This Week In Documentary

Theatrical & Streaming Releases - New & Recommended - May 17-May 23, 2024

As we pass the midpoint of May, the number of great documentary films and series continues to rise exponentially, and we’re already seeing some of this year’s titles recognized and honored by major awards bodies. We also welcome whatever international documentaries are debuting at the Cannes Film Festival as we look back 20 years to the last time a nonfiction feature was awarded the prestigious Palme d’Or. Friday, May 17 marks two decades since the premiere of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (now streaming on Peacock, Tubi, and Kanopy), and Wednesday, May 20 is the anniversary of the film receiving the great honor. I wrote a retrospective review of Fahrenheit 9/11 earlier this week and recommend checking that out.

There are a lot of other big documentary anniversaries this week. May 17 also marks 25 years since the Cannes premiere of Werner Herzog’s My Best Fiend (Tub, Kanopy, Shout! TV, Amazon Freevee, and Cineverse), which is about his love/hate relationship with actor Klaus Kinski. May 21 is the 20th anniversary of the release of Jehaine Noujaim’s Control Room (Prime Video, Tubi, Kanopy, and Crackle) while May 19 is the 35th anniversary of the release of Al Reinert’s For All Mankind (Max and The Criterion Channel), about NASA’s Apollo program. On May 23, Les Blank and Maureen Golding’s In Heaven There Is No Beer? (The Criterion Channel) turns 40. Barbet Schroeder’s General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (The Criterion Channel) and the MGM musical celebration That’s Entertainment! (VOD) both turn 50 — on May 22 and May 23, respectively. Finally, William K.L. Dickson’s one-minute strongman showcase Sandow (YouTube) turns 130 on May 18.

Speaking of Jehane Noujaim and anniversaries, the filmmaker celebrates her birthday this week, on Friday, May 17 (watch her Oscar-nominated documentary The Square on Tubi or Kanopy). The following day is the birthday of director Terry Zwigoff (his classic documentary Crumb is now on Tubi). Then director Louis Theroux turns another year older on Monday, May 20 (watch his film My Scientology Movie on Prime Video, Tub, Kanopy, or Crackle), while Nanette Burstein celebrates her birthday on May 23 (celebrate with her by watching her doc American Teen on Kanopy).

Now join me for my latest pick of the week and highlights of what documentaries are releasing in the next seven days. For paid subscribers, our daily listings of what to watch and a handful of coming attractions are down below.

Nonfics Pick Of The Week: The Tuba Thieves (2023)

I don’t think I’ve ever seen or, more importantly, heard a film quite like The Tuba Thieves. Continuing the recent trend of documentaries about sound, including Sam Green’s 32 Sounds and the Apple TV+ series Earthsounds, Alison O'Daniel’s sophomore feature is a visual delight but is similarly more notable for its audio — and oftentimes its lack thereof. The experimental collage consists of many motifs, from reports of numerous tubas being stolen out of Los Angeles schools to a reenactment of the first performance of John Cage’s 4’33” in 1952 and punk rock concerts for the hearing impaired. There are also Deaf characters in conversation, presumably unscripted, though much of The Tuba Thieves feels more staged than observed. I don’t quite get this film but was mesmerized by it, and I expect you will be too.

The Tuba Thieves makes its broadcast debut on PBS via Independent Lens on Monday, May 20, and will be available afterward on the PBS App.

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Other Documentary Highlights

Perry Farrell in Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza

2024 Critics Choice Real TV Awards Nominees & GLAAD Media Award Winners

While the 6th Annual Critics Choice Real TV Awards honor series released as far back as June 1, 2023, this year’s nominees include several documentaries that came out in 2024. These include the Best Limited Series contenders American Nightmare (Netflix) and recent Nonfics Pick of the Week Black Twitter: A People’s History (Hulu), Best Animal/Nature Show nominees Earthsounds (Apple TV+) and Queens (Disney+ and Hulu), and my personal favorite, the Best Sports Show nominee The Dynasty: New England Patriots (Apple TV+). That last category also features 30 for 30 (ESPN), Quarterback (Netflix), and the latest season of Untold (Netflix).

