturalist Craig Foster’s experience as he forges a bond with an octopus he regularly encounters while diving in South Africa. Over time, the octopus shows him her world — which, in turn, helps him understand how to navigate his own.
Pamela, a love story
Her story has been taken, twisted, and told by other people, but here’s Pamela Anderson, according to herself. Directed by Ryan White, Pamela, a love story documents the life and times of the actor, model, mother, and sex symbol, and tells her story through her own perspective, using diaries and personal videos. Reclaiming her own narrative left her feeling “empowered,” she tells Tudum, and hopes that people will be inspired “to have a great fucking time and not worry so much.” If that’s some inspo you could use, you know what to do.
The Redeem Team
It’s such a rousing sports story, you’d think they made it up: After a disappointing showing in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the US Olympic men’s basketball team had a lot to prove when the 2008 Games in Beijing rolled around. Under the leadership of team captain Kobe Bryant and head coach Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski, the “Redeem Team” defied the doubters. Directed by Jon Weinbach, the documentary features interviews with Coach K, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony, among others, as well as extensive archival footage of the team, including the late, great Bryant.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is a profound elegy for a gamer, and expresses itself in cinematic language befitting its subject. When Mats Steen died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25, his parents were surprised to receive condolences from numerous strangers who knew their son well — as his World of Warcraft avatar, named Ibelin. In his heartfelt and life-affirming 2024 documentary (which won multiple prizes at both Sundance and Norway’s Amanda Awards), director Benjamin Ree reconstructs Steen’s full, rich existence — in both the real world and his imagined one.
The Saint of Second Chances
The story of Mike Veeck’s life is one of baseball, disco, and redemption: In a misguided attempt to prove himself to his father, the legendary Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck, Mike was responsible for the 1979 MLB promotion that became Disco Demolition Night. In Jeff Malmberg and Morgan Neville’s 2023 documentary, Veeck himself recounts that fateful error and everything that happened afterward, as he rebuilt his life by following his creative instincts, belief in the fun of baseball, and love for his family. Narrated by Jeff Daniels and featuring Charlie Day in reenacted scenes from Veeck’s younger years, the film tells a comeback story worthy of America’s pastime itself.
Sly
Rocky made him an icon. But Sylvester Stallone’s own story is as thrilling and dynamic as that of the Italian Stallion. In Thom Zimny’s intimate 2023 documentary about the actor and filmmaker, Stallone reflects on his difficult childhood, the challenges of breaking through (followed by the unexpected challenges of being famous), and the ups and downs of his career from there — both the disappointments and hard-won victories. In addition to its subject himself, the doc features commentary from other artists and friends of Stallone’s, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Talia Shire, and Quentin Tarantino.
Stamped from the Beginning
Adapted from Ibram X. Kendi’s 2016 nonfiction book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Roger Ross Williams’ powerful 2023 documentary traces the long, insidious history of how anti-Blackness took root and flourished in the United States — from the nation’s origins to its present. Guided by the insights of Kendi’s bestseller, Academy Award winner Williams tells this complex story through evocative animated sequences as well as expert interviews, including with Kendi, Angela Davis, and a whole host of other academics and activists. Challenging though the subject matter is, the film is an urgent record of how racism shaped America.
The Tinder Swindler
So you’re into true crime, tech paranoia and dating app horror stories? Aren’t we all? The Tinder Swindler unites all three, and is as unsettling as it is watchable. Directed by Felicity Morris, the documentary tells the story of a man who allegedly used Tinder to pose as a wealthy bachelor and charm women, lavishing gifts and attention on them, only to con them out of large sums of money and then ghost them. It’s enough to make you never want to swipe right again.
To Kill a Tiger
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards, Nisha Pahuja’s 2023 film To Kill a Tiger is a powerful and essential document of one family’s story. When a 13-year-old girl is brutally raped by three men, her father pursues justice, seeking out the help of activists with an advocacy organization. His righteous quest is met with disapproval from much of the family’s community in rural northeastern India — where many of the villagers blame the victim or suggest she just marry one of her attackers — but the girl and her family, united, refuse to yield.
Victim/Suspect
The arrival of the #MeToo movement didn’t mark the end of the cultural attitudes that necessitated it — far from it. In this infuriating 2023 documentary, filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman follows journalist Rae de Leon as she embarks on a solo investigation that uncovers dark truths about the American justice system. As de Leon interviews young women who reported sexual assault, a disturbing nationwide trend emerges: Instead of being protected by the system they turned to for help, the women were charged, themselves, with filing false police reports. Through interviews with victims as well as law enforcement and legal experts, the film illuminates how our institutions can fail victims of sexual assault.
Virunga
The heroes of Orlando von Einsiedel’s compelling documentary are the park rangers at the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park, who risk their lives to conserve the beautiful environment and endangered mountain gorillas that live there. The richly layered, Oscar-nominated film illustrates how the animals and their home are endangered by poaching, oil exploration and political violence, documenting the rangers’ conservation work during 2012’s M23 rebellion.
Will & Harper
Comedy legend Will Ferrell and writer Harper Steele — friends for decades, since they worked together on Saturday Night Live — hit the road in Josh Greenbaum’s intimate 2024 documentary, which chronicles a road trip across America that the witty duo took together after Steele came out as a trans woman. Their long drive is a chance for Steele to rediscover the country as her true self as well as an opportunity for the old friends to reconnect at new stages in their lives, and Will & Harper delivers both a timely message and a poignant testament to the power of an enduring friendship.
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