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NDISCOVERY
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Documentary movies

Browse documentary movies by rating, decade and country, and see which are on Netflix where you live.

–2026MovieDocumentary · Music

Capturing Katy Perry’s electrifying, immersive concert experience, Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour – Live from Paris blends powerhouse performances, exhilarating cinematography, and intimate moments to bring audiences into the spectacular world of this creative artist.

8.02026MovieDocumentary

A group of Russian independent journalists flee the country and navigate life in exile after the invasion of Ukraine, focusing on their dispersed lives and ongoing struggle for truth across different nations. While Part I documented their lives in Moscow facing mounting pressure from the Putin regime, Part II chronicles their forced displacement and new realities in various countries, continuing their mission against authoritarianism.

5.32019MovieDocumentary · History

In the late 1990s, iconic photographer Bruce Weber barely managed to convince legendary actor Robert Mitchum (1917-97) to let himself be filmed simply hanging out with friends, telling anecdotes from his life and recording jazz standards.

6.82014MovieDocumentary · TV Movie

The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.

6.31998MovieDocumentary

Jackie Chan is one of the world's biggest action stars, famed for his wacky sense of humor, remarkable martial arts techniques, and willingness to perform incredible stunts without the use of doubles -- or a net. This video takes a personal look at Chan as he works on screen projects in Hollywood and Beijing and candidly discusses his life and work.

6.32018MovieDocumentary · Drama

In Le Livre d’Image, Jean-Luc Godard recycles existing images (films, documentaries, paintings, television archives, etc.), quotes excerpts from books, uses fragments of music. The driving force is poetic rhyme, the association or opposition of ideas, the aesthetic spark through editing, the keystone. The author performs the work of a sculptor. The hand, for this, is essential. He praises it at the start. “There are the five fingers. The five senses. The five parts of the world (…). The true condition of man is to think with his hands. Jean-Luc Godard composes a dazzling syncopation of sequences, the surge of which evokes the violence of the flows of our contemporary screens, taken to a level of incandescence rarely achieved. Crowned at Cannes, the last Godard is a shock film, with twilight beauty.

7.22022MovieDocumentary

Cat experts dive into the mind of the feline to reveal the true capabilities of the pouncing pet in this captivating and cuddly documentary.

7.42016MovieDocumentary

Alex Gibney explores the phenomenon of Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer virus discovered in 2010 by international IT experts. Evidently commissioned by the US and Israeli governments, this malware was designed to specifically sabotage Iran’s nuclear programme. However, the complex computer worm ended up not only infecting its intended target but also spreading uncontrollably.

–2007MovieDocumentary · TV Movie

Boasting an amazing selection of the most watched, most influential and most highly acclaimed programmes ever made, The 50 Greatest Television Dramas presents a long overdue assessment of the rich heritage television drama has to offer. Channel 4 invited over 200 of Britain's top television drama professionals – writers, directors, producers and commissioners – to take part in an exclusive poll to discover what they consider the finest dramas ever produced.

6.72023MovieDocumentary

Uganda has one the youngest populations in the world and one of its most flagrantly anti-democratic governments. These are ingredients for revolution, and Bobi Wine and his wife Barbie Kyagulanyi are stirring the pot. When the charismatic Bobi, a musician and member of parliament, announces his campaign for president, Uganda’s youth are ecstatic, filling parks and streets for every speech, and singing Bobi’s anthems of peace and freedom. But then comes the crackdown, orchestrated by Yoweri Museveni, a brutal dictator who has ruled Uganda for 36 years. Bobi and his crew survive arrests, beatings, torture, riots and raids.

7.32016MovieDocumentary

Venturing into the wilds of China, "Born in China" captures intimate moments with a panda bear and her growing cub, a young golden monkey who feels displaced by his baby sister, and a mother snow leopard struggling to raise her two cubs.

6.92026MovieDocumentary

Follows Brazil's journey to winning its fourth World Cup in 1994, featuring interviews with players and unseen behind-the-scenes footage from the tournament.

8.02026MovieDocumentary

An archive-driven exploration of the life, work, and legacy of iconic, pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer.

–1933MovieDocumentary · Comedy

Comedian Lloyd Hamilton escorts a group of beauty contest winners to various Hollywood night spots.

5.01951MovieDocumentary

A surviving fragment from Henri Langlois’s unfinished Cinémathèque française project inviting artists, writers, scholars, and filmmakers to create 16mm works outside commercial and censorship constraints. Filmed with Matisse’s cooperation, the short preserves one of the few completed remnants of the ambitious initiative.

5.82023MovieDocumentary

This timely exploration of Hollywood and LGBTQ+ identity examines the life of legendary actor Rock Hudson, from his public "ladies' man" persona to his private life as a gay man.

6.22012MovieDocumentary

It takes two or three generations for the monarch butterfly to reach the Canadian breeding grounds, but it is one "supergeneration" that makes the 2,000 mile return trip back south into central Mexico. The documentary film covers Dr Fred Urquhart's interest in monarch butterflies, with perspectives of Urquhart as a child wondering where the butterflies went, his years of research and study into their life and migration, to his time decades-later as a senior scientist looking back at his investigations and discoveries about the insect's life pattern.

6.11990MovieDocumentary · TV Movie

The Earth Day Special is a television special revolving around Earth Day that aired on ABC on April 22, 1990. Sponsored by Time Warner, the special featured an all-star cast addressing concerns about global warming, deforestation, and other environmental ills.