Documentary Movies 2019 List

Most Likely to Succeed

Four teens from disparate backgrounds are voted “Most Likely To Succeed” during their senior year of high school.

Pamela Littky

No Safe Spaces

A hard-hitting docudrama starring radio host Dennis Prager and comedian Adam Carolla that makes a bold statement on one of the nation's hottest topics-free speech. Along with Carolla and Prager, the film features a wide range of notable faces from the left and the right who argue that the free exchange of ideas is under threat today by growing trends of identity politics, cancel culture, and increased polarization.

Tim Allen, Adam Carolla, Justin Folk, John Sullivan, Dennis Prager, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin

Cunningham

The iconic Merce Cunningham and the last generation of his dance company is stunningly profiled in Alla Kovgan's 3D documentary, through recreations of his landmark works and archival footage of Cunningham, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg.

Alla Kovgan, Helge Albers, Ilann Girard, Elizabeth Delude-Dix, Kelly Gilpatrick, Derrick Tseng

Unlikely

In the US less than 50% of students who start college ever finish, making America’s college completion rates among the worst in the world. Now there are more than 35 million Americans who started college but never finished, leaving them saddled with debt, and behind their peers in earning power. Featuring interviews with LeBron James, Howard Schultz, and our nation's leading voices in education, this penetrating and personal new film investigates America’s college dropout crisis through the lives of five diverse students as they fight for a second chance at opportunity and highlights the innovators reimagining higher education for the 21st century.

LeBron James, Adam Fenderson, Freeman Hrabowski, Jaye Fenderson, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, Howard Schultz, Michael Crow, Bridget Burns

The Kingmaker

From Emmy winning director Lauren Greenfield, The Kingmaker centers on the indomitable character and controversial political career of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines whose behind-the-scenes influence of her husband Ferdinand’s presidency rocketed her to the global political stage.

Lauren Greenfield, Imelda Marcos

Midnight Family

In Mexico City's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a private ambulance, competing with other for-profit EMTs for patients in need of urgent help. As the Ochoas try to make a living in this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from compromising the people in their care.

Luke Lorentzen

Scandalous

'Scandalous' is the sensational true story of The National Enquirer, the infamous tabloid with a prescient grasp of its readers darkest curiosities.

Mark Landsman, Aengus James, Colin King Miller, Jennifer Ash Rudick, Kristen Vaurio

Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator

Documentary exploring the history of alleged sexual predation by one of the biggest names in yoga and founder of "hot yoga," Bikram Choudhury.

Eva Orner

Wrinkles the Clown

Documentary surrounding a creepy clown who is hired to terrify misbehaving children in Southwest Florida.

Michael Beach Nichols, Jennie Bedusa, Jon Lullo, Brendan Walter, Lowell Shapiro, Mike Dill, Christopher K. Walker

Unlikely

In the US less than 50% of students who start college ever finish, making America’s college completion rates among the worst in the world. Now there are more than 35 million Americans who started college but never finished, leaving them saddled with debt, and behind their peers in earning power. Featuring interviews with LeBron James, Howard Schultz, and our nation's leading voices in education, this penetrating and personal new film investigates America’s college dropout crisis through the lives of five diverse students as they fight for a second chance at opportunity and highlights the innovators reimagining higher education for the 21st century.

LeBron James, Adam Fenderson, Freeman Hrabowski, Jaye Fenderson, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, Howard Schultz, Michael Crow, Bridget Burns

The Elephant Queen

Nature documentary,“The Elephant Queen” presents the plight of African pachyderms over a year on the savannah. Athena is a mother who will do everything in her power to protect her herd when they are forced to leave their waterhole. This epic journey, narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, takes audiences across the African savannah, and into the heart of an elephant family. A tale of love, loss and coming home.

Mark Deeble, Victoria Stone, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Western Stars

Features a performance of the entire album, Western Stars, with the backing band used on the record, along with new interviews where Springsteen reflects on his life and career.

Bruce Springsteen, Thom Zimny

Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!

In the 15 years since ‘Super Size Me’, the fast-food industry has undergone a makeover. Today, chain restaurants tout food that's "healthy," "organic," and "natural." Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock explores this new reality with an approach even more immersive and subversive than that used for his first film: he sets out to open his own chicken franchise. We follow him every step of the way, from raising poultry and conjuring recipes to designing the brand and scouting a location. Spurlock brings his disarming humor to uncover the truths and lies behind this multibillion-dollar industry.

Morgan Spurlock

You Are Here: A Come From Away S...

