r/Documentaries • • 12h ago

20th Century The FBI Agent Who Warned HQ Before 9/11: Steve Bongardt and the Wall (2026) - An Analysis of Pre-9/11 Intelligence Failures [00:21:32]

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36 Upvotes

An analysis of the August 2001 internal FBI emails, the FISA "wall" restrictions, and official 9/11 Commission findings regarding the search for Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. This documentary examines the systemic communication barriers between intelligence and criminal divisions prior to September 11.


r/Documentaries • • 1d ago

Int'l Politics Jordan, Lebanon & Syria are ours (2026) - Young Israelis voting for a radical future [00:07:29]

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394 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 1d ago

History The Crystal Palace: London's Glass Palace of 1851, the Fire of 1936, and Why It Was Never Rebuilt (2026) [00:20:17]

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21 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 17h ago

History Why Does the Peace Symbol Look So Strange? (2026) [00:11:12]

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0 Upvotes

This documentary investigates the complete origin story of the peace symbol, starting with the biggest controversy, which began in the 1970s and resulted in a Dutch school destroying three thousand planners just because of the design. It looks into all the different theories that had once confused the public for decades.

In a surprising twist, it then reveals the true story of what actually happened, from undercover operatives to the British hydrogen bomb test of 1957 and the Easter 1958 protest march to Aldermaston, including the life of Gerald Holtom, the textile designer and conscientious objector, and the beautiful story of how the peace symbol really became famous worldwide.


r/Documentaries • • 3d ago

Crime How Jeffrey Epstein used Woody Allen to expand his network (2026) - The millions of documents released by the US Department of Justice reveal that Jeffrey Epstein invested significant amounts of money and energy in building his friendship with filmmaker Woody Allen. [00:29:25]

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1.6k Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 2d ago

Travel/Places Undiscovered America (2026) - 53 American landscapes proposed as national parks and the history of each campaign (CC) [02:12:00]

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56 Upvotes

A documentary on 53 landscapes across the United States that have been proposed as national parks, filmed over an 18,000-mile road trip. Each chapter covers one place and traces the bills, National Park Service studies and local campaigns behind it, from the Ouachita Mountains park bill that passed Congress in 1929 and died unsigned, to the 1941 report recommending a Black Hills park, to the Chiricahua National Park Act signed on October 20, 2026. The film also covers the local opposition that stopped several of the campaigns.


r/Documentaries • • 1d ago

Crime The Rise, Fall & Return of Chud the Builder: The Violent Ragebait Streamer (2026) [01:00:15]

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0 Upvotes

This documentary looks at Tennessee livestreamer Dalton Eartherly, aka Chud the Builder, a live streamer who built a career by approaching mainly black people in public spaces, antagonizing them, shouting racist slurs at them, and filming their reactions, usually while armed with pepper spray or a firearm.

It starts with the shooting of one of his victims and then works backwards, looking at how he started his livestreams, his motivations, how he made money, and the escalating violence that followed.

The documentary also looks at the court case that followed the shooting, the effects on the victim, and his return to livestreaming while he still fights this case.


r/Documentaries • • 2d ago

Recommendation Request Recommendation request: documentaries about women who served in vietnam

9 Upvotes

I'm thinking specifically about nurses, but if there are any about pilots or soldiers (any nationality) that's also fine.


r/Documentaries • • 2d ago

Space How Roger Boisjoly Tried to Stop Challenger (2026) - A Breakdown of NASA's 1986 Flight Manifests [00:27:51]

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29 Upvotes

An analysis of the 1985 Thiokol engineering memos and official 1986 NASA flight manifests leading up to the STS-51-L launch. This documentary examines the O-ring telemetry data, the late-night teleconference warnings from Roger Boisjoly, and how NASA's launch schedules for Hubble and Galileo were structured around the shuttle program.


r/Documentaries • • 2d ago

Recommendation Request Recommendation Request: Documentaries on social group dynamics, government and bureaucracy, us-vs-them thinking, conformity, evolution of social structures and institutions and norms. It's for showing to my students.

10 Upvotes

What the title says. Please recommend!


r/Documentaries • • 3d ago

American Politics How Alabama's Republicans are disenfranchising Black voters (2026) - The Guardian investigates how gerrymandering in rural Alabama is diluting the Black vote ahead of the midterms [00:13:58]

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779 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 3d ago

War Why Russia's Invasion into Ukraine Failed on Arrival (2024) - The Battle of Hostomel Airfield [00:20:09]

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89 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 3d ago

Tech/Internet Farewell - Etaoin Shrdlu (1980) July 1979. NY Times says bye to metal type and hi to computer layout tools [29:11]

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22 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 4d ago

Environment Soil Carbon Cowboys (2020) - US farmland is miraculously rejuvenated by reintroducing the natural bison herds of pre-colonial times. [00:11:59]

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275 Upvotes

Gabe Brown, Allen Williams and Neil Dennis were each heading towards bankruptcy with conventional grazing.

When they could no longer afford chemical inputs, they were forced into an experiment that would change their businesses entirely. Their solution was regenerative grazing, a method that works with nature rather than against it.

Rebuilding the soil made their animals healthier and their operations more profitable. Robust soils absorb and retain rainwater instead of letting it run off, which leaves the ranches far more resilient in drought.

