This Week In Documentary: 'No Other Land,' 'Flipside,' & 'Super/Man'
Theatrical & Streaming Releases - New & Recommended - January 31-February 6, 2025
As we (finally) close out the first month of 2025, this year’s Sundance Film Festival is also winding down. We’ve covered some of the programmed documentaries (see our reviews of 2000 Meters To Andriivka, André Is An Idiot, and Prime Minister and our reviews of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Folktales, and Predators), and we plan to send out a final roundup of remaining capsule reviews soon. In the meantime, you can find our ranking of the documentaries we’ve seen on the Nonfics Letterboxd page.
Sally, one of the documentaries we watched (and logged and ranked but did not yet review) last week, already won an award at the festival. The film, about astronaut Sally Ride, received the science-focused 2025 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, selected by a jury. Additionally, the documentary The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing won the Grand Jury Prize in the short film program, while the docs We Were the Scenery and Tiger won the Short Film Jury Award for the Nonfiction program and the Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing, respectively. The rest of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival Awards will be announced this weekend.
Now, without further ado, below you’ll find this week’s highlights, listings, and coming attractions, including our Pick of the Week. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive more in-depth highlights and reviews in the future.
Nonfics Picks Of The Week: Flipside (2023) & No Other Land (2024)
We’re one month into 2025, and we’re still celebrating the best documentaries of 2024. The top two titles on that list are this week’s dual Picks of the Week because they both have exciting new releases in the coming days. Oddly enough, neither was ever a Pick of the Week in the past. Yes, they’ve both appeared in the center frame of a header collage, but not for an official Pick of the Week selection. It’s probably unfair that they still aren’t getting their own and have to share this honor, but it’s too perfect that the two best documentaries of last year are in the listings again this week.
No Other Land is the more notable of the two releases. The film, which still has no distributor, is a current Academy Award nominee and has probably won the most major documentary prizes for the last year. Although it had an Oscar-qualifying run in November, the feature is now officially being released in theaters, with greater distinction and recognition. No Other Land has been the one Oscar nominee in the Documentary Feature category that hasn’t been publicly available, meaning it will be a big deal at the box office. It’s unknown if the film will be more widely accessible before the Academy Awards ceremony on March 2.
Here’s an excerpt from my review of No Other Land:
“This is an important documentary for the moment, as it follows a few years in the struggle of Palestinian villagers in the Masafer Yatta section of the West Bank while their homes are bulldozed to supposedly make way for an Israeli military training ground…Hopefully, the film…will get a lot of views and move a lot of people for a long time through its powerfully empathetic look at people having to devote their whole lives to surviving and rebuilding and surviving and rebuilding.”
As for Flipside, I’m probably the only one who named it the best documentary of last year, but I think this film just hasn’t been seen by enough people and isn’t about an important or familiar subject. The film has already been streaming on Prime Video, so it’s not obscure. However, the streaming service it’s being added to this week brings it much more prestige. I now feel justified in ranking it above all others. Here’s part of my review of Flipside:
“Flipside is a first-person documentary focused on the idea of selling out, as Wilcha reflects on his career choices and the many films he never finished…It’s as if these clips shot many years ago were not meant for their own films after all; they were moments captured unknowingly for this documentary that was to be made much later tying them all into his crisis of commercialization. Wilcha couldn’t have planned it so perfectly, yet the result of his assemblage is a brilliant and very relatable personal essay.”
Flipside begins streaming on The Criterion Channel on Saturday, February 1.
No Other Land opens theatrically on Friday, January 31.
Other Documentary Highlights
Billy Woodberry & Sara Gómez Documentaries
Two little-known documentary filmmakers are getting the spotlight on The Criterion Channel this February, possibly for Black History Month. Billy Woodberry was part of the L.A. Rebellion, a.k.a. the UCLA Rebellion, a.k.a. The Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers, in the 1970s along with such names as Charles Burnett and Julie Dash. While he started out making dramatic films, his most recognized being Bless Their Little Hearts, he’s exclusively been making nonfiction works since 2005. His documentary features, And When I Die, I Don’t Stay Dead and Mário, are both about Black poets, and the latter plus his short docs deal with colonialism in Africa.
