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 JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass 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

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
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
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
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
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
The Martha Mitchell Effect 2022
Documentary
She was once as famous as Jackie O—and then she tried to take down a President. Martha Mitchell was the unlikeliest of whistleblowers: a Republican wife who was discredited by Nixon to keep her quiet. Until now.
The sides of The Martha Mitchell Effect
- The wife of Nixon's attorney general
- Late-night phone calls to reporters
- A campaign to call her crazy
Good for you if
- you like seeing how Nixon's men silenced a woman who talked.
- you want the forgotten true story of Martha Mitchell.
- you like Watergate seen from an unexpected side.
Bad for you if
- you find 1970s TV archive footage dated.
- you want the full Watergate story. This runs forty minutes and stays on Martha.
About: truth · political scandal · gaslighting
Get Me Roger Stone 2017
Documentary
From his days of testifying at the Watergate hearings to advising recent presidential candidate Donald Trump, Roger Stone has long offended people on both sides of the political fence as a force in conservative America. Outspoken author, pundit, ahead of his time election strategist, this is his story.
The sides of Get Me Roger Stone
- Roger Stone from Nixon to Trump
- A strategist proud of his dirty tricks
- His own rules for politics
Good for you if
- you like spending time with someone who's proud of his dirty tricks.
- you want Roger Stone explaining himself in his own words.
- you like tracing American campaigns from Watergate to 2016.
Bad for you if
- you'd rather not spend an evening on campaign politics.
- you can't take a film made almost entirely of interviews and pundits talking.
About: power · image · politics
The Vietnam War 2017
Documentary
An immersive 360-degree narrative telling the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. Featuring testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides.
The sides of The Vietnam War
- Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's history of the war
- American veterans, protesters and Vietnamese witnesses
- From French Indochina to the fall of Saigon
Good for you if
- you want the whole war, from the French colonial years to 1975.
- you like hearing soldiers from both sides describe the same battles.
- you want witnesses rather than actors.
Bad for you if
- ten long episodes is too much for you.
- you can't stand real footage of combat and the dead.
About: war · lies of power · memory
O.J.: Made in America 2016
Documentary
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
The sides of O.J.: Made in America
- A football star's rise in the 1960s and 70s
- Los Angeles, race and the LAPD
- The 1995 murder trial and what came after
Good for you if
- you want to understand a trial through the city around it.
- you like a true crime story told with care for the facts.
- you want O.J. the running back at USC and Buffalo, long before the trial.
Bad for you if
- nearly eight hours is too much for you.
- you can't look at real crime scene photos of two victims.
About: race · fame · justice · America
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
Hitler: A Career 1977
Documentary
A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the Third Reich (1933-1945), but also an analysis of mass psychology and how the desperate crowd can be deceived and shepherded to the slaughterhouse.
The sides of Hitler: A Career
- Archive footage of Hitler's rise
- Crowds at Nazi rallies
- The Weimar Republic sliding into dictatorship
Good for you if
- you want to understand how the Weimar Republic fell to the Nazis.
- you're interested in how crowds are swayed by propaganda.
- you want the story told through footage from the time.
Bad for you if
- two and a half hours of archive footage is too much for you.
- you can't sit through so many images of Nazi crowds and war.
About: propaganda · mass psychology · dictatorship
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
Zero Days 2016
Documentary
Alex Gibney explores the phenomenon of Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer virus discovered in 2010 by international IT experts. Evidently commissioned by the US and Israeli governments, this malware was designed to specifically sabotage Iran’s nuclear programme. However, the complex computer worm ended up not only infecting its intended target but also spreading uncontrollably.
The sides of Zero Days
- A computer worm aimed at Iran's nuclear program
- Officials who won't speak on record
- Alex Gibney chasing who built Stuxnet
Good for you if
- you like a true story about the first cyberweapon to break real machines.
- you want to know how governments wage secret wars with code.
- you like an investigation that feels like a spy thriller.
Bad for you if
- you want things blowing up, and this is mostly interviews and lines of code.
- you need clear answers, and many people here refuse to give them.
About: secrecy · cyberwar · state power