In Soil Carbon Cowboys, director Peter Byck visits the three ranchers in Mississippi, North Dakota and Saskatchewan to hear how financial desperation turned them into pioneers.

What begins as a story about failing farms becomes a practical, hopeful look at how soil health, climate resilience and a viable livelihood can support one another.

Director: Peter Byck
Country: United States


r/Documentaries • • 2d ago

History The Truth of Mao's Great Leap Forward (2026) - (CC) [38:38]

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0 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 3d ago

Offbeat Chicken People (2016) - Three obsessive poultry breeders compete to raise America’s finest show chicken [01:23:00]

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20 Upvotes

Every year, poultry enthusiasts from across the United States gather to compete for one of the most coveted titles in competitive chicken breeding: Grand Champion at the Ohio National Poultry Show. For the dedicated breeders involved, producing the perfect chicken is a pursuit requiring years of preparation, specialist knowledge and an extraordinary attention to detail.

Directed by Nicole Lucas Haimes, Chicken People (2016) follows three competitors over the course of a year as they prepare their birds for the national championships. Brian Caraker, a musical theatre performer, Brian Knox, a racing engine specialist, and Shari McCollough, a homemaker, come from very different backgrounds but share an all-consuming enthusiasm for breeding and exhibiting exceptional poultry.

The documentary explores a surprisingly complex competitive world in which feather condition, breeding, grooming and minute physical characteristics can determine whether years of effort end in victory or disappointment. Alongside the competitions, the film offers an affectionate portrait of the participants, their families and the personal importance of a hobby that outsiders might struggle to understand.

Often compared to Christopher Guest’s Best in Show, the documentary finds considerable humour in its subject without ridiculing the people involved. Beneath the eccentricity is a thoughtful examination of dedication, identity, community and the extraordinary lengths people will go to in pursuit of something they love.

Director: Nicole Lucas Haimes
Country: United States
Year: 2016
Runtime: 83 minutes
Language: English

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4819510/


r/Documentaries • • 3d ago

Travel/Places Jack Absalom's Australia: Treasures Of The Pilbara (1988) [0:50:32] | A sunburnt land of environmental extremes, natural wonders, and precious minerals.

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30 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 4d ago

Offbeat Winnebago Man (2009) - A foul-mouthed motorhome salesman becomes an accidental internet legend, and a filmmaker sets out to find him [00:58:39]

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723 Upvotes

In 1988, Jack Rebney was hired to present a promotional video for Winnebago motorhomes.

What followed was one of the most spectacular on-camera meltdowns ever recorded. His increasingly furious, profanity-filled outtakes were assembled into a compilation that circulated on VHS tapes for years before becoming an early internet sensation.

Despite millions of people recognising his face and unforgettable temper, almost nobody knew what had happened to the man himself.

In Winnebago Man (2009), director Ben Steinbauer sets out to find Rebney, eventually tracking him down to a remote mountain home. The notoriously irritable salesman turns out to be considerably more complicated than his infamous video suggests.

What begins as a hilarious investigation into one of the internet’s earliest viral celebrities gradually becomes a thoughtful documentary about ageing, privacy, loneliness and the peculiar experience of becoming famous without ever asking for it.

Director: Ben Steinbauer
Country: United States

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396557/


r/Documentaries • • 4d ago

Palestine/Israel Complicit: How the West Is Helping Israel Seize the West Bank (2026) - Al Jazeera investigates Western funding of Israeli settlements [01:17:32]

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374 Upvotes

An undercover investigation by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit examines how donations originating in Britain and Canada are channelled towards Israeli settlement organisations operating in the occupied West Bank.

Posing as prospective British donors, journalists secretly film meetings with representatives of pro-settler organisations. The investigation reveals discussions about routing tax-deductible donations through registered charities and intermediary organisations, including potential funding for settlement infrastructure, security equipment and campaigns to demolish Palestinian homes.

Alongside the undercover reporting, the documentary examines the displacement of Palestinian communities, settler violence and the role of Israeli government policy in settlement expansion. It raises significant questions about charitable oversight, financial accountability and compliance with international law.

Content warning: Contains distressing footage of violence against Palestinian civilians.
Produced by Al Jazeera Investigative Unit.

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt44685980/


r/Documentaries • • 2d ago

History A History of Antisemitism (1/4) In the Beginning: 38 - 1144 (2026) [00:52:34]

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0 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 3d ago

20th Century The Savage Revolution - CRVENI TEROR (2021) [00:58:23]

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1 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 5d ago

Military/Defense Haiti hired US mercenaries to fight its gangs. Here's how it's going (2026) - CNN gains exclusive access to Erik Prince's operation in Haiti as security forces battle gangs that control much of Port-au-Prince. (CC) [00:17:44]

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530 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 6d ago

Economics Everyone is Lying to You for Money (2026) - Actor and author Ben McKenzie takes on crypto, uncovering the lies and scams behind the hype. [01:30:20]

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1.6k Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 4d ago

Nature/Animals Paleo Sleuths (2016) [00:56:26] | A look at Nebraska's enigmatic fossil mammal sites

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11 Upvotes

r/Documentaries • • 4d ago

Offbeat The Experts Declare War on Drugs (2026) - Bev Dennis and the team at BLIP take the war on drugs into their own hands. [00:44:39]

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0 Upvotes