1. Home
  2. Featured

150 Necessary Documentaries Streaming on Netflix This June

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment

Rather than update our original list of the 100 Best Documentaries on Netflix whenever a film expires or is added, we’d like to post a new version each month to keep things tidy and less confusing. And to make it even nicer for all of you, we’re going to note everything that has joined or left the guide.

Yes, we’ve increased the number of recommendations this month. It’s been a year since we began posting our monthly list of the 100 essential documentaries streaming on Netflix, and in that time either Netflix has amassed a lot more necessary nonfiction or we’ve seen more of them, or both. We’ve had to remove a lot of favorites to over time to make room for new additions. By increasing the number of titles on the list, we can celebrate more films. And yet we still had to leave out some docs we love!

We won’t highlight all that were added, because it’s a lot, but many of them are films that have been on the list in the past and are returning thanks to the open spaces. There are now more dance docs, more music docs, more docs about movies and more Nick Broomfield. There are also more docs that we don’t necessarily love but that we believe are important for any enthusiast of nonfiction cinema, such as The Family Album and Room 237. Maybe next year the list will end up increased to 200. We just want you to have plenty of good viewing options.

Now a reminder of how the titles are numerically arranged:

They are mostly ranked in order of my favor with some objective authority, but there are some clumps throughout the list that obviously fit together. Some are by director, some are by genre or subject matter and some are by series — the Up installments are of varied quality, for instance, but they should be seen in order. In fact, I see this whole list as being best watched in order of the rankings. There are a few double features in the bunch (Expedition to the End of the World and Encounters at the End of the World and The Act of Killing and Camp 14, for two example sets) and some grouping where I truly think the higher ranking title is best watched before a certain title or titles below it.

Tags:FeaturesHome ViewingListsNetflix 100

(Editor in Chief)

Christopher Campbell is the founding editor of Nonfics.