r/Documentaries 10h ago

Nature/Animals PBS Eons - Life and Death on Pangea | That Time Almost Everything Died (2026) [0:25:37] This isn't about the extinction of the dinosaurs, but an older extinction event from 252 million years ago known as the "Great Dying" which threatened all life on Earth.

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266 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 4h ago

History Aftermath (1967) - UNRWA documentary filmed in Jordan following the Six-Day War, documenting the displacement of Palestinians and the refugee camps established after the 1967 exodus [00:28:00]

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67 Upvotes

Aftermath is a 1967 UNRWA documentary directed and reported by Palestinian filmmaker Samir Hissen, documenting the humanitarian consequences of the Six-Day War and the displacement of Palestinians into Jordan.

Filmed in black and white on 16mm, it records the emergency camps established for people displaced by the war, including the shortages of tents and other basic facilities taced as retugees arrived. The film places the events within the longer Palestinian refugee crisis, coming less than twenty years after the mass displacement of 1948.

The documentary is also interesting as a historical artefact in its own right. Although directed by Hissen, it was written and produced by Myrtle Winter of UNRWA's Department of Public Information. The Palestine Film Institute notes that, like many humanitarian films of this period, Palestinians are largely presented through the institutional perspective of the relief agency rather than being allowed to narrate their own experiences.

Seen almost sixty years later, Aftermath provides contemporary footage of what Palestinians call the Naksa, the displacement associated with the 1967 war, rather than a later reconstruction of those events.


r/Documentaries 1d ago

Recommendation Request Recommendation request: Disaster documentaries.

83 Upvotes

Just finished Last Breath and it was ace. Also love Touching the Void - any others you’d recommend?


r/Documentaries 13h ago

World Culture Mad Honey Hunters of Himalayas (2018) - Gurung and Ghale villagers in Lamjung, Nepal, harvest wild cliff honey using handmade rope ladders (CC) [00:15:27]

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7 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 15h ago

Recommendation Request Recommendation request: similar style documentaries as "Skim or Swim (Full length) (2025) [00:29:09]

3 Upvotes

hi y'all.

i recently stumbled upon this 30min documentary about skimming stones, and i loved it! i'm desperate for more content like this. simple documentaries, no narrator, about something weird and niche like stone skimming. could be about anything really, just needs to give off the same vibe, preferrably no narrator, calm like this one, maybe even about something niche/weird... can highly recommend this video to anyone!

enjoy

https://youtu.be/l5gEI33klgI


r/Documentaries 1d ago

Crime The £600 Million BHS Pension Scandal (2006) [00:11:20] A short documentary highlighting the downfall of a British institution and the men behind it.

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111 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 1d ago

Travel/Places Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations (1995 - 2008) [34:01:18]

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41 Upvotes

A 12 season, 75 episode PBS docuseries about 3 guys who traveled through 47 US states, between 1995-2008 & documented a bunch of art installations & other offbeat attractions, including some places that don't exist anymore.


r/Documentaries 21h ago

Trailer By Far Kaymakchalan | Official Trailer (2026) [00:02:31]

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2 Upvotes

Submission statement: The official trailer for the film 'By Far Kaymakchalan.

By Far Kaymakchalan is a compelling historical documentary directed by Boris Trbić and Dragan Gavrilović, based on the research of historian Bojan Pajić. It uncovers the forgotten World War I story of over 1,500 ANZAC volunteers—including doctors, nurses, and soldiers—who served alongside Serbian forces on the Salonika Front.


r/Documentaries 1d ago

Sports The Science of Surfing the World's Largest Wave | Your Body on Sport (2016) [13:25]

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18 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 20h ago

Trailer Humble Spirits: A Family of Fighters | Official Trailer (2014) [1:31]

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0 Upvotes

The story of the Han family. 3 sisters and 2 brothers who all share a common goal: to become great boxers. Andrew Jara followed the family for 2 years and with the help of interviews from the Han Family, their trainers, and other boxers, he hopes that their story will come to life.

Directed by Andrew Jara


r/Documentaries 1d ago

Science Beyond Turing (2025) [1:57:37] Tech giants are spending trillions to build a super-intelligence. An armchair philosopher claims he can beat them using a quantum loophole on his kitchen table.

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0 Upvotes

The documentary follows an unknown professor as he attempts to validate his proposed experiment to test for Time Loops. It asks if we should take his proposed experiment seriously, given the scaling laws of physics that may or may not apply to AI and Quantum Computing. Is this scientist crazy? Or are we for not taking his idea more seriously?


r/Documentaries 2d ago

Health & Medicine God Vulture and Human (2023) - Life of Organ Transplant Coordinators (CC) [00:49:30]

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23 Upvotes

The documentary follows four Organ Transplant Coordinators working in real-time, capturing the family counselling required post brain-death declaration, while also shedding light on their personal lives.

