What do you want to watch tonight?
Each title says who it's good for, and who it isn't. Tap what you want tonight, or say no to one and why.
Closest to HyperNormalisation first
Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror 2021
Documentary
Modern history can be divided into two time frames: before 9/11 and after 9/11. This five-part docuseries is a cohesive chronicle of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., offering illuminating perspectives and personal stories of how the catastrophic events of that day changed the course of the nation.
The sides of Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror
- The September 11 attacks
- Twenty years of war in Afghanistan
- Survivors, soldiers and officials remembering
Good for you if
- you want the personal stories of people who lived through that day.
- you like seeing how one day reshaped the following twenty years.
- you want to understand the choices made in Washington after the attacks.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch footage of the attacks and accounts of torture.
- you want something light for your evening.
About: terrorism · grief · security and freedom

Zeitgeist: Addendum 2008
Documentary
Director Peter Joseph examines examples of economic subjugation and offers solutions based on alignment with nature.
The sides of Zeitgeist: Addendum
- The debt system behind modern money
- Economic hit men in Latin America
- A plan for an economy without money
Good for you if
- you like asking who really controls money and banks.
- you want to hear John Perkins tell how he worked as an economic hit man.
Bad for you if
- you roll your eyes at a two-hour call to change the whole world.
- you need every claim to hold up, and this one draws on conspiracy theories.
About: money · power · debt · utopia

Taxi to the Dark Side 2008
Documentary
An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002.
The sides of Taxi to the Dark Side
- An Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar
- Detention at Bagram and Guantanamo
- Soldiers and officials on interrogation orders
Good for you if
- you want the true story of one innocent man who died in US custody.
- you want to see how orders from the top reached a prison cell.
- you want to understand what the war on terror did behind closed doors.
Bad for you if
- you can't take a story of torture and death of an innocent man.
- you can't look at photos of prisoners being abused.
About: torture · responsibility · justice
Fahrenheit 9/11 2004
Documentary
Michael Moore's view on how the Bush administration allegedly used the tragic events on 9/11 to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The sides of Fahrenheit 9/11
- The 2000 election and September 11
- A president in a classroom after the attacks
- A mother from Flint who lost her son in Iraq
Good for you if
- you want news footage and interviews from the Bush years in one film.
- you like following money and oil between Washington and Saudi Arabia.
- you like Michael Moore's mocking edits and pop songs over politicians.
Bad for you if
- a mother reading her dead son's last letter is too much for you.
- you can't watch real footage of wounded civilians and soldiers in Iraq.
About: war · grief · politics
The Great Hack 2019
Documentary
Data—arguably the world’s most valuable asset—is being weaponized to wage cultural and political wars. The dark world of data exploitation is uncovered through the unpredictable, personal journeys of players on different sides of the explosive Cambridge Analytica/Facebook data story.
The sides of The Great Hack
- Cambridge Analytica and Facebook data
- A former insider who turns whistleblower
- Brexit and the 2016 US election
Good for you if
- you want to understand the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
- you like stories about who controls elections and how.
- you like a documentary that plays like a political thriller.
Bad for you if
- you need some hope, not a worrying look at your own data.
- you lose track when a film follows Brittany Kaiser, David Carroll and a journalist all at once.
About: privacy · democracy · manipulation
The Edge of Democracy 2019
Documentary
A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.
The sides of The Edge of Democracy
- Lula and Dilma Rousseff up close
- An impeachment seen from inside the palace
- A director whose own family is part of the story
Good for you if
- you like watching who really holds power in a country fall apart in real time.
- you want the Brazil of Lula and Dilma Rousseff filmed from the inside.
- you like a political story told through the director's own parents and grandparents.
Bad for you if
- you won't read subtitles for two hours of Portuguese.
- you need some hope by the end, not a divided country left as it is.
About: democracy · polarization · memory

The Untold History Of The United States 2012
Documentary
Oliver Stone charts the history of the United States from the Second World War to the present.
The sides of The Untold History Of The United States
- Oliver Stone narrating American history
- From the Second World War to the present
- Presidents, bombs and the Cold War
Good for you if
- you like a sweeping run through the American century.
- you like asking who really made the big decisions.
- you like archive footage of real leaders and real events.
