This Week In Documentary
Theatrical & Streaming Releases - New & Recommended - October 24-30, 2025
We need more critics specializing in documentaries. The amount of nonfiction film releases is overwhelming enough for someone like me, who has chosen to focus almost entirely on documentaries. Too many titles fall through the cracks altogether, let alone with general review sites. This is especially noticeable for me this time of year when I’ve just managed to screen hundreds of films and series for the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. Yet more and more that weren’t submitted for consideration or weren’t otherwise on my radar seem to pop up out of nowhere daily.
Being a critic can be a Sisyphean task when you want your coverage to come across as exhaustive, not just with new releases but also the classics. Still, it’s a task I love because, more often than not, that boulder I push up the hill is different from the last one. Sometimes it’s not even that heavy. Other times it’s heavy in a way that makes me stronger. The shape and composition of the boulder may surprise me, and I’ll focus more on that than the elements it’s made of. Some boulders, though, are worth the push for their substance alone. The issue is not that the boulders keep rolling back down the hill; it’s that there are always more of them, too many for one person.
Before I get to this week’s boulders, I want to spotlight this week’s episode of the podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler. Mariska Hargitay is the guest, and while I’m disappointed this didn’t come up during the show, it’s interesting to me that she’s nominated for a Critics Choice Award for Best First Documentary Feature for her film directorial debut, My Mom Jayne (now streaming on HBO Max), when host Amy Poehler was nominated for the same award, for Lucy and Desi (streaming on Prime Video), three years ago. If only they’d realized they shared this and bonded over it.
Now, without further ado, below are this week’s documentary highlights, including capsule reviews of new nonfiction films and series. They are followed by daily listings for all notable releases and 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, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available — alleviate the weight of those boulders! If you have a doc in need of coverage or a mention in our listings, you can reach me at christopherbartoncampbell (at) gmail.
Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Coexistence, My Ass! (2025)
Noam Shuster-Eliassi is one of my new favorite people after watching Coexistence, My Ass! (I saw the film during Sundance back in January but never had time to review it then). She’s smart, funny, and cultured, and most importantly, she’s concerned about human life and humanity as a whole. She’s also more than just a comedian, making her a huge step above the political humorists that proved ineffective in the 2000s (and since). Still, there’s only so much she can do as a speaker and activist that’s of impact beyond her role as a performer and joke-teller. To spark change, perhaps she needs to become a politician, like Al Franken or (as she acknowledges) Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Coexistence, My Ass! isn’t just a promotion of Shuster-Eliassi’s comedy and causes, though, and you don’t have to like her or her politics to appreciate her story, as it’s depicted in the film. She grew up in the utopian village of Neve Shalom, which was founded on the idea of Israelis and Palestinians coexisting in peace. The experiment didn’t last, and the possibility of the rest of the area following its lead has diminished more and more. At least comedy could allow her and her audience to come together and laugh off some of the tension. But since October 7, it’s been harder to joke, and division is deeper and more widespread than ever.
This is a film following one woman in real time over many years as she witnesses a depressing reversal of the dream she was pursuing. As she becomes sadder and angrier and more serious and even somewhat cynical, instead of so amused and playful. And all that footage serves as a backstory for a one-woman show (also called Coexistence, My Ass!) that’s part stand-up comedy and part monologue that we see pieces of sprinkled throughout the documentary. The film ends with a solemn statement from that show, and I don’t know if everyone will agree with it (I don’t, sadly), but it’s a point arrived at after the journey we’ve seen her go through.
Coexistence, My Ass! opens in theaters on Wednesday, October 29.
Other Documentary Highlights
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling Of A Serial Killer (1992) & Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer (2003)
There is a new documentary about Aileen Wuornos coming to Netflix this week to fulfill the needs of their true crime junkies. I haven’t seen it. Netflix doesn’t push its documentary features to critics as well as it does its series. So, while I await its release on October 30, I recommend watching Nick Broomfield’s two Wuornos films, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. They have the benefit of having been made while she was alive and able to participate. Seen together, they’re also as much about documentary filmmaking ethics and the broader issue of the appeal of true crime than about Wuornos alone. The second film even made my list of the best documentaries of all time due to its meta-drama.
