I expected to like Lorne. The director is Morgan Neville. The subject’s usual elusivity would seem to make him intriguing. And all of last year’s plethora of Saturday Night Live documentaries and specials were better than they needed to be. But Lorne is probably my least favorite Neville documentary besides the second half of Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in 2 Pieces. I can’t blame Neville for this. He clearly gave it his all. He even tried to make it fun and occasionally meta. When covering Lorne Michaels’s life in the 1960s, he has (aptly cast) narrator Chris Parnell explain that, as required, the ‘60s segment of this one begins with the obligatory clips of the Vietnam War and hippies. As someone who has seen a lot of documentaries about that era, I appreciate the joke.

The problem is that Michaels is not that interesting. It’s not just that he’s elusive and that Neville can’t seem to crack the nut here (it’s not The Unknown Known). Michaels realizes this. He confesses that there’s no “Rosebud” mystery to his life (though he does answer the question of what his “Rosebud” would be if he had one, and it’s so perfectly unremarkable that I guess that says something). A scant few interesting stories are shared, mostly by longtime pal Paul Simon (who knew that “Graceland” was partly based on a trip he made with Michaels?), but most of the expected roster of talking heads have little insight into the man. Especially outside his work on Saturday Night Live, none of which feels new after all the coverage the show got for its 50th anniversary last year.

Maybe I’m just tired of these documentary profiles that aren’t at least verite records of a moment. Similar to the Steve! piece, there’s too much talking to the director and acknowledgment of the film crew as it’s being made, not enough actual storytelling. But with Michaels, that wouldn’t be very entertaining. It’s said in the film that he’s a great producer because he leaves no fingerprints behind. It’d be like watching ghosts and empties, if you understand the reference to what I’m now pretending is a lyric referencing Michaels. His legacy is not here; his legacy is just the show. I’ll give Lorne something, though: there’s a great bit with Jimmy Fallon feeling vindicated that any fan of Saturday Night Live needs to see.

If this newsletter is late this week, we can thank Focus Features for releasing another documentary in theaters and not allowing critics to see it via screener link. On the one hand, I’m happy that some companies still see box office viability of nonfiction films, even after their previous wide-release documentary wasn’t a big hit. On the other hand, I hate not being able to see a documentary until the day I typically put out this newsletter. Usually, I like to have the newsletter laid out, if not fully written, before Thursday. Waiting on a film like this is like producing a live weekly comedy series and not knowing what the opening sketch is until it airs. Okay, that’s a stretch, but it fits.

Without further ado, below are this week’s documentary highlights, followed by daily listings for all known releases and broadcasts, along with a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive more in-depth highlights and reviews in the future, plus full access to special posts like our best-of lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have a doc in need of coverage or a mention, you can reach me at christopherbartoncampbell (at) gmail.

Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Lorne (2026)

I don’t like to set a Pick of the Week before I’ve seen the film in question, but I did that this time. I assumed Lorne would be the best thing to watch over the next seven days. The director is Morgan Neville. The subject’s usual elusivity would seem to make him intriguing. And all of last year’s plethora of Saturday Night Live documentaries and specials were better than they needed to be (of course, they were also appropriately released to streaming, not theaters). Also, I hadn’t liked any of the other new releases that I’ve seen for this week. So, before making it to the first screening at my local theater on Thursday afternoon, I’d already committed. I’d even made the header collage and put a still of Lorne Michaels in the center.

Well, I can admit to making a mistake. Not that I have anything else to fill the Pick of the Week spot, but Lorne is probably my least favorite Neville documentary besides the second half of Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in 2 Pieces. Here’s an excerpt from the rest of my review of Lorne:

“The problem is that Michaels is not that interesting. It’s not just that he’s elusive and that Neville can’t seem to crack the nut here (it’s not The Unknown Known). Michaels realizes this. He confesses that there’s no “Rosebud” mystery to his life (though he does answer the question of what his “Rosebud” would be if he had one, and it’s so perfectly unremarkable that I guess that says something). A scant few interesting stories are shared, mostly by longtime pal Paul Simon (who knew that “Graceland” was partly based on a trip he made with Michaels?), but most of the expected roster of talking heads have little insight into the man. Especially outside his work on Saturday Night Live, none of which feels new after all the coverage the show got for its 50th anniversary last year.”

Lorne will be released in theaters on Friday, April 17, 2026 (though it really was released on Thursday, April 16, 2026, since that’s when I went to see it).

Other Documentary Highlights

Earth Day Documentaries

While we celebrate Earth Month all through April, the more narrowly focused Earth Day lands this week, on April 22. As usual, a few of the big streamers are recognizing the occasion with significant new releases in the nature documentary genre.

First up, arriving five days early, Netflix will debut the new feature A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough. Helmed by Oscar-winning My Octopus Teacher director James Reed, the film revisits a famous moment from the 1970s when David Attenborough had a special encounter with a young mountain gorilla while shooting an episode of Life on Earth. Nearly 50 years later, he narrates new footage of the sudsy drama between gorillas residing in the same region and updates viewers on what became of the iconic ape they met on the BBC program in 1979. This documentary also comes at an appropriate time, as Attenborough turns 100 in a few weeks.

The streamer will also premiere the docuseries This is a Gardening Show on Earth Day. It’s not a nature program, but host Zach Galifianakis does like to promote his belief that “the future is agrarian,” and that’s fitting for the day devoted to environmental appreciation and awareness. The official Earth Day website also spotlights gardening.

Over at Disney+, the latest Disneynature film, Orangutan, is also debuting on April 22. The film is directed by franchise staples Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz and narrated by Josh Gad. And it’s sure to be heavily anthropomorphizing in its narrativization of everyone’s favorite orange-colored primates. I recommend checking out National Geographic’s Secrets of the Bees, which was released on Disney+ and Hulu at the start of April as part of the Walt Disney Company’s Earth Month celebration.

Other platforms participating include OVID, which will add the 1971 short documentary Walking On Water Wasn’t Built in a Day to its library on April 22. The film was shot in Philadelphia during the first Earth Day celebration the prior year. They’re also adding Outgrow the System, which offers a new approach to the climate movement. Tubi will debut We Are Guardians, a documentary feature about Indigenous people trying to save the Brazilian Amazon. And PBS has new episodes of Nova and Nature, along with the broadcast premiere of the 2023 feature Wilding, about a couple rewilding their English estate and farmland.

If you want to celebrate the event with a theatrical experience, albeit not on Earth Day, this week’s offerings from AMC’s IMAX Documentary Showcase are Toni Myers’ A Beautiful Planet (on Saturday, April 18) and Howard Hall’s Under the Sea (on Sunday, April 20). The former honors the magnificence of Earth with views from the International Space Station. The latter takes us on a 3D exploration of what’s down under in the region known as Down Under.

Of course, this is also my annual opportunity to recommend the following lists: 5 Documentaries About the Environment That Will Surprise You; 5 Essential Climate Change Documentaries; 12 Must-See Films About Environmental Disasters; and The 7 Best Documentaries About the Earth. We also have an essay on why nature documentaries are more essential now than ever and reviews of such relevant films as The Flood, Penguins, Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, Behemoth, The Yes Men are Revolting, I Am Greta, Ice on Fire, and Our Planet.

Frederick Wiseman’s U.S. Documentaries (Continued)

The Jacob Burns Film Center’s ongoing retrospective “Frederick Wiseman’s America” continues this week, showcasing Frederick Wiseman’s U.S.-set documentaries. Here are the films to watch, whether it’s there on the big screen, at home via Kanopy, or on physical media from Zipporah Films: The Store (on April 17), Aspen (April 17 and April 19), Public Housing (April 21), and Domestic Violence (April 23). We’ll highlight the rest of the program as it continues throughout this month.

Marijuana Movies

Another notable date this week is April 20, or 4/20. Due to the numbers involved, it’s a time for celebrating marijuana and stoner culture. Disney knows what’s up with the debut of a series titled 4X20: Quick Hits on their streaming platforms (Disney+ and Hulu). Executive produced by Jimmy Kimmel, the four-part documentary looks at a couple of cult classic films, a magazine dedicated to pot, and an artist associated with drug paraphernalia. Also on April 20, the documentary Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie, starring the titular comedy icons, begins streaming on Paramount+.

If you’re looking for more pot-umentaries, check out our reviews of the films Weed the People, Grass is Greener, and Breaking Habits, about nuns who grow weed. There’s also Doug Benson’s Super Size Me-inspired Super High Me.

Robert Wilson And The Civil Wars (1985)

This is apparently the week for otherwise decent documentaries about uninteresting personalities. Howard Brookner’s Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars is being re-released after more than 40 years, with a 4K restoration, and it’s the kind of film that is necessary to exist but not necessary to watch. Here’s the opening of my review of Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars:

“My first takeaway after watching this 41-year-old documentary is that Robert Wilson is a terribly bland screen personality. That may be a surprise to anyone familiar with his wildly out-there work as an avant-garde theatre artist. For anyone not familiar with his work, Howard Brookner’s Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars spends half its runtime tracking Wilson’s life and career up to his overly ambitious Civil Wars project. The latter half would seem to be the focus of the film, given its title, and it’s the more interesting material because — spoiler alert — the project was never fully performed as intended as an accompaniment to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.”

The 4K restoration of Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars will be re-released in theaters in New York City this Friday, April 17, 2026.

Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets (2024)

As I surprisingly shared in a previous edition of this newsletter, Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War On NYC Streets is “an example of how to handle an issue as big and society-splitting as the post-October 7 strife between Israeli-Americans and pro-Palestine protesters in the U.S. It’s still relatively unbalanced, but I have no problem with that as long as it acknowledges both sides’ arguments without misrepresenting either. It’s a philosophical rather than political work, with a basis in humanism.” And that praise isn’t even part of my review of Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets, which is again excerpted below:

“Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets should serve as a reminder that images (including text) can contain multitudes. In support of its own theme, though, the film’s statement shall be divisive. That only proves it’s a success. Torn explores the creation and evolution of a piece of artistic transmission that became personalized and politicized to the point where its initial purpose was lost. Following the October 7 attacks by Hamas in 2023, posters showcasing Israeli hostages began appearing around New York City. As presented in the documentary, for some, these posters were cathartic. For others, they were propaganda meant for the justification of the ensuing bombing in Gaza. Many were torn down. That act begat actions and reactions that themselves became propaganda via social media. The hostages were exploited and re-exploited for political reasons, often performatively so.”

Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets will be released digitally on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.

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Documentary Release Calendar 4/17/26 - 4/23/26

Friday, April 17, 2026

Endless Cookie (2025) - An animated documentary feature by Canadian half-brothers, one white and one Indigenous, about their family. Read our review of Endless Cookie. (Mubi)

Everyone Is Lying to You for Money (2025) - A documentary feature directed by and starring actor Ben McKenzie about cryptocurrency. (In Theaters)

Far Out: Life On & After the Commune (2024) - A documentary feature about a group of writers, artists, and activists in New England. (OVID)

Full Swing Season 4 - The return of a popular docuseries following PGA golfers. (Netflix)

A Gorilla Story: Told By David Attenborough (2026) - A nature documentary directed by Oscar-winner James Reed (My Octopus Teacher) and narrated by Sir David Attenborough about gorillas in the mountains of Rwanda. See our highlights section for more info. (Netflix)

Great Performances: Now Hear This Season 7, Episode 2: “Everyone Loves Joplin” - The latest installment of a docuseries starring conductor and violinist Scott Yoo about the secret histories of great musical works. This installment focuses on composer Scott Joplin. (PBS, the PBS App, and the PBS Website)

Lorne (2026) - A documentary directed by Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) about Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Read our review of Lorne. *NONFICS PICK OF THE WEEK* (In Theaters)

The Proof is Out There Season 6, Episode 6: “Volcano UFO Fleet, Nessie’s Heartbeat, and Dark Web Alien Bodies” - The latest installment of a docuseries investigating UFOs, conspiracies, and mythical creatures. (History)

A Radical Thread (2025) - A documentary feature about a Sierra Foothills community that has continued to overcome the threat of wildfires as they create a celebratory tapestry. (OVID)

Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars (1985) - A 4K restoration re-release of a documentary feature about Robert Wilson’s effort to stage an epic opera for the 1984 Summer Olympics. Read our review of Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars. (In Theaters)

TheyDream (2026) - A documentary feature about a Puerto Rican family over the course of 20 years. (In Theaters)

Saturday, April 18, 2026

A Beautiful Planet (2016) - A documentary directed by Toni Myers and narrated by Jennifer Lawrence about the International Space Station and its view of Earth. Presented in 3D as part of AMC’s IMAX Documentary Showcase. *NONFICS PICK* (IMAX Theatrical Event).

Building Back America’s Trades Episode 2: “Dreams and Determination” - The latest installment of a docuseries about the trades industry. (Magnolia)

Dean Martin: King of Cool (2021) - A feature-length documentary about the titular actor and crooner. (TCM)

Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever Episode 2: “Science or Snake Oil?” - The second installment of a six-part docuseries starring journalist Kara Swisher about the latest in longevity science. (CNN)

Mirrors (1934) - A short film starring Freddie Rich and His Orchestra as they perform popular songs. (TCM)

Philly Homicide Season 2, Episode 2: “Murder at the Shore” - The latest installment of a docuseries following Philadelphia detectives. This episode involves the killing of a Philadelphia radio personality. (Oxygen)

Whispers (1941) - A short film about the power of gossip. (TCM)

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Betrayal: Secrets & Lies Episode 4: “The New Year Intruder” - The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries involving stories of infidelity. (ABC, Disney+, and Hulu)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) - A re-release, newly restored in 6K, of a 3D documentary directed by Werner Herzog about the primitive paintings found in France’s Chauvet Cave. *NONFICS PICK* (IMAX Theatrical Event)

Eva Longoria: Searching for France Episodes 3 & 4: “Provence” & “Bordeaux” - The latest installments of an eight-part docuseries in the Searching For… travelogue franchise following Eva Longoria on a culinary tour of France. (CNN)

The Food That Built America Season 7, Episode 1: “Pizza Power Play” - The return of a docuseries about popular American foods. This episode involves the pizza chains that battled to top the market. (History)

Hazardous History with Henry Winkler Season 2, Episode 1: “Killer Crazes” - The return of a docuseries about dangerous toys and household items that used to be common. This episode involves crazes like flagpole sitting and eating goldfish. (History)

Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever Episode 2: “Science or Snake Oil?” - The second installment of a six-part docuseries starring journalist Kara Swisher about the latest in longevity science. (CNN All Access)

On the Road to Monterrey (1943) - A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores three cities in Mexico. (TCM)

A Plan to Kill Season 2, Episode 7: “Digital Justice” - The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries on the meticulous planning conducted by serial killers. (Oxygen)

Under the Sea 3D (2009) - A documentary directed by Howard Hall and narrated by Jim Carrey about sea life in the coastal regions of Southern Australia, New Guinea, and the Indo-Pacific areas. Presented in 3D as part of AMC’s IMAX Documentary Showcase. (IMAX Theatrical Event).

Monday, April 20, 2026

4X20: Quick Hits (2026) - A series executive-produced by Jimmy Kimmel showcasing four short documentaries on cannabis culture. These episodes cover High Times magazine, the stoner cult classics Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and Ganjasaurus Rex, and hand-blown glass artist Jason Harris. (Disney+ and Hulu)

Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie (2024) - A documentary about the legacy of the titular comedy duo. (Paramount+)

Fatal Attraction: I’d Kill to Be You Season 1, Episode 13: “Friends Turned Foes” - The latest installment of a true-crime series about cases involving jealousy. (TV One)

Hollywood Demons Season 2, Episode 1: “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” - The return of a docuseries about the dark realities of various celebrities and TV shows. This episode involves The Jerry Springer Show. (Investigation Discovery)

Okay for Sound (1946) - A short documentary celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Vitagraph sound-on-film process. (TCM)

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

The Dark Wizard Episode 2: “Dying to Flying” - The second installment of a four-part docuseries directed by The Alpinist filmmakers Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen about climber, base jumper, and highline walker Dean Potter. Read our review of The Dark Wizard. (HBO and HBO Max)

The Edge of Nature (2023) - A documentary feature directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox (GasLand) about his experience with long COVID while living in a one-room cabin in the Pennsylvania forest. (OVID)

Glimpses of Australia (1939) - A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores Sydney and Melbourne. (TCM)

Ida Rolf: Mother of Fascia (2026) - A documentary feature about biochemist Dr. Ida P. Rolf, who created the manual therapy practice of Structural Integration. (DVD)

Jeff Dunham’s The Cars That Drove Us Episodes 7 & 8: “Dune Buggy” & “Wait, That’s Factory?” - The final installments of an eight-part docuseries starring comedian Jeff Dunham about some of the most iconic vehicles in history. (Discovery)

The King of Color (2025) - A documentary feature about the creator of the Pantone Matching System. (VOD)

MGM Parade Show #5 (1955) - The fifth installment of a documentary series devoted to promoting MGM’s films. This short spotlights the movies Till the Clouds Roll By and Trial. (TCM)

Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny Season 2, Episode 6: “Cracking the Code” - The latest installment of a docuseries about declassified government activities. (History)

Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets (2024) - A documentary feature about a clash between pro-Israel activists and pro-Palestine activists involving posters around New York City. Read our review of Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets. *NONFICS PICK* (VOD)

Untold: The Shooting of Hawthorne (2026) - A documentary feature about a tense relationship between a retired Olympic equestrian and their student. Presented as the fourth episode of Untold Season 6. (Netflix)

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

The Bad Foot Clinic Season 1, Episode 6: “One Step at a Time” - The latest installment of a docuseries following a podiatrist couple in their work. (TLC)

Conspiracies & Coverups Episode 4: “The Great COVID Conspiracy” - The latest installment of a docuseries starring ex-CIA officer Andrew Bustamente about the biggest conspiracies in pop culture today. (Discovery)

Homicide Hunter: American Detective Season 6, Episode 2 - The return of a true-crime docuseries starring Lt. Joe Kenda about illogical cases. (Investigation Discovery)

Hulk Hogan: Real American (2026) - A four-part docuseries about the titular wrestling icon, featuring his final interview. (Netflix)

Killing Grounds: The Gilgo Beach Murders (2026) - A four-part docuseries about the Gilgo Beach serial killer case. (Amazon Prime Video)

Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool (2026) - A documentary feature about the titular country music superstar. (Netflix)

Nature: The Legendary Tigers of India (2026) - An installment of the docuseries Nature about the tigers of India’s Ranthambore National Park. (PBS)

Nova: Rain Bombs (2026) - An installment of the docuseries Nova about the dangerous weather phenomenon known as “rain bombs.” (PBS)

On the Case with Paula Zahn Season 29, Episode 2: “Layers of Betrayal” - The return of a true-crime docuseries starring journalist Paula Zahn. (Investigation Discovery)

Orangutan (2026) - A documentary feature from Disneynature narrated by Josh Gad about an adolescent orangutan. (Disney+)

Outgrow the System (2023) - A medium-length documentary presenting new ideas about a sustainable economy. (OVID)

This is a Gardening Show (2026) - A docuseries hosted by Zach Galifianakis about gardening. (Netflix)

This Is Not a Drill (2025) - A documentary about three grassroots leaders going up against Big Oil. (NYC Theatrical Event)

Walking On Water Wasn’t Built in a Day (1971) - A short documentary starring Allen Ginsberg shot in Philadelphia on the first Earth Day in 1970. (OVID)

We Are Guardians (2023) - A documentary produced by Fisher Stevens and executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio about Indigenous people trying to save what’s left of the Brazilian Amazon. (Tubi and VOD)

Wilding (2023) - A documentary feature about a couple in England as they turn their farm back to nature. (PBS)

Thursday, April 23, 2026

The Chaplain & The Doctor (2025) - A documentary feature about a chaplain and a doctor working together. (In Theaters)

My Sweet Land (2024) - A documentary following a young boy in war-torn Artsakh. Read our review of My Sweet Land. (WORLD Channel)

Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo Season 2, Episode 18: “Grave Secrets” - The latest installment of a docuseries exploring hidden worlds. (History)

