Greatest documentaries streaming now on Prime Video

Generally actual life is stranger than fiction, and typically it is simply way more fascinating. In the event you’re within the temper for a documentary that’ll get your pulse pumping, your coronary heart aching, or your thoughts operating, you may wish to try Prime Video.

Now streaming on Prime Video is a wealth of mesmerizing true tales, starting from private tales of trials and triumph to harrowing crime investigations to quirky and heart-warming explorations of distinctive artistic imaginative and prescient.

Whether or not you are within the temper for one thing academic, emotional, or simply downright wild, this record of top-notch documentaries has received you lined.

1. Man on Wire

Depicting the excessive wire artist Philippe Petit’s mind-boggling 1974 stroll on a wire between the Twin Towers in NYC, this doc from filmmaker James Marsh makes use of uncommon video footage of Petit’s prep together with recreations of the occasion and current-day interviews with everybody concerned to craft a heart-racing heist movie. Profitable each award inside attain, as much as and together with the Oscar, the movie memorializes not simply Petit’s stunt but in addition these buildings, and the legend of their monumental standing. — Jason Adams, Contributing Author

The way to watch: Man on Wire is now streaming on Prime Video.

2. Phil Tippett: Mad Desires and Monsters

The identical man who gave us the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park gave us the holographic chess sport in Star Wars, the killer bugs in Starship Troopers, and the terrifying Enforcement Droid in RoboCop. That man’s identify is Phil Tippett, and people are simply 4 of the particular results wizard’s credit that this 2019 documentary on the person options. It is all lined within the run as much as the lengthy, lengthy, lengthy-delayed launch of his stop-motion surrealist masterpiece Mad God — principally as a result of Tippett may by no means deliver himself to cease tinkering with it – which additionally will get loads of a lot deserved love right here. Anyway, we adore it when behind-the-scenes cinematic craftspeople of observe get their correct due, and Tippett’s one of the crucial deserving there ever was or can be. A magician. — J.A.

The way to watch: Phil Tippett: Mad Desires and Monsters is now streaming on Prime Video.

3. Dwelling With Chucky

The Kid’s Play franchise — that means the slasher movies starring Chucky the murderous doll that started in 1988 proper up by the TV sequence that is presently in its third season — has been within the palms of the identical individuals the whole time, save one spin-off reboot that we are going to not focus on. Specifically, creator Don Mancini and his crew of pleasant wackadoos. That is given the franchise not only a thematic throughline that the opposite ’80s slasher franchises have lacked, however an precise private one, since many years of relationships have bloomed behind the scenes. 

And that is the juice that this 2022 doc thrives on. For instance, director Kyra Elise Gardner fairly actually grew up with Chucky; her dad Tony has been engaged on make-up and puppeteering for all issues Kid’s Play for many years. That private contact provides this doc a sweetness and an intimacy, and possibly these usually are not the phrases you’d usually affiliate with a killer doll, however right here we’re. — J.A.

The way to watch: Dwelling With Chucky is now streaming on Prime Video.

4. Dior and I

Whereas a glance behind the scenes on the staging a vogue present can usually induce terror, director Frédéric Tcheng’s 2014 take a look at the primary high fashion assortment of Raf Simons for the legendary home is so awash in magnificence that you just hardly even discover any of that. Narrated by way of excerpts of Dior’s autobiography, which was unpublished and solely found at first of the movie’s manufacturing, Dior and I is as intimate and beautiful as the clothes themselves. — J.A.

The way to watch: Dior and I is now streaming on Prime Video.

5. Woodlands Darkish and Days Bewitched: A Historical past of People Horror

The Wicker Man. Midsommar. The Blair Witch Mission. The Lighthouse. What do these seemingly disparate bunch of horror films all have in frequent? All of them belong to the scary subgenre of people horror, which depends on pure environments and components of folklore and delusion to create nightmarish atmospheres. 

And in case you’re inquisitive about them in any respect, boy oh boy, have I received the documentary for you!  Wildly informative at nicely over three hours, author and historian Kier-La Janisse’s 2021 doc will inform you every thing you should know in regards to the previous, current, and future of those movies, scanning each nook of the globe. It is actually one of the crucial spectacular documentaries as regards to horror movies ever crafted — a whole semester in a single sitting. Along with tons of nice interviews and clips, you may stroll away with a listing ten pages lengthy of films to look at. — J.A.