An intimate feature documentary that goes deep into the community of Gander, Newfoundland where 38 airliners carrying over 6,500 passengers were forced to land after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The film pulls back the emotional layers surrounding the five days during which the community housed, fed and cared for the dislocated passengers.

Moze Mossanen, Peter Gentile, Diane Davis, Beverley Bass, Claude Elliot, Oz Fudge, Brian Mosher, Janice Goudie

Love, Antosha

A documentary about the life and work of late actor Anton Yelchin.

Anton Yelchin, Garret Price

One Child Nation

China’s One Child Policy, the extreme population control measure that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child, may have ended in 2015, but the process of dealing with the trauma of its brutal enforcement is only just beginning. From documentarian Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow, I Am Another You) and Jialing Zhang, the sweeping One Child Nation explores the ripple effect of this devastating social experiment, uncovering one shocking human rights violation after another - from abandoned newborns, to forced sterilizations and abortions, and government abductions. Wang digs fearlessly into her own personal life, weaving her experience as a new mother and the firsthand accounts of her family members into archival propaganda material and testimony from victims and perpetrators alike, yielding a revelatory and essential record of this chilling, unprecedented moment in human civilization.

Jialing Zhang, Nanfu Wang

Aquarela

Aquarela takes audiences on a deeply cinematic journey through the transformative beauty and raw power of water. The film is a visceral wake-up call that humans are no match for the sheer force and capricious will of Earth’s most precious element.

Victor Kossakovsky

Jay Myself

Acclaimed photographer Jay Maisel bought a six-story, 72-room building on the Bowery in 1966. Ever since, the site has served as his home, studio and repository for a breathtaking collection of items that inspires his photographic work. But now it must be emptied out following its sale in the largest private real estate deal in NYC history. As Maisel prepares for this monumental move, a true end of an era, he reflects on his life and work for the camera of his mentee, photographer and filmmaker Stephen Wilkes.

Stephen Wilkes, Bette Wilkes, Henry Jacobson, Emma Tammi

American Factory

A Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant and hires 2,000 blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism diminish into China clashes with working-class America.

Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Lov...

The documentary starts on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960, where Leonard Cohen, then a struggling and unknown fiction writer, and Marianne Ihlen, a single mother with a young son, became part of community of expat artists, writers and musicians.

Nick Broomfield

Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable

Bethany Hamilton is rewriting the rules on being a fearless athlete. This is the untold story of the heart of a champion and her resilience against all odds to become one of the leading professional surfers of our time.

Aaron Lieber, Bethany Hamilton

Armstrong

A documentary about astronaut Neil Armstrong. The film includes never-before-seen family home-movie footage and photos.

Harrison Ford, David Fairhead

David Crosby: Remember My Name

David Crosby reflects on his life of music stardom, while forging new oaths to relevancy at his age of 77 in this deeply personal documentary.

A.J. Eaton

Mike Wallace Is Here

A documentary look at the legendary reporter, who interrogated the 20th century’s biggest figures in his over 50 years on air.

Avi Belkin

Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story

On May 30, 2017 an image of Griffin holding a mask that resembled the severed head of President Trump was released – the image went global and everything she had worked for in her life, vanished overnight.

Troy Miller, Kathy Griffin

Jay Myself

Acclaimed photographer Jay Maisel bought a six-story, 72-room building on the Bowery in 1966. Ever since, the site has served as his home, studio and repository for a breathtaking collection of items that inspires his photographic work. But now it must be emptied out following its sale in the largest private real estate deal in NYC history. As Maisel prepares for this monumental move, a true end of an era, he reflects on his life and work for the camera of his mentee, photographer and filmmaker Stephen Wilkes.

Stephen Wilkes, Bette Wilkes, Henry Jacobson, Emma Tammi

Pavarotti

A documentary about Luciano Pavarotti featuring memorable performances, including classic songs from Pavarotti’s Three Tenors days and previously unseen footage.

Ron Howard, Nigel Sinclair, Brian Grazer, Michael Rosenberg, Mark Monroe

Loopers: The Caddie's Long Walk

The documentary shows how golf caddies often act as advisors, counselors, and confidants on the course.

Bill Murray, Jason Baffa, Carl Cramer

This One's for the Ladies

Every Thursday Night hundreds of women gather for a potluck celebration and the chance to throw singles at the hottest dancers in New Jersey, The Nasty Boyz — featuring Satan, Mr. Capable, Fever, Young Rider and lesbian 'dom' dancer Blaze.

Gene Graham

Rolling Thunder

Documents the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Bob Dylan performed during the fall of that year.

Martin Scorsese

5B

5B is the story of everyday heroes, nurses and caregivers who took extraordinary action to comfort, protect and care for the patients of the first AIDS ward unit in the United States.