Sara Gómez was a pioneering, revolutionary, post-revolution Cuban filmmaker. She’s also probably best known for a dramatic feature, 1975’s One Way or Another. However, it’s a film that borrows a lot from documentary and is often classified as a hybrid. Her actual docs, all of them short films, focus on social issues or culture in her country, often specific to Afro-Cuban subjects. For example, 1964’s I’m Going to Santiago celebrates the Black population of the titular city. Many of these short docs are experimental or poetic in their form, and many present the real lives of average Cubans, like the plantation workers of 1971’s The Sugar Workers' Quarters and the everyday people of 1968’s An Island for Miguel. She sadly died of an asthma attack at age 31 soon after making her aforementioned feature debut.
Four documentaries by Billy Woodberry (part of the program “Directed by Billy Woodberry”) and 14 short documentaries by Sara Gómez (part of the program “Sara Gómez’s Revolutionary Cuba”) begin streaming on The Criterion Channel on Saturday, February 1.
Black History Documentaries
In addition to the two filmmaker-focused Criterion Channel curations highlighted above, there are all kinds of documentaries to watch during Black History Month. Firstly, I have to share our lists of 10 Great Black History Films to Watch This Or Any Month and 10 Important Films Documenting Black History in the Making. As for other films and series promoted this February, Criterion is also highlighting its streaming service staples Paris is Burning, Portrait of Jason, and Tongues Untied, all of which are also LGBTQ+ films. They’re also adding William Greaves’s Nationtime to their library on February 1.
Other documentaries to check out this week that aren’t as clearly programmed or released for Black History Month include the series Supreme Models about Black women in the industry, hitting Netflix, and the Tubi Original Left for Dead about missing Black women. Also, the PBS docuseries Great Migrations: A People on the Move continues in February after premiering in January.
Early Documentary Oscar Nominees & Winners
As usual, Turner Classic Movies has programmed a month of old Oscar nominees and winners ahead of this year’s Academy Awards. The 31 Days of Oscar event devotes one day specifically to Best Documentary Feature contenders of the past, and we’ll highlight that when the time comes later in February. But I noticed that there are Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated shorts sprinkled into the mix immediately, with some of them being nonfiction works, even if loosely so. I’m including them in the listings when they happen. Apologies if some are more loosely nonfiction than others.
The two documentary categories weren’t introduced until the early 1940s, but before then, a handful of docs were recognized at the Academy Awards. The first nominee was the silent feature Chang: A Drama of the Wildnerness (now streaming on Kanopy), which was in consideration for Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production. Two years later, the feature With Byrd at the South Pole (also now streaming on Kanopy) won for Best Cinematography. The following year, Mack Sennett’s Wrestling Swordfish, depicting his fishing trip in Baja California, won the Oscar for Best Short Subject, Novelty (in a petty revote) while the trapeze artist doc Swing High (now on YouTube) was nominated in the same category (and originally won before Sennett got his way). Krakatoa (on YouTube), about the volcano’s 1883 eruption, won the novelty category in 1934, beating the underwater nature doc The Sea.
The following year, the bee documentary City of Wax (on YouTube) won the novelty category, then Wings Over Everest (on YouTube), about the first flight over the titular peak, won the award in 1936. A nominee from the same year, Audioscopiks, is on TCM this week. Two years later, the bird-focused nature doc The Private Life of the Gannets (on YouTube) won the Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-Reel. Other short documentaries nominated for Oscars during that period include Siege (on YouTube), Eyes of the Navy (on YouTube), London Can Take It! (now streaming on Kanopy and Ovid), and Quicker'n a Wink, a winner in 1941 for Best Short-Subject, One-Reel and among those airing on TCM this week. The Academy also recognizes Pare Lorentz’s medical drama The Fight for Life a documentary — one that won the Oscar for Best Music (Original Score) in 1941.
