Documentaries offer engaging looks at real-life stories and video appeals court upholds fine against christian bakers who refused to make same-sex wedding cakecan often be a great way to better inform yourself about current headlines and broader social issues. That being said, the documentary genre is massive - with so much to choose from, it's easy to get intimidated and not know where to start. That's where streaming services like Netflix come in handy. Netflix's library features a wide variety of excellent documentaries that are sure to teach you something new in a compelling fashion.
If you want to get better acquainted with the world around you, look no further than these 10 documentaries, all of which can be found on Netflix. These films tackle a variety of timely and important subject matters, including climate change's effect on coral reefs, the racism of the prison industrial complex, and transgender representation in film and television.
Here are 10 relevant documentaries on Netflix to watch if you want to learn something new:
1. American Factory (2019)
Credit: Steven bognar/netflix American Factory simultaneously tackles two topics that have been discussed in stump speeches from politicians, news podcasts, and daily briefings over the past three years: the American middle class and relations between the U.S. and China. The film centers around the closing of a General Motors plant that left many jobless, an event that has become all too familiar.
When a Chinese business owner reopens the plant and hires back many of the former employees, both Chinese and American workers must reckon with their opposing manufacturing styles and practices. American Factory presents globalization in a localized context, putting real faces to those affected by large-scale issues. The documentary was released on Netflix via Barack and Michelle Obama's production company Higher Ground, and was directed by Julia Reichert and Steven Bogner.
2. The Bleeding Edge (2018)
Credit: netflix Kirby Dick's TheBleeding Edge explains that when commercial and consumer culture infiltrate the medical field, unproven and untested devices harm the lives of countless people. Much like the opioid epidemic, profitable sectors of the healthcare industry push products to be prescribed or implanted in patients in order to make money, rather than to actually help them heal.
If you've ever seen advertisements seeking out those who've experienced the harmful affects of medical devices for a class action lawsuit, you've gotten a piece of the story. Bleeding Edge will fill in the gaps on the topic that is malpractice in the American healthcare system.
3. Reversing Roe (2018)
Reversing Roe, which references Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement but was released weeks before the fated Kavanaugh Hearings, examines how abortion has become a highly politicized and emotionally charged issue in the years since Roe v. Wade in 1973.
The film's creators, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, interviewed both abortion rights and anti-abortion activists to provide a two-sided approach to a hot-button issue that is inevitably intermingled with appeals to our nation's sense of religion, morality, agency, and autonomy.
4. 13th (2016)
Credit: netflix Before Brian Banks, Free Meek, and even True Justice, Ava DuVernay's groundbreaking 13th educated audiences nationwide about mass incarceration and the widespread wrongful imprisonment of Black Americans.
The documentary, titled to reference the 13th Amendment — the amendment that abolished slavery — not only elevates the voices of those who have fallen victim to the broken justice system, it exposes those who made such a system possible, such as proponents of Jim Crow-era statutes and the multiple former presidents and political leaders that contributed to the Republican Party's war on drugs (which enlisted Bill Clinton as well). 13thextensively enlightens viewers on how a majority of black Americans unfairly serve time in the prison industrial complex. It won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary.
5. Chasing Coral (2017)
Credit: courtesy of netflix For must of us, the Great Barrier Reef is the setting for Marlin and Dory's epic adventure to find Nemo; it exists in our minds as a multi-colored, albeit animated, wildlife masterpiece. But in reality, the Great Barrier Reef, which consists of a massive amount of coral, is deteriorating due to a process called coral bleaching. As Chasing Coral explains, this bleaching occurs as a result of climate change.
Luckily, we are at a pivotal moment. We can still work to reverse the effects of the global heat wave that has been rampantly affecting coral. The film's creator, Jeff Orlowski, and those committed to combatting climate change at Exposure Lab have put together an action guide that details how viewers can make a difference by transitioning to 100% clean energy and working to put an end to harsh practices like dredging and overfishing. Chasing Coral is an environmental call to action, and its sweeping ocean panoramas can't be beat.
