Documentaries on Netflix
Last updated April 20, 2025
Where the Yellowstone Goes
2012 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsExperience a soul-searching and inspirational 30-day drift boat journey down the longest undammed river in the contiguous United States. Connect with colorful characters, get lost in the hypnotic cast of a fly rod and savor silhouetted moments.
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Lakey Peterson: Zero to 100
2013 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsFeaturing footage from professional surfer Lakey Peterson's early years through her victory at the 2012 U.S Open, this in-depth documentary charts her meteoric rise in the sport and offers a glimpse into her drive to win.
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Addicted to Plastic
2008 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsFocusing on manufacturing, environmental effects and solutions, a documentarian journeys around the world to trace the life cycle of plastic. While plastic is the most versatile material ever invented, its ubiquity comes at a steep cost to mankind.
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Tar Creek
2009 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsTar Creek is an environmentally devastated area in northeastern Oklahoma with acidic creeks, stratospheric lead poisoning and enormous sinkholes. Nearly 30 years after being designated as a Superfund cleanup program, residents are still struggling.
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Mother India: Life Through the Eyes of the Orphan
2013 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsNarrated by Rebecca St. James (Grammy Award Winning Artist), Mother India is a compelling documentary capturing the stories of abandoned and orphaned kids living in India. For one week, David and Shawn stepped into the lives of 25 boys and girls living alongside the railway station in the southern town of Tenali (Andhra Pradesh). With over 31 million orphans in India, the stories that emerge reflect the complexity of the issues and the challenge of rescuing kids from a life of begging and addiction. Find out what happens when these two friends eat, sleep, and play among this 'family' of street kids in an effort to experience life through their eyes. You'll never be the same.
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Legend of a Warrior
2012 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsThis deeply personal documentary follows filmmaker Corey Lee's efforts to reconnect with his father, Frank, a high-kicking martial arts legend whose style of full-contact fighting made him famous -- but largely kept him from father-son bonding.
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Meltdown
2013 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsThe hard-hitting earthquake that rocked Japan's Fukushima Prefecture on March 11, 2011, delivered much more than bricks-and-mortar destruction; it also triggered a nuclear meltdown and ignited the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
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Sunset Strip
2012 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsThis valentine to one of Los Angeles' most celebrated thoroughfares reveals its nearly 100-year history and its significance in culture worldwide. Photos and interviews capture the Strip and famed habitués from mobsters to Hugh Hefner to Johnny Depp.
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Grass
2000 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsNarrated by actor and pot activist Woody Harrelson, this slick and snappy documentary chronicles the history of marijuana use and prohibition from the early 1900s through modern day. Biased toward legalization in tone, the clever if subjective film reveals the absurdity of government anti-grass tactics. Comic Tommy Chong also lends his voice to this informative and amusing illustration of how one substance among many has created such a clamor.
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Bowling for Columbine
2002 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsFamed filmmaker and left-wing political humorist Michael Moore tackles America's obsession with firearms in this Oscar-winning documentary centered on the Columbine High School massacre of 1999.
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Radio Bikini
1988 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsThis Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles the eye-opening story of Bikini Atoll, which in 1946 was the site of U.S. atomic bomb tests that left the island uninhabitable for 40 years and exposed thousands of sailors to heavy doses of radiation.
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Super Size Me
2004 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsDirector Morgan Spurlock takes a hilarious and often terrifying look at the effects of fast food on the human body, using himself as the proverbial guinea pig. For one month, Spurlock eats nothing but McDonald's fare.
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Pompeii: The Last Day
2003 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsTake a step back in time via this engrossing program and visit the fabled "vanished city" on its last day, when Vesuvius erupted in a 24-hour reign of terror that covered the ancient town with tons of lava and mummified many of its inhabitants.
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This Film Is Not Yet Rated
2006 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsKirby Dick's provocative documentary investigates the secretive and inconsistent process by which the Motion Picture Association of America rates films, revealing the organization's underhanded efforts to control culture. Dick questions whether certain studios get preferential treatment and exposes the discrepancies in how the MPAA views sex and violence. Interviewees include John Waters, Darren Aronofsky, Maria Bello, Atom Egoyan and more.
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Maxed Out
2006 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsWith sobering facts, this thought-provoking documentary unveils the consequences of Americans' collective addiction to plastic debt -- including its contribution to the vanishing of a once-robust middle class. Investigating personal debt, the U.S. government's out-of-control national debt and those who prey on the poor, this film explores the staggering financial burden people live with every day, which has driven some to extreme action.
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Everything's Cool
2007 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsIn this documentary, filmmakers Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand (Blue Vinyl) follow a troupe of self-proclaimed global warming "warriors" on a mission to get the world to care about rising temperatures and melting polar ice caps. Taking a topic that's inherently serious and applying their signature blend of humor and emotional heft, Gold and Helfand advance the environmental dialogue in a surprisingly entertaining way.
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Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
2005 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsThis stunning documentary captures the triumphant story of six musicians who escaped the horrific violence of Sierra Leone's civil war, landed in a West African refugee camp and formed a band that would go on to travel the world. An unbelievable testament to the human spirit, the refugees' journey exemplifies the power of music. Directed by Zach Niles and Banker White, this film was honored by the American Film Institute in 2005.
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Anvil! The Story of Anvil
2008 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsFormed by two 14-year-olds in the 1970s, heavy metal band Anvil influenced other acts, such as Anthrax and Metallica. This documentary joins Anvil's now middle-aged founders as they cope with obsoleteness and try to end their careers on a high note.
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Pregnant in America
2008 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsWhen his wife became pregnant with their first child, Steve Buonaugurio was prompted to make this, his first film, which documents the couple's experience with the American maternity system. It reveals the cabal of hospital, insurance and health organizations that puts profits before a pregnant woman's safety and health. Buonaugurio also records the couple's plans for a home birth, their ultimate defiance of the system.
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No Impact Man
2009 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsIn this engaging documentary, a Fifth Avenue family goes green when writer Colin Beavan leads his wife, Michelle Conlin, and their baby daughter on a yearlong crusade to generate no trash and otherwise make no net impact on the environment.
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Good Hair
2009 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsChris Rock hops around the world going from beauty salons to science labs to comb through the mystery of African American hair. Rock contemplates the purpose and application of a weave as well as women's self-esteem and their locks.
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Big River Man
2009 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsTo underscore the effects of pollution, endurance swimmer Martin Strel attempts to swim the Amazon, Mississippi, Danube and Yangtze Rivers in a 3,375-mile, 66-day expedition that brings him face-to-face with predators and toxic contamination.
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Fat Head
2009 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsWhile most people saw the documentary Super Size Me as an exposé of the fast food industry, comedian and former health writer Tom Naughton saw it as a dare: He'd show that you could lose weight on a diet of burgers and fries. In addition to chronicling Naughton's weight drop, the film provides interviews with doctors, nutritionists and others to drive home his thesis that most of what we know about "healthy eating" is wrong.
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Teenage Paparazzo
2010 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsActor Adrian Grenier ("Entourage") writes, directs and produces this documentary that examines his connection to a 14-year-old paparazzo and explores the concept of celebrity in America by interviewing famous entertainers about fame.
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Bananas!*
2009 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsNicaraguan laborers are paying a high price to get cheap bananas onto the world's tables, and Southern California personal injury lawyer Juan Dominguez has decided to do something about it. This film tells his story. Director Fredrik Gertten follows Dominguez as he takes on corporate giants Dole Food and Dow Chemical on behalf of 10,000 banana workers made ill by a pesticide used in Nicaraguan plantations years after it was banned in the States.
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