It was shot in India during COVID on a handy-cam, and also won the National Award for Best Documentary in 2025.


r/Documentaries 3d ago

Human Rights I went undercover in a Troubled Teen Facility (2026) [00:52:01]

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369 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 3d ago

Media/Journalism The company funding the world's largest human trafficking ring (2026) [17:16]

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259 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 2d ago

Film/TV Letting Go: A Hospice Journey (1996) [1:30:21]

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67 Upvotes

Michael Merseal was, in my opinion, a beautiful son of a beautiful son of a beautiful son. Seeing the three generations together supporting each other is amazing. Rest in Peace, Michael.


r/Documentaries 2d ago

Sports Petty Machete Forever (2026) [17:23] - A man attempts to create a new sport using an Xbox controller and a can of Red Bull

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0 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 3d ago

Space The Vostok 1 Mission (2026) [1:30:11]

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32 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 3d ago

Recommendation Request Orcas Are Watching Us. Here's Why (2026) - A short documentary exploring Orca intelligence, culture, and the forgotten 70 year alliance between wild Orcas and human whalers in Eden, Australia [00:10:00]

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19 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 5d ago

Crime Exposing the largest human trafficking ring in the world (2026) [20:34]

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754 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 5d ago

History The Land Speaks Arabic (2007) | Maryse Gargour uses archival footage, official documents and eyewitness testimony to examine Palestine before 1948 [01:01:13]

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290 Upvotes

Maryse Gargour's The Land Speaks Arabic is a
61-minute documentary examining the development of political Zionism from the late nineteenth century through the establishment of Israel in 1948, and the consequences of that process for the Palestinian population already living there.

Rather than building its case principally around contemporary political commentary, Gargour works heavily from the historical record. The film uses period newspapers, diplomatic material, official documents, quotations from early Zionist leaders, rare archival footage and testimony from Palestinians who personally remember life before
1948. Historian Nur Masalha also provides historical commentary.

The central question of the film is contained in its title. Political Zionism sought to establish a Jewish national home and ultimately a Jewish state in a territory that was already populated overwhelmingly by an Arabic-speaking society.
Gargour asks how early Zionist leaders understood that demographic reality and how they proposed to reconcile it with their political ambitions.

The documentary follows those ideas from the late Ottoman period through the British Mandate and into the events surrounding the Nakba. It argues that the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 should not be understood simply as an accidental consequence of war, but as something with deeper ideological and political roots.

Columbia University's Center for Palestine Studies describes the film as using original source documents, Zionist leaders' quotations, archival footage, eyewitness testimony and interviews with historians to make that case.
What makes the film particularly useful as an archival work is the amount of visual and documentary material it brings together.

Palestine before 1948 is not presented simply as an abstract territory on a map. The surviving footage shows towns, villages and ordinary life, while the written record allows the political ideas developing around that society to be examined alongside what existed on the ground.

Gargour herself was born in Jaffa and later worked as a journalist and producer in Beirut and Paris, including work with French broadcasting and UNESCO. The Land Speaks Arabic was produced in 2007 and is in Arabic, French and English, with English subtitles available on the circulating version.

The film is openly interpretive rather than politically neutral. It advances a clear argument about Zionism, dispossession and the Nakba. But much of its value lies in the primary material it assembles, which means viewers can engage not only with Gargour's conclusions but with many of the historical documents and images on which those conclusions are based.


r/Documentaries 5d ago

Science The Choice is Ours (2016) Official Full Version. 10k up votes 8 years ago... The series shows an optimistic vision of the world if we apply science & technology for the benefit of all people and the environment. (CC) [1:37:20]

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192 Upvotes

A vision of a new world based on research into technology and human behaviour. This was posted to this sub 8 years ago and had over 10k up votes. I enjoyed watching. .. covers a few topics, global warming, power generation, city design, human behaviour.


r/Documentaries 3d ago

Sports NYC In Five (2026) - Over the last past few years, no other place has had its fair share of ups and downs like in New York. Luckily, erasing a 53 year championship drought, right before summer, was THE perfect, missing ingredient. One unified city [00:43:51]

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0 Upvotes

r/Documentaries 5d ago

War The Path to Zero (2026)- The US Withdrawal from Afghanistan [00:57:16]

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37 Upvotes

This documentary tells the story of the US withdrawl from Afghanistan starting with the decision to go to zero and ending when the last troops leave.


r/Documentaries 6d ago

Society Gale is Dead (1970) [00:49:29] – Examining the life and death of Gale Persons, a 19-year-old homeless drug addict who had grown up in 14 children's homes, borstals, psychiatric hospitals and prisons, and asking if her death was always a forgone conclusion.

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1.6k Upvotes

On 11 February 1970, 19-year-old Gale Parsons was found dead in a squalid basement squat in Chelsea, West London, of a drug overdose. The BBC's documentary series Man Alive was already familiar with Gale; they had been filming another documentary about young people who were brought up in children's homes and Gale was one of the teenagers who was followed by the Man Alive documentary programme.

Although the documentary focuses on Gale's death, an interview with Gale from the previous footage shot shows insight into Gale's apathy towards life. She had been given away as an infant by her mother, didn't know who her father was, and was brought up in 14 institutions, most of which made no attempt to give Gale any semblance of a normal childhood. Gale was convinced early in life that she mattered to no one. Her story was told largely through the eyes of Mrs. Nancy David, a teacher who became a key figure in her life.

Gale is Dead was one of the first documentaries to draw attention to young homeless and drug addicted people. It was nominated for a BAFTA in 1971.