Predator Hunters Episode 8: “A Dark Hidden Secret” - The latest installment of a docuseries produced by Louis Theroux following the work of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. (A&E)

Still Single (2025) - A documentary feature about Masaki Saito, Canada’s first Michelin two-star chef. (Documentary+)

The Trials of Winnie Mandela (2026) - A seven-part docuseries about South African anti-apartheid activist and politician Winnie Mandela. (Netflix)

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Sneak Peek At What’s Coming Soon

4/24 - Eraserheads: Combo on the Run - A documentary feature about the titular Filipino rock band. (In Theaters)

4/28 - Come What May - A documentary feature about comedian Ralphie May. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (Theatrical Roadshow)

4/28 - High Strangeness in the Bennington Triangle - A documentary feature about an area of Vermont known for UFO and Bigfoot sightings. (VOD)

5/1 - American Dream - Re-release of Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning 1990 film about a Hormel Foods labor strike. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)

5/1 - Conbody VS Everybody - A five-part docuseries directed by Debra Granik (Stray Dog) about a formerly incarcerated man who starts a gym that employs others released from prison. (The Criterion Channel)

5/8 - Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour - A concert film directed by James Cameron and Billie Eilish and starring Billie Eilish, presented in 3D. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)

5/11 - 96 Pounds of Dynamite - A documentary about a genetically diminutive billiards celebrity. (VOD)

5/21 - Stolen Kingdom - A documentary feature about theft and other misdeeds committed at Walt Disney World over 30 years. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (Theatrical Roadshow)

5/22 - Everybody to Kenmure Street - A Sundance-winning documentary feature about residents of Glasgow coming together against deportation threats. (In Theaters)

6/1 - Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light - A documentary directed by Oscar winner Paul Wagner (The Stone Carvers) and narrated by Hugh Dancy about the titular painter. The film also stars Claire Danes as the voice of O’Keeffe. (VOD)

6/5 - With Hasan in Gaza - A documentary feature directed by Kamal Aljafari that revisits footage he shot in 2001 about his search for a man he met in prison years earlier. (In Theaters)

6/16 - EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert - A documentary feature directed by Baz Luhrmann starring Elvis as he returns to the stage in his later years. Read our review of EPiC: Elvis Presley in Theaters. *NONFICS PICK* (DVD and Blu-ray/4k UHD Combo)

My first takeaway after watching this 41-year-old documentary is that Robert Wilson is a terribly bland screen personality. That may be a surprise to anyone familiar with his wildly out-there work as an avant-garde theatre artist. For anyone not familiar with his work, Howard Brookner’s Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars spends half its runtime tracking Wilson’s life and career up to his overly ambitious Civil Wars project. The latter half would seem to be the focus of the film, given its title, and it’s the more interesting material because — spoiler alert — the project was never fully performed as intended as an accompaniment to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

That makes it similar to the handful of behind-the-scenes “unmaking-of” documentaries out there about incomplete films, such as Lost in La Mancha and Jodorowsky’s Dune. I wish it had gone even deeper into the topic of its financing, considering this was a time when it seemed money was abundant for all kinds of modern art. Perhaps this experimental opera was just that much more expensive an undertaking. We don’t get the context of the art world of that moment. What we get is some documentation of a project that could have been (and honestly wouldn’t seem that strange next to many of the opening ceremonies lately), for posterity.

The last few minutes of Robert Wilson and the Civil War are when it starts to get good, with Wilson having a warranted meltdown at a staging in France. Then, the documentary concludes with a compelling point from the artist about his work. The performances of his operas are only done by him and then exist in the memory of those who saw them. All that’s left are archives, and that’s the same for this piece, which was never performed in its entirety at all. The film represents that archive. He may as well be talking about the documentary with his final line: “This is what remains of the work. And so through these records, one has some idea of what happened.”

The sentiment is all the more meaningful with the legacy of the documentary, which was one of only three films by Brookner before he died of AIDS in 1989. Part of the original material for the documentary was lost during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Yet the filmmaker’s nephew, Aaron Brookner, toiling for more than a decade, was able to create a 4K restoration from a 16mm print and some VHS copies that looks almost as good as new. Even if I don’t love the whole thing, I have to appreciate that the film and what it captures have been preserved.

If you wrote an original romantic screenplay called The Loving Story and the main characters were named Mildred and Richard Loving, that’d seem pretty cheesy. But there’s nothing bogus about the “epunymous” title of an incredibly essential documentary focused on the story of the Lovings, an interracial couple whose union in 1958 led to their arrest, con…

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Just when you thought awards season was over, it’s started back up again. For nonfiction, the season is year-round because of the blurring of film and television that allows certain titles to compete for Oscars and Emmys and everything in between. For the most part, though, the two awards highlighted this week honor the same documentaries we’ve been talking about for the last year. Almost half of our list of the best documentaries of 2025 are represented again among the News & Documentary Emmy and Peabody Award nominees. Congrats to them all, again. Meanwhile, with the latest Pick of the Week, we’re looking back even further to celebrate a classic.

Without further ado, below are this week’s documentary highlights, followed by daily listings for all known releases and broadcasts, along with a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans (this week, we preview new films from Debra Granik and Jimmy Kimmel). Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive more in-depth highlights and reviews in the future, plus full access to special posts like our best-of lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have a doc in need of coverage or a mention, you can reach me at christopherbartoncampbell (at) gmail.

Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Cave Of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

This month, we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the theatrical release of Werner Herzog’s 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. For the occasion, the film is being re-released on IMAX screens with a 6k restoration. Perhaps due to the crowdedness of IMAX showings these days, it’s only screening for two non-consecutive days, including one day this week. Marketing materials for this re-release claim that we can now “finally see the jaw-dropping Chauvet Caves the way they were meant to be seen.” I guess the ideal way would be to see them in person, but given that most people aren’t allowed access to the location, a 3D documentary is still the next best thing.

Watch a teaser of the remastered version of Cave of Forgotten Dreams here, showing brighter and color-corrected visuals as Herzog guides viewers through the Chauvet Caves to gaze upon ancient paintings crafted more than 30,000 years ago:

Re-watching Cave of Forgotten Dreams on the big screen is going to make me wish that the 3D documentary trend had lasted longer. Wim Wenders thought it was the future of the mode (and he eventually made another one), and James Cameron stated that he thinks 3D is a better fit for documentaries than fiction films. I wrote a column in 2011 exploring which subjects would best suit and be enhanced by 3D cinema. If you’ve never seen Herzog’s example, and especially if you’ve never seen any 3D documentary before (interestingly enough, this isn’t the only 3D documentary being reshown in theaters nationwide this week), I implore you to make time for this one.

If you aren’t able to catch one of these rare 3D screenings, it’s still worth watching at home (rent it digitally rather than watching it for free on Pluto TV, as the ads will ruin the experience even more). As noted on our list of documentary masterpieces about artists, the filmmaker’s presence and direction are nearly as vital as the format for appreciating the works on screen: “Herzog never lets us out of the feeling that we are in the presence of something holy…[his] assuredness here is a valuable guide. Anyone else would quibble and begin talking about something boring like carbon dating. Instead, Herzog compares these sketches to the great horse paintings of the 19th century.”

Cave of Forgotten Dreams will be showing in 3D on IMAX screens nationwide on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, and Sunday, April 19, 2026.

Other Documentary Highlights

Becoming Led Zeppelin (2025)

While IMAX was an ideal format for Becoming Led Zeppelin when it opened in theaters last year (helping it become the top-grossing documentary of 2025), the film offers a fantastic viewing experience when watched on any platform. Winner of the Critics Choice Award for Best Music Documentary, this look at the origins of Led Zeppelin is particularly appealing to the band’s biggest fans. And those diehards are going to want to pick up the new two-disc 4K UHD and Blu-ray Limited Collector’s Edition Steelbook set, which also comes with guitar picks, a vinyl guitar case sticker, an iron-on patch, photo cards, and a letter to fans from director Bernard MacMahon.

Becoming Led Zeppelin will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray with this collector’s set on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

The Dark Wizard (2026)

Peter Mortimer and Nick Rose, best known for The Dawn Wall and The Alpinist, continue their focus on climbers with The Dark Wizard, a four-part docuseries about Dean Potter. I’m disappointed to say that this one might be just for the climbing enthusiasts already familiar with Potter. It’s fine, but after one episode, I wasn’t compelled to continue for another three. Not that Potter isn’t an interesting subject, but I feel I got to know him as much as I want to in that first part, and since he’s not alive, he’s not enough of a presence on screen that I expect anything else of him besides what the talking heads tell us about him.

The Dark Wizard premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Fiume O Morte! (2025)

If you’re going to make a film about an obscure moment in world history, so forgotten that even residents of the city where it happened are uneducated about it, you have to produce a unique piece of amusement for audiences. Igor Bezinovic’s Fiume o Morte!, which has deservedly won several honors at film festivals around the world and the European Film Award for Best European Documentary, does right by this expectation. The feature (which was also Croatia’s official submission for the Academy Awards this year) respects its subject and its audience while humorously playing with form through the use of otherwise conventional elements, including reenactments, sit-down interviews, man-on-the-street inquiries, and narration.

Fiume o Morte! chronicles the 16-month reign of the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, who took over the city now known as Rijeka, Croatia, after the end of World War I. He was a major influence on Benito Mussolini, but otherwise might seem to have had little impact, considering the locals have pretty much buried his story. Right now, fascism shouldn’t be as funny as it is depicted in the film, but it helps that this is such a curiously odd, non-tragic history. Many of the reenactment scenes reminded me of action in Wes Anderson’s films, though they also appear faithful to photographs from the time, as seen in the film, with their strange stagings and poses. The documentary will leave you wishing for more secret histories portrayed in such a lively manner.

Fiume o Morte! will be released in New York City on Friday, April 10, 2026.

Frederick Wiseman’s U.S. Documentaries (Continued)

This week, we again recognize the Jacob Burns Film Center’s ongoing retrospective “Frederick Wiseman’s America.” Frederick Wiseman’s U.S.-set documentaries showing there over the next seven days include Canal Zone, The Store (which Robert Greene has written about for Nonfics), and Welfare (one of our picks for the best documentaries of all time and the best documentaries about New York City). All three are also available to stream on Kanopy if that’s your only option. We’ll highlight the rest of the program as it continues throughout this month.

