Social & Cultural Documentaries on Netflix
Last updated December 27, 2024
RIP! A Remix Manifesto
2008 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsFilmmaker Brett Gaylor's documentary takes a look at intellectual property laws by profiling controversial musician Girl Talk, called "a lawsuit waiting to happen" by The New York Times Magazine because of his extensive use of mash-up remixes. With numerous voices on both sides of the issue, the dynamic film examines fair use for artists creating sample-based music and other works versus copyright laws protecting the original artists' creations.
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Beer Wars
2009 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsWith her entertaining documentary, Anat Baron ushers viewers into the backrooms and breweries of the ultracompetitive beer industry and reveals what it takes for independent brewers to compete with the corporate giants who dominate the business.
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Freakonomics
2010 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsFreakonomics explains different elements of popular culture through economic theory and statistics. Issues include everything from cheating sumo wrestlers to whether Roe v. Wade produced a drop in crime.
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Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex Lies and Global Economics
1995 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsIn this insightful program, witty and irreverent economics professor, goat farmer and former New Zealand Member of Parliament Marilyn Waring challenges the numerous myths of economics.
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The Antics Roadshow
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsArtist-activist Banksy charts the history of behaving badly in public, from anarchists to attention-seeking eccentrics. Contributors include Michael Fagan, who broke into the Queen's bedroom, and Noel Godin, who attacked celebrities with pies.
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Beyond Belief
2006 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsAfter forming a common bond in their grief when both lost their husbands on Sept. 11, 2001, strangers Patti Quigley and Susan Retik cope with their unimaginable loss by traveling to Afghanistan to meet women there who were also widowed by violence.
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Under Fire: Journalists in Combat
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsCombat footage, intense interviews with reporters from around the world and commentary by psychiatrist Anthony Feinstein, who specializes in treating journalists, shed light on the traumas faced by those who risk their lives to report from war zones.
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A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
2006 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsIn this straight-from-the-headlines documentary, award-winning filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack examine the world's dependency on oil and the impending chaos that's sure to follow when the resource finally runs dry.
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I'm Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsJonathan Demme's documentary began as a film about Hurricane Katrina but became a portrait of one of the disaster's most colorful survivors: Carolyn Parker, a woman determined to rebuild her life -- even if it takes everything she has.
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Bobby Fischer Against the World
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsFilmmaker Liz Garbus sheds light on one of the most enigmatic of 20th-century personalities: Bobby Fischer, a boy who rose to fame as a world-champion child chess prodigy and later found himself embroiled in Cold War-era politics.
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Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story
2003 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsRussell Crowe fails to make an appearance in this searing documentary, but it's arresting moviemaking nonetheless as viewers journey through Roman history to a time when gladiators battled each other at the emperor's whim. The story centers around Verus, a gladiator who rose to stardom but still lived his life enslaved, and for whom freedom was the ultimate triumph.
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Sons of Perdition
2010 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsFollowing three teenage boys who've left a polygamist sect over a 2-year period, filmmakers Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten offer up a poignant portrayal of the overwhelming challenges these young men face as they try to live in mainstream society. Cut off completely from their families and everything they know, the boys struggle to support and educate themselves and try to help other family members break away.
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49 Up
2005 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsIn 1964, a filmmaker interviewed a diverse group of 7-year-olds and vowed to track their lives every seven years. Now, those "kids" are 49 years old. This documentary series reveals how Apted's subjects collectively serve as a microcosm of society.
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The Green Rush
2008 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsThis sympathetic documentary looks at the issues confronting one group of Northern California pot growers and articulates the frustrations they face in a unique business that many regard as the most practical way to feed their families. For decades, outlaw marijuana cultivation has been a huge "hidden" industry fueling much of the region's economy, but pot farmers have remained subject to harassment and arrest by federal law-enforcement agencies.
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Pina
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsWim Wenders directs to arresting effect in this performance documentary about Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal dance company. Performing alfresco in Wuppertal, Germany, the troupe's pieces include "The Rite of Spring."
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Done the Impossible
2006 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsThis documentary chronicles the rise, fall and rebirth of the cult television show "Firefly" as told from the perspective of the fans who helped save it, and includes humorous and insightful experiences from the cast and crew.
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Wiebo's War
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsPaced like a thriller, this documentary chronicles back-to-nature Christian and accused eco-terrorist Wiebo Ludwig's struggle to save his little patch of Northern Canada from the scourge (or boon) of what lies beneath it: a huge natural gas field.
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Vanishing Point
2012 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsTwo Inuit communities in the Arctic, linked by lineage to a legendary shaman, face the greatest social and environmental challenges in their history. While the groups share much in common, they approach technological and social change differently.
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The Thin Blue Line
1988 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsFilmmaker Errol Morris's gripping investigation into the murder of a Dallas police officer was responsible for freeing the man who was originally -- and erroneously -- charged with and convicted of the crime.
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Louder than a Bomb
2010 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsCapturing the combined creative spirit of more than 600 Chicago-area teenagers who are participating in what's billed as the world's largest youth poetry slam, this documentary highlights the joy of language and the power of collaboration.
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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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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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FIGHTVILLE
2011 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsFar from the glitz of Las Vegas's mega mixed martial arts bouts, fighters duke it out in sweaty local venues on what they hope is their way to the big time. This documentary shines a light on that world -- focusing on the Louisiana fight circuit.
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The American Scream
2012 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsIn the sleepy town of Fairhaven, MA, The American Scream follows the creative minds behind three local homemade haunts and their spirited, passionate and sometimes harrowing efforts in igniting their town's Halloween spirit each year.
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Three Stars
2010 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsFocusing on nine Michelin-starred chefs from three continents, filmmaker Lutz Hachmeister reveals the real business of cooking on the highest level by crosscutting between the maestros' various kitchen routines, tastes and culinary philosophies.
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