This Week In Documentary: 'Gold & Greed,' 'Secret Mall Apartment,' & 'Change, Not Charity'
Theatrical & Streaming Releases - New & Recommended - March 21-March 27, 2025
Spring has sprung. March Madness is off to a wild start. Baseball is on deck. And a lot of must-watch documentaries are arriving daily. What a great week! In honor of the turn of season (and in solidarity with Kyiv), I recommend watching Mikhail Kaufman’s In Spring (available on YouTube). In honor of the college basketball playoffs, check out the new film We Beat the Dream Team (streaming on Max). And in honor of MLB’s official opening day (not to discount the season’s legit start in Tokyo), check out our list of the best baseball documentaries.
As for new documentaries arriving this week, Netflix has a captivating docuseries about hidden treasure and a film about a conned chef, PBS presents a history of the Americans with Disabilities Act, National Geographic follows David Blaine around the world, and the story of a secret apartment in a shopping mall gets a theatrical release. Also, there are new episodes of The Americas, Celtics City, The Class, and Twitter: Breaking the Bird (all of these series previously highlighted in the newsletter). If you are looking for essential classic documentaries, you can find some of those this week airing on TCM.
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 Pick Of The Week: Gold & Greed: The Hunt For Fenn's Treasure (2025)
It’s a shame there are more references to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (at least two, including a clip) than It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (which gets none), but this riveting three-part docuseries about a wild treasure hunt is recommended for anyone looking for a real-life mystery-adventure story. Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure is about a chest of gold and jewels worth about $2 million hidden in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains by a wealthy old man who had thought he was dying. Between 2010 and 2020, several hopeful fortune seekers attempted to locate the treasure by analyzing clues divulged within a poem found in the man’s memoirs.
This is the sort of story that’s ripe for a streaming docuseries but plays best for those who never heard about it as it was going on and won’t glance at Wikipedia while watching. Gold & Greed mostly follows a straightforward narrative chronologically, and that allows for some suspense as the viewer grows more and more curious about who found the treasure and where it was discovered. The series highlights a handful of unique characters among the many who went looking for the chest, each individual or group sharing personal journeys that could have filled their own documentaries. Are any of them the victors, though? Getting us to see this as a competitive race makes it especially compelling. Netflix could just as well present this as a three-hour feature since there’s no way anyone is not binge-watching the whole thing in one sitting.
Aside from it completely grabbing my attention till the end, the thing I like most about Gold & Greed is the respect it has for all of its players. There’s a temptation and tendency for documentarians to present their subjects and interviewees in tales like this for comedic effect. Maybe edit their words and behavior to make them seem ridiculous or crazy, or to direct them to go big in their exposition. This series reminded me a bit of another Netflix documentary, The Legend of Cocaine Island, which I noted “has no genuine characters.” That’s more on the participants themselves, but surely director Theo Love leaned into it (entertainingly, I should add). Here, everyone from the self-affirmed rednecks (with brains, they declare) to the treasure hunter who got too close to the gamemaster is someone we end up caring about and rooting for.
Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure begins streaming on Netflix in full on Thursday, March 27.
Other Documentary Highlights
ACE Eddie Winners & Henry Awards Semi-Finalists
The American Cinema Editors kept awards season going in overtime with their 75th annual Eddie Awards last week. Netflix’s Will & Harper won the award for Best Edited Documentary Feature, honoring the work of Monique Zavistovski, while an episode of HBO/Max’s Chimp Crazy won the award for Best Edited Documentary Series, for the team of Evan Wise, Charles Divak, Adrienne Gits, and Doug Abel. Additionally, an episode of Welcome to Wrexham Season 3 won the award for Best Edited Non-Scripted Series, honoring the work of Tim Wilsbach, Steve Welch, Michael Brown, Michael Oliver, Tim Roche, Matt Wafaie, Jenny Krochmal, and Mohamed el Manasterly.