The Last Twins (2025)

Not all histories can be treated with such a creative and amusing style as the one Fiume o Morte! depicts. The Holocaust remains a deeply serious topic requiring a formal structure, and The Last Twins proves that this approach is still effective. The film is about Jewish twins (and siblings pretending to be twins) who were isolated at Auschwitz for study and experimentation by Josef Mengele. It’s also a tribute to Erno Spiegel, a fellow prisoner and twin who became a father figure and protector of the children in this group, becoming a hero as he attempted to ensure their safety.

As is the case with most Holocaust documentaries, this one works because it features interviews with survivors telling their stories firsthand. Most of these survivors have since passed away, which only stresses the film’s importance of capturing their presence and stories before it is too late. The Last Twins isn’t the most visually engaging documentary, and it doesn’t have to be. Just compare the apt seriousness of Liev Schreiber’s narration here to his playful voiceover in the new docuseries Born to Bowl as further indication that different subject matter warrants different tones.

The Last Twins will begin streaming for free on the PBS website, app, and YouTube channel on Monday, April 13, 2026.

The Loving Story (2011)

Another modern classic celebrating its 15th anniversary this week, The Loving Story is also worth highlighting because it’s one of the most recent additions to the National Film Registry. Repurposing unused verite footage shot in 1965 by Hope Ryden while she worked for Drew Associates, the documentary looks back at the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, whose civil rights case led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing interracial marriage. The feature marked the directorial debut of Nancy Buirski, who had founded and formerly led the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and it premiered at that very event on April 15, 2011.

The Loving Story is currently available to stream with a subscription on HBO Max or for free on Tubi or Fandango at Home with ads.

Space Station 3D (2002)

This week’s entry in AMC’s IMAX Documentary Showcase is the re-release of Space Station 3D, directed by Toni Myers. If you went to see her film A Beautiful Planet as part of the program (or during its initial release 10 years ago), you’ll want to check out this similar but much earlier work. Here’s what we had to say about the film on our list of the best documentaries about space travel: “Space Station 3D is a dizzying view of life in space. Its focus is on the International Space Station and those who inhabit it…Many words are spoken, many faces are shown, Tom Cruise‘s narration guides the entire film, but it is the moments of speechlessness that enrapture the viewer. Peering out into the dark, swirling void of space is a revelatory experience.”

Space Station 3D will screen on IMAX screens exclusively at AMC cinemas nationwide on Saturday, April 11, 2026.

Steal This Story, Please! (2025)

The latest documentary release honoring the necessity of journalists with integrity, Steal This Story, Please! shines a spotlight on Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman. Like Cover-Up, Love + War, and others, it’s partly a biography but mainly a career retrospective, chronicling its subject’s most notable reporting. Which, for someone like Goodman, is also her life. Directed by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, who made the Oscar-nominated Hurricane Katrina documentary Trouble the Water, this feature is functional as a profile of Goodman and a vehicle to showcase her work. It just doesn’t stand on its own as a significant piece of filmmaking with anything original to say.

Steal This Story, Please! opens in New York City on Friday, April 10, 2026, and in Los Angeles on Friday, April 17, 2026, with a nationwide rollout to follow.

Awards Highlights

News & Documentary Emmy Nominations

Last week, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced this year’s nominees for its News & Documentary Emmys. The films and limited series contending for Best Documentary include Black Snow (now streaming for free via PBS), Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time (Disney+ and Hulu), Life After (PBS Passport), Love + War (Disney+ and Hulu), 2000 Meters to Andriivka (PBS), Prime Minister (HBO Max), Turning Point: The Vietnam War (Netflix), and Union (Kanopy and The Criterion Channel). Among those, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, which was our favorite film of last year, and Turning Point: The Vietnam War each earned five additional nominations, while Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, Life After, and Love + War each received three more. Other favorites nominated this year include Cover-Up (Netflix), Sally (Disney+ and Hulu), The American Revolution (PBS Passport), Apocalypse in the Tropics (Netflix), and One to One: John & Yoko (HBO Max).

Peabody Nominations

The nominees for this year’s Peabody Awards were also announced last week. Documentaries among those honored include Oscar winners Mr. Nobody Against Putin (now streaming via Kino Film Collection) and No Other Land (VOD), Oscar nominees The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix), The Alabama Solution (HBO Max), and Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple TV), 2000 Meters to Andriivka (PBS), Sly Lives! (a.k.a. The Burden of Black Genius) (Hulu), Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything (Hulu), Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time (Disney+ and Hulu), Love + War (Disney+ and Hulu), Pee-wee as Himself (HBO Max), Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV), Predators (Paramount+ Premium), Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (Kanopy), and The White House Effect (Netflix).

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Documentary Release Calendar 4/10/26 - 4/16/26

Friday, April 10, 2026

Acting (2024) - A documentary feature directed by Sophie Fiennes (The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema) about actors as they work on a production of Macbeth. (In Theaters)

The Ash Can Fleet (1939) - A short biographical film about the inventor of the submarine, David Bushnell. (TCM)

Fiume o Morte! (2025) - A documentary feature about a Croatian city occupied by an Italian poet in 1919. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)

Great Performances: Now Hear This Season 7, Episode 1: “Brahms: Free But Alone” - The return of a docuseries starring conductor and violinist Scott Yoo about the secret histories of great musical works. This installment focuses on composer Johannes Brahms. (PBS, the PBS App, and the PBS Website)

The Mission Trail (1946) - A short documentary from James A. FitzPatrick’s Traveltalk franchise focused on 21 Spanish missions up and down California. (TCM)

The Proof is Out There Season 6, Episode 5: “Morphing UFO, Seneca Lake Monster, and Alien Egg Pods” - The latest installment of a docuseries investigating UFOs, conspiracies, and mythical creatures. (History)

Steal This Story, Please! (2025) - A documentary about Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (In Theaters)

Visiting Italy (1951) - A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores Rome, Pisa, and Florence. (TCM)

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Building Back America’s Trades Episode 1: “The Skilled Trades Crisis” - The first installment of a new docuseries about the trades industry. (Magnolia)

Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever Episode 1 - The first installment of a six-part docuseries starring journalist Kara Swisher about the latest in longevity science. (CNN)

Philly Homicide Season 2, Episode 1: “Ride or Die” - The latest installment of a docuseries following Philadelphia detectives. This episode involves a body found in the trunk of a taxi. (Oxygen)

Space Station 3D (2002) - A re-release of a documentary directed by Toni Myers and narrated by Tom Cruise about the International Space Station and its inhabitants. Presented in 3D as part of AMC’s IMAX Documentary Showcase. See our highlights section for more info. *NONFICS PICK* (IMAX Theatrical Event).

Sunday, April 12, 2026

At Home with the Furys Season 2 - The return of a docuseries that follows heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and his family. (Netflix)

Betrayal: Secrets & Lies Season 1, Episode 3: “The Bible Study Kidnapper” - A true-crime docuseries involving stories of infidelity and deceit. (ABC, Disney+, and Hulu)

Eva Longoria: Searching for France Episodes 1 & 2: “Paris” & “Paris Pastry” - The first installments of an eight-part docuseries in the Searching For… travelogue franchise following Eva Longoria on a culinary tour of France. (CNN)

History’s Greatest Picks with Mike Wolfe Season 1, Episode 8: “Greatest Showmen” - The latest installment of a docuseries about legendary treasures, relics, and artifacts from history. (History)

Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever Episode 1 - The first installment of a six-part docuseries starring journalist Kara Swisher about the latest in longevity science. (CNN All Access)

A Plan to Kill Season 2, Episode 6: “Desert Grift” - The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries on the meticulous planning conducted by serial killers. (Oxygen)

Monday, April 13, 2026

Backside (2025) - A documentary feature about immigrants who work caring for racehorses at Churchill Downs. Presented an installment of Independent Lens. (PBS)

Boy Band Confidential Episode 1 & 2 - The first two installments of a docuseries on the dark side of the 1990s boy band craze. (Investigation Discovery)

Fatal Attraction: I’d Kill to Be You Season 1, Episode 12: “A Mogul’s Murder” - The latest installment of a true-crime series about cases involving jealousy. (TV One)

The Last Twins (2025) - A documentary feature about Erno “Zvi” Spiegel, who saved several sets of twins from experimentation during the Holocaust. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (PBS)

The Movie Album (1932) - A short film compiling clips from silent films accompanied by commentary. (TCM)

Noah Kahan: Out of Body (2026) - A documentary feature about the titular singer-songwriter and his mental health challenges. (Netflix)

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Becoming Led Zeppelin (2025) - A documentary about the origins of the titular rock band. *NONFICS PICK* (4K UHD/BD Combo Limited Collector’s Edition Steelbook)

Boy Band Confidential Episode 3 & 4 - The latest installments of a docuseries on the dark side of the 1990s boy band craze. (Investigation Discovery)

The Dark Wizard Episode 1: “The Death Consequence” - The first installment of a four-part docuseries directed by The Alpinist filmmakers Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen about climber, base jumper, and highline walker Dean Potter. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (HBO and HBO Max)

The Dialogue Police (2025) - A documentary feature about a Swedish police unit created to prevent violence during protests. (VOD)

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Season 12, Episode 10: “Rags to Riches” - The latest installment of a docuseries presenting celebrities with their ancestral history. Actress Kate Burton and media mogul Barry Diller are the participants in this episode. (PBS)

Frontline Season 44, Episode 13: “Caught in the Crackdown” - The latest installment of a long-running investigative documentary series. This episode looks into federal immigration sweeps. (PBS)

Green SuperHeroes 2030 (2024) - A documentary feature about young environmentalists. (Blu-ray)

Hearts of Darkness: The Making of the Final Friday (2025) - A documentary feature about the making of the horror film Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. (Blu-ray)

Henry David Thoreau (2026) - A three-part docuseries executive-produced by Ken Burns, narrated by George Clooney, and featuring the voices of Jeff Goldblum, Meryl Streep, Ted Danson, and Tate Donovan about the titular naturalist and writer. Read our review of Henry David Thoreau. (DVD)

