Welcome to Documental, a monthly column keeping fans of nonfiction films and docuseries up to date on all the documentary content coming to theaters and your favorite streaming services. Here’s a guide to the essential documentary titles to watch in March 2023.
The third month of the year on this third planet from the Sun brings a lot of incredible nonfiction content for your viewing pleasure. March is Women’s History Month, of course, and that means the streaming services are spotlighting films made by and about women, which like Black History selections deserve to be showcased all the time. As long as they’re given the platform, though, we’re going to direct your attention toward these must-see documentaries. For instance, a couple of our favorite films by and about women from 2022 are finally making their debut on streaming services this month. Meanwhile, one of our favorite new discoveries hitting theaters this month has no calendrical theme related to its release.
Here are some of the essentials from this month, including many works by women:
Nonfics Pick of the Month: Laura Poitras’s Third Oscar-Nominated Documentary Feature – All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
On March 12, another lucky film will be named the Best Documentary Feature by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. One of the contenders is the latest from Laura Poitras, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and it marks her third nomination in the category — she won with her second time, for Citizenfour. Whether it wins or not, we recommend watching the film when it arrives on HBO Max one week later. The doc is one of the richest nonfiction works in some time, as it’s a biographical artist profile and a powerful issue film in one. Photographer Nan Goldin shares her creative genius, her life’s tragedies, and her triumphant activism against the Sackler family for their part in the opioid crisis, all of which come together for a deep and emotional ride.
In addition to its recognition at the Oscars, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed was nominated for two Critics Choice Documentary Awards and the BAFTA Film Award for Best Documentary, and it came in second place on Nonfics’ own poll-driven list of the best documentaries of 2022. Before that, it debuted at the Venice Film Festival and took home its top prize, a rarity for documentaries, and it’s been racking up numerous other accolades ever since. Now it’s just time for home viewers to get to know Goldin and see her strength and her very difficult but very inspiring efforts toward personal and global justice. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed premieres on HBO Max on March 19.
Hidden Letters
Another new documentary directed by women and focused on rebellious women arriving in March 2023, Violet Du Feng and Qing Zhao’s Hidden Letters was surprisingly overlooked among the best of 2022. Its festival run, which began at Tribeca, and its late-December theatrical release were very quiet, but hopefully, audiences will tune in when it airs and then streams at the end of the month. The doc follows two millennial-age feminist Chinese women who are both challenging and embracing their culture and its traditions through their interest in the secret written language Nüshu, which itself was historically a form of women’s liberation. Hidden Letters makes its broadcast debut on PBS via Independent Lens on March 27, with free streaming likely beginning on the PBS website the following day.
Gods Of Mexico
While both of the above films have some beautiful visuals, Gods of Mexico is an extraordinary treat for your eyes, as well as for your ears, and it’s really terrific that the documentary is being released on the big screen. Directed and shot by Helmut Dosantos, much of it in monochrome, the film takes viewers on a trip around Mexico to witness rural life and labor, from an extensive look at the workers in salt pans to portraits of people in the country’s deserts and jungles. Like Hidden Letters, Gods of Mexico celebrates the ways of the past, though it’s much more concentrated on maintaining those traditions and not at all embracing modernization in land or culture. Gods of Mexico opens in theaters on March 3 along with two other Mexican documentaries: Teodora Ana Mihai’s La Civil and Rodrigo Reyes’s Sansón and Me.
In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis
It would be easy to dismiss the numerous documentaries being made about the pope if so many weren’t being made by great filmmakers: Wim Wenders, Evgeny Afineevsky, and now Gianfranco Rosi. This one is a particular must-see for any fan of Rosi (that should be all documentary enthusiasts) as it was inspired by trips made by Pope Francis that reminded the filmmaker of his recent docs Fire at Sea and Notturno. For the non-devout, it helps that the subject of In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis is a more interesting pope than some of his predecessors, particularly for his progressive and just plain modern views that better reflect the world of today. In Viaggio opens in theaters on March 31.