Frederick Wiseman Documentaries
Frederick Wiseman turned 95 at the beginning of this month/year, and now it’s time to have a party in his honor. The kind of party where you watch all of his documentaries, that is. This week, Film at Lincoln Center kicks off a career-spanning retrospective titled Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution. If you’re in New York City during this time, take a few hours or more and see some of his classic documentaries. If you can’t be there, use your Kanopy allowances for the month to stream the films at home and pretend you’re there.
Here’s what’s screening at Lincoln Center this week: Titicut Follies, Hospital, High School, High School II, Law and Order, Basic Training, Model, The Store, Primate, Welfare (on my list of the best documentaries of all time), Meat, and Zoo. All of these essential documentaries are also streaming for free on Kanopy.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)
While the first two documentaries on my list of the best of 2024 were selected for the Pick(s) of the Week slot, my number three nonfiction film of last year also deserves to be highlighted. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story was previously a Pick of the Week, so it can settle for being in this section. The biographical film has won several awards, including the top honor at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, yet it didn’t even make the Academy’s shortlist let alone the Oscar nominations. I wonder if its latest release platform will allow it to be considered for the Emmys. Here’s a bit from my review of Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story:
“The best celebrity-focused documentary of [its] year…It’s impeccably directed and edited, with a lot of movie clips being intercut in creative ways. I cried, I was wowed, and I urge all documentary fans to see this as soon as possible. It’s the latest in what seems to be a trend with biographical documentaries, but it’s an excellent example and one of the best documentaries of any kind this year.”
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story will make its broadcast debut on CNN on Sunday, February 2.
Documentary Release Calendar 1/31/25 - 2/6/25
Friday, January 31, 2025
Anqa (2023) - A feature documentary about three women in Jordan who barely survived violence against them by men. (True Story)
Chicago, the Beautiful (1948) - A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores Chicago. (TCM)
MGM 40th Anniversary (1964) - A short documentary looking back on the first 40 years of the titular movie studio. (TCM)
No Other Land (2024) - An award-winning documentary — and current Oscar nominee — about Israel’s destruction of a Palestinian residential area of the West Bank and an alliance between a Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist. (In Theaters)
Time Passages (2024) - A “time traveling” documentary by Kyle Henry about his own family as his mother’s health declines. (In Theaters)
Vietnam: The War That Changed America (2025) - A six-part docuseries about the Vietnam War. (Apple TV+)
Saturday, February 1, 2025
About Extra Hours and Volunteer Work (1973) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about Cuba’s unpaid overtime and volunteer work policies. (The Criterion Channel)
And . . . We’ve Got Sabor (1967) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about Afro-Cuban rhythms. (The Criterion Channel)
And When I Die, I Won't Stay Dead (2015) - A feature documentary by Billy Woodberry about beat poet and activist Bob Kaufman. (The Criterion Channel)
Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story (2025) - A biographical docudrama about the titular Latin pop star. (Lifetime)
A Documentary About Transit (1971) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about city traffic. (The Criterion Channel)
Excursion to Vueltabajo (1965) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about tobacco culture in Cuba. (The Criterion Channel)
Flee (2021) - A three-time Oscar-nominated animated documentary about a gay refugee from Afghanistan. (Tubi)
Flipside (2023) - A personal documentary in which the filmmaker attempts to save a record store while patching footage from unfinished works together. Read our review of Flipside. (The Criterion Channel)
Forty Boys and a Song (1941) - An Oscar-nominated short film showcasing the Robert Mitchell Choir School of Hollywood. (TCM)
The Great Buster (2018) - A feature documentary directed by Peter Bogdanovich about Buster Keaton. (The Criterion Channel)
Guanabacoa: Chronicles of My Family (1966) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about her father’s hometown. (The Criterion Channel)
How to Sleep (1935) - An Oscar-winning comedic educational short starring and narrated by Robert Benchley based on a recent sleep study. (TCM)
I'll Go to Santiago (1964) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about the titular city and its Black and Afro-Cuban population. (The Criterion Channel)
