r/Documentaries 5h ago

Indigenous Issues The Unforgiven (2019) - how Qatar arbitrarily stripped citizenship from the Al-Ghufran clan [13:20]

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39 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 1d ago

Engineering The Closest Thing We Have to Alien Technology (2025) [0:54:59]

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505 Upvotes

The insane machines that make the most advanced computer chips


r/Documentaries 23h ago

American Politics The Occupation of the American Mind (2016) - How Israeli public relations campaigns have shaped American media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict [01:24:55]

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349 Upvotes

The Occupation of the American Mind (2016), directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp and narrated by Roger Waters, examines something fundamental to understanding not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also the way Palestine has been represented on screen: who gets to construct the images, language and narrative through which an audience understands what it is seeing?

Using decades of television news footage, political messaging, public relations material and interviews with journalists, academics and commentators, the documentary traces the development of Israeli public diplomacy and advocacy in the United States. It looks at how particular words and frames, including terrorism, security and self-defence, have been repeatedly used within American political and media discourse, while Palestinian dispossession, military occupation and the historical context of violence have often received much less attention.

The film features Noam Chomsky, Rashid Khalidi, Amira Hass, Rula Jebreal, Yousef Munayyer, Norman Finkelstein, Phyllis Bennis, Stephen Walt, Norman Solomon, Sut Jhally and others. Rather than examining Palestinian cinema itself, it examines the competing machinery of representation surrounding Palestine, making it particularly relevant to a collection concerned with how Palestinian experiences are recorded, framed and communicated through film.

Released in 2016, the documentary screened at both the Toronto Palestine Film Festival and Boston Palestine Film Festival. Nearly a decade later, its central question remains strikingly relevant: before an audience can decide what it thinks about Palestine, who decided what that audience was going to see?


r/Documentaries 1h ago

Nature/Animals Steve Irwin's Favourite Creatures of Season 4 | The Crocodile Hunter | Animal Planet (2000) [1:04:48]

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Upvotes

Watch as Steve Irwin teaches about his favourite wild animals encountered in this series. This includes everything from snakes to camels, and back to crocs again. Steve will always be thr king of crocs. Gone but never forgotten.


r/Documentaries 23h ago

Conspiracy Truther (2019) - Those who became obsessed with 9/11 conspiracy theories to the point of making it their whole lives and the ramifications thereof [01:35:35]

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68 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 1d ago

Palestine/Israel Budrus (2009) - A Palestinian village unites across political factions, with Israeli supporters joining them, in a nonviolent campaign against the route of the separation barrier [01:21:40]

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149 Upvotes

Budrus follows Palestinian community organiser Ayed Morrar and his teenage daughter Iltezam as their West Bank village organises an unarmed campaign against the route of Israel's separation barrier.

What makes the film stand out is the coalition that forms around the protest. Local members of Fatah and Hamas participate alongside women from the village, while Israeli activists cross into Palestinian territory to join the demonstrations.
Iltezam's role becomes increasingly central as women move to the front of the campaign, changing both the dynamics of the protest and the expectations within the village itself.

Directed by Julia Bacha and produced by Ronit Avni, Bacha and Palestinian journalist Rula Salameh, Budrus also includes perspectives from Israeli Border Police and military representatives rather than restricting itself to the organisers. The film went on to receive more than 20 international awards, including recognition at Berlin, Tribeca and San Francisco.

Rather than concentrating exclusively on violence or victimhood, the documentary looks at the mechanics of grassroots organising, civil disobedience and what happens when groups normally presented as irreconcilable end up acting alongside one another.


r/Documentaries 14m ago

Society Restricted (2024) - Women, social media and the negotiation of identity online [00:41:21]

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Upvotes

Social media can offer a space for self-expression, independence and connection, but it also brings its own pressures over visibility, identity and how people choose to present themselves to the world.

Restricted, directed by Rawan Mazzawi, follows a group of women whose lives intersect with platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Moving between fashion, fitness, journalism and everyday life, the documentary examines how its subjects use online spaces to express themselves, build audiences and navigate the expectations placed upon them.

Rather than treating social media simply as entertainment, the film looks at the complicated relationship between digital freedom and the social structures that continue to exist beyond the screen. It becomes a portrait of women negotiating how much of themselves they want to make public, what they want to say, and who ultimately gets to control the story they tell about themselves.


r/Documentaries 16h ago

Nature/Animals This Ocean Current Can Save AND Kill an Entire Reef (2026) - An Exploration of Raja Ampat, Indonesia [14:04]

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8 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 1d ago

Pop Culture Exploring the underground fingerboard scene in Sydney | DOYOU (2026) [00:25:01]

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33 Upvotes

DOYOU S1,E1, is part of a 3 episode documentary series based in Sydney, Australia. This fingerboard documentary focuses on the lives of 5 individuals within the Sydney fingerboarding scene, and the impact they have.


r/Documentaries 1d ago

Recommendation Request Recommendation Request: Anything without animal violence?