La trattativa 2014
Documentary
What are we talking about when we talk about negotiations? About the state's concessions to the Mafia in exchange for ending the massacres? About who assassinated Falcone and Borsellino? Of the eternal coexistence between the Mafia and politics? Between the mafia and the church? Between the Mafia and law enforcement? Or is there more? A group of actors enacts the most relevant episodes of the affair known as the Mafia-state negotiation, impersonating mobsters, secret service agents, high officials, magistrates, victims and murderers, Freemasons, honest and courageous people, and courageous people up to a point. Thus one of the most intricate events in our history becomes an exciting tale.
The sides of La trattativa
- Actors re-enacting the talks between the Italian state and the Mafia
- The murders of judges Falcone and Borsellino
- Mobsters, secret agents and politicians
Good for you if
- you want to understand one of Italy's most tangled true affairs.
- you're drawn to how the Mafia worked alongside the state.
- you like a film that asks who made deals with whom, and why.
Bad for you if
- you won't read subtitles for a film in Italian.
- you lose track among dozens of officials, mobsters and magistrates.
About: corruption · the mafia · justice · memory
Hearts and Minds 1974
Documentary
Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.
The sides of Hearts and Minds
- Interviews with generals and veterans
- Vietnamese villagers after the bombing
- The Vietnam War filmed while it was still going on
Good for you if
- you want to see what the Vietnam War did to the people on both sides.
- you like a film made in the middle of the events it shows.
- you like seeing official speeches set against what happened on the ground.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch real footage of napalm and wounded civilians.
- you find seventies footage dated.
About: war · propaganda · guilt
The Post 2017
Film
A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired by true events.
The sides of The Post
- Katharine Graham running The Washington Post
- The Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War
- Editors racing a court order to print
Good for you if
- you like the true story of the Pentagon Papers.
- you like a newspaper standing up to the Nixon White House.
- you like newsroom arguments between Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.
Bad for you if
- you need more than phone calls and printing presses.
- you roll your eyes at speeches about freedom of the press.
About: freedom of the press · courage · women in power
The Times of Harvey Milk 1984
Documentary
Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.
The sides of The Times of Harvey Milk
- Harvey Milk's rise in San Francisco politics
- One of the first openly gay elected officials in the US
- The 1978 assassination and the city's response
Good for you if
- you want the real Harvey Milk, in the footage of his time.
- you like seeing 1970s San Francisco and its fight for gay rights.
- you can be moved by a candlelight march for a murdered man.
Bad for you if
- you'd rather not sit through a real assassination and its grief.
- you find 1980s documentary footage dated.
About: gay rights · political courage · grief
Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi 2022
Documentary
Rome, 1983. After leaving a music lesson, 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi vanishes — embroiling the Vatican in a decades-long mystery.
The sides of Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi
- A 15-year-old girl who vanished in Rome in 1983
- A brother who never stopped searching
- Questions that reach the Vatican
Good for you if
- you want a careful account of a real family's long search.
- you like following theories and leads across four decades.
- you want to see how powerful institutions answer hard questions.
Bad for you if
- you won't read subtitles for an Italian documentary.
- you need a case with a clear answer at the end.
About: grief · secrecy · the Church · justice

Hugo Chávez, El Comandante 2017
Documentary
The life of Hugo Chavez; from childhood, his arrival to power, confrontations, and loves to his last days as president.
The sides of Hugo Chávez, El Comandante
- A soldier from the Venezuelan plains who becomes president
- A failed coup and a prison cell
- Years of speeches and oil money
Good for you if
- you want the life of a real president, from childhood to his last days.
- you like watching how a man takes a country and keeps it.
- you want the Venezuela of the nineties and the two thousands up close.
Bad for you if
- you won't read subtitles through a Spanish-language series.
- you want suspense, and you already know how this life ends.
About: power · ambition · a country