Bad for you if
- you find almost ten hours too much for one documentary.
- you'd rather not spend hours on wars and bombs.
About: empire · power · memory
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward 2011
Documentary
A presentation of a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society. This subject matter will transcend the issues of cultural relativism and traditional ideology and move to relate the core, empirical 'life ground' attributes of human and social survival, extrapolating those immutable natural laws into a new sustainable social paradigm called a 'Resource-Based Economy'.
The sides of Zeitgeist: Moving Forward
- A case against the monetary system
- A proposed resource-based economy
- Interviews, animation and narration
Good for you if
- you like questioning who money really serves.
- you like hearing real experts such as Gabor Maté and Robert Sapolsky on what shapes human behaviour.
Bad for you if
- you can't sit through two hours and forty minutes of argument.
- you roll your eyes at a film that pleads one case from start to finish.
About: money · society · sustainability
Inside Job 2010
Documentary
A film that exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.
The sides of Inside Job
- The 2008 financial crisis, from Iceland to Wall Street
- Bankers, regulators and economists in front of the camera
- Professors who can't answer a simple question
Good for you if
- you want to know who made money from the crash and who paid.
- you like a case built with real figures, real names and real interviews.
- you like interviews where the person in the chair starts to squirm.
Bad for you if
- you don't want to follow derivatives and credit default swaps for an evening.
- you want a reassuring ending. Here almost nobody goes to jail.
About: greed · corruption · the economy
The Fog of War 2003
Documentary
Former corporate whiz kid Robert McNamara was the controversial Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, during the height of the Vietnam War. Augmented by archival footage and cabinet conversation recordings, Errol Morris gives the conflicted McNamara a platform on which he attempts to confront his and the U.S. government's actions in Southeast Asia in light of the horrors of modern warfare, the end of ideology and the punitive judgment of history.
The sides of The Fog of War
- Robert McNamara looking back at his life
- The Cuban missile crisis and Vietnam
- White House recordings
Good for you if
- you like hearing a man in power explain his own decisions.
- you want the Cold War told from inside the room.
- you want to think about how wars are decided and why they go wrong.
Bad for you if
- you want a clear verdict on McNamara, and the film leaves you to judge him.
- you need momentum, and this is one man talking to the camera.
About: responsibility · war · memory · power
The Dissident 2020
Documentary
When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world are left to piece together the clues to a brutal murder and expose a global cover up perpetrated by the very country he loved.
The sides of The Dissident
- A journalist who walks into a consulate in Istanbul
- His fiancée waiting outside
- Dissidents fighting a state online
Good for you if
- you want the facts of the Jamal Khashoggi case laid out piece by piece.
- you like an investigation that plays like a thriller.
- you want to understand how a state hunts its critics abroad.
Bad for you if
- you can't sit with a real murder and the grief of the people left behind.
- you can't hear the details of a killing described.
About: free speech · surveillance · impunity
Oppenheimer 2023
Film
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
The sides of Oppenheimer
- The man who built the bomb
- A secret town in the desert
- A hearing that decides his fate
Good for you if
- you like a lead performance carried by the eyes.
- you like rooms full of brilliant people arguing.
- you want to feel the first test in your chest.
Bad for you if
- three hours of talking is too much for one evening.
- you want action. It's mostly meetings and hearings.
- you want a story told in order. It jumps between periods.
About: guilt · power · science
The Corporation 2003
Documentary
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.
The sides of The Corporation
- The corporation treated as a legal person
- A psychiatric checklist applied to big business
- Interviews with CEOs, activists and economists
Good for you if
- you want to understand how companies came to hold so much power.
- you like real case studies more than abstract theory.
- you enjoy a long argument built from dozens of interviews.
Bad for you if
- nearly two and a half hours of documentary is too much for you.
- you want striking images, and this is built from interviews and archive footage.
About: capitalism · democracy · responsibility
Why We Fight 2005
Documentary
Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.
The sides of Why We Fight
- Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex
- A retired New York policeman who lost his son on 9/11
- Soldiers, officials and arms makers on the Iraq war
Good for you if
- you want to understand how money and politics shape war.
- you want to trace America's wars from Eisenhower's farewell speech to Baghdad.
- you want the Iraq war seen from Washington and the factories.