Jeff Dunham’s The Cars That Drove Us Episodes 5 & 6: “Batmobile” & “Hummer” - The latest installments of an eight-part docuseries starring comedian Jeff Dunham about some of the most iconic vehicles in history. (Discovery)

Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny Season 2, Episode 5: “Bizarre Weapons” - The latest installment of a docuseries about declassified government activities. (History)

Secrets of Seafood (2026) - A docuseries about seafood. (Blu-ray)

#Skyking (2026) - A documentary feature about an airport worker who stole and flew a commercial plane. (Hulu)

Untold: Jail Blazers (2026) - A documentary feature about the 2000s Portland Trail Blazers, presented as the third episode of Untold Season 6. (Netflix)

You Don’t Know Where I’m From, Dawg (2026) - A five-part docuseries about American soccer legend Clint Dempsey. (Paramount+)

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

The Bad Foot Clinic Season 1, Episode 5: “Kicking Up a Stink” - The latest installment of a docuseries following a podiatrist couple in their work. (TLC)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) - A re-release, newly restored in 6K, of a 3D documentary directed by Werner Herzog about the primitive paintings found in France’s Chauvet Cave. *NONFICS PICK* (IMAX Theatrical Event)

Conspiracies & Coverups Episode 3: “Weather Weapons” - The latest installment of a docuseries starring ex-CIA officer Andrew Bustamente about the biggest conspiracies in pop culture today. (Discovery)

Homicide Hunter: American Detective Season 6, Episode 1: “Man’s Best Friend” - The return of a true-crime docuseries starring Lt. Joe Kenda about illogical cases. This episode involves a murder victim’s lost dog being a clue. (Investigation Discovery)

On the Case with Paula Zahn Season 29, Episode 1: “Edge of the Abyss” - The return of a true-crime docuseries starring journalist Paula Zahn. (Investigation Discovery)

To Catch a Smuggler Season 10, Episode 8: “True Lime Crime” - The latest installment of a docuseries following U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. This episode involves cocaine, meth, and stolen cars. (National Geographic)

Thursday, April 16, 2026

2DIE4 (2026) - A nonfiction feature that follows Formula 1 driver Felipe Nasr in his attempt to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Read our review of 2DIE4. (In Theaters)

Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism (2025) - A documentary feature about artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey. (OVID)

Jerry West: The Logo (2026) - A documentary feature about NBA legend Jerry West. (Amazon Prime Video)

Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo Season 2, Episode 17: “Big & Bad” - The latest installment of a docuseries exploring hidden worlds. (History)

Predator Hunters Episode 7: “Partial Truths, Partial Lies” - The latest installment of a docuseries produced by Louis Theroux following the work of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. (A&E)

Ronaldinho: The One and Only (2026) - A three-part docuseries about Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho Gaúcho. (Netflix)

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Sneak Peek At What’s Coming Soon

4/17 - Full Swing Season 4 - The return of a popular docuseries following PGA golfers. (Netflix)

4/20 - 4X20: Quick Hits - A series executive-produced by Jimmy Kimmel showcasing four short documentaries on cannabis culture. These films cover High Times magazine, the stoner cult classics Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and Ganjasaurus Rex, and hand-blown glass artist Jason Harris. Watch the new trailer for the series below. (Disney+ and Hulu)

4/24 - Eraserheads: Combo on the Run - A documentary feature about the titular Filipino rock band. (In Theaters)

4/28 - High Strangeness in the Bennington Triangle - A documentary feature about an area of Vermont known for UFO and Bigfoot sightings. (VOD)

5/1 - American Agitators - A documentary feature about Fred Ross, who is considered one of the inventors of modern community organizing. (In Theaters)

5/1 - Conbody VS Everybody - A five-part docuseries directed by Debra Granik (Stray Dog) about a formerly incarcerated man who starts a gym that employs others released from prison. Watch the new trailer for the series below. (The Criterion Channel)

5/15 - Been Here Stay Here - A documentary about a Christian community on Tangier Island, which is threatened by rising sea levels. (In Theaters)

6/16 - EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert - A documentary feature directed by Baz Luhrmann starring Elvis as he returns to the stage in his later years. Read our review of EPiC: Elvis Presley in Theaters. *NONFICS PICK* (DVD and Blu-ray/4k UHD Combo)

6/19 - Peter Asher: Everywhere Man - A biographical documentary feature about the titular pop star turned producer and manager. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)

It was only a matter of time before I’d cross paths with Julia Loktev. I’ve been a fan of her lengthy film My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow for a while, even naming it one of the best documentaries of 2025. And we were in the same room at least once last fall when the film was nominated for Best Political Documentary at the 10th annua…

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The more successful Nonfics gets (in its Substack era), the more we get requests for reviews, especially of documentaries not yet available to the public. Many of these are film festival premieres. Would our readers be interested in that kind of coverage? I’m not convinced. In my 26 years as a critic, I’ve rarely found much personal benefit in reviewing…

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When someone in The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist says that any examples put in the film are going to seem clumsy by the time it’s released, they’re not kidding. Artificial intelligence is moving so fast that the documentary could’ve easily been dated by the time it premiered at Sundance, let alone three months later. Fortunately, this isn’t…

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At least three documentaries hitting theaters this month and next are denying requests for screeners. Instead, they’re insisting critics see these films on the big screen. I appreciate that, and I’m happy to see more documentaries getting not just theatrical distribution but theatrical press screenings in my area. Sadly, my busy work and family schedule…

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Short films were first officially recognized at the Oscars in 1932 when the 5th Academy Awards introduced two categories honoring live-action “short subject” motion pictures and one honoring cartoons. The Academy would take almost a decade to add a category specifically devoted to documentary shorts, but nonfiction films were represented in this area of the Oscars from the start. In fact, all three of the nominees for Best Live Action Short Subject (Novelty) were documentaries, and one of them was named the winner at the ceremony that November.

In all, seven documentary shorts won Oscars during that time before they received their own category. Following the first documentary to win an Oscar, these shorts proved the need for exclusive awards for nonfiction cinema. While the Academy didn’t honor a documentary at every one of their first 13 ceremonies, they at least nominated nonfiction films for Oscars every year of their awards during that period. Most were shorts recognized in the Novelty category, which was intended, in part, for newsreels, travelogues, and other types of nonfiction works.

What constitutes a documentary is up for discussion, but I’m only considering films that don’t consist solely of scripted reenactments of events performed by professional actors. Give Me Liberty, which won the Oscar for Best Short Subject (Color) in 1937, is technically listed as a documentary on IMDb, but it’s a wholly dramatized, narration-free account of Patrick Henry’s famous “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech in 1775. Similar winners in later years, such as Declaration of Independence, Sons of Liberty, and Teddy the Rough Rider, lack this label, and none of them qualify for this focus.

Excluding those history films, here’s a breakdown of the first seven short documentaries to win Oscars:

Wrestling Swordfish (1931)

Mack Sennett’s eight-minute documentary Wrestling Swordfish officially won the inaugural Oscar certificate for Best Live Action Short Subject (Novelty), though some historians might add an asterisk to its victory. According to the November 8, 1932, edition of Variety, this now-lost record of one of Sennett’s own deep-sea fishing trips originally came in second place during the nominating committee’s vote. The Pete Smith production Swing High, which showcases the trapeze artist family The Flying Codonas, received 133 points, while Wrestling Swordfish earned 128 points. Yet, the 15-person committee reportedly picked the latter as the winner, causing some confusion.

To settle the “mix-up,” the Academy reportedly was to hold a run-off for the new category, with voting opened up to all members following a screening of the two documentary shorts on November 9. According to the following week’s edition of Variety, however, the decision was still being determined by the nominating committee at a meeting held on November 14, with a revote needed because some of its members weren’t present at the final voting. Wrestling Swordfish was again deemed the winner, as acknowledged at the ceremony on November 18 and in the November 22 edition of Variety, but the trade gave no further details on the process.

Some accounts claim that Sennett bullied for the result. IMDb’s trivia notes for both films paint him as a villain in the matter. This also probably could have just ended with a compromise of a tie (after all, Fredric March and Wallace Beery tied for the Oscar for Best Actor that same year due to a rule involving any tally where the outcome has two top choices separated by three or fewer votes). In his 1993 book Behind the Oscar: The Secret History of the Academy Awards, Anthony Holden implies that the Academy Executive Secretary was at fault in the scenario for avoiding his responsibility to cast a tie-breaking vote. We may never know the whole truth.

We also may never know which film deserved the Oscar more. Wrestling Swordfish appears to be lost, with only its positive reviews remaining to indicate its worth. Swing High is a decent spotlight of an impressive act that might not otherwise be seen by its audience without this cinematic record. Its narration is overdone. Its slow-motion sequences are appreciated, adding an element that even those seeing The Flying Codonas live wouldn’t get. I actually might have preferred the mostly lost third nominee, Screen Souvenirs, an archival compilation that treats cinema as a kind of time machine where we can revisit people and events of the past through old film footage.

The big irony of the Wrestling Swordfish win is that Sennett was and remains best known as an icon of slapstick comedy films, yet he received his only competitive Oscar for a work of relatively serious nonfiction. The Keystone Studios founder and former Charlie Chaplin boss was only nominated for one other film. The same year that Wrestling Swordfish won, the Sennett-produced short The Loud Mouth was up for the inaugural Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film (Comedy). That lost to the Hal Roach-produced Laurel and Hardy short The Music Box. Presumably, the results in that race weren’t even close, as there was no dispute or run-off there.

Krakatoa (1933)

Another documentary that’s hard to find today, the 26-minute film Krakatoa won the second Oscar for Best Live Action Short Subject (Novelty). It’s an educational production depicting the 1883 eruption of the titular volcanic island, and its sound design was apparently as significant as its visual spectacle. I wouldn’t know, unfortunately, but reports of its impact on theatrical exhibition make it seem to have been for sound systems what James Cameron’s Avatar was for digital 3D projection. The film was originally narrated by play-by-play sports broadcasting pioneer Graham McNamee, though a 1965 re-release replaced him with actor Joseph Cotten.