Also last week, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy announced the 15 semi-finalists for the inaugural Henry Awards for Public Interest Documentary. Here are those titles (and where to watch them, if available): Anhell69 (n/a); Another Body (OVID); Coconut Head Generation (OVID); Four Daughters (Netflix and Kino Film Collection); Hollywoodgate (Jolt); If We Burn (n/a); Kokomo City (Paramount+ with Showtime); Milisuthando (n/a); Q (n/a); Queendom (Kanopy); The Stroll (Max); Three Promises (n/a); While We Watched (In Theaters); Your Fat Friend (Vimeo On Demand); and Youth (Spring) (OVID).
Change, Not Charity: The Americans With Disabilities Act (2025) & Crip Camp (2020)
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the streaming release of Crip Camp, a documentary about attendees of a summer camp for people with disabilities who went on to be leaders and activists within the disability rights movement. The Sundance Audience Award-winning film went on to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, and it won an Independent Spirit Award and two IDA Awards while also being nominated for six Critics Choice Documentary Awards. I love this movie and really enjoyed talking to directors Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham and sound supervisor Jacob Bloomfield-Misrach. If you haven’t seen it, do so now.
You could pair it with Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act, a medium-length installment of American Experience premiering this week with solid narration by Peter Dinklage (he’d make a good Ken Burns documentary narrator). Jim LeBrecht is also the director of this documentary, which takes a more conventional historical approach, chronicling the long road to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Rather than being character-driven like Crip Camp, it’s a simply educational documentary that shows the power of protest and action while also reminding us that this country used to be less divisive, and political leaders on both sides of the aisle could be good guys or bad guys in the fight for equity. This documentary also provides a tease of the story told in the upcoming film Deaf President Now!, which just won an Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival.
Crip Camp is streaming on Netflix. Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act premieres on PBS on Tuesday, March 25, and then begins streaming on PBS.org.
Classic Documentaries On TCM
This week, Turner Classic Movies is devoting one of its Daytime Themes to documentaries, and the films they’ve programmed are all bangers. Beginning at 11:30 am on Thursday, March 27, we get Agnès Varda’s Black Panthers, followed by Les Blank’s Hot Pepper, Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, USA, the Maysles Brothers’ Salesman and Grey Gardens, and finally Frank Simon’s The Queen. All of them are likely to be on the TCM app and VOD channel afterward.
David Blaine: Do Not Attempt (2025)
In our daily listings section, I often include TCM’s showings of old Believe It or Not! and Can You Imagine? shorts that spotlight unbelievable people and feats. The new docuseries David Blaine: Do Not Attempt follows their tradition, but it’s focused more on stunts and other incredible skills and tricks, as David Blaine travels the world looking to learn from death-defying performers. I am not always interested in Blaine’s “magic,” but I am fascinated by these non-famous local daredevils and their insane exploits involving fire, venomous snakes, nail-eating, extreme temperatures, and more.
The first two episodes of David Blaine: Do Not Attempt premiere on National Geographic on Sunday, March 23, and stream on Hulu and Disney+ the next day.
Ennio (2022)
It’s time once again to highlight Ennio, Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary about his late collaborator, the iconic film composer Ennio Morricone. We’ve not only made it a Pick of the Week and highlighted Ennio many times before, but it was also on our list of the best documentaries of 2024. From our review of Ennio:
“There is a lot to learn and appreciate here for fans and scholars of film and music — Morricone’s career, in and out of scoring movies, is so important to the histories of both mediums. You’ll come away with greater respect for the art of arrangement, the complexity of certain songs he worked on, and certainly film music.”
Ennio begins streaming on OVID on Wednesday, March 26.
Grass: A Nation’s Battle For Life (1925)
Late last week, this silent ethnographic spectacle film turned 100 years old. I apologize for being belated in recognizing the anniversary, but better late than never. Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (later of King Kong fame), Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life depicts a nomadic sheep herding migration in the Middle East with a combination of unstaged footage and scripted narrativization. Here’s an excerpt from my recommendation of a double feature including Grass and the 2009 Sensory Ethnography Lab documentary Sweetgrass:
“There is…a real historical and anthropological importance to Grass, even if it’s as much in a film-history sense as a non-fiction-documentation sense. It’s primarily a spectacle like many other films, fiction or nonfiction, of the era. However, the doc’s centerpiece, a famous and still remarkable sequence involving a treacherous river crossing, is an astonishing thing to watch, and you have to believe it was almost entirely real. But even it wasn’t, it’s something you really must see.”
Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life is streaming on The Criterion Channel and Kanopy.
Secret Mall Apartment (2024)
This documentary also reminded me of Crip Camp as it similarly wouldn’t be as interesting if it were just about its titular focus. Where Crip Camp uses the backstory (and found footage) of the summer camp to spawn a broader story of activists in the disability rights movement, Secret Mall Apartment uses an artist group’s literal secret apartment inside a Providence shopping mall as a foundation for a look at gentrification, community arts, and other specific, mostly anonymous projects by these particular artists, among other things. It’s also aided by all the low-quality footage shot at the time of its creation. The film can occasionally seem scattered in its focus and structure, but every tangent is important to this remarkable tale and its tribute to the superfluousness and often surreptitiousness of great public art.
Secret Mall Apartment opens in theaters on Friday, March 21.
Documentary Release Calendar 3/21/25 - 3/27/25
Friday, March 21, 2025
Animals, They’re Just Like Us! Episodes 1 & 2: “A Penguin Proposal” & “House Hunting Hermit Crabs” - The first two installments of this new nature docuseries about animals that don’t need to be anthropomorphized. (National Geographic WILD)
Crash Course Cuisine with Hudson Yang Episodes 3-8 - The final six installments of this new culinary docuseries starring former child star and budding chef Hudson Yang. (National Geographic)
MGM Parade Show #24 (1956) - This installment of the Hollywood-focused docuseries showcases the MGM films Strike Up the Band and The Big Parade. (TCM)
Secret Mall Apartment (2024) - A documentary about eight artists in Providence who created a secret apartment inside a shopping mall in 2003. You can find our review of Secret Mall Apartment in the highlights section of this week’s newsletter. (In Theaters)
Saturday, March 22, 2025
Animals, They’re Just Like Us! Episodes 1 & 2: “A Penguin Proposal” & “House Hunting Hermit Crabs” - The first two installments of this new nature docuseries about animals that don’t need to be anthropomorphized. (Hulu and Disney+)
Desert Regatta (1932) - A short documentary in the Sports Champions series about a boat race in the Salton Sea. (TCM)
Donkey Baseball (1935) - A short documentary about the fad of playing baseball while riding donkeys. (TCM)
Fancy Answers (1941) - A short film in the Pete Smith Specialty series in which an audience is asked multiple-choice questions. (TCM)
Incredible Northern Vets Episodes 13: “Trooper Trouble” - The finale of a docuseries following the work of three Indigenous veterinarians. (National Geographic WILD)
MGM Parade Show #24 (1956) - This installment of the Hollywood-focused docuseries showcases the MGM films Strike Up the Band and The Big Parade. (TCM)
New York Homicide Season 3, Episode 8: “A Mother Missing” - The latest episode of this true-crime docuseries about recent murder cases in New York City is about the disappearance of a Staten Island mom. (Oxygen)
Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler Season 2, Episode 9: “The Honor Killings” - The latest episode of this true-crime docuseries involves a murdered human rights activist. (Oxygen)
Sunday, March 23, 2025
The Americas Episode 6: “The Andes” - The latest episode of this 10-part nature docuseries narrated by Tom Hanks continues to showcase the flora and fauna of North and South America. Read our review of The Americas. (NBC)
Arctic Roundup (1957) - A short documentary following an expedition to study musk ox in Canada. (TCM)
David Blaine: Do Not Attempt Episodes 1 & 2: “Brazil” & “Southeast Asia” - The first two installments of this six-part docuseries starring the titular magician as he travels the world learning new skills from incredible performers and daredevil artists. You can find our review of David Blaine: Do Not Attempt in the highlights section of this week’s newsletter. (National Geographic)
Fatal Family Feuds Season 2, Episode 6: “Thanksgiving Threats” - The latest episode of this true-crime series about murders committed due to family feuds involves a triple murder on Thanksgiving. (Oxygen)
The Food That Built America Season 6, Episode 5: “Legends of the Mall” - The latest episode of this foodie history docuseries focuses on mall food courts. (History)
Frances Carroll & “The Coquettes” (1940) - A short film featuring performances by the titular bandleader and all-female band. (TCM)
Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief (2025) - A documentary about curators and dealers who profited off art stolen by the Nazis. (In Theaters)
