Skip to content
NDISCOVERY
Genre

Documentary movies

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

7.02012MovieDocumentary

A nature documentary centered on a family of chimps living in the Ivory Coast and Ugandan rain forests. Through Oscar, a little chimpanzee, we discover learning about life in the heart of the African tropical forest and follow his first steps in this world with humor, emotion and anguish. Following a tragedy, he finds himself separated from his mother and left alone to face the hostility of the jungle. Until he is picked up by an older chimpanzee, who will take him under her protection.

7.32006MovieDocumentary

Filmmaker Christopher Quinn observes the ordeal of three Sudanese refugees -- Jon Bul Dau, Daniel Abul Pach and Panther Bior -- as they try to come to terms with the horrors they experienced in their homeland, while adjusting to their new lives in the United States.

7.32024MovieDocumentary · Music

Iconic British band blur (“Song 2”, “Girls & Boys”) comes together to record their first album in eight years – the chart-topping The Ballad of Darren – and prepare for the biggest concerts of their career, two sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. With footage of the band in the studio and on the road, plus performances of their much-loved, seminal songs.

6.42011MovieDocumentary

Tornado Alley documents two unprecedented missions seeking to encounter one of Earth’s most awe-inspiring events—the birth of a tornado. Filmmaker Sean Casey’s personal quest to capture the birth of a tornado with a 70mm camera takes viewers on a breathtaking journey into the heart of the storm. A team of equally driven scientists, the VORTEX2 researchers, experience the relentless strength of nature’s elemental forces as they literally surround tornadoes and the supercell storms that form them, gathering the most comprehensive severe weather data ever collected.

7.61982MovieDocumentary

The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.

6.72017MovieDocumentary

Never before have we watched as much porn as today yet the traditional porn industry is dying. The arrival of web sites showing amateur clips has transformed the way porn is made and consumed. Behind this transformation lies one opaque multinational.

7.11980MovieDocumentary

Directed and edited by Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian Kubrick, this film offers a look behind the scenes during the making of The Shining.

8.22026MovieDocumentary

Through years of heartbreak and resilience, Rory McIlroy's pursuit of the Green Jacket at the Masters becomes a reckoning with legacy and the final step toward completing golf's rarest achievement, the career Grand Slam.

8.82006MovieDocumentary

A behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of 2001's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." Created by filmmaker Costa Botes, personally selected by director Peter Jackson, this documentary uses raw footage to reveal the inside story on how the greatest adventure film franchise was born.

6.22019MovieDocumentary

A musician's journey to create a song with some of the biggest stars in the industry. Along the way, he faces up to his painful past, while giving viewers a deep personal insight into the issue of bullying.

7.32011MovieMusic · Documentary

A concert documentary shot during the Glee Live! In Concert! summer 2011 tour, featuring song performances and fans' life stories and how the show influenced them.

6.92021MovieDocumentary · History

A tribute to Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci (1926-90), presented by American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

6.42025MovieDocumentary · War

Pulitzer Prize-winning conflict photojournalist Lynsey Addario reflects on a career working in some of the world's most dangerous war zones, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

7.02024MovieDocumentary

An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school in Canada ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.

6.72015MovieDocumentary

A look at the events leading up to the Taliban's attack on the young Pakistani school girl, Malala Yousafzai, for speaking out on girls' education and the aftermath, including her speech to the United Nations.

6.82024MovieDocumentary

Three men enter the new wild west of baby making, online forums where sperm donors connect with hopeful parents, but find themselves exchanging more than just genetic material.

7.02019MovieDocumentary · History

In a tale of double agents and decoys, this documentary reveals, for the first time, the story of King George VI's elaborate ruse to divert German attention away from the Normandy landings in 1944.

–2026MovieDocumentary · Animation

Seven Ukrainian children demonstrate resilience while facing catastrophic injuries and forcible deportations during the ongoing war, their stories told through verité footage and animation by Ukrainian artists.

7.72021MovieDocumentary

Kipchoge: The Last Milestone follows record-breaking marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge's journey to becoming the first person in history to run a marathon in under two hours.