City Of Wax (1934)

The nine-minute nature documentary City of Wax won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Subject (Novelty) the next year, at the 7th Academy Awards. It’s such an emblematic educational film, with its close-up look at honey bees and its droning narration (by actor Gayne Whitman), that you can easily picture it running through a rickety high school projector. But it gets dark at the end, almost seeming to have a political message about the uniformity and disposability of workers in such a system. That probably wasn’t intended.

City of Wax was produced and directed by brothers Horace Woodard and Stacy Woodard, the latter of whom also worked on The Sea, a short documentary nominated in the same category the previous year. They made other nature documentaries together, but later they separately went into business with the U.S. government. Horace Woodard went on to shoot part of the important World War II propaganda film The Negro Soldier, and Stacy Woodard shot part of Pare Lorentz’s classic New Deal propaganda film The River.

Wings Over Everest (1934)

At the 8th Academy Awards, three more documentaries were nominated in the Live Action Short Subject (Novelty) category, while one of the first films we’d classify as a mockumentary, How to Sleep, was nominated and won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Subject (Comedy). The Novelty winner was the 22-minute film Wings Over Everest, which reminded me of the first documentary Oscar winner, With Byrd at the South Pole, because it similarly presents views of a cold, rough, as-yet inaccessible place that were unavailable to audiences before film cameras could be taken up in airplanes. In this case, that location was the peaks of Mount Everest.

While the film highlights exclusive footage of a historical expedition, and it is part of that era when cinema was commonly a part of scientific exploration, not just a representation, Wings Over Everest is nowhere near an achievement on the level of With Byrd at the South Pole. Most of the film consists of the real people, including pilots Lord Clydesdale and David McIntyre and financial benefactor Lady Houston, in staged reenactments of the lead-up to the flight. And they are as lifeless as you might dread with a documentary. The footage taken from the planes is important, but also not the most exciting, plus the clearer shots are apparently from a later flight.

The Private Life Of The Gannets (1934)

The Novelty category went away after the 8th Academy Awards (as did Comedy shorts), but that didn’t stop nonfiction from being nominated. The Oscars changed its live-action shorts categories to award the best one-reel, two-reel, and color films. An installment of Paramount’s educational Popular Science series (“J-5-1”) was nominated for Best Short Subject (Color), while the music film Moscow Moods was up for Best Short Subject (One-Reel). No documentary won at the 9th Academy Awards. However, as already mentioned, the completely dramatized Short Subject (Color) winner, Give Me Liberty, is labeled as a documentary on IMDb. Also, the significant nonfiction film series The March of Time received a Special Award for revolutionizing the newsreel.

One year later, at the 10th Academy Awards, The Private Life of the Gannets won the Oscar for Best Short Subject (One-Reel). The 10-minute film is another old-fashioned educational nature documentary focused on a single animal, and even compared to the fantastically shot City of Wax, it’s pretty simple. It takes us to the island of Grassholm, off the coast of Wales, to observe the titular seabirds. The one notable thing about the film is that famed documentarian, critic, and theorist John Grierson was one of its cinematographers. And he specifically shot the short’s best footage, a slow-motion sequence of gannets diving into the ocean to catch fish.

Non-winning documentaries nominated that year include another installment of Popular Science (“J-7-1”) and the Pete Smith short Romance of Radium, a fully narrated, acted-out history of the titular element that was helmed by future horror and film noir auteur Jacques Tourneur. The former was up for Best Short Subject (Color) but lost to another Pete Smith production, Penny Wisdom, which is a comedy but also served to promote the newspaper advice columnist Prudence Penny. The latter lost to The Private Life of the Gannets, which was a more unique achievement at the time.

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Welcome to my annual birthday edition of This Week In Documentary. It’s not any different from the other newsletters I put out throughout the year, except that I feel okay making a heavier push (that is, begging) for paid subscriptions in the intro. Actually, for my birthday this year (it’s on Friday, March 20), I’d like you to donate to a documentary f…

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With this year’s Oscars behind us, we are already looking ahead to the 100th Academy Awards in 2028. That milestone event is two years away, which will hopefully give us plenty of time to achieve our own feat: watching and reviewing every Oscar-winning documentary. Or, at least all the ones that are available. According to IMDb, 208 documentaries have won Academy Awards in some category or another, not just in the two that have recognized nonfiction films competitively since the early 1940s. With only around 100 weeks until our deadline, we may need to double up on some. We begin with this Documentary Classics column on With Byrd at the South Pole.

The very first documentary nominee was recognized at the very first Academy Awards. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s 1927 ethno-tainment film Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness became one of the inaugural contenders in the Unique and Artistic Picture category, which was immediately discontinued (the category was essentially the same as the other top award, Outstanding Picture, which went through a series of name changes before taking its current designation of Best Picture in 1962 — meaning Chang was basically the first and only documentary to come close to being nominated for the Academy’s highest honor).

Two ceremonies later, and more than a decade before the mode would receive its first exclusive category, With Byrd at the South Pole became the second documentary nominated for an Oscar. Less remembered today, the 1930 feature was then recognized in the Best Cinematography category, competing against four dramas that remain well-known nearly a century later: Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Howard Hughes’s Hell’s Angels, Ernst Lubitsch’s The Love Parade, and the famous “Garbo Talks!” cinematic event, Anna Christie. At the 3rd Academy Awards held on November 5, 1930, the documentary won the Oscar, with cinematographers Joseph T. Rucker and Willard Van der Veer receiving statuettes.

Both men shot footage for the film while accompanying Richard E. Byrd on his first Antarctic expedition from 1928 to 1930, a trip that included the first flight over the South Pole. While I can’t confirm details of the production history, the release date credited to With Byrd at the South Pole is June 19, 1930, just one day after the expedition’s return to the U.S. (perhaps the film deserved a special Oscar for editor Emanuel Cohen for such a swift job?). While Rucker and Van der Veer’s visuals are noteworthy for how they were captured, through harsh conditions across land, sea, and air, many of their shots are also quite artistic. When possible, light, shadow, and framing are given serious consideration. This isn’t just plain documentation.

The most memorable moments of aesthetic intent bookend the film. Shadows of men seem to climb the sails of Byrd’s flagship, City of New York, in the opening sequence. In the end, Byrd and his dog, Igloo, sit on the ship in silhouette, finally at rest. Right before that conclusion, the documentary shows the City of New York ascending from a fog, initially looking like a ghostly mirage. I also really like the shots from Byrd’s plane as it’s flying over Antarctica, particularly those featuring propellers in motion on the edge of the screen. The framing might not have been a creative decision so much as a practical vantage, but the result either way underscores its significance.

With Byrd at the South Pole was hardly the first documentary film of an Antarctic expedition, nor even the first to be filmed on location on the continent. One of the first known feature-length documentaries, 1919’s In the Grip of the Polar Pack Ice (since retitled South: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Glorious Epic of the Antarctic), was made by Frank Hurley as he traveled with Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Before that, short documentaries exhibited footage from expeditions led by Nobu Shirase and Douglas Mawson. Still, this feature’s mixing of cinema, airplane travel, and Antarctic exploration, all of which are peaking at this time after really coming into being around the turn of the century, is just so perfect.

As a record of events, With Byrd at the South Pole appears comprehensive. While it includes many intertitles telling the audience about the expedition, the film also shows everything. Rucker and Van der Veer captured the arrival, the building of Little America, travels by dogsled and plane, multiple blizzards, including the one that destroyed Byrd’s initial aircraft, incredible visits with penguins, whales, and seals, and plenty of scenes depicting the team’s daily work. We see a lot of manual labor tasks and little recreation. Even the scene of two men sitting down, enjoying a pipe and casual conversation, is not necessarily relaxing, as the topic of discussion is how much they miss their families, including a newborn baby not yet seen.

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I don’t have much to discuss this week. A lot of documentaries are on the calendar, including a massive surplus of overpriced DVD titles for fans of art and history, but very few are recommended. At least we finally get to find out what the best documentaries of 2025 were, according to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Other …

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Werner Herzog is a name well known in the cinemasphere. From Aguirre, the Wrath of God to Nosferatu the Vampyre, his fictional films are critically acclaimed and original in nearly every aspect. But it’s with his documentaries that Herzog truly earns most of his acclaim. As an artist, he is a man of many talents, but his tenacity for capturing the human experience at the farthest reaches of the known world is second to none.

Herzog is a filmmaker obsessed with experience — if he films in the jungle, then he truly films in the jungle. Brilliance or hubris, it is hard to decide, but his filmmaking struggles are the stuff of legend. Just read his journal Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo or watch Les Blank‘s brilliant Burden of Dreams, in which we see Herzog at his most broken on the notoriously grueling location shoot for Fitzcarraldo. Experience and tangibility are everything to Herzog; he is as obsessed with the image as with the intangible essence of the image.

From loneliness in the Antarctic to finding kinship among grizzly bears, here are all of Werner Herzog’s documentaries* ranked (*presently Herzog’s Theatre of Thought is unavailable to us and therefore not yet included in this list):

42. Nomad: In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin (2019)

Perhaps Herzog's becoming such an institution has hurt his ability to make objective biographical documentaries. Interestingly, Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin is technically a very personal film for the director. It’s about his old friend, the writer Bruce Chatwin, who died 30 years before the making of the documentary, but it’s as different as can be from his more notable feature on his relationship with Klaus Kinski, My Best Fiend. It also, despite Herzog’s narration and his appearances on screen in some rather clumsily shot scenes, feels made at a distance from the subject. He’s maybe too close to the subject to properly acquaint the audience with him. Nomad is disappointingly Herzog’s least memorable documentary. - CC

41. La Soufrière (1977)

In the short documentary La Soufrière, Herzog visits the island of Guadeloupe, which has just been evacuated due to an imminent volcanic eruption. He finds three men remaining on the island, and in his interactions with them, the sublime quality that Herzog always seeks to conjure uncomfortably comes to life. The three men are content with death by immolation from the volcano, and Herzog seeks to understand their perspective. Their stories, along with the looming disaster, ground the film in a steep melancholy, and Herzog’s imagery highlights the sheer force of nature and just how unimportant humankind is at the whims of higher powers. - CH