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer are both available to rent or purchase digitally on Amazon.
Down And Out In America (1985)
Actress and filmmaker Lee Grant turns 100 years old on Halloween (though the exact year of her birth is not confirmed), and Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the occasion a couple of days early. I may highlight more of her documentary films next week, but TCM is showing Down and Out in America a little after midnight this Thursday (I don’t know if it’s from the new print or the one also available on Kanopy). It’s also a film with its own anniversary coming up, having been released on December 4, 1985. Maybe I’ll highlight it again in two months for its 40th birthday.
There’s historical significance, too. Down and Out in America was the first film produced by a cable network to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature (it tied with Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got). It also won a CableACE Award to confuse the issue of its qualification. Ironically, HBO, which made the film, didn’t win its first Emmy until a year later. Outside of its significance to documentary history, Down and Out in America is sadly still relevant today. Watching its report on the economically struggling farmers and unhoused urban families impacted by greed-based political policies, you’d think that Grant had filmed this stuff in the last few months. Does that mean it was ineffective? It’s fitting that TCM is showing it right before the channel’s Halloween marathon, as its stories are as scary as anything in a fiction horror movie.
Down and Out in America airs on TCM on Thursday, October 30. The film is also currently available to stream for free on Kanopy.
I Was Born This Way (2025)
Oscar-winning filmmaker Daniel Junge (Saving Face) and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sam Pollard (4 Little Girls) team up to co-direct this partly rotoscope-animated documentary about singer turned AIDS activist turned preacher Carl Bean. He was famous for his disco version of the titular song, which became a pioneering gay anthem after its release in 1977. Not to be confused with Lady Gaga’s 2011 song “Born This Way,” though she is interviewed for I Was Born This Way and discusses how the earlier tune inspired hers.
The biographical film benefits from an anchoring appearance from Bean, who died in 2021. He tells his life story, and the first half of the documentary is equal parts a coming-of-age tale of a specific young gay Black man and a broader coming-of-age tale of LGBTQ+ liberation and representation in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Then it goes into his work with HIV/AIDS patients during the epidemic, followed by his transition to founding a liberal Christian church and ultimately becoming an Archbishop. He’s a good storyteller, and I enjoyed listening to more than viewing the film, which doesn’t have a lot of necessary or interesting visual elements.
I Was Born This Way opens in theaters on Thursday, October 30.
Love+War (2025)
Documentaries about journalists are big this year (if only the journalism itself were as popular), and those about conflict photographers are especially noteworthy. Just last week, we saw the release of a film about Brent Renaud, who was killed in Ukraine in 2022. Now, here’s Love+War, a biographical profile of Lynsey Addario that follows her at home and on assignment, the latter including many sequences of her also courageously covering the war in Ukraine at the risk of death.
Those scenes and her telling of being embedded in the Korengal Valley at the same time Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington were filming Restrepo, being kidnapped in Libya during the country’s civil war, and remembering when Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed in Libya a month later, fall under the “war” part of the film’s title. The stuff at home with her husband and two sons makes up the “love” half. While there’s acknowledgment of the difficulties with such a marriage, where Addario is away for many weeks at a time, we don’t see much strife. We’re told that many relationships like theirs end in divorce, which has an added layer, given that the film’s directors, Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, are now ending their marriage.
This is the second feature from the couple this year, following Lost in the Jungle, and while that film seemed like a companion to their documentary The Rescue, this one feels like a continuation of their work profiling subjects for the series Photographer. It’s further proof of their craftsmanship and storytelling talents, too, considering we’ve seen other films about women like Addario (last year’s Never Look Away, about Margaret Moth, came to mind), but Love+War manages to make the familiar content captivating enough. Vasarhelyi and Chin often spotlight people in death-defying careers and situations, and Addario is hardly different than Free Solo’s Alex Honnold.