Documentary Release Calendar for March 2023
Date | Title | Streaming Service | Note |
---|---|---|---|
3/1 | Cheat - Season 1 | Netflix | Netflix Original Series |
Forged in Fire: Knife or Death - Season 2 | Netflix | ||
Going Fur Gold - Season 1 | Disney+ | ||
Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger (2014) | HBO Max | ||
Loving Highsmith (2022) | The Criterion Channel | Exclusive Streaming Premiere | |
So Late So Soon (2020) | The Criterion Channel | Exclusive Streaming Premiere | |
Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You. (2019) | The Criterion Channel | Exclusive Streaming Premiere | |
Tranceformer: A Portrait of Lars von Trier (1997) | The Criterion Channel | ||
A Fuller Life (2013) | The Criterion Channel | ||
Maid Servant (1981) | The Criterion Channel | Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries By Deepa Dhanraj | |
Tobacco Embers (1982) | The Criterion Channel | Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries By Deepa Dhanraj | |
Is This Just a Story? (1983) | The Criterion Channel | Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries By Deepa Dhanraj | |
Sudesha (1983) | The Criterion Channel | Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries By Deepa Dhanraj | |
What Happened to This City? (1986) | The Criterion Channel | Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries By Deepa Dhanraj | |
Something Like a War (1991) | The Criterion Channel | Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries By Deepa Dhanraj | |
Love in the Time of AIDS (2006) | The Criterion Channel | Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries By Deepa Dhanraj | |
Invoking Justice (2011) | The Criterion Channel | Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries By Deepa Dhanraj | |
Ornette: Made in America (1985) | The Criterion Channel | Afrofuturism | |
The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry (2008) | The Criterion Channel | Afrofuturism | |
Milford Graves Full Mantis (2018) | The Criterion Channel | Afrofuturism | |
1968 < 2018 > 2068 (2018) | The Criterion Channel | Afrofuturism | |
Def Comedy Jam - Seasons 1-7 | Amazon Prime Video | ||
An Inconvenient Truth (2006) | Paramount+ | ||
An Inconvenient Sequel: True to Power (2017) | Paramount+ | ||
Bruce Lee, The Legend (1984) | Paramount+ | ||
Jackass Number Two (2006) | Paramount+ | ||
Survivor - Season 4 | Paramount+ | ||
3/2 | Almost Home (2005) | OVID | OVID Exclusive |
As Goes Janesville (2012) | OVID | OVID Exclusive | |
Penelope (2013) | OVID | OVID Exclusive | |
There Are Jews Here (2016) | OVID | ||
I Am Georgina - Season 2 | Netflix | Netflix Original Series | |
Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil (2023) | Netflix | Netflix Original Series | |
Marlon Wayans: God Loves Me (2023) | HBO Max | Max Original Premiere | |
Underground (2023) | PBS | Independent Lens | |
3/3 | In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal (2023) | Netflix | Netflix Original Series |
Next in Fashion - Season 2 | Netflix | Netflix Original Series | |
Finding Michael (2023) | Disney+ | Disney+ Original | |
Dino Death Match (2015) | Disney+ | ||
The Next Mega Tsunami (2014) | Disney+ | ||
Gods of Mexico (2022) | In Theaters | ||
La Civil (2021) | In Theaters | ||
Sansón and Me (2022) | In Theaters | ||
3/7 | Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever - Episode 2, "Mexico: Con La Brisa" (2023) | Disney+ | |
Geographies of Solitude (2022) | In Theaters | ||
3/8 | The Challenge: World Championship (2023) | Paramount+ | Series Premiere |
RuPaul's Drag Race - Season 14 | Paramount+ | ||
RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked - Season 13 | Paramount+ | ||
