Social & Cultural Documentaries on Netflix
Last updated December 28, 2024
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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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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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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Smash His Camera
2010 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsWhile profiling the controversial life and career of pioneering paparazzo Ron Galella, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Leon Gast raises intriguing questions about the freedom of the press, the right to privacy and our celebrity-obsessed culture. A great risk taker who never backed down, Galella suffered a broken jaw at the hands of Marlon Brando and fought two major lawsuits filed by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
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Flesh & Blood
2007 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsTake a penetrating look at the fascinating career of controversial body modification artist Steve Haworth as he literally gets under the skin of his customers, surgically implanting metal ornaments onto their bodies without the use of anesthesia. Clearly not intended for the squeamish or faint of heart, this graphic documentary delves into the reasons why people from all over the world want to change their appearance so radically.
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The End: British Gangsters
2008 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsTake a close, hard look at the seedy underbelly of London's East End in the post-World War II era in this unflinching documentary, which profiles a violent group of local gangsters who openly discuss their shocking exploits and unique code of honor. With surprising candor, this intriguing look at criminal life explores how the neighborhood's aggressive and confrontational culture spawned so many lawbreakers.
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Precious Life
2010 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsMohammad Abu Mustafa, a 4-month-old Palestinian boy living in the barricaded Gaza Strip, was born without an immune system and faces certain death if he does not receive a bone marrow transplant at an Israeli hospital -- an unlikely prospect.
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Becoming Chaz
2010 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsThis gripping documentary from directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato follows the deeply emotional journey of Chastity Bono, daughter of entertainers Sonny and Cher, as she embarks on a program of gender reassignment to become a man. Focusing on the emotional ramifications of her decision as much as the hormone shots, surgery and other changes to her body, this film chroncles one person's odyssey to become the man he always knew he was.
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Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology
2011 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsIn this funny, eye-opening, and inspiring film, Director and Webby Awards Founder Tiffany Shlain takes audiences on an exhilarating rollercoaster ride to discover what it means to be connected in the 21st century.
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Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure
2011 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsIn 1987, Eddie Lee Sausage and Mitch Deprey recorded the nightly squabbles of their over-the-top neighbors, homophobic Raymond Huffman and proudly gay Peter Haskett, and the chronicle of the pair's bizarre existence soon took on a life of its own. This darkly funny documentary checks in with former punks Eddie and Mitch, who detail their late-'80s Lower Haight surroundings, and surveys the tapes' influence on an array of underground artists.
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Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness
2011 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsDiscover the man behind the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" in this biography of Sholem Aleichem. Vintage photographs, film clips and interviews with historians reveal Aleichem's world and how he parlayed turmoil into a new Jewish cultural identity.
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The Raw and the Cooked
2012 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsThis sumptuous doc explores Taiwan's diverse culinary culture, drawn from both ethnic Chinese and myriad outside influences. The menu includes upscale urban restaurants, dumplings, edible flowers, organic farms and a burgeoning local foods movement.
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My Name is Kahentiiosta
1995 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsKahentiiosta, a young Kahnawake Mohawk woman who was arrested during the Oka crisis and detained for defending her choice to provide her Aboriginal name.
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Flamenco at 5:15
1983 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsA flamenco dance class given to senior students of the National Ballet School of Canada by two great teachers from Spain, Susana and Antonio Robledo.
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You've Been Trumped
2011 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsThis documentary follows a determined group of Scottish locals who take on business mogul Donald Trump when he tries to buy an environmentally fragile stretch of coastland in Scotland to build a luxury golf resort.
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16 Acres
2012 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsCapturing the controversies and searing emotions surrounding the plans for rebuilding the Ground Zero site, filmmaker Richard Hankin documents the political jousting and maneuvering that have plagued the process, making consensus hard to achieve.
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Art of Conflict
2012 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsNarrated by actor Vince Vaughn and produced in collaboration with his sister Valeri, this thoughtful look at Northern Ireland's street murals examines them as an expression of the region's violent history through those who created them.
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La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus
2012 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsThis quirky documentary follows the journey of a decommissioned school bus from the United States to Guatemala, where it's renovated and resurrected as a brightly colored vehicle that transports Guatemalans to work each day.
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