Paul Haggis, Dan Krauss

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

A documentary about the life and works of the acclaimed novelist, Toni Morrison.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

The Quiet One

Throughout his three-decade career as a founding member of and bassist for The Rolling Stones, Bill Wyman was known to the world as the “quiet one” in the band. Now, the famously private music legend speaks out about his extraordinary life and experiences as part of “the greatest rock and roll band in the world.”

Oliver Murray

Maiden

Maiden is the story of how Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook in charter boats, became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World in 1989. Tracy’s inspirational dream was opposed on all sides: her male competitors thought an all-women crew would never make it, the chauvinistic yachting press took bets on her failure, and potential sponsors rejected her, fearing they would die at sea and generate bad publicity. But Tracy refused to give up...

Alex Holmes

The Queen

Decades before Paris Is Burning and RuPaul's Drag Race, this ground-breaking documentary about the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant introduced competitive drag to the world, along with LGBTQ icons Flawless Sabrina and Crystal LaBeija. Watch for Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick as pageant judges.

Frank Simon

Ask Dr. Ruth

Ask Dr. Ruth chronicles the incredible life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor who became America's most famous sex therapist. With her diminutive frame, thick German accent, and uninhibited approach to sex therapy and education, Dr. Ruth transformed the conversation around sexuality. As she approaches her 90th birthday and shows no signs of slowing down, Dr. Ruth revisits her painful past and unlikely path to a career at the forefront of the sexual revolution.

Ryan White

Meeting Gorbachev

Werner Herzog and André Singer’s riveting documentary, filled with unforgettable archive materials and based on three never before seen interviews, provides incredible access to, arguably, the world’s greatest living politician. Now 87 and battling illness, the visionary Mikhail Gorbachev, former General Secretary of the U.S.S.R, is still gently but resolutely pushing towards his goals.

Werner Herzog, André Singer

Biggest Little Farm

Documents an attempt to develop a sustainable farm by reawakening the ecosystem on 200 acres just an hour north of Los Angeles.

John Chester

Walking On Water

Ten years after the passing of his wife and creative partner, Jeanne-Claude, Christo sets out to realize The Floating Piers, a project they conceived together many years before. Boasting uncensored access to the artist and his team, Walking on Water is an unprecedented look at Christo’s process, from the inception through to the completion of his latest large-scale art installation, a dahlia-yellow walkway atop Italy’s Lake Iseo that was eventually experienced by over 1.2 million people.

Andrey M Paounov, Christo

Autonomy

Celebrated journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell leads the first comprehensive documentary look at self-driving cars in Autonomy. The film is a cinematic exploration of the world of automated vehicles — from their technical history to the personal narratives of those affected by them to the many unanswered questions about how this technology will affect modern society. Autonomy features interviews with industry pioneers and scenes with cutting-edge “AVs” in action around the world. Inspired by a special issue of Car and Driver, Autonomy reinforces the context of where the “car” meets the coming revolution in mobility, presenting an essential primer on the subject and how it will affect you.

Christopher Boyd, Alex Horwitz, Kevin Mann

Halston

Documents the famous American fashion designer.

and Paul Dallas, Frédéric Tcheng, Roland Ballester

The Proposal

Known as “the artist among architects,” Luis Barragán is among the world’s most celebrated architects of the 20th century.

Jill Magid

Echo in the Canyon

Echo In The Canyon celebrates the explosion of popular music that came out of LA’s Laurel Canyon in the mid-60s as folk went electric and The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield and The Mamas and the Papas gave birth to the California Sound.

Andrew Slater, Eric Barrett

Amazing Grace

The never before seen movie featuring Aretha Franklin recording the most successful gospel album of all time, Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace is crafted from never before seen footage originally captured in 1972.

Satan & Adam

Sterling Magee experienced the music industry’s exploitation of black musicians firsthand. So he walked away to play on the Harlem streets for “his people.” Reborn as Mr. Satan, he spread his gospel and became a NY City legend. When a white, Jewish musician named Adam Gussow asked to play with him, their lives took a powerful turn. Adam cast aside an ivory tower life, and Sterling's embrace of his apprentice forged a sound that thrust him back in the spotlight due to a chance encounter with rock icons U2. But life on the road took its toll, and Sterling vanishes. The separation would test both men’s courage, and their journey to find each other again a tale of tragedy, survival and miraculous rebirth.

V. Scott Balcerek

Penguins

A coming-of-age story about an Adélie penguin named Steve who joins millions of fellow males in the icy Antarctic spring on a quest to build a suitable nest, find a life partner and start a family. None of it comes easily for him, especially considering he's targeted by everything from killer whales to leopard seals, who unapologetically threaten his happily ever after.

