Best Documentary Movies of 2019

The untold story of

Photographer Estevan Oriol and artist Mister Cartoon turned their Chicano roots into gritty art, impacting street culture, hip hop and beyond.

In 1992, teenager Sandi Tan and her friends Sophie and Jasmine shot Singapore's first indie-a road movie called "Shirkers"-with their enigmatic American mentor, Georges Cardona. Sandi wrote the script and played the lead, a killer named S. After shooting wrapped, Georges vanished with all the footage! 20 years later, the 16mm cans are recovered in New Orleans, sending Sandi-now a novelist in Los Angeles-on a new personal odyssey across two continents and many media: 16mm, digital, Hi8, Super8, slides, animation and handwritten letters. A kaleidoscopic punk rock ghost story!

Brené Brown compares courage to vulnerability and gives her audience a call to take chances.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, directed by Justin Krook, is a heart-pumping yet heart-wrenching documentary about one of the most eminent DJs working today: Steve Aoki. In the lead-up to Aoki's biggest show of his career, this introspective doc examines the driving force behind his passion: Rocky Aoki, daredevil showman, Benihana founder, and Steve's looming father figure. From producers David Gelb (Chef's Table, Jiro Dreams of Sushi), Matthew Weaver (Rock of Ages), Matt Colon, Happy Walters, Executive Producer Michael Mailis and Co-Producer Susan Wrubel.

For a year, acclaimed British filmmaker Jeanie Finlay was embedded on the set of the hit HBO series "Game of Thrones," chronicling the creation of the show's most ambitious and complicated season. Debuting one week after the series finale, GAME OF THRONES: THE LAST WATCH delves deep into the mud and blood to reveal the tears and triumphs involved in the challenge of bringing the fantasy world of Westeros to life in the very real studios, fields and car-parks of Northern Ireland. Made with unprecedented access, GAME OF THRONES: THE LAST WATCH is an up-close and personal portrait from the trenches of production, following the crew and the cast as they contend with extreme weather, punishing deadlines and an ever-excited fandom hungry for spoilers. Much more than a "making of" documentary, this is a funny, heartbreaking story, told with wit and intimacy, about the bittersweet pleasures of what it means to create a world - and then have to say goodbye to it.

Life in Cuba for three struggling families over the course of 45 years, from the cautious optimism of the early 1970s to the harrowing 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union and the 2016 death of Fidel Castro.

A behind-the-scenes look at how

A look at the unforeseen consequences of advanced technological devices used in the medical field.

SAVING CAPITALISM is a documentary film that follows former Secretary of Labor and Professor, Robert Reich, as he takes his book and his views to the heart of conservative America to speak about our economic system and present big ideas for how to fix it.

Flat Earthers, a term synonymous with conspiracy theorists who wear tinfoil hats. Meet real Flat Earthers, a small but growing contingent of people who firmly believe in a conspiracy to suppress the truth that the Earth is flat. One of the most prominent Flat Earthers is Mark Sargent who, in the midst of the upcoming Solar Eclipse, proudly speaks at the first Flat Earther conference.

THE BOOKSELLERS is a lively, behind-the-scenes look at the New York rare book world and the fascinating people who inhabit it. Executive produced by Parker Posey and featuring interviews with some of the most important dealers in the business, as well as prominent collectors, auctioneers, and writers, THE BOOKSELLERS is both a loving celebration of book culture and a serious exploration of the future of the book.

In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. Feminists: What Were They Thinking? revisits those photos, those women and those times - and takes aim at our current culture revealing all too vividly the urgent need for continued change. The film offers candid and riveting interviews with women such as Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, Lily Tomlin and Judy Chicago tackling topics ranging from identity, abortion, race, childhood and motherhood.

The film's title was inspired by the popular maxim "Less is more," popularized by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), who used this aphorism to describe his design aesthetic; his tactic was one of arranging the necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity. The Minimalists have reworked this phrase to create a sense of urgency for today's consumer culture: now is the time for less.

Set in the dark underbelly of Silicon Valley, The Social Dilemma fuses investigative documentary with enlightening narrative drama. Expert testimony from tech whistle-blowers exposes our disturbing predicament: the services Big Tech provides-search engines, networks, instant information, etc.-are merely the candy that lures us to bite. Once we're hooked and coming back for more, the real commodity they sell is their prowess to influence and manipulate us.

A deep historical look at one of the most controversial issues of our time, highlighting the abortion debate from various points along the ideological spectrum in a winding story of abortion in America.

The pressure to achieve more, do more, and be more is part of being human - and in the age of Adderall and Ritalin, achieving that can be as close as the local pharmacy. No longer just "a cure for excitable kids," prescription stimulants are in college classrooms, on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley...any place "the need to succeed" slams into "not enough hours in the day." But there are costs. In the insightful Netflix documentary TAKE YOUR PILLS, award-winning documentarian Alison Klayman (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry) focuses on the history, the facts, and the pervasiveness of cognitive-enhancement drugs in our amped-up era of late-stage-capitalism. Executive produced by Maria Shriver and Christina Schwarzenegger, TAKE YOUR PILLS examines what some view as a brave new world of limitless possibilities, and others see as a sped-up ride down a synaptic slippery slope, as these pills have become the defining drug of a generation.

The epic story of the global health movement is seen through the intimate narrative of Dr. Paul Farmer, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, and other courageous doctors and patients who led the fight, against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, to bring medical care to the poorest people and most neglected regions around the world.