Netflix is the ultimate best friend — it brings you comfort on rainy days, laughter on sad days, and every feeling in between on all the other days. With so many options and so many hours to sit on our couch to watch them (or at least that’s what we tell ourselves), it’s no surprise that Netflix has come on board with the growing popularity of documentaries.
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Whether your guilty pleasure is questioning conspiracy theories or discovering the facts to infamous murder trials, there’s a documentary for it. Here, we’ve listed 10 documentaries you should watch on Netflix right now.
1. Forks Over Knives
With the most advanced medical technology in the world, America continues to suffer from diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. We pay millions for major surgeries in hopes to solve these health conditions — but what if there was one solution to fix it all? Forks Over Knives dives into this concept.
2. Amanda Knox
One of the most infamous and controversial cases to sweep the world, Amanda Knox was a 20-year-old American student studying abroad when she went home to discover her murdered roommate, Meredith Kercher. The case takes a look into the impact of a media frenzy and the most important question — is Amanda Knox innocent or guilty of the crime?
3. Living on One Dollar
These four young Americans know what it’s like to put themselves in other people’s shoes, because they actually did it. With a camera in hand, they travel to Guatemala for 2 months and live on $1 per day — facing hunger, stress, and the reality of what 1.1 billion people live every single day of their lives.
4. Welcome to Leith
Based in Leith, North Dakota, this documentary follows Craig Crobb and his pursuit to create a community based on white supremacy — regardless of what his neighbors have to say about it. In a world where we’re free to have our own beliefs, this documentary faces us with the issue of how much tolerance is too much and how one little idea can be the start of something much larger.
5. The Imposter
After his dissapearance in Texas three years prior, Nicholas Barclay is found again thousands of miles away in Spain. Once his relieved family brings him back home, investigators begin to notice inconsistencies about him — was this boy from Spain really who he says he was? And if not, how did he pull this off?
6. Tales by Light
For anyone who wants to feed their wanderlust (while in the comfort of their home), this documentary follows photographers around the world and the extreme lengths to which they go to capture the beauty around us. From the depths of the ocean to the tallest mountain tops, a photo is worth a thousand words, and this visually stunning adventure is one that’ll leave you inspired long after it’s over.
7. The White Helmets
Amongst the chaos in Syria are the white helmets — civilians who take it upon themselves to search for survivors of bombing attacks. This documentary shows us a glimpse into the lives of these citizens, the compassion it takes to be heroes, and the bravery it takes to simply be human.
8. How to Survive a Plague
The AIDS epidemic shook the nation — but empowered a group of (mostly) HIV-positive women and men to take a stand and be heard by the medical establishment. Through their activism and persistence to find a cure, they were able to make history in the race to make AIDS a manageable condition.
9. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
There’s always been a curiosity that comes with matters of space (no pun intended) — whether it’s the mystery of why it exists or the awe of what it holds, we’ve continued to study the universe for centuries. In this documentary, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson presents the theories behind time, space, and the compelling science that brings it together.
10. The Witness
In 1964, Kitty Genovese was attacked in Queens and left to die — despite the 38 eyewitnesses who admitted they saw the attack. This film shows the struggle of Kitty’s brother as he goes on a mission to uncover the truth behind his sister’s murder and the bystander apathy that made it so chilling.