Best documentaries ever

The untold story of

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!

A documentary about two gay men as they live through their last months of life with AIDS.

Four exceptional women mount grassroots campaigns against powerful incumbents in Knock Down the House, an inspiring look at the 2018 midterm elections that tipped the balance of power. When tragedy struck her family in the middle of the financial crisis, Bronx-born Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had to work double shifts as a bartender to save her home from foreclosure. After losing a loved one to a preventable medical condition, Amy Vilela didn't know what to do with the anger she felt about America's broken health care system. Cori Bush, a registered nurse and pastor, was drawn to the streets when the police shooting of an unarmed black man brought protests and tanks into her neighborhood. A coal miner's daughter, Paula Jean Swearengin was fed up with watching her friends and family suffer from the environmental effects of the coal industry.

The 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant, a nationwide contest for drag queens held in New York City, is presented, including the behind the scenes logistics by both the organizers, led by

Rachel Dolezal became infamous when she was unmasked as a white woman living as the black head of her local N.A.A.C.P. chapter. Her unbelievable story issued a direct challenge to the sensitive topics of race and identity, while playing into the age of viral media. Whether she was hated or simply misunderstood, Dolezal touched a collective nerve in the racially charged contemporary, causing her to burst into the public consciousness. Filming exclusively with Dolezal, her sons, and her adoptive sister Esther, documentarian Laura Brownson delves into the motivations and personal life of this divisive and controversial figure; in doing so, she explores the troubled past that has informed Dolezal's confusing present and uncertain future. Executive produced by Academy Award®-winner Roger Ross Williams, The Rachel Divide is a fully realized portrait of a life more complex than any tabloid would lead its readers to believe. The film demands the question: Is Dolezal truly "trans-black," as she describes herself, or is she the ultimate example of white privilege?

Documentary depicting day to day life in Angola Prison mostly from an inmate's perspective. Interviews are with several inmates including one with a life sentence who is about to die.

Once the world's most famous astrologer, Walter Mercado seeks to resurrect a forgotten legacy. Raised in the sugar cane fields of Puerto Rico, Walter grew up to become a gender non-conforming, cape-wearing psychic whose televised horoscopes reached 120 million Latinx viewers a day for 30 years before he mysteriously disappeared.

A behind-the-scenes look at how

Mother and daughter - Big Edie and Little Edie Beale - live with six cats in a crumbling house in East Hampton. Little Edie, in her 50s, who wears scarves and bright colors, sings, mugs for the camera, and talks to Al and David Maysles, the filmmakers. Big Edie, in her 70s, recites poetry, comments on her daughter's behavior, and sings "If I Loved You" in fine voice. She talks in short sentences; her daughter in volumes. The film is episodic: friends visit, there's a small fire in the house, Little Edie goes to the shore and swims. She talks about the Catholic Church. She's ashamed that local authorities raided the house because of all the cats. She values being different.

Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap. The film closes with obituaries for victims of AIDS and archival footage of the civil rights movement placed next to footage of Black men marching in a gay pride parade.

Candy Darling was a fixture in the New York Off-Broadway scene in the 60s, in Warhol films such as Women in Revolt and Flesh, and became a prominent personality in Warhol's circles, influencing such noted contemporary artists as Madonna, David Bowie and Lou Reed. This documentary will use a series of interviews, archival footage, and images from Candy's home in Massapequa, NY. Archival footage includes rare 25 year old interviews conducted by Jeremiah Newton with members of Warhol's Factory and Tennessee Williams. The film features interviews with colleagues, contemporaries and friends of Candy, including John Waters, Peter Beard, Holly Woodlawn, Bob Colacello, Geraldine Smith, Pat Hackett and Ron Delsener.

Chechnya, there are no homosexuals. That is what the tyrannical leader Ramzan Kadyrov has decided. Here we follow a group of activists who risk their lives to save LGBTQ + people who are threatened, detained, tortured and executed. The characters in the film have had their faces digitally altered to remain anonymous.

An in-depth look at Hollywood's depiction of transgender people and the impact of those stories on transgender lives and American culture.

Documentary about Brandon Teena (aka Teena Brandon), a transgender man, who was murdered along with two others in 1993 in rural Nebraska. The story is told through interviews with people who knew Brandon, recorded interrogation and trial transcripts, and photographs and file film footage.

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.

An inside look at Buddhafield, a West Hollywood cult formed by a charismatic teacher in the 1980s that eventually imploded.

A group of LGBTQ youths of color unite to form a safe gathering space.