The way to watch: Woodlands Darkish and Days Bewitched: A Historical past of People Horror is now streaming on Prime Video.

6. One Baby Nation

In China between the years 1979 and 2015, the federal government had a one-child coverage; due to the surging inhabitants, households have been “encouraged” to solely have a single baby. In Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s 2019 documentary, they interviewed each the enforcers of that coverage and the enforced-upon, and an image of real horror emerges. 

The propaganda from the period appears downright goofy, but it surely had a chilling impact. Infanticide and human trafficking ran rampant. However probably the most transferring elements of the doc are those seen from the bottom degree, particularly from inside Wang’s household, the place her personal mom speaks of the horrible choices she needed to make. — J.A.

The way to watch: One Baby Nation is now streaming on Prime Video.

7. Nelly and Nadine

In search of blossoms of hope inside tales of the Holocaust can typically really feel like a idiot’s errand, however Magnus Gertten’s 2022 documentary a couple of love affair between two girls who met in a focus camp in some way manages that transferring feat. Sylvie Bianchi spent most of her life too afraid to look into her grandmother Nelly’s letters about her time within the female-only Ravensbrück camp. As soon as Sylvie does look into Nelly’s letters, she discovers a a secret love story between her grandmother and one other lady named Nadine. In some way, these two girls managed to seek out love amid all of the horror, and years later they reunited and ran off to Venezuela to be collectively. It is astonishing stuff, and a reminder of how dealing with the worst conceivable factor will make the wonder in life shine all of the brighter.  — J.A. 

The way to watch: Nelly and Nadine is now streaming on Prime Video.

8. Grizzly Man

Werner Herzog has totally been a personality for his 60-year-plus directing profession. (See additionally the 1999 doc My Greatest Fiend, which is additionally presently streaming on Prime.) Nevertheless it wasn’t till this 2005 documentary that he actually grew to become a model unto himself — a voice iconic sufficient to encourage tributes and parodies far and vast, along with the occasional stunt-casting gig.  

That might be odd in and of itself, but it surely turns into deeply bizarre if you consider the movie’s topic. Grizzly Man is definitely a deeply severe cautionary story in regards to the conservationist Timothy Treadwell, who went to reside among the many bears of Alaska and ended up killed by the creatures he received too snug with — recording himself all of the whereas. So go rewatch Grizzly Man, setting apart your finest existentially somber Herzog impression for a minute, and immerse your self within the director’s meticulous reconstruction of Treadwell’s life, work, and a number of follies. That is finally a particularly transferring and sometimes disturbing portrait of 1 man’s overreach and the detached pure world biting again.

The way to watch: Grizzly Man is now streaming on Prime Video.

9. I Am: Celine Dion

What higher second to spend a few of your time with the Quebecois musical icon than now, within the wake of her triumphant return to the stage for the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics? As this 2024 doc makes clear, it was in no way a simple journey to that perch on the aspect of the Eiffel Tower, the place she sang Edith Piaf’s ballad “Hymne à l’amour” straight into the heavens. After her 2022 analysis with stiff-person syndrome, a uncommon neurological dysfunction that causes an individual’s muscle groups to grab up, she’s been by the ringer. 

However in true Celine vogue, she refuses to be held again, and director Irene Taylor’s movie captures her in some deeply intimate and private moments. There’s no one fairly like Celine, whose humor and forthrightness will soften even probably the most cynical viewer’s defenses. — J.A.

The way to watch: I Am: Celine Dion is now streaming on Prime Video.

10. Gimme Hazard

Gimme Hazard is the definitive doc of punk rock’s origin level. The Stooges have been up to now forward of their time they’d made three data and damaged up earlier than anyone may even notice what they’d performed. Jim Jarmusch spent about ten years engaged on the doc, which involves a head with their 2010 induction into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame. And everyone nonetheless alive to inform the wild story fortunately tells their model of it. In fact it is Iggy, who’s spent a number of many years hogging the highlight, who walks away with the present but once more. — J.A.

Mashable High Tales

The way to watch: Gimme Hazard is now streaming on Prime Video.

