Netflix is making headlines with one of its latest documentaries, Beckham, which follows the meteoric rise of the English soccer star David Beckham, including his marriage to Victoria (“Posh Spice”), his World Cup highs and lows, and his late-career move to Major League Soccer.
The series is getting strong reviews. Like the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift romance, it offers a little something for everyone: sports, fashion, popular culture, geopolitics and gossip.
Documentaries have become a hugely popular genre across streaming platforms, and with networks looking for alternative content as the actors strike draws on, true-life stories could gain an even higher profile. Here are 10 particularly notable entries this fall, in no particular order, chosen for their fascinating subjects and skilled directing, writing and editing, though it’s hardly an exhaustive rundown of all the great documentaries available.
1. Descended from the Promised Land: The Legacy of Black Wall Street
Premiere: Oct. 16
Available: On Black Public Media’s AfroPoP Digital Shorts
Since 1979, Harlem-based nonprofit Black Public Media has funded and distributed stories about the Black experience. One of its latest is New Orleans filmmaker Nailah Jefferson’s Descended from the Promised Land: The Legacy of Black Wall Street, which focuses on the deadly 1921 race massacre in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, that injured hundreds and displaced thousands of Black residents. The film includes interviews with descendants of the victims and explores the after-effects of the destruction.
2. Krishnas: Gurus. Karma. Murder
Premiere: Oct. 24
Available: On Peacock
Peace, love and true crime galore? A new three-episode docuseries produced by Entertainment One Reality Productions, LLC, and Marwar Junction Productions explores how the birth of the Hare Krishna religion decades ago in India later led to accusations of murder and racketeering. The true crime elements focus on what happened after the leader of the Hare Krishna movement died, and an American guru tried to take over, eventually sparking an FBI investigation.
3. MotorTrend Investigates: China’s Big Bet On Mexico
Premiere: Oct. 11
Available: On MotorTrend.com
MotorTrend launched its first-ever documentary series this month with an investigation of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) production in Mexico and whether it might expand into the U.S. Journalists visit representatives of several of China’s biggest automakers in Mexico, asking whether they could take advantage of geographic tariff breaks to launch cheap EV options in the U.S. MotorTrend editors also drive the Chinese EVs and offer their impressions.
4. Last Stop Larrimah: Murder Down Under
Premiere: Oct. 8
Available: On HBO and Max
Excuse the plethora of true crime titles on the list, but it’s not just a hot podcast genre—true crime is really having a moment in documentaries, too, and this investigation into a missing persons cold case (executive produced by Duplass Brothers Productions) bills itself as the true crime equivalent of a Coen brothers movie. It takes place in the Australian Outback town of Larrimah, population 11, and lifts the veil on the oft-incestuous fighting within the town after local resident Paddy Moriarty disappeared in 2017. More than anything, it’s a portrait of a quirky town with eccentric residents.
5. The Most Remote Restaurant in the World
Premiere: Oct. 31
Available: On Viaplay
Can you open a world-class restaurant when it takes an hour-long boat ride just to access the place? That was the challenge facing Michelin star-earning Chef Poul Andrias Ziska, whose new eatery is located in a beautiful but extremely remote part of Greenland. Just 50 people live in the Faroe Islands, and you have to navigate through the fastest glacier in the Northern Hemisphere to get there. The documentary shows the power, water and especially food challenges Ziska must dodge as opening day approaches. (Danish and English, with English subtitles.)
6. Groundbreakers
Premiere: Nov. 21
Available: On PBS
PBS
PBS
Public media consistently produces some of the most exciting and engaging documentary content (Ken Burns’ The American Buffalo could easily be on this list and will get more publicity than all these films combined). Groundbreakers may fly a bit lower under the radar but is equally worth of attention: The two-hour film looks at how Title IX paved the way for eight influential female athletes and its impact on sports history. Hosted by tennis champ Billie Jean King, it includes appearances by Olympic gold gymnast Suni Lee, track and field world-record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka and others.
7. The Game That Changed Everything: Yankees Vs. Red Sox ’04 ALCS
Premiere: Oct. 18
Available: On FS1
In keeping with the sports theme, and particularly relevant right now as the National League and American League Championship Series play out (not coincidentally, some of those games on Fox), this documentary focuses on one of the most exciting ALCSs ever, the 2004 battle between bitter rivals the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox had fallen behind 0-3 in the series, and the film—the second as part of a multi-year film deal between Fox Sports and Religion of Sports—focuses on the pivotal Game 4, when Boston made a late comeback at home to win the game and eventually the series.
8. Stamped from the Beginning
Premiere: Nov. 15
Available: On Netflix
NFLX
NFLX
Directed by Roger Ross Williams, this much-anticipated adaptation of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s bestseller Stamped from the Beginning follows how white supremacist, anti-Black ideas took hold in the United States and impacted the country from its founding to its current moment. The film includes animation to underscore both historical and contemporary points, plus appearances by Kendi and other academics and activists, including Dr. Angela Davis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Dr. Jennifer L. Morgan.
9. We Live Here: The Midwest
Premiere: December
Available: On Hulu
At a time when LGBTQI+ rights have been threatened by anti-queer legislation across a number of Midwest states, queer families face a question: Should they stay in a place where they no longer feel safe? But pulling up roots and leaving homes they love is easier said than done. The film from producers David Miller and Melinda Maerker examines tough choices and situations faced by families with trans, lesbian and gay members in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and more.
10. Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles
Premiere: Oct. 24
Available: On Amazon Prime Video
It seems all the big kids’ hits of the past few decades are getting retrospectives or reboots. Barney got a documentary, the Teletubbies got a Netflix revival, and now The Wiggles, the Australian kids’ music group that dominated the 1990s and 2000s, have a doc, too. Hot Potato chronicles the group’s founding and its impact on the music industry (yes, it went beyond kids). It’s a bit saccharine, but it’s also fun to catch up with the most successful children’s group of all time.
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