40. Lo And Behold, Reveries Of The Connected World (2016)

Ah yes, the documentary in which Herzog meets the internet — let the memes begin. Levity aside, Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World is a somber and introspective look at the interconnective nature of the global digital sprawl. Herzog narrates the film with his usual melancholic eloquence, and learning about the history of the internet is pretty compelling. The interviews with modern tech giants and other creators are less interesting. Of course, Herzog finds his way to artificial intelligence and eventually asks, “Can the internet dream of itself?” - CH

39. Handicapped Future (1971)

This documentary sees Herzog turning his existential gaze on physically disabled children in Munich, Germany. Handicapped Future was made in order to raise awareness throughout the country at the behest of one of Herzog’s disabled friends. For a Werner Herzog documentary, it is shockingly conventional and handles the subject with genuine sensitivity. It never feels exploitative, just shows life for what it is: sometimes unfair, sometimes joyous. And it highlights the fact that empathy is necessary in order to fulfill every condition of the human experience. - CH

38. The Flying Doctors Of East Africa (1969)

The Flying Doctors of East Africa is also quite conventional in both structure and execution. It is wholly unstylistic, and this works well for the type of film that Herzog has made. It is a dense and informative documentary that recounts, through interviews, the stories of many in the “flying doctor” arm of the African Medical and Research Foundation. Herzog has even gone on record saying that it is more of a report than it is a film, and that rings fairly true. The stories themselves, ranging from locations in Nairobi, Kenya, and Tanzania, are told with little flair — these stories do not require it. They are grueling at times and hopeful on occasion. - CH

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37. Christ And Demons In New Spain (1999)

Sparse is a term I often use when describing this short documentary to friends. Visually, it is far from desolate. Every frame is packed to the brim with subtext, but as an entire work, it is thin. Christ and Demons in New Spain is the most televisual of all of Herzog’s documentaries, as it was co-opted into the German TV series 2000 Years of Christianity. Thus, it is quite jarring. Herzog’s visuals tell the story of Christian expansion and conversion, colonialism, post-colonial structures, and the ethics of the church. But the narration is done by a third party to tie the piece into the other program. So, as Herzog’s imagery tells its own tale, his meaning becomes obfuscated by a drab and tedious voiceover that feels akin to a third-rate History Channel special. - CH

36. How Much Wood Would A Woodchuck Chuck (1976)

Here we have Herzog once again traversing into the realm of the abstract. This film sees him defining the career of auctioneering as the creation of a new language. He sees the work akin to a form of poetry. How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck is a delightfully odd little film, but it asks some truly captivating questions. From the day-to-day life of auctioneering to the life of the Pennsylvania Amish, the doc wrestles with some interesting themes. But unlike some of Herzog’s later works, this one only feels skin-deep. - CH

35. The Fire Within: A Requiem For Katia And Maurice Krafft (2022)

Herzog had the bad luck of having the second documentary about Katia and Maurice Krafft to debut in 2022, following the much better, eventually Oscar-nominated Fire of Love. That film was more biographical and more focused on the romantic aspect of the Kraffts’ story. The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft is primarily interested in the ultimately tragic daredevil element, almost aligning the titular couple’s demise at the hands of the very thing they passionately studied with Timothy Treadwell’s notorious death at the center of Herzog’s Grizzly Man. This is also kind of a spinoff of Into the Inferno (itself kind of a spinoff of Encounters at the End of the World), which highlighted the Kraffts’ work — and their death — as part of a broader yet more direct and intimate exploration of volcanoes. The Fire Within celebrates and largely consists of the Kraffts’ incredible footage. Herzog narrates a bit too heavily, taking occasional breaks to let the increasingly clichéd Herzogian score by Ernst Reijseger erupt over the archival clips. When Herzog admits that he wishes he could have been the Kraffts’ companion and been there in and as part of their film, he acknowledges why this is more their achievement than his. - CC

34. The Great Ecstasy Of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)

The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner is a fascinating entry in the nonfiction filmography of Werner Herzog. It is both wholly Herzogian but also quite commercial— made-for-television, even. The film is focused on Walter Steiner, a trophy-winning ski jumper who just so happens to do carpentry as his full-time job. The footage of the German towns that serve as a backdrop for Steiner and his life is quite picturesque. He is an interesting character, and Herzog studies the man with a sense of reverie. Like Steiner, The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner exists in a state of flux — the push and pull between normalcy and ecstasy. - CH

33. Ode To The Dawn Of Man (2011)

Ode to the Dawn of Man serves as a bite-sized companion piece to one of Herzog’s best documentaries, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. This short film focuses on the making of the soundtrack for that feature and how music can give texture and language to a time long past. Personal interviews with the composer Ernst Reijseger and pianist Harmen Fraanje help to highlight the creative process that comes with working with Herzog and such an odd concept. It is nothing short of pure magic. - CH

32. Huie’s Sermon (1981)

It is hard to classify this film as a documentary because, through its structure, it seems that Herzog set his camera up in a church and just started filming. For a Herzog documentary, it is disorientingly objective. Huie’s Sermon consists of an uncut sermon given by Reverend Huie L. Rogers in a Brooklyn church. Herzog never gives the film a purpose or reason to exist beyond the sermon itself. If anything, it is a genuinely fascinating look at religious fervor and the uncomfortable power of inflection. - CH

31. Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds (2020)

After showcasing the volcanologist in Encounters at the End of the World and Into the Inferno, Herzog teamed up again with Clive Oppenheimer for Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, for which they share directorial credit. The film would seem to have a sci-fi-tinged premise, as it’s about extraterrestrial entities, namely meteorites as large as the one that likely killed the dinosaurs and as small as rocks you could hold in the palm of your hand. It’s well-guided by Herzog and very informative and concentrated, but it’s not as personally philosophical or spiritual as you’d expect from the filmmaker. Even though it’s far from his best, though, it’s still Herzog narrating about space and religion, so it’s still better than most things. - CC

30. Bells From The Deep: Faith And Superstition In Russia (1993)

Bells from the Deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia is where Herzog and the practice of mysticism collide. Comprised mainly of interviews and scenes from religious services, the documentary oscillates between being utterly confounding and bizarre. The first half or so focuses mainly on a man who sees himself as the reincarnation of God. His self-appointed name is Vissarion, and he teaches his ways to a devout, near-cult-like group of followers. Later, we are introduced to the story of the lost city of Kitzeh. It is a myth about a city that God, to ensure the town’s safety from Mongol marauders, placed at the bottom of a lake. The hearsay is that one can still hear the city’s church bells, as they ring ominously from the depths. Local pilgrims and priests recount this story with an air of ominous fervor. Devotion has many faces, and in Bells from the Deep, devotion wears the face of a mythmaker. - CH

29. God’s Angry Man (1981)

Gene Scott, a televisual pastor, serves as the subject in Herzog’s often uncomfortable look at the intersection between religion and capitalism. God’s Angry Man consists mainly of Herzog’s interviews with Scott and his family. These are fascinating and often infuriating conversations that make obvious the many problems of the “salvation-for-profit” business. Most interestingly, the film also spends a lot of time with Scott and his associates on the set of his television show, Festival of Faith. We see Scott, akin to a snake oil salesman, urge viewers to donate money to his holy cause, and at the film’s peak, we see Scott unleash a tirade of a rant against the F.C.C. The parallels between Scott and the television pastors of today are all too obvious and alarming. - CH

28. Wheel Of Time (2003)

Tibetan Buddhism is a religion deeply concerned with the soul and its essence, much like Herzog’s films. In Wheel of Time, Herzog documents two Kalachakra initiations and interviews the 14th Dalai Lama. The initiations, one of which is interrupted by the Dalai Lama’s health, are sumptuous to watch — beautiful and deeply serious. Wheel of Time is at its most fascinating when Herzog interviews Jigme Zangpo, the longest-serving political prisoner from Tibet. He spent 37 years locked up in China due to his devout and outspoken support of the International Tibet Independence Movement. The words he and Herzog share with one another are reason enough to seek out this wonderful piece of cinema. - CH

27. Pilgrimage (2001)

Herzog, always one to embellish, opens this documentary with a quote that Herzog came up with, but he credits it to Thomas à Kempis. Beyond that, Pilgrimage has a tangible feeling of natural, waking life. Shots are only accompanied by music, and the imagery therein fluctuates between pilgrims by the tomb of Saint Sergei in Sergiyev Posad, Russia, and pilgrims who have flocked to the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico. As an entire work, Pilgrimage is deceptively simple. What it lacks in urtext, it makes up for in a subtext that is so rich and overflowing with human emotion. - CH

26. From One Second To The Next (2013)

Well, this is a weird one. Like, weird even by the standards of Werner Herzog. In 2013, he teamed up with — you’ll never guess it — AT&T to make a short documentary about the harms of texting and driving. Honestly, it is a rather cut-and-dry work, but I put it somewhat far down this list because, when one watches it, they are filled with mental images of Herzog and some AT&T marketing executives workshopping ideas together. If that doesn’t sell you on From One Second to the Next, then Herzog’s ever-humanist interviews will. - CH

25. Ghost Elephants (2025)

Starring naturalist Steve Boyes and focused on his pursuit of an elusive herd (if not species) of gigantic pachyderms, Ghost Elephants finds Herzog too old to physically accompany his subject on the documented adventure. He’s also at peak contemplation of not his own mortality but the impending demise of all of humanity. The surface narrative is not the clearest, but this film’s thematic storytelling is as deep as anything Herzog has dwelt on. The visual and scientific tri-level contrast between Boyes and the Indigenous tracker companions joining his quest, and Boyes and the lab scientists he encounters later, proves a poignant display of cultural evolutionary distinction, especially in relation to the biological evolutionary distinction of the elephant species being sought. It’s a reminder that Herzog can make any film better by taking the helm. - CC

24. The Dark Glow Of The Mountains (1984)

Subverting audience expectations, The Dark Glow of the Mountains is sold as a mountain-climbing documentary when, in fact, it is about the internal motivations and desires of those who seek to risk their lives endeavoring on dangerous mountaineering expeditions. Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander are freestyle mountaineers whose collective goal is to climb two peaks (Gasherbrum 1 and 2) without returning to basecamp. Yet, we rarely see the climb itself. Instead, Herzog peels back the layers of these men and studies them at their metaphysical core. - CH