11. Silver Greenback Highway

After 2016’s I Am Not Your Negro and 2021’s Exterminate All of the Brutes, it is secure to say that director Raoul Peck is among the greats working at present. 2023’s Silver Greenback Highway, which relies on the 2019 ProPublica article “Kicked Off The Land” by Lizzie Presser, triple underlines that assertion. The movie tells the continuing multi-generational story of the Reels household, whose prime slice of waterfront property in North Carolina grew to become the main focus of some grasping actual property builders. In simply 100 minutes, it manages to be each a phenomenal portrait of a loving household and an infuriating excavation of American institutionalized racism at work. — J.A.

The way to watch: Silver Greenback Highway is now streaming on Prime Video.

12. Val

Val Kilmer is among the greats, with out query. He is performed Batman and The Doorways frontman Jim Morrison. His efficiency in Tombstone as Doc Holliday is a incessantly quoted cult hit that is impressed any variety of memes. And he is Hollywood’s finest Moses thus far, together with his star flip in The Prince of Egypt, an animated retelling of the Passover story from 1998, far exceeding that of Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments.

In Val, the famed actor who largely fell out of public view within the mid-2010s as he battled throat most cancers, bares his complete self. Kilmer himself created lots of the residence films and behind-the-scenes clips featured on this Amazon Authentic documentary, and so they’re weaved collectively right here to color an image of his life and profession. That includes narration from Kilmer’s son Jack and phrases written by the actor himself, Val is about as private as a biographical documentary can get. — Adam Rosenberg, Video Recreation Reporter

The way to watch: Val is now streaming on Prime Video.

13. Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown

Launched in 2014, the identical 12 months the late Chadwick Boseman starred because the Godfather of Soul within the biopic Get On Up, Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown performs like a becoming companion piece. However with an completed documentarian like Alex Gibney on the helm, Mr. Dynamite greater than stands by itself.

Highlighted by a wealth of uncommon archival supplies displaying the funk and soul famous person throughout his early days, the movie chronicles Brown’s profession from his time enjoying for Black audiences when the American Civil Rights motion was nonetheless taking form, all the best way into his mainstreamed blockbuster success. Whereas Mr. Dynamite‘s largely uncritical look falls brief on chronicling Brown’s later years, there are greater than sufficient archival supplies and interesting revelations to maintain this two-hour journey by music historical past. — A.R.

The way to watch: Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown is now streaming on Prime Video.

14. The Imposter

Bart Layton’s retelling of the extraordinarily curious 1997 case of the French conman Frédéric Bourdin presents us with a type of true tales that appears too baffling to imagine – certainly, when the 2009 horror movie Orphan stole this documentary’s massive revelation, it got here to be thought of one of many biggest horror film twists of all time! However the twist is certainly primarily based in reality, as Bourdin was in a position to impersonate a lacking Texan boy and “happily reunite” with the boy’s household, though he was a number of years older, had a French accent, and didn’t a lot appear to be the boy in any respect. The ability of perception is a strong pressure certainly. — J.A.

The way to watch: The Imposter is now streaming on Prime Video.

15. The Howlin’ Wolf Story

Chester Burnett, the Howlin’ Wolf himself: Hear that voice as soon as, and you may always remember it. Burnett’s raspy, tortured growl is the sound of a freight prepare moaning at midnight, and it is only one piece of the portrait painted in filmmaker Don McGlynn’s The Howlin’ Wolf Story.

The legendary Chicago bluesman left an indelible mark on tradition and rock music particularly, because the originator of what are actually bona fide blues requirements, like “Spoonful” and “Smokestack Lightnin’.” This documentary recounts Burnett’s early days spent studying beneath Charley Patton, his travels with Robert Johnson, his impression on the Rolling Stones (and music on the whole), and the larger-than-life power he introduced to each stage he set foot on because the Wolf. — A.R.

The way to watch: The Howlin’ Wolf Story is now streaming on Prime Video.

16. No No: A Dockumentary

No No: A Dockumentary has one hell of a strong hook: Dock Ellis, the late Main League Baseball professional who’s its topic, as soon as pitched a no-hitter as a Pittsburgh Pirate whereas tripping his face off on LSD.

Wild as it’s, that incident is, in fact, only a second in a a lot bigger and extra advanced life. Director Jeffrey Radice assembles his image of Ellis from interviews with mates, household, and former teammates, bolstering the manufacturing even additional with a beneficiant serving to of archival supplies — together with phrases from Ellis himself.

No No is an intensive take a look at the person behind the second. The documentary anchors itself in that second solely to focus on and heighten the life that led to and adopted it. We come away with a deeper understanding of who Ellis was, the varied forces that formed his life, and the highs and lows that characterised his journey. — A.R.