Rescued Hearts (2025) - A documentary about the connection between humans and horses. (In Theaters)
Twitter: Breaking the Bird Episode 3: “Making It Big” - The third installment of a four-part docuseries about Twitter, from its origins to the eventual sale to Elon Musk. Read our review of Twitter: Breaking the Bird. (CNN)
United States of Scandal Season 2, Episode 3: “Anita Hill” - The latest installment of this docuseries starring Jake Tapper about modern controversies focuses on Anita Hill’s part in the Clarence Thomas hearing. (CNN)
WWE Rivals Season 5, Episode 6: “Ric Flair vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat” - The latest episode of this docuseries about pro wrestling rivalries. (A&E)
Monday, March 24, 2025
Celtics City Chapter IV: “Great Hope” - The fourth episode of this nine-part docuseries about the Boston Celtics focuses on Larry Bird and his rivalry with Magic Johnson. Read our review of Celtics City. (HBO and Max)
Confessions of Octomom Episode 3: “The Most Hated Woman in America” - The latest installment of this six-part docuseries about Nadya Suleman, the mother of octuplets plus six other children. (Lifetime)
Czechoslovakia on Parade (1938) - A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores what was then known as Czechoslovakia. (TCM)
David Blaine: Do Not Attempt Episodes 1 & 2: “Brazil” & “Southeast Asia” - The first two installments of this six-part docuseries starring the titular magician as he travels the world learning new skills from other incredible performers and daredevil artists. You can find our review of David Blaine: Do Not Attempt in the highlights section of this week’s newsletter. (Hulu and Disney+)
Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up Season 2, Episode 3: “My Life is a Circus” - The latest installment of this docuseries following Gypsy Rose Blanchard since her release from prison. (Lifetime)
Hollywood Demons (2025) - A docuseries about the dark realities of several celebrities and TV shows. (Investigation Discovery)
Home Court (2024) - A feature documentary about high school basketball prodigy Ashley Chea. Presented as an episode of Independent Lens. (PBS)
The Wedding in Monaco (1956) - A short documentary of Grace Kelly’s marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. (TCM)
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Amateur on Plastic (2020) - A documentary about Washington, D.C. rock legend Butch Willis. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Angle of Attack: How Naval Aviation Changed the Face of War (2011) - A documentary about the first century of aerial warfare. (VOD)
Art from the Streets (2006) - A documentary about a program for homeless artists in Austin, Texas. (VOD)
Art Trafficking: A Grey Matter (2016) - A documentary about art trafficking. (VOD)
Asia (2024) - A seven-part nature docuseries narrated by Sir David Attenborough about wildlife in the titular continent. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Attack! Battle of New Britain (1944) - A medium-length documentary about the titular World War II battle. (VOD)
Bad Romance Season 2 - The return of this true-crime docuseries about love stories involving murder. (ABC)
Ballou (2008) - A documentary about a high school marching band in Washington, DC. (VOD)
Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act (2025) - This installment of the docuseries American Experience is directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jim LeBrecht (Crip Camp), narrated by Peter Dinklage, and looks back at the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. You can find our review of Change, Not Charity in the highlights section of this week’s newsletter. (PBS)
The Class Episode 2: “System Failure” - The second installment of this six-part docuseries that follows six high school seniors as they plan for college during and after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Read our review of The Class. (PBS)
Con Mum (2025) - A documentary about a chef conned by a woman claiming to be his mother. (Netflix)
A Cursed Man (2025) - A documentary about an experiment to see if magic is real. (VOD)
Dark Side of the Ring Season 6 - The return of this docuseries sharing the darkest stories of professional wrestling. (Vice)
First to the Finish Season 1 - A docuseries following the Mazda MX-5 Cup Championship. (Prime Video)
Here Comes a New Challenger (2023) - A documentary about the phenomenal popularity of the video game Street Fighter II. (DVD)
Hookers on Davie (1984) - A documentary about the sex workers of Vancouver’s Davie Street. (Blu-ray)
Merkel (2022) - A biographical documentary about Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor of Germany. (DVD and Blu-ray)