In Our Own Hands (2020) | OVID | OVID Exclusive - SVOD Premiere | |
It Is Not Over Yet (2021) | OVID | OVID Exclusive - SVOD Premiere | |
MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (2023) | Netflix | Netflix Original | |
Africa's Deadliest - Seasons 2, 3, 4 & 5 | Disney+ | ||
M Power (2023) | Disney+ | ||
3/9 | Farmer Wants a Wife - Season 1 Premiere | Hulu | |
National Geographic Investigates: Narco States Aftermath: Special Premiere | Hulu | ||
Promise of Justice: End Plantation (2023) | In Theaters | ||
3/10 | The Divided Brain (2018) | OVID | OVID Exclusive |
Jackass Forever (2022) | Amazon Prime Video | ||
Sin Eater (2023) | Hulu | The New York Times Presents | |
Outlast - Season 1 | Netflix | Netflix Original Series | |
I Got a Monster (2023) | In Theaters | ||
3/13 | Reconquistador (2023) | In Theaters | |
3/14 | I Am Secretly an Important Man (2011) | OVID | |
Bert Kreischer: Razzle Dazzle (2023) | Netflix | Netflix Original | |
Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever - Episode 3, "London: Bring It Home" (2023) | Disney+ | ||
3/15 | True Life Crime - Season 2 | Paramount+ | |
VH1's Couple's Retreat - Season 2 | Paramount+ | ||
Another Paradise (2019) | OVID | ||
Voices From Chernobyl (2017) | OVID | ||
Money Shot: The PornHub Story (2023) | Netflix | Netflix Original | |
The Law of the Jungle - Season 1 | Netflix | Netflix Original Series | |
Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts - Season 2 | Disney+ | Disney+ Original Series | |
Engineering Connections - Seasons 1 & 2 | Disney+ | National Geographic | |
Mariupol: The People's Story (2023) | |||
3/16 | Intervention - Season 3 | Hulu | |
From Food to Freedom (2023) | In Theaters | ||
3/17 | How the Tables Have Turned - Season 1 | Paramount+ | |
Until the Light Takes Us (2009) | OVID | ||
Dance 100 - Season 1 | Netflix | Netflix Original Series | |
Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman (2023) | Disney+ | ||
Hippo vs. Croc (2014) | Disney+ | National Geographic | |
Today (2023) | In Theaters | ||
3/19 | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) | HBO Max | |
3/20 | Storming Caesars Palace (2022) | PBS | Independent Lens |
3/21 | A Simple Matter of Justice (1993) | OVID | OVID Exclusive |
Eye on the Guy (2006) | OVID | OVID Exclusive | |
Dr. Tony Fauci (2023) | PBS | American Masters | |
3/22 | Waco: American Apocalypse (2023) | Netflix | Netflix Original Series |
How to Win at Everything - Season 1 | Disney+ | National Geographic | |
Restaurants at the End of the World - Season 1 | Disney+ | ||
Superstructures: Engineering Marvels - Season 1 | Disney+ | ||
Louis Tomlinson: All of Those Voices (2023) | In Theaters | ||
3/23 | The Lesson Is Murder (2023) | Hulu | Hulu Original/ABC News |
Digging for the Truth - Season 1 | Hulu | ||
Maletero (2023) | PBS | Independent Lens | |
3/24 | Myanmar Diaries (2022) | OVID | OVID Exclusive - SVOD Premiere |
A Place Called Wahala (2021) | OVID | OVID Exclusive - SVOD Premiere | |
The Resolute (2017) | OVID | ||
Reggie (2023) | Amazon Prime Video | ||
Love is Blind - Season 4 | Netflix | Netflix Original Series | |
Witness to Disaster - Season 1 | Disney+ | National Geographic | |
Rabble Rousers: Francis Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square (2022) | In Theaters | ||
3/26 | Big Smooth (2023) | In Theaters | |
3/27 | Hidden Letters (2022) | PBS | Independent Lens |
3/28 | Mae Martin: SAP (2023) | Netflix | Netflix Original |
3/29 | Jersey Shore: Family Vacation - Season 4 | Paramount+ | |
Messyness - Seasons 1 & 2 | Paramount+ | ||
Teen Mom 2 - Season 11 | Paramount+ | ||
3/31 | In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis (2022) | In Theaters | |