Browse documentary movie and series in US
Dive into the world of documentary movie and series in US. From timeless classics to trending hits, explore an exciting collection of titles that define the documentary genre.
Explore critically acclaimed blockbusters, hidden gems, and trending new releases that showcase the diversity and creativity of documentary storytelling. Use our filters to find top-rated titles, recent hits, or beloved classics tailored to your taste.
With Popcorn Time, uncover your next favorite movie or TV show and enjoy the best of documentary entertainment. Start browsing now and bring documentary into your watchlist today!
- Free
Movie
An exploration of the emergence of L.A.’s “underground” hip hop culture of the late 1990s-early 2000s, recounted first-hand by some of its architects: the creators of Club Elements. Every respected independent MC in the nation came through to Club Elements. This documentary chronicles that vibrant time in Los Angeles’ underground Hip Hop scene and shows a side of L.A.’s subculture that is responsible for an independent movement that spawned a slew of widely recognized and celebrated artists.
Where We're From: Rise of L.A. Underground Hip Hop (2021 )
- Free
Movie
A decades-long friendship drives an architect and a bio-medical scientist to make the weirdest music you’ve ever heard in your life.
23rd Century Giants: The Story of Renaldo & The Loaf (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Enormous: The Gorge Story carves out the never-before-told story of the world’s most iconic music venue, The Gorge Amphitheatre. This music film investigates the venue’s unlikely evolution from a small winery created by a neurosurgeon to becoming one of the greatest outdoor music destinations in the world. Sign up to our mailing list for updates and original music content.
Enormous: The Gorge Story (2021 )
- Free
Movie
LIFE & LIFE tracks the journey of Reggie Austin as he redeems his life following a murder conviction 40 years ago. The film looks at Austin’s effect on his fellow inmates and his efforts to reconnect with his family, as well as the parole and sentencing of prisoners ultimately revealing the steep and dangerous hill ex-prisoners must climb upon release to create a positive future.
Life & Life (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Born in Dallas to undocumented Mexican immigrants, Trinidad Lopez III fought his way out of the ghetto with a guitar to become one of the first Latino rock stars.
My Name is Lopez (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Tells the story of a man desperately trying to be a good father after a lifetime spent trying to be a great star
Cool Daddy (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Iceland, July 9, 2016. The surprising discovery of a canister —containing four reels of The Village Detective (Деревенский детектив), a 1969 Soviet film—, caught in the nets of an Icelandic trawler, is the first step in a fascinating journey through the artistic life of film and stage actor Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov (1899-1981), icon and star of an entire era of Russian cinema.
The Village Detective: A Song Cycle (2021 )
- Free
Movie
“Kill the Indian to save the man” was the catchphrase of The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a boarding school opened in Pennsylvania in 1879. It became a grim epitaph for numerous native children who died there. In 2017, a delegation from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming attempts to retrieve the remains of three Northern Arapaho children buried far from home in the school cemetery, on a journey to recast the troubled legacy of Indian boarding schools, and heal historic wounds. This documentary film is produced by The Content Lab LLC, with support from The Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, The Wyoming Humanities Council, and Wyoming PBS.
Home from School: The Children of Carlisle (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Magic in the Mountains tells the remarkable underdog story of how Squaw Valley, a little-known ski area in California, won the bid for the 1960 Winter Olympics and, with the help of Walt Disney, changed forever the ways in which the Games were presented. The documentary features never-before-seen archival footage from the 1960 Olympic Games and revealing interviews with participating athletes and attendees. The 1960 edition of the Olympics introduced a substantial array of “firsts,” including such innovations as live broadcast, instant replay, sponsorships, and an official Olympic Village for the athletes. Perhaps most importantly, thanks to Disney’s involvement in producing the Games, Squaw Valley featured an unprecedented — but soon to be standard — level of pageantry for the opening and closing ceremonies.
Magic in the Mountains (2021 )
- Free
Movie
A portrait of the British writer Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), who, although he had radical instincts, hated hypocrisy, was of great poetic brilliance, had a tragic perception of life and a calm outward appearance, was at heart a man of seething and somber darkness.
Thomas Hardy: Fate, Exclusion and Tragedy (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Learn about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, on the one hundredth anniversary of the crime, and how the community of Tulsa is coming to terms with its past, present, and future.
Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Lucy Worsley explores the lives of six real people who lived, worked and volunteered during the Blitz, highlighting the government’s reliance on ordinary people.
Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley (2021 )
- Free
Movie
In the Ukhiya refugee camp, the scars of the ongoing genocide are visible on each and every face of the Rohingya refugees.
Blossoms From Ash (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Archaeologists decode ancient inscriptions hidden in the valley of the Queens, a necropolis filled with more than 90 burials, to uncover the lost stories of the most powerful women in Ancient Egypt.
Valley of the Queens: The New Secrets (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Trisha Morton-Thomas teams up with Elaine Crombie and Steven Oliver to bite back at negative social media comments and steer the conversation towards the historical context of the fortunes and misfortunes of Indigenous Australians – from social security, citizenship and equal wages to nuclear bombs and civil actions.