Love+War opens in theaters on Friday, October 24.
No Other Land (2024)
Last week, the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land finally became available on mainstream VOD platforms via self-distribution. The team behind the film also announced they’re donating 100% of the proceeds from these platforms to the Palestinian communities of Masafer Yatta, the West Bank region central to the film’s premise. On my list of the best documentaries of 2024, I wrote that “this is an important documentary for the moment. Yet, even without its unintentional timeliness, No Other Land would still be a brilliant mix of empathetic issue film and metatextual self-commentary.”
No Other Land is now available to rent or purchase digitally on major PVOD outlets, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, and YouTube.
Number One On The Call Sheet (2025)
Following its nomination for a Critics Choice Award for Best Historical Documentary, Number One on the Call Sheet has been announced as an honoree at this year’s Celebration of Black Cinema & Television, presented by the same organization. Well, specifically, its two directors, Reginald Hudlin and Shola Lynch, will receive the Documentary Award at the event on behalf of the two-part film. I’ve already expressed my love for Number One on the Call Sheet a few times, and it’s on my list of the best documentaries of 2025. “This is a historic A-list star-studded celebration,” I wrote, “a historical reflection of Black performers who paved the way, and a venue for necessary discourse among the most powerful elite within a still-marginalized segment of Hollywood.”
Number One on the Call Sheet is currently available to stream on Apple TV.
Peter Watkins Documentaries
This week’s filmmaker spotlight is on Peter Watkins, who turns 90 on Wednesday, October 29. He is best known for directing the Oscar-winning film The War Game, which is a perfect example of how to set a documentary in the future, as it portrays a hypothetical nuclear attack. But we also highly recommend Edvard Munch, about the eponymous painter. And famed cinematographer Roger Deakins recommends the docudrama Culloden. All can be found online somewhere, though I don’t think any are officially available (and Edvard Munch might not be anywhere with subtitles). However, you can stream his last film, La Commune (Paris, 1871), on OVID.
Documentary Release Calendar 10/24/25 - 10/30/25
Friday, October 24, 2025
Being Texan: A Texas Monthly Special (2025) - A documentary special about Texas and its people. (PBS)
East Harbor Heroes Season 1 - A series following various maritime workers in St. John’s, Newfoundland. (Discovery Channel)
Everything on the Menu with Braun Strowman (2025) - A travel food series following the titular pro wrestler as he attempts to eat every item on restaurant menus. (USA)
Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea (2025) - A documentary feature about fishermen in the West Philippine Sea. (In Theaters)
Forward is a Pace (2025) - A short documentary about the Every Woman’s Marathon. (In Theaters)
Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars Episode 4: “Plates, Plates, Plates” - The latest installment of a docuseries following Michelin Guide inspectors as they dine in and rate restaurants. (Apple TV+)
La Trevi: Sin Filtro (2025) - A docuseries following Latin music star Gloria Trevi. (Viaplay)
Love+War (2025) - A documentary feature directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo) about Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lynsey Addario. (In Theaters)
Luv Ya, Bum! (2025) - A feature documentary narrated by Dennis Quaid about the titular coach of the Houston Oilers in the 1970s. (In Theaters)
The Spirit of Halloweentown (2024) - A feature documentary about the Oregon town where Disney’s Halloweentown movies were filmed. (VOD)
Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost (2025) - A documentary by Ben Stiller about his famous actor/comedian parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Read our review of Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost. (Apple TV)
The White Mountain (2024) - A documentary feature following an elite heli-rescuer and an extreme skier in the French Alps. (In Theaters)
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Austin City Limits Season 51, Episode 4: “Charley Crockett; Waxahatchee” - The latest installment of this music docuseries features performances by Charley Crockett and Waxahatchee. (PBS)