6. Icarus (2017)
Credit: Netflix From Bryan Fogel (Race to Witch Mountain), Icarus takes a closer look at Russia through the lens of illegal doping in the Olympics. Doping, as stated in the film, affects the credibility of sports — a form of entertainment and binding part of the cultural identity of many nations.
Fogel originally intended to center Icarusaround his experience injecting himself with performance-enhancing drugs, also captured on film. However, when he interviewed Dr. Grigory Rodchenov, head of the Russian anti-doping program, Fogel uncovered how Russia built a legacy of Olympic excellence through longstanding systematic cheating called for by Putin himself. Described as a "geopolitical thriller," Icarus uncovered truths about a taboo subject and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
7. Amanda Knox (2016)
Credit: netflix Amanda Knox made headlines back in 2007 for allegedly murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in the apartment they shared in Perugia, Italy. Knox and Raffele Sollecito, her then-boyfriend who was accused alongside her for the murder, were held imprisoned in Italy until 2011.
Like Casey Anthony, Amanda Knox became synonymous with the image of an unsuspecting white woman who was capable of the unthinkable ... or was she? After years of her personal life, choices, and diary being on display, Knox was definitively acquitted in 2015. In her self-titled documentary film directed by Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, Knox dispels the rumors and tales that defined Meredith Kercher's murder case -- and Knox's life -- for a decade.
8. Get Me Roger Stone (2017)
Credit: netflix Roger Stone is much more than another one of the notorious key players in the multiple ongoing lawsuits against Donald Trump: He played a big role in defining what opposition research in political campaigns looks like today. Stone worked on the campaigns of former presidents Reagan and Nixon, as well as those of Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, and Donald Trump. Throughout his tenure in Washington, he's amassed a reputation as a political fixer who has an affinity for playing dirty -- think ultra combative political lobbying and a recent association with Wikileaks -- and dredging up tidbits on opponents that slander and smear their entire campaigns.
Created by Daniel DiMauro, Get Me Roger Stone understands that Stone's ruthless and unique logic is worth comprehending, as it has affected much of recent political history. If you didn't quite know who Roger Stone was before, you'll know him now. And, oh yeah, that Nixon tattoo is real.
9. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020)
Credit: netflix Crip Campis a vital documentary that tells the story of the generation of disability activists who first learned to organize while attending the now defunct Camp Jened. Camp Jened was a summer program for children and teens with a wide range of disabilities, and the documentary uses archival footage from the camp’s heyday in the 1960s to show the impact its progressive and accessible space had on its campers.
Some of the same people shown as children in the camp footage went on to lead life-changing demonstrations that improved the social status of people with disabilities in the United States, but Crip Camp’s greatest strength as a film is in showing how early access to inclusive spaces gives marginalized community members the opportunity to dream of and create a better world.*—Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter
10. Disclosure (2020)
Credit: Ava benjamin shorr/netflix Right now, we’re living through a period of “unprecedented trans visibility,” according to Disclosure's executive producer and Orange Is the New Blackstar Laverne Cox. But she notes that since 80 percent of Americans do not personally know a trans person, onscreen portrayals have become the only experience for some people. "For a very long time, the ways in which trans people have been represented onscreen have suggested that we're not real, have suggested that we're mentally ill, that we don't exist,” says Cox. “Yet here I am. And here we are. And we've always been here."
Disclosuretakes a hard look at the representation of trans people on screen throughout history, which goes back way further than you might think. And with this disheartening analysis comes a discussion of the offscreen impact of that representation, with transgender people portrayed onscreen more often than not as a joke, someone to be feared, or someone who constantly experiences violence. "For decades, Hollywood has taught people how to react to trans people, and that is with fear,” explains GLAAD’s Nick Adams in the film. There is hope, however, in how far we’ve come with the likes of Orange Is the New Black, Transparent,and Pose. The documentary, as writer Jen Richards says, gives a sense of a broader history of trans representation onscreen so trans people "can find themselves in it." * - Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
Asterisks (*) indicate the entry has appeared on a previous Mashable list.
This story was originally published in November 2019 and updated in July 2021.
Topics Documentaries Netflix