It’s not always easy to distinguish pure docuseries recognized by an awards show dedicated to reality TV, but here are some other certain or close enough documentary nominees: Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory (Disney+), Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show (Max), Love on the Spectrum (Netflix), The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy (Apple TV+), The Food That Built America (Hulu, History, and Discovery+), How To with John Wilson (Max), We’re Here (Max), Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin (Disney+ and Hulu), On the Roam (Max), Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix), The Mega-Brands that Built America (Hulu), Life on Our Planet (Netflix), Cold Justice (Peacock and Oxygen), The Curious Case of Natalia Grace (Max, ID, and Discovery+), Death in the Dorms (Hulu), Justice, USA (Max), Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller (Hulu and NatGeo), Unlocked: A Jail Experiment (Netflix), Swiping America (Max), Beckham (Netflix), JFK: One Day in America (Disney+ and Hulu), and Telemarketers (Max).

Another organization announced its honors this past week: the 35th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which were held on May 11. Three films were named winners in the Outstanding Documentary category: the sequel Beyond the Aggressives: 25 Years Later (Paramount+), D. Smith’s Kokomo City (Paramount+), and Zackary Drucker and Kristen Lovell’s The Stroll (Max).

The Blue Angels (2024)

I recently went to see the IMAX documentary Deep Sky, and I was extra excited when a trailer for another IMAX documentary played before the main attraction. It’s rare that I see documentaries at my suburban multiplex let alone trailers for documentaries. Fortunately, IMAX is the big thing lately (no pun intended), and docs are riding the wave. Not that IMAX documentaries are new, but they’re kind of new for these kinds of multiplex IMAX screens, which are typically reserved for stuff like Dune: Part Two. Anyway, that trailer was for The Blue Angels, and it looks pretty cool. It’s also coming to Prime Video this week, but I doubt it’ll be as good on your TV.

Frederick Wiseman, Freida Lee Mock & Terry Sanders Films

Zipporah Films announced this month that 33 of Frederick Wiseman’s films were restored and digitized over the last five years, and now 45 of his films are available in digital formats where some had still been only viewable on 16mm film. Most of these 45 titles are documentaries, and most of them are streaming on Kanopy. It’s not clear if every Wiseman film on Kanopy is a restored version, but it seems like that’s the case.* This week happens to be the 10th anniversary of Wiseman’s National Gallery, so you should start there. Or, perhaps check out Welfare, which I named as one of the best documentaries of all time. All of his films are essential viewing, though.

*We’ve learned that none of the Kanopy copies are the newly restored versions of these films. Hopefully, they will be replaced when available.

As if that wasn’t exciting enough and also enough to watch this week, just days after the Zipporah announcement, the filmmaking couple Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders just made all their titles available digitally in one place for the first time. Their documentaries, created together and apart, including Oscar winners A Time Out of War and Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (the latter also being among the best women’s history documentaries) and nominees Rose Kennedy: A Life to Remember, To Live or Let Die, Sing!, and Never Give Up: The 20th Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper, can now be rented or purchased on Vimeo On Demand.

Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza (2024)

Amazingly, it’s taken this long to document the origin, rise, and fall of Lollapalooza, the annual music festival co-founded by Perry Farrell initially as a must-attend farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction. Farrell is a producer on this three-part docuseries, which is directed by Michael John Warren (Fade to Black), so it’s not all that intriguing, but it will feed enough Generation X viewers the nostalgia they crave. Ice-T probably contributes the most interesting commentary among the many talking heads featured in Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza, which also includes Flea and Matt Pinfield. You can watch the documentary on Paramount+ beginning on Tuesday, May 21.

Power (2024)

This was last week’s Pick of the Week, so I don’t need to say too much more here, but I wanted to remind everyone that it debuts on Netflix this Friday, May 17. Also, I’d like to give a shout-out to my interview with director Yance Ford about his new film. Power is as fascinating in its construction as it is in its content, and our conversation covered as much as I could manage during our call, resulting in some terrific quotes and some humorous metaphors that Ford cringed at after uttering.

Documentary Release Calendar 5/17/24 - 5/23/24

The Blue Angels