An Island for Miguel (1968) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about the everyday life of the Isla de Pinos in Cuba. (The Criterion Channel)
Left for Dead (2025) - A documentary about missing Black Americans. (Tubi)
Local Power, Popular Power (1970) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about an election in Cuba. (The Criterion Channel)
Mário (2024) - A feature documentary by Billy Woodberry about pan-African intellectual, activist, diplomat, and poet Mário de Andrade. (The Criterion Channel)
Marseille Après la Guerre (2005) - A short documentary by Billy Woodberry about dockworkers in Marseille. (The Criterion Channel)
My Contribution (1972) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about women’s issues and the achievement of gender equality in Cuba. (The Criterion Channel)
Nationtime (1972) - A documentary by William Greaves (Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One) about the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. (The Criterion Channel)
New York Homicide Season 3, Episode 1: “Deadly Lesson” - The latest season of this true-crime docuseries about recent murder cases in New York City begins with an episode about a teacher stabbed in her Staten Island home. (Oxygen)
On the Other Island (1968) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about a youth rehabilitation program on Cuba’s Isle of Pines. (The Criterion Channel)
On Sugar Workers’ Quarters (1971) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about the settlements near sugarcane mills in Cuba. (The Criterion Channel)
Prenatal Care (1972) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about care for pregnant women. (The Criterion Channel)
Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler Season 2, Episode 2: “Murdered in the Line of Duty” - The latest episode of this true-crime docuseries involves a crime spree in rural Texas and the deaths of two prosecutors. (Oxygen)
A Season with Isabella Rossellini (2023) - A medium-length documentary following the titular actor as she turns 70. (The Criterion Channel)
A Story from Africa (2019) - A short documentary by Billy Woodberry about a Cuamato nobleman during the Portuguese occupation of the territory. (The Criterion Channel)
To Catch A Smuggler: Mediterranean Season 2, Episode 8: “Underwater Alert” - The latest episode of this spinoff docuseries involving the Spanish Coast Guard and drug traffickers includes a story about narco-submarines. (National Geographic)
Treasure Island (1969) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about Isla de Pinos, where Batista imprisoned Fidel Castro. (The Criterion Channel)
Year One (1972) - A short documentary by Sara Gómez about childcare centers. (The Criterion Channel)
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Grandad of Races (1950) - An Oscar-winning short covering the annual horse race held in the Piazza del Campo in Siena. (TCM)
How to Sleep (1935) - An Oscar-winning comedic educational short starring and narrated by Robert Benchley based on a recent sleep study. (TCM)
King of the Apocalypse (2025) - A documentary about Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and his part in the January 6, 2021, insurrection. (MSNBC)
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024) - A feature documentary about the titular Superman actor, who became paralyzed in a horse riding accident. (CNN)
Monday, February 3, 2025
Audioscopiks (1935) - An Oscar-nominated short presenting the spectacle of 3D cinema. (TCM)
History’s Most Shocking Season 1, Episode 2: “Leopard on the Loose, Plummeting to Earth, Elephant Attack & Balloon Chaos” - The latest episode of this docuseries presenting the most shocking moments captured on camera. (History)
The Strike (2024) - A documentary about incarcerated men who participated in the largest hunger strike in U.S. history in protest of solitary confinement. Presented as an episode of Independent Lens. (PBS)
Wrong Way Butch (1950) - An Oscar-nominated Pete Smith Specialty short that comedically informs viewers about safety with tools and machinery. (TCM)
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Bad Reputation (2018) - A documentary about rocker Joan Jett. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Burden of Guilt (2025) - A true-crime docuseries about a woman blamed for the mysterious death of her brother. (Paramount+)
The Covid Story (2022) - A documentary about the U.S. response to COVID-19. (DVD)
Great Migrations: A People on the Move Episode 2: “Streets Paved with Gold” - A new docuseries produced and hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. about the movement of African Americans through the 20th and 21st centuries. This episode follows the second wave of migration from 1940-1970. (PBS)
Jesus Thirsts: The Miracle of the Eucharist (2024) - A feature documentary about the Eucharist. (VOD)