The way to watch: No No: A Dockumentary is now streaming on Prime Video.

17. American Film

Celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of the best 12 months for films in fashionable historical past has confirmed a Herculean effort in 2024, however no such celebration is full with out giving some like to Chris Smith’s traditional and endlessly quotable documentary American Film. The doc has Smith following across the low-budget Wisconsinite filmmaker Mark Borchardt as he tries, towards actually the entire odds, to make a horror film known as Coven, which tells the story of a sobriety assist group that’s in actuality the entrance for a bunch of witches. 

Borchardt is a type of topics whom you simply can’t look away from — and so too is his finest pal Mike Schank and his uncle/financier Uncle Invoice. They are a lovable, infuriating, and surprisingly ingenious bunch, beneath all of the countless bungling. And so American Film leads to the identical league of heartfelt odes to lo-fi creativity as Tim Burton’s masterpiece Ed Wooden, in addition to being one of many funniest films ever made. — J.A.

The way to watch: American Film is now streaming on Prime Video.

18. Hail Devil?

Co-founded by Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry in 2013, The Satanic Temple is a non-theistic group that pushes again at any time when our First Modification rights are being undermined by Christian zealots. One such instance of TST’s advocacy, which is on the coronary heart of this 2019 doc, is a life-size Baphomet statue that was to be put in on the Oklahoma State Capitol as a rejoinder to a (misspelled) Ten Commandments monument funded by Rep. Mike Ritze in 2012.

Director Penny Lane drops us into their righteous struggle with thoughtfulness and humor, illustrating that within the fashionable battle between good and evil, it is actually the Satanists who’re proving to be on the best aspect of historical past. — J.A.

The way to watch: Hail Devil? is now streaming on Prime Video.

19. Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles

Even when you understand each phrase to Broadway bangers like “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Tradition,” there’s nonetheless a great probability you do not know the complete historical past and impression of the play from which they hail: Fiddler on the Roof.

This documentary from Max Lewkowicz examines the 1964 musical from Jerry Bock (music), Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), and Joseph Stein (e-book) and the tough street it took to achieve the stage — and finally the massive display screen. That includes interviews and insights from luminaries like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Harvey Fierstein, and director Norman Jewison, Fiddler is must-watch materials for any fan of Broadway previous and current. — A.R.

The way to watch: Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles is now streaming on Prime Video.

20. Good Evening Oppy

Irrespective of how a lot you thought you wished the titular star of Pixar’s animated masterpiece WALL-E to be actual, it is assured to solely be a fraction of how badly Good Evening Oppy director Ryan White and his solid of NASA nerds wished WALL-E to be actual, as a result of they set out with this film to anthropomorphize the dickens out of their Mars rover known as Alternative. (Or “Oppy” for cutesy brief.)

Whereas it’s at instances a bit a lot — like when listening to those severe scientists insist their hunk of metallic doo-dads they’ve shipped 230 million miles away completely has a persona — Good Evening Oppy does not lack for celestial splendor. And making the little can-do robotic at its middle the viewers stand-in does usually end in a real sense of the enormity of this mission, and the percentages all of them confronted, each actual and imagined. — J.A.

The way to watch: Good Evening Oppy is now streaming on Prime Video.

21. Tales We Inform

Sarah Polley started appearing when she was 4 years previous, which is a narrative she tells with typical intelligence and emotional precision in her 2022 memoir Run In the direction of the Hazard. However a full 10 years earlier, she instructed us a completely totally different story together with her movie Tales We Inform — the one about her mother and father, the secrets and techniques of her personal delivery, and in regards to the methods her household processed and did not course of sure occasions and revelations over time.

The much less stated beforehand as regards to this film’s unfolding mysteries, the higher. And if we’re being completely compelled to exist with out her appearing on-screen, that is additional proof (alongside her different directorial efforts, Away From Her, Take This Waltz, and Girls Speaking) that she’s received greater than sufficient magic to share from behind the display screen. — J.A.

The way to watch: Tales We Inform is now streaming on Prime Video.