MGM Parade Show #24 (1956) - This installment of the Hollywood-focused docuseries showcases the MGM films Strike Up the Band and The Big Parade. (TCM)
MTV’s Family Legacy Season 2 - The return of this docuseries about musicians through the lens of their children. (Paramount+)
My Dearest Fu Bao (2024) - A documentary about the titular panda. (VOD)
On Location with: Fame (1980) - A short documentary about the making of the movie Fame. (TCM)
Penelope Featurette (1966) - A short film promoting Edith Head’s costumes for the movie Penelope. (TCM)
Port Protection Alaska Season 8, Episode 3: “Plenty of Fish” - The latest episode of this docuseries about life in the titular Alaskan village. (National Geographic)
R.F.D. Greenwich Village (1969) - A short documentary tour of New York City made to promote corduroy clothing. (TCM)
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Bad Romance Season 2 - The return of this true-crime docuseries about love stories involving murder. (Hulu)
Ennio (2021) - A feature documentary about film composer Ennio Morricone. Read our review of Ennio. (OVID)
The Frankenstein Complex (2015) - A documentary about creature designers for the movies. (OVID)
The Grudge Season 1 - A docuseries about sports rivalries. (Vice)
Imagine Dragons: Live from the Hollywood Bowl (2025) - A concert film starring the titular band. (In Theaters)
Port Protection Alaska Season 8, Episode 3: “Plenty of Fish” - The latest episode of this docuseries about life in the titular Alaskan village. (Hulu and Disney+)
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Accused: Did I Do It Season 1 - A true-crime docuseries following various trials as if they’re mysteries. (A&E)
Accused: Guilty or Innocent? Season 7, Episode 3 - The latest episode of this docuseries following individuals charged with crimes told from their perspective. (A&E)
Black Panthers (1968) - A classic short documentary by Agnès Varda that depicts a courthouse protest in Oakland by the Black Panther Party against the arrest and jailing of Huey P. Newton. (TCM)
Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure (2025) - A docuseries about an art collector who buried a treasure with clues to its whereabouts. Gold & Greed is our Pick of the Week, and our review can be found in the highlights section of this week’s newsletter. (Netflix)
Grey Gardens (1975) - A classic feature documentary by the Maysles Brothers (and Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer) on a mother and daughter (Big Edie and Little Edie Beales) living in a decrepit Hamptons mansion. (TCM)
Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) - An Oscar-winning documentary by Barbara Kopple about a miner’s strike. (TCM)
Hot Pepper (1973) - A classic medium-length documentary by Les Blank about zydeco music star Clifton Chenier. (TCM)
The Queen (1968) - A documentary about a drag queen competition in New York City. (TCM)
Salesman (1969) - A classic feature documentary by the Maysles Brothers (and Charlotte Zwerin) about door-to-door bible salesmen. (TCM)
Spade Cooley: King of Western Swing (1945) - A short film showcasing the titular musician. (TCM)
Sneak Peak At What’s Coming Soon
3/28 - Art for Everybody - A documentary about artist Thomas Kincade and the paintings of his found after his death. (In Theaters)
3/28 - The Encampments - A feature documentary produced by Macklemore about the Gaza Solidarity Encampment student protests on the Columbia University campus. (In Theaters)
3/31 - Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer - A three-part true-crime docuseries about the titular serial killer directed by Liz Garbus (I’ll Be Gone in the Dark). Watch the trailer for the series below. (Netflix)
4/1 - Live Not By Lies - A docuseries in which survivors of Soviet communism warn the West about totalitarianism. (Angel)
4/8 - We Want the Funk - A feature documentary by Stanley Nelson and Nicole London chronicling the history of funk music. Presented as an episode of Independent Lens. (PBS)
4/15 - Vitalik: An Ethereum Story - A feature documentary about tech and crypto visionary Vitalik Buterin. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)
4/21 - Water for Life - A feature documentary about three Latin American Indigenous leaders who fought to save water sources from political and corporate interests. (PBS)
4/29 - Free for All: The Public Library - A feature documentary about the importance of public libraries. Presented as an episode of Independent Lens. (PBS)
5/15 - Deaf President Now! - A feature documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim and Nyle DiMarco about the push for a deaf person to be hired to be president of Gallaudet University, a school for the hearing impaired. (In Theaters)