The Jets: Making It Real (2021) - A documentary about the Tongan-American R&B group from the 1980s. (DVD)
Joan Baez: I Am a Noise (2023) - A feature documentary about the titular singer and activist. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Life Below Zero Season 22, Episode 16: “The Warming” - The latest episode of this docuseries following secluded life in Alaska. (National Geographic)
Mick Jagger: The Ultimate Performer (2001) - A feature documentary about the titular Rolling Stones frontman. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Paypigs (2025) - A documentary following the Chemical X podcasters Veronica Rossi and Alessia Lonobile as they conduct a social experiment looking for financially well-off men who will be submissive to them. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Becoming Led Zeppelin (2025) - A feature documentary following the origins of the titular rock band. (IMAX Theaters - Early Access Screenings)
The Birth of Saké (2015) - A feature documentary about the making of traditional saké at a brewery in Japan. (Ovid)
Fugitive Hunters Mexico Season 1, Episode 6: “Catch Me if You Can” - The latest episode of this new docuseries involves drug traffickers, sexual harassers, and teenage murderers hiding out in Mexico. (A&E)
The Great Heart (1938) - An Oscar-nominated short about Father Damien and his work with lepers on Molokai Island. (TCM)
Homicide Squad New Orleans Season 1, Episode 7: “A Witness to Murder” - The latest episode of this new docuseries involves an injured witness to a murder afraid to cooperate with police. (A&E)
IU Concert: The Winning (2025) - A concert film starring South Korean singer-songwriter IU. (In Theaters)
Murder Under the Friday Night Lights Season 4, Episode 5: “Until Parents Get Involved” - The latest episode of this true-crime docuseries involving high school football and murder concerns a coach gunned down during a game in front of everyone. (Investigation Discovery)
Quicker'n a Wink (1940) - An Oscar-winning Pete Smith Specialty short demonstrating stroboscopic photography. (TCM)
UFOs: Investigating the Unknown Season 2, Episode 5: “The Experiencers Part 2: Mystery of the Alien Abduction” - The latest episode of this docuseries on UFOs involves the topic of alien abduction. (National Geographic)
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Cavalcade of Dance (1943) - An Oscar-nominated short film in which two ballroom dancers perform recent dance fads. (TCM)
Death Without Mercy - A feature documentary from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama) about the devastating 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria. (Paramount+ with Showtime)
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) - An Oscar-nominated short film in which Hollywood stars (including Judy Garland, Harpo Marx, and Ida Lupino) participate in a Mexican-themed festival in Santa Barbara. (TCM)
Moment of Fear (2025) - A docuseries about how people overcome the trauma of surviving dramatic events. (Viaplay)
Movie Pests (1944) - An Oscar-nominated short focused on poor moviegoing etiquette. (TCM)
Smart as a Fox (1946) - An Oscar-nominated short showing the life of a fox cub. (TCM)
Supreme Models (2025) - A docuseries honoring Black women in the fashion industry. (Netflix)
The Takedown: American Aryans (2025) - A docuseries about the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas from the late 2000s to the present. (Max)
That Mothers Might Live (1938) - An Oscar-winning short about Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, who changed medical hygiene forever. (TCM)
UFOs: Investigating the Unknown Season 2, Episode 5: “The Experiencers Part 2: Mystery of the Alien Abduction” - The latest episode of this docuseries on UFOs involves the topic of alien abduction. (Hulu and Disney+)
Sneak Peak At What’s Coming Soon
2/13 - Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) - A feature documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Summer of Soul) about Sly and the Family Stone. Find it on our list of the most anticipated documentaries of 2025. (Hulu)
2/21 - UnBroken - A feature documentary by Beth Lane in which she considers her existence as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. (In Theaters)
2/23 - Lockerbie: The Bombing of Pan Am 103 - A documentary about the 1988 airline tragedy. (CNN)
2/25 - The Power of Chi - A documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman about Tai Chi. (Digital/VOD)
3/1 - Shaking It Up: The Life & Times of Liz Carpenter - A feature documentary about the titular writer and feminist. (PBS)
3/19 - Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert - A concert film starring the titular film composer. (In Theaters)
4/11 - One to One: John & Yoko - A documentary by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September) about John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s One to One charity concert for special needs children. (In IMAX Theaters)