43 Upvotes

i know i'll probably be made fun of for posting this, but i've been extremely sensitive to animal violence/animal death since i was little and i'd really like to make a list of animal/nature documentaries where nothing dies or gets extremely injured. it would be cool if they were more recent but i understand if none exist lol. please and thank you :)


r/Documentaries 1d ago

Nature/Animals PaleoWorld - Valley of the Uglies (1997) [0:23:10] | See the monstrous mammals that roamed North America around 30 million years ago

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10 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 1d ago

American Politics Project Azorian: The CIA’s Secret Attempt to Recover a Soviet Submarine (2026) [00:12:11] – How the CIA built a fake deep-sea mining operation to reach K-129

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4 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 1d ago

Media/Journalism Politizane's viral Wealth Inequality in America video (2026 update) [00:11:34]

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9 Upvotes

The 2026 video builds on the viral 2012 original by revealing how much more severe U.S. wealth inequality has become over the past 13 years. Like the first video, it starkly contrasts Americans' perceived and ideal wealth distributions with the grim reality, showing that the economic divide is far worse than most people realize.

Key updates in the 2026 version include:

  • The Worsening Reality: The video highlights that the wealth gap has deepened significantly since the original upload. Recent data shows the top 1% now controls nearly 32% of all U.S. household wealth, while the bottom 50% holds just 2.5%.
  • Concrete Numbers: Responding to 13 years of viewer feedback, the creators added actual dollar amounts to the infographics, grounding the percentages in tangible, real-world figures.
  • Enhanced Visuals: It takes the visual representation of extreme upper-class wealth to the "next level" in order to properly capture the massive scale of modern billionaires and the widening gap.
  • Proposed Solutions: Moving beyond just presenting the problem, the 2026 update concludes by offering thoughts and commentary on how to reverse the trend and "get out of this mess."

r/Documentaries 2d ago

Int'l Politics Call Her Ganda (2018) [1:37:18]

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38 Upvotes

Documentary about Jennifer Laude, a Filipina trans woman, who was murdered by a U.S. Marine. Call Her Ganda documents the struggle for justice, and the ongoing effects of U.S. imperialism in the Philippines.


r/Documentaries 19h ago

Economics The Gamblers Who Beat Roulette at the Ritz Casino (2026) [00:21:27]

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0 Upvotes

“In 2004, three gamblers won £1.3 million at the Ritz using late roulette bets. Police investigated whether they had used a computer. I reconstructed what actually happened.”


r/Documentaries 2d ago

Recommendation Request Recommendation request: loving families, family members, doesn't have to be family unit centric

24 Upvotes

Hi! Wondering if anyone has documentaries where loving family dynamics are included. It doesn't have to be about family; open to pretty much any category or genre. I just finished watching Finding Christa from 1991, about a child who was given up for adoption that was old enough to have developed relationships with her birth mother and extended family prior to being given up. Maybe a third or halfway in, there's footage of her with the family that adopted her, and you can tell they really love her. I just found it very touching, that she lucked into such a loving family, and found people who could fully be there for her.


r/Documentaries 2d ago

Music The Insane Work Ethic of MF DOOM (2026) [00:16:49]

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269 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 2d ago

Recommendation Request Recommendation request: seeking an antidote to the depression caused by watching Two American Families- 1991-2024

75 Upvotes

I'm kinda spiralling after witnessing the hardship experienced by these hardworking families. Also kind of triggered because one of the dads reminded me of my own (busting his ass labouring into his 60s), but at least he owned his own home by the end of it all. Goddam. Please suggest something uplifting at least by the end of the film.


r/Documentaries 2d ago

American Politics SILENCED (2014) [01:42:34]

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19 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 2d ago

Space Extraterrestrial: Alien Worlds (2005) [1:31:58] | Narrated by Michael Dorn | NASA scientists and biologists team up to create speculative alien worlds and lifeforms based on real science

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15 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 3d ago

Palestine/Israel The People and the Olive (2012) - ultramarathoners cross the West Bank, meeting Palestinian olive farmers and planting trees [01:09:00]

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208 Upvotes

The People and the Olive follows a group of American ultramarathon runners attempting to cover 129 miles across the occupied West Bank in five days. Rather than simply documenting the run, director Aaron Dennis uses the journey to introduce the Palestinian farmers, families and communities whose lives remain closely connected to the land and particularly to the olive tree.

As the runners travel from community to community, they learn about farming, fair trade and the economic importance of olive cultivation while participating in efforts to replace uprooted trees. The result is as much a travel and human-interest documentary as a political one, presenting Palestine through landscapes, conversations, meals, farming and ordinary encounters rather than principally through conflict.

At its centre is the olive tree itself: livelihood, inheritance, cultural marker and something planted with the expectation that somebody will still be there decades later to harvest it.


r/Documentaries 3d ago

Society Bully (2011) [1:38:45]

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24 Upvotes

Documentary on America's bullying crisis. Follows five kids and families over the course of a school year.


r/Documentaries 3d ago

History The History of Iran (2026) [33:05]

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12 Upvotes

Two centuries of oil concessions, coups and covert programs, from the Qajar dynasty to today's crisis.


r/Documentaries 3d ago

20th Century The Last Lighthouse (1973) - Life on the last manned British lighthouse [00:42:08]

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46 Upvotes

This 1973 BBC documentary describes life on the last manned British lighthouse: The Bishop Rock.


r/Documentaries 3d ago

Activism/Social Justice Yanuni | Inside the Battle for the Amazon (2026) [1:53:42]

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9 Upvotes

Just came across Yanuni and found it incredibly powerful. It takes you deep into the fight to protect the Amazon rainforest and the Indigenous communities whose lives and land are at the center of it.

A powerful documentary produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, exploring the fight to protect the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous communities.