CNBC Sport: On the Record (2025) - A new sports news and documentary series. (CNBC)
Enongo (2025) - A partly animated documentary about rapper/producer Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, a.k.a. Sammus. (In Theaters)
Lucky Dog: Down Under Season 1, Episode 4: “Lambkins and Yoga & Lane” - A docuseries in the Lucky Dog franchise starring animal trainer Brandon McMillan as he works in Australia. (CBS)
Lucky Dog: Reunions Season 3, Episode 4: “Sparky Reunion” - A docuseries starring animal trainer Brandon McMillan as he revisits past clients. (CBS)
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild Season 3, Episode 4: “Return of the Lynx” - A nature series focused on wildlife conservation. This installment involves the Canada lynx. (NBC)
The Story of ‘The Jonker Diamond’ (1936) - A short documentary reenacting the origins of the Jonker diamond. (TCM)
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread Episode 3: “São Paulo” - The latest installment of a culinary travelogue series following the titular actor sampling food around the world with a focus on bread. (CNN)
Monday, October 27, 2025
After Action Season 3, Episode 4: “Boots to Badges” - The latest installment of a docuseries spotlighting U.S. military veterans. (PBS)
Ancient Aliens: Origins Season 2, Episode 4: “Otherworldly Rulers” - A docuseries in the Ancient Aliens franchise that looks back at the original show’s greatest mysteries. (History)
A Plan to Kill (2025) - A true-crime docuseries on the meticulous planning conducted by serial killers. (Oxygen)
Hollywood Without Make-Up (1963) - A medium-length documentary sharing home movies of Ken Murray and his celebrity friends. (TCM)
Kissinger Part One: “The Necessity of Power” - The first of a two-part biographical documentary about Henry Kissinger. Presented as an installment of American Experience. (PBS)
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
The $238 Million Dollar Apartment (2025) - A documentary feature that begins as a look at a record-breaking apartment sale and winds up an investigation into extreme wealth in America. (DVD)
Babo: The Haftbefehl Story (2025) - A documentary about the titular German rapper. (Netflix)
The Birdman of Cooper Island (2024) - A documentary feature about a birder who travels to the titular Arctic island every summer to protect a rare seabird. (DVD)
Country Doctor (2025) - A short documentary about the only doctor serving a wide range of communities in rural Oklahoma. (HBO Max)
Depeche Mode: M (2025) - A concert film starring the titular band as they perform in Mexico City in 2023. (In IMAX Theaters)
Don’t Date Brandon (2025) - A docuseries about women who dated the same deceptive man. (Paramount+)
Fraud (2016) - A medium-length documentary about a family that committed fraud. (Blu-ray)
Hunted by My Husband: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper (2025) - A documentary feature about Mildred Muhammad, the ex-wife of the DC Sniper, who killed seemingly random people around the Capitol in 2002. (ID: Investigation Discovery)
Kissinger Part Two: “The Opportunist” - The second of a two-part biographical documentary about Henry Kissinger. Presented as an installment of American Experience. (PBS)
Leila and the Wolves (1984) - A documentary feature looking at the political significance of Lebanese and Palestinian women in the 20th century. (Blu-ray)
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000) - A documentary feature about the titular silent film actor and makeup artist. (TCM)
Marvel & DC’s War on God: The Antichrist Agenda (2022) - A documentary feature by Pastor Joe Schimmel claiming popular comic books and their adaptations are anti-Christian. (DVD)
Marvel & DC’s War on God: Doctor Strange, Aleister Crowley and the Multiverse of Satanism (2022) - A documentary feature by Pastor Joe Schimmel claiming the comic book character Doctor Strange is based in satanism. (DVD)
Marvel & DC’s War on God: Stan Lee, God, and the Devil (2025) - A documentary feature by Pastor Joe Schimmel claiming Stan Lee used his comic book creations to undermine God. (DVD)
Name of the Game (2023) - A documentary about male exotic dancers. Read our review of Name of the Game. (In Theaters)
Nightmares of Nature: Lost in the Jungle (2025) - The second season of this horror-themed nature series. Read our review of Nightmares of Nature. (Netflix)