Bad for you if
- a father's grief and bombings on screen are too much for you.
- you'd rather make up your own mind than follow a film that argues one side.
About: power · war · grief
Zeitgeist: The Movie 2007
Documentary
A documentary examining possible historical and modern conspiracies surrounding Christianity, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Federal Reserve bank.
The sides of Zeitgeist: The Movie
- A claim that the Jesus story comes from sun myths
- An argument about what happened on 9/11
- A history of the Federal Reserve and the dollar
Good for you if
- you like a film that goes after banks, churches and governments at once.
- you like archive footage and narration built into an argument.
- you want a film about the real world rather than a story.
Bad for you if
- you need the claims to hold up when you check them.
- you can't sit through two hours of voice-over and archive footage in one evening.
About: belief · money · power
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks 2013
Documentary
Julian Assange. Bradley Manning. Collateral murder. Cablegate. WikiLeaks. These people and terms have exploded into public consciousness by fundamentally changing the way democratic societies deal with privacy, secrecy, and the right to information, perhaps for generations to come. We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is an extensive examination of all things related to WikiLeaks and the larger global debate over access to information.
The sides of We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
- Julian Assange and the rise of WikiLeaks
- Chelsea Manning and the leaked war files
- Governments, secrets and journalists
Good for you if
- you like seeing who controls secrets and who pays for leaking them.
- you want the real story behind Cablegate and the war logs.
- you'd rather judge Assange yourself than be handed a hero.
Bad for you if
- you find two hours of interviews too much for one evening.
- you can't watch real footage, filmed from a helicopter, of civilians shot in Baghdad.
About: secrecy · freedom of information · power · betrayal
Watchmen 2009
Film
In a gritty and alternate 1985, the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown. But after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so they uncover a sinister plot that puts all of humanity in grave danger.
The sides of Watchmen
- Retired heroes in an alternate 1985
- A masked detective investigating a murder
- A blue man who sees all time at once
Good for you if
- you like comic panels brought to life frame by frame.
- you like a dark take on what heroes really are.
- you like an ending that asks a moral question.
Bad for you if
- graphic violence ruins it for you.
- nearly three hours is too much for one evening.
- sex scenes and nudity aren't for you.
About: power · morality · history
The Square 2013
Documentary
The Square looks at the hard realities faced day-to-day by people working to build Egypt’s new democracy. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is the heart and soul of the film, which follows several young activists. Armed with values, determination, music, humor, an abundance of social media, and sheer obstinacy, they know that the thorny path to democracy only began with Hosni Mubarak’s fall. The life-and-death struggle between the people and the power of the state is still playing out.
The sides of The Square
- Young activists in Cairo's Tahrir Square
- The fall of Mubarak and what came after
- Protesters facing the army
Good for you if
- you want to be in Tahrir Square with the people who filled it.
- you like seeing a revolution struggle against the army and the Brotherhood.
- you like history filmed as it happened.
Bad for you if
- you won't read subtitles.
- you need a revolution story that ends in victory.
About: freedom · revolution · hope

The Civil War 1990
Documentary
A documentary on the American Civil War narrated by Ken Burns, covering the secession of the Confederacy to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
The sides of The Civil War
- Archive photographs of soldiers and battlefields
- Letters and diaries read aloud
- From secession to Lincoln's assassination
Good for you if
- you want to understand how the United States came apart and back together.
- you like a haunting fiddle tune that returns through every episode.
- you want the battles told through the people who fought them.
Bad for you if
- you can't give more than ten hours to one documentary.
- you need moving footage, not slow pans over still photographs.
About: slavery · the union · sacrifice
The Unknown Known 2013
Documentary
Former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld discusses his career in Washington D.C. from his days as a congressman in the early 1960s to planning the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The sides of The Unknown Known
- Donald Rumsfeld facing the camera
- His thousands of office memos
- The road to the Iraq war
Good for you if
- you want to hear a man who ran the Pentagon explain himself.
- you like Errol Morris questioning someone who plays with words.
- you're fine ending a film without a clear answer about the man.
Bad for you if
- you need more than one man talking for an hour and a half.
- you'd rather not revisit the Iraq war through the man who planned it.
About: power · language · responsibility