History Bites Back (2021 )
- Free
Movie
On May 18, 2018, Christian Riley Garcia was among the 10 who were shot and killed in the Santa Fe high school shooting. This film will examine the impact of his heroic actions and his families fight for healing in the wakes of their loss.
Love Thy Neighbor - The Story of Christian Riley Garcia (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Over the last three years, FRONTLINE has collaborated with ProPublica to investigate the rise of extremism in America. In the aftermath of the assault on the U.S. Capitol, FRONTLINE and ProPublica team up again to examine how far-right groups were emboldened and encouraged by former President Trump and how individuals were radicalized and brought into the political landscape.
American Insurrection (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Mamie Lang Kirkland still remembers the night in 1915 when panic filled her home in Ellisville, Mississippi. Her family was forced to flee in darkness from a growing mob of men determined to lynch her father and his friend. Mamie’s family escaped, but her father’s friend, John Hartfield, did not. He suffered one of the most horrific lynchings of the era. Mamie vowed to never return to Mississippi – until now. After one hundred years, Mamie’s youngest child, filmmaker, Tarabu Betserai Kirkland, takes his mother back to Ellisville to tell her story, honor those who succumbed to the terror of racial violence, and give testimony to the courage and hope epitomized by many of her generation
100 Years From Mississippi (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Camilo is the adopted son of an indigenous couple of the Quillasinga tribe. He is the only black man in his community and has always felt different. That is why he embarks on a journey in search of his origins. With the truth revealed, Camilo manages to find his identity.
Between Fire and Water (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Just after midnight on 10 March 1945, the US launched an air-based attack on eastern Tokyo; continuing until morning, the raid left more than 100,000 people dead and a quarter of the city eradicated. Unlike their loved ones, Hiroshi Hoshino, Michiko Kiyooka and Minoru Tsukiyama managed to emerge from the bombings. Now in their twilight years, they wish for nothing more than recognition and reparations for those who, like them, had been indelibly harmed by the war – but the Japanese government and even their fellow citizens seem disinclined to acknowledge the past.
Paper City (2021 )
- Free
Movie
This BAFTA-winning film follows the dramatic stories of three leading women activists who have decided to stay in Russia and take a stand against Vladimir Putin.
Fearless: The Women Fighting Putin (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Explore the life and times of author L. Frank Baum, the creator of one of the most beloved, enduring and classic American narratives. By 1900, when The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published, Baum was 44 years old and had spent much of his life in restless pursuit of success.
American Oz (2021 )
- Free
Movie
A very human tech doc, uncovers the real costs of the platform economy through the lives of workers from around the world for companies including Uber, Amazon and Deliveroo. From delivering food and driving ride shares to tagging images for AI, millions of people around the world are finding work task by task online. The gig economy is worth over 5 trillion USD globally, and growing. And yet the stories of the workers behind this tech revolution have gone largely neglected. Who are the people in this shadow workforce? It brings their stories into the light. Lured by the promise of flexible work hours, independence, and control over time and money, workers from around the world have found a very different reality. Work conditions are often dangerous, pay often changes without notice, and workers can effectively be fired through deactivation or a bad rating. Through an engaging global cast of characters, it reveals how the magic of technology we are being sold might not be magic at all.
The Gig Is Up (2021 )
- Free
Movie
A journey across the United States to explore the story of the Civil War of Americans from President Obama's final year in office through the present.
Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are) (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Amid record police shootings in Utah, an investigation into the use of deadly force in the state with Frontline's local journalism partner The Salt Lake Tribune.
Shots Fired (2021 )
- Free
Movie
In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. Based on Richard Gergel’s book Unexampled Courage, the film details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jumpstarted the modern civil rights movement.
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard (2021 )
- Free
Movie
At the farthest edge of the Navajo Nation, the purpose and future of the most remote high school in the continental United States is in question while three Indigenous youth grapple with ambitious dreams, family responsibilities, and the isolated nature of their community.
Scenes from the Glittering World (2021 )
- Free
Movie
The documentary about the life of legendary Hollywood P.R. man David Mirisch.
David Mirisch, the Man Behind the Golden Stars (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Twenty young people share their thoughts and experiences about love and romantic relationships in 2020.
Loves Me, Loves Me Not (2021 )
- Free
Movie
Before George Floyd, before Breonna Taylor, before America knew about Black Lives Matter, there was Michael Brown, Jr. On August 9th, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed Brown. The community reacted in protest, anger, frustration, and fear. Six years later, a new story emerges - one filled with hope, love, and beauty.
Ferguson Rises (2021 )
- Free
Movie
An intimate, inspiring look at activist and loving father Ady Barkan, diagnosed with ALS at age 32 and who, in spite of declining physical abilities, embarks on a nationwide campaign for healthcare reform.
Not Going Quietly (2021 )
- Free
Movie
For more than 50 years, we’ve been unsuccessfully searching for any evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. But, the discovery of thousands of exoplanets has meant the hope of finding them is higher than ever. If any messages could eventually be decoded and answered in any far, far away star, it could radically transform our consciousness as species and our place in the universe. A message from the stars changes life on Earth… forever.
A Message to the Stars (2021 )