Running for the Mountains (2024) - A documentary feature about the damage done to Appalachia by fossil fuel extraction and deregulation. (VOD)
The Submerging Church (2012) - A documentary feature by Pastor Joe Schimmel about the Emergent Church. (DVD)
Susan Feniger: Forked (2023) - A documentary feature following the titular chef as she opens her first solo restaurant in Los Angeles. (DVD)
They Sold Their Souls for Rock n Roll (2004) - A documentary feature directed by Pastor Joe Schimmel about the Devil’s use of music to corrupt youth. (DVD)
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
About Face (2025) - A new series following surgeons specializing in facial reconstruction. (TLC)
Badger Creek (2016) - A short documentary about three generations of a Blackfeet family living on a reservation in Montana. (OVID)
Bigfoot Took Her (2025) - A three-part docuseries about a strange missing person case. (Discovery Channel)
Coexistence, My Ass! (2025) - A Sundance award-winning documentary about comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi and her one-woman show about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (In Theaters)
Fugitives Caught on Tape Season 2, Episodes 7 & 8 - The latest installments of a docuseries following law enforcement in their pursuit of fugitives. (A&E)
G-Dragon in Cinema (2025) - A concert tour film starring G-Dragon. (In Theaters)
Ghost Adventures Season 30, Episode 1: The return of a docuseries following paranormal investigators. (Discovery Channel)
Ice Road Truckers Season 12, Episode 5: “Game On” - The latest installment of a nonfiction series about the job of driving trucks on frozen lakes. (History)
Nature Season 44, Episode 2: “Willow: Diary of a Mountain Lion” - The latest installment of this long-running docuseries focuses on mountain lions. (PBS)
The Thick Dark Fog (2011) - A medium-length documentary about a Lakota man who attended a government boarding school. (OVID)
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers (2025) - A documentary about serial killer Aileen Wuornos. (Netflix)
American Magick (2025) - A four-part docuseries about Poke Runyon, his occult secret society known as the Ordo Templi Astarte, and his Church of the Hermetic Sciences. (Prime Video)
Down and Out in America (1985) - An Oscar-winning medium-length documentary about the recession’s impact on farm workers in the Midwest and the newly unhoused in Los Angeles and New York City. (TCM)
I Was Born This Way (2025) - A documentary feature by Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard about the titular disco song that became an LGBTQ+ anthem. (In Theaters)
Juan Gabriel: I Must, I Can, I Will (2025) - A docuseries about the titular Mexican singer. (Netflix)
Sneak Peek At What’s Coming Soon
10/31 - The White House Effect - A documentary feature by Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, and Jon Shenk about the U.S. government’s failure with climate change. (Netflix)
11/3 - I Am Curious Johnny - A documentary feature by Julien Temple about photographer, art collector, and fashion designer Johnny Pigozzi. Watch the trailer for the film below. (HBO Max)
11/7 - Brothers on Three - A documentary feature following the West Point rugby team. Watch the new trailer for the film here. (In Theaters)
11/10 - Saving Superman - A Critics Choice-nominated short documentary about a beloved man with autism spectrum disorder who dresses as Superman. (Switchboard)
11/11 - The Siege of Ape Canyon - A documentary feature about an alleged encounter with Bigfoot in Washington in 1924. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (VOD)
11/14 - Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere - A biographical documentary feature about the titular photojournalist. (In Theaters)
11/17 - American Skyjacker - A true-crime documentary about a 1972 airline hijacking and a manhunt that followed. (VOD)
11/19 - Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter - A documentary feature about the titular ‘90s wellness icon known for her infomercials. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)
11/21 - Zodiac Killer Project - A meta-textual true-crime documentary about an abandoned documentary on the Zodiac Killer. Read our review of Zodiac Killer Project. (In Theaters)
11/24 - Missing: Dead or Alive? Season 2 - The return of the true-crime docuseries about missing person cases. (Netflix)
12/12 - The King of Color - A documentary feature about the creator of the Pantone Matching System. (In Theaters)