Ed Helms

Breaking Habits

Cheated by her stealing, polygamist husband of 17 years, once high-flying corporate exec Christine Meeusen fled penniless with her three young children as her American dream began to unravel. Determined to make a living for her family, she discovered the lucrative business of cannabis farming and met her calling as founder of medicinal-marijuana empire Sisters of the Valley. Shedding her former life, Christine became Sister Kate; on a mission to provide her products to those in need. Fighting off the county sheriff, and protecting her crop from deadly black market thieves, Breaking Habits is a story of rebellion, hope and revival.

Robert Ryan

Hail Satan?

Chronicling the extraordinary rise of one of the most colorful and controversial religious movements in American history.

Penny Lane

Be Natural: The Untold Story Of ...

Alice Guy-Blaché was a true pioneer who got into the movie business at the very beginning—in 1894, at the age of 21. Two years later, she was made head of production at Gaumont and started directing films. She and her husband moved to the United States, and she founded her own company, Solax, in 1910—they started in Flushing and moved to a bigger facility in Fort Lee, New Jersey. But by 1919, Guy-Blaché’s career came to an abrupt end, and she and the 1000 films that bore her name were largely forgotten.

Pamela B. Green

Apollo 11

Crafted from a newly discovered trove of 65MM footage, and more than 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings, Apollo 11 takes us straight to the heart of NASA's most celebrated mission--the one that first put men on the moon, and forever made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin into household names.

Todd Douglas Miller

Superpower Dogs

A documentary takes audiences on a journey around the world to meet incredible dogs and showcase their extraordinary real-life “superpowers”. These incredible animals use their superpowers to protect endangered species, save lives in avalanches and earthquakes and make the world a better place.

Daniel Ferguson, Taran Davies, George Duffield

The Russian Five

Follows the stories of the five Russian players that emigrated to America, took root in Detroit, Michigan, and struggled to fit in, all while training day and night to become Stanley Cup champions. The new immigrants had to learn to communicate with their teammates, assimilate into the culture, and become Americans. Yet, along the way, the Russians began to teach the rest of the team the core of Soviet hockey, and better still, they started winning. Those players are Sergei Fedorov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Slava Kozlov, Slava Fetisov, and Igor Larinov.

Joshua Riehl, Keith Gave

The Brink

The Brink follows Bannon through the 2018 mid-term elections in the United States, shedding light on his efforts to mobilize and unify far-right parties in order to win seats in the May 2019 European Parliamentary elections. To maintain his power and influence, the former Goldman Sachs banker and media investor reinvents himself — as he has many times before — this time as the self-appointed leader of a global populist movement. Keen manipulator of the press and gifted self-promoter, Bannon continues to draw headlines and protests wherever he goes, feeding the powerful myth on which his survival relies.

Alison Klayman

Screwball

Billy Corben's true-crime dramedy investigates the MLB's infamous doping scandal involving a nefarious clinician and his most famous client: the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez.

Billy Corben

Who Will Write Our History

Centers on the clandestine effort by Polish Jews to document what went on inside the Warsaw Ghetto after the Nazis sealed 450,000 Jews in an area of 1.3 square miles.

Adrien Brody, Roberta Grossman, Joan Allen, Karlina Gruszka, Charlote Hofheimer, Peter Cambor, Jowita Budnick, Piotr Glowacki

Genesis 2.0

Explores the brave new world of genetic science and the perils and promises for life in the future.

Christian Frei, Maxim Arbugaev

Wonders of the Sea 3D

Wonders of The Sea takes viewers on a trip under the ocean, capturing incredible footage of rarely seen sea creatures, while warning about the impacts of climate change. From Fiji to the Bahamas, Jean-Michel Cousteau and his children Celine and Fabien embark on a voyage to discover the ocean as never before seen, and learn more about the threats that put our ocean at risk.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jean-Jacques Mantello, David Chocron, Francois Mantello

Genesis 2.0

Explores the brave new world of genetic science and the perils and promises for life in the future.

Christian Frei, Maxim Arbugaev

Who Will Write Our History

Centers on the clandestine effort by Polish Jews to document what went on inside the Warsaw Ghetto after the Nazis sealed 450,000 Jews in an area of 1.3 square miles.

Adrien Brody, Roberta Grossman, Joan Allen, Karlina Gruszka, Charlote Hofheimer, Peter Cambor, Jowita Budnick, Piotr Glowacki

The Image Book

Examines civilization on the verge of collapse through a provocative mix of cinema clips and news footage.

Jean-Luc Godard