22. Judy Blume Without end

We personally have been celebrating “the year of Judy Blume” for many years. Nevertheless it’s onerous to not make the case that 2023 – with the pleasant adaptation of Blume’s e-book Are You There God? It is Me, Margaret and this documentary each hitting screens – is an actual massive 12 months for Blume-heads. And Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s movie on the writer is fortunately attuned to Blume’s endurance as a lot as her legacy, and so we get to listen to as a lot on her ideas in regards to the world at present as we do her profession previous. Seeing as how she’s been on the front-lines of e-book bans and censorship for many years, there is no higher authority. – J.A.

The way to watch: Judy Blume Without end is now streaming on Prime Video.

23. Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World

Music is awash with secret histories just like the one explored in Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. The documentary from co-directors Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana takes a take a look at the impression indigenous populations in America had on well-liked music.

Along with Hyperlink Wray, the famed Shawnee singer/songwriter and guitarist whose most well-known track serves because the movie’s title, Rumble profiles Jimi Hendrix, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mildred Bailey, Redbone, and even formative blues legend Charley Patton, amongst others. — A.R.

The way to watch: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World is now streaming on Prime Video.

24. Between Me and My Thoughts

Director Steven Cantor’s “slice of life” take a look at Phish frontman Trey Anastasio is not going to show any doubters into true believers, but it surely does provide a glimpse into the lifetime of the guitarist and singer who fuels lots of the band’s creatively playful and sometimes deeply nerdy antics.

Whereas the movie facilities itself in a specific second — a busy interval during which Anastasio is ending up the solo album Ghosts within the Forest as he prepares for Phish’s 2018 run of New 12 months’s Eve concert events at Madison Sq. Backyard — it isn’t all in regards to the music. It is a household affair that presents viewers with a glimpse into the subdued rocker’s residence life and off-stage historical past. Via that lens, we study a lot about the best way Anastasio thinks and approaches his work. — A.R.

The way to watch: Between Me and My Thoughts is now streaming on Prime Video.

25. The Booksellers

In case your toes curl throughout the scene in Magnificence and the Beast the place the Beast reveals Belle his huge library and she or he spins round so we are able to stare on the cabinets of books going up, up, up into the rafters, then have we received the documentary for you! D.W. Younger’s 2019 doc (govt produced and narrated by Occasion Woman star and librarian icon Parker Posey) takes us into the world of uncommon and antiquarian e-book retailers and e-book sellers in New York. Talking with the individuals who run famed establishments just like the Strand and the Argosy, in addition to erudite authors and personalities like Fran Lebowitz and Homosexual Talese, you may virtually scent the bookshop scent — you understand, that candy musty one thing — wafting off your display screen as you watch. It will make your finest Belle fantasies come roaring again. — J.A.

The way to watch: The Booksellers is now streaming on Prime Video.  

26. Welcome to Chechnya

Specializing in LGBTQ refugees escaping from Chechnya, the place they have been topic to government-sanctioned torture and homicide, The way to Survive a Plague filmmaker David France’s harrowing 2020 doc follows its topics’ flight from their homeland utilizing a wealth of recent tech, together with cell telephones and GoPros.

Nevertheless it’s the movie’s utilization of AI know-how, with the intention to disguise the refugees’ faces and protect their anonymity, that proved revolutionary, displaying that AI can truly be used for good in some cases (reasonably than to only obliterate all artists’ well-being, as has been the case as of late). However that tech nonetheless by no means manages to outshine the very human and really scary tales on the movie’s coronary heart — one which has solely felt nearer to residence with time — and which ought to shake any respectable particular person to their core. — J.A.

The way to watch: Welcome to Chechnya is now streaming on Prime Video.

27. Time

Documenting Sibil Fox Richardson’s 20-year battle to get her husband Rob out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary for a criminal offense that he very a lot did commit, filmmaker Garrett Bradley pieced collectively Time utilizing residence films that Richardson herself filmed over time. What the 2 summon forth is a devastating critique of the jail industrial advanced and the state-sanctioned gears that grind up households. As a result of, because the movie’s transferring footage attests at each flip, Rob’s guilt isn’t who he’s, not as a person or a husband or a father. We’re all a lot greater than the errors we make, and the system because it’s designed is blind, merciless, and detached. Rob was granted clemency in 2018, 21 years after he was convicted as a first-time felony offender to 60 years in jail, with no chance for parole or probation. — J.A.

The way to watch: Time is now streaming on Prime Video.

UPDATE: Aug. 1, 2024, 11:33 a.m. EDT This record was first revealed on Aug. 1, 2020. It has since been up to date to replicate the present streaming choices.