23. The White Diamond (2004)

The history of aviation is rife with struggles and eventual triumphs, and Herzog uses a modern-day example of aviation exploration to recount the history of aviation itself. The White Diamond follows an aeronautical engineer named Graham Dorrington, who has designed a white, teardrop-shaped airship that he wants to test out over the forests of Guyana. By focusing on the man behind the airship’s creation, Herzog gets to delve into the struggles of the creative process. Furthermore, Herzog turns his lens from the skies of Guyana to the forest floor, where we see the life of a local diamond farmer named Marc Anthony Yhap. A lot is going on in The White Diamond, and it is a testament to Herzog’s skills as a filmmaker that the film ends up flying rather than crashing to the forest floor. - CH

22. Ten Thousand Years Older (2002)

Only Werner Herzog could pack so much thematic density into just 10 minutes. Ten Thousand Years Older is a documentary short that is part of the Ten Minutes Older Project and focuses on the Amondauas people of Brazil. The film begins with archival footage of the Amondauas’s first contact with the modernized world. Before that meeting, they lived a life akin to a “Stone Age existence.” But after being found by the modern world, the majority of the tribe died — most were killed by the common cold and chicken pox. Herzog visits the tribe 20 years after they were initially discovered and speaks to village elders who long for the life before their discovery. Yet, the children are embarrassed by their elders’ adherence to old ways and overall reluctance to modernize. It is gut-wrenching stuff that Herzog handles with a grace that stands in stark contrast to his immensely serious and emotionally distant voice. - CH

21. Jag Mandir (1991)

A lot of Werner Herzog’s films have a subtext that is concerned with performance, or what it means to be performative in a documentary sense. Jag Mandir is wholly concerned with performance and the many aspects that make up theatre, on both a large and small scale. The majority of the film is focused on a bombastic theatrical performance, helmed by André Heller, for the Maharana Arvind Singh Mewar at the City Palace in Rajasthan. Two thousand performers take part in an elaborate theatrical performance that spans many hours in a single day, and Herzog’s documentary splits up a lot of this with rehearsals that took place over several days before the stage performance. It is colorfully bombastic and texturally rich. - CH

20. La Bohème (2009)

Commissioned for Sky Arts and the English Opera, La Bohème is a four-minute documentary that focuses on the harsh realities of life in Ethiopia. The confrontational imagery is set to the operatic duet “O soave fanciulla” from the opera La Bohème. It is a deeply expressionistic work that showcases Herzog’s documentary form stripped down to its very essence. It captures a specific feeling of a harsh place that is often neglected by the Western world. - CH

19. Happy People: A Year In The Taiga (2010)

Sharing directorial duties with Dmitry Vasyukov, in Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, Herzog showcases the life of people in the village of Bakhtia beside the Yenisei River in the Siberian taiga. Harsh, desolate, and existential — this is Herzog where he is most comfortable (and relatable). It focuses on many fur trappers and hunters, as well as the life of the native Ket people. Herzog’s voiceovers are poetic, and he tries to unpack the specific form of the human experience that could keep people happy and content at the farthest reaches of the habitable world. Ever the humanist, Herzog finds his answer among many other answers, as everyone shown in the film has a different idea of what it means to live in the Siberian taiga. - CH

18. The Transformation Of The World Into Music (1994)

Opera is an often daunting form of art — it is at times confusing, and one often needs a bevy of external knowledge to understand and enjoy the insular world of the artform. But Herzog’s The Transformation of the World into Music invites all types of viewers into the fascinating world of opera. Focused on bringing the operas and music of Richard Wagner to life, this film shows all of the behind-the-scenes machinations that go into staging an opera specifically for the Bayreuth Festival. Herzog focuses on every aspect of opera, from specific music sheets to the finding of the right performers. Furthermore, he does not shy away from the complicated history of Wagner, one of Germany’s most well-known composers. His ties to Nazism and Adolf Hitler are broached and confronted in both a humanistic and damning way. Wagner’s legacy is eternally tarnished, but Herzog argues that his music rises above such controversies. Yet, he also leaves it to the viewer to come to their own conclusions on such a touchy matter. - CH

17. Gesualdo: Death For Five Voices (1995)

Werner Herzog’s stoic face may lead one to believe that his heart is as cold as ice, but if one watches any of his works, then they will come to the inevitable conclusion that Mr. Herzog’s heart is as big as a mountain. That is why it is surprising that he calls Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices “one of the films closest to my heart.” He focuses on the music and life of Carlo Gesualdo, a musician with an endlessly fascinating and unsettling life story. Intercut with scenes of Gesualdo’s madrigals being performed, Herzog’s camera studies Gesualdo’s supposedly cursed castle, the legends of his personality, and the eventual murder of his wife and her lover by his very hand. This is undoubtedly one of Herzog’s oddest documentaries in that a surprising amount of it is staged, which subverts the very idea of what it means to document reality. One of the most memorable segments sees Herzog walking through Gesualdo’s castle and coming upon a man who plays music into the castle’s cracked walls in order to keep the demons therein at bay. - CH

16. Wings Of Hope (1998)

Julian Koepcke is a German-Peruvian woman who happens to be the sole survivor of the fated LANSA Flight 508. Herzog’s Wings of Hope explores her story and recounts the crash and her escape from the jungle. He has a deeply personal connection to Flight 508, as he almost took the flight when getting ready to location scout for Aguirre, the Wrath of God. His flight ticket was canceled at the last minute due to an eternally lucky scheduling error. Herzog and Koepcke fly from Lima to Pucallpa, and they sit in the same seats she was in when her flight crashed. Later, they visit the crash site in the jungle and unearth fragments of the plane, and they then trace the path of her escape from the jungle along specific river routes. Herzog has a sixth sense that allows him to unearth the deepest, most complicated emotions of individuals who have suffered not of their own accord. Better yet, he knows how to handle these emotions in a confrontational manner that is both uncomfortable and somehow deeply moving. - CH

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Last week, Deadline reported on the development of a dramatic remake of Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud. The current Oscar nominee in the documentary short category will be adapted by its co-director, Craig Renaud, and helmed by Jay Russell (Ladder 49). I used to keep a running list of documentary remakes in the works until …

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Steve Boyes is such a perfect participant for a Werner Herzog documentary that he could have been created in a lab. For many years, the South African conservation biologist has been seeking evidence of an elusive herd of elephants located in a difficult-to-reach part of Angola. It’s another impossible dream, but Boyes believes, as he states in Herzog’s film Ghost Elephants, it doesn’t matter if they’re real or a dream. The future of all animals is to be in a dream anyway, as in, they’ll be just a memory.

Compared to other Herzogian subjects, particularly the adventurer-scientist type, Boyes is passionate and determined, yet not overly obsessed. He says in the film that it doesn’t even matter if he finds these elephants, and ultimately, it might be better not to encounter them at all. Herzog’s documentary follows Boyes on an expedition traveling with three KhoiSan trackers from an indigenous group representing our oldest ancestral origins and a spiritual connection man has to elephants.

Ahead of the release of Ghost Elephants, I talked to Herzog, producer Ariel Leon Isacovitch, and Boyes via Zoom. Below is a transcript of our conversation in full, including the moment I embarrassed myself trying to get Herzog to comment on the similarities between this documentary and the fake one he’s supposed to be directing in a silly fictional mockumentary he starred in 22 years ago. Apologies for not sharing the audio, but you can easily hear Herzog’s iconic voice in your head while reading.

Nonfics: What came first, the idea to do this film or plans for the specific expedition that it’s documenting?

Steve Boyes: Ten years of expeditions in the Angolan Highlands, a place that was locked away from the world for generations, for over 40 years, 27 years of civil war. In 2015, we get in there, or 2014, as tourists, secretly meet the governor, get a letter from the president, and, in armored vehicles try to get access to this completely undocumented, unknown landscape the size of England, and begin this journey. We find these extraordinary source lakes, launch into them, explore all the rivers, and start to find signs of elephants.

For these 10 years, elephants have been an underlying theme. Where are these giants, the biggest animals, when we’re finding everything else, hundreds of new species to science, new populations of cheetahs, wild dogs, and lions, all not known to be there? Twenty-six source lakes in the end. I found signs of elephants before we found and met people. There are so few people up there. That was a ghost, the first one, 10 years ago. We’ve been going up there pretty much throughout — except it gets tricky with the end of the rainy season, as you saw in the film — for 10 years.

How did you meet or hear about each other and decide to work together on the film?

Steve Boyes: A mutual friend said to come to dinner in Beverly Hills, of all places, and you must meet Werner. And we did. I think the restaurant closed on us. We were just talking about everything in the universe. And we spoke about the ghost elephants, about the link to the Smithsonian, and that was the beginning. 

Werner Herzog: I personally knew right away that this was big. As a storyteller, you know that. I was invited originally just to be an advisor. Steve invited me to come to Namibia to the northern Kalahari Desert, and when I arrived there, there was already a South African team working on this search, this quest, for a long time. But they had no real clear idea how to shape it into a story, into a movie. So after that, it was almost instantly clear I should do the conversations. The next day, everybody was clear: “Oh, please, step in completely.” And I said I don’t want to take the job of anyone. But everybody pushed me: “Please take over. Do it. Do it.” So overnight, I find myself with a film in my lap. 

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While looking up documentaries celebrating big anniversaries in March, I saw that the video of the Rodney King beating turns 35 on Tuesday. The video has its own IMDb listing, which made me wonder about other singular recordings that are so momentous that they’re considered documentaries on their own. The Zapruder film of the John F. Kennedy assassinati…

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While last year’s box office hit Becoming Led Zeppelin proved origin stories are still entertaining, an even better music documentary, Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary, showed that sometimes the most interesting parts of a band’s life come after the breakup. The latest from Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) continues that idea exceptional…

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The week leading up to this newsletter has been a bummer, partly because I have the flu (yes, I got the flu shot this season, but this is a beast of a variant), and so my viewing productivity has been way down. Worse than my illness, though, is our loss of Frederick Wiseman. I’ve worried about his death for years, but I also hoped he might live forever.…

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This year’s Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Short Film are a mostly forgettable bunch. I wouldn’t say they’re a disappointing group so much as the short documentary contenders from last year were underwhelming as a whole. I do have one definite favorite, but the rest were difficult to rank. You’ve got two films focused on violently murdered children…

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