Documentaries to Inspire and Fire You Up

This year’s DocFest line-up covered everything from true crime (Poisoned) to music (Live Aid: When Rock 'n' Roll Took on the World) to mental health (Heston: My Life with Bipolar). These new releases are just the tip of a documentary iceberg that has earned a prime spot in cinemas and TV schedules around the world right now.  

Think about some of the incredible topics that have been examined in recent documentaries. Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster covers the extraordinary tale of a would-be tourist visit to the famous wreck that went horribly wrong, while Grenfell: Uncovered examines the tragic 2017 fire that claimed the lives of over 70 people and laid bare a series of safety failures. 

Many recent documentaries have taken a similarly campaigning angle on the world. Asif Kapadia’s 2073 is a sort of sci-fi documentary, a look at how the world could be in just over 50 years if we don’t change course. Black Box Diaries, the Oscar-nominated film by Japanese journalist Shiori Itō, chronicles her own sexual assault and attempts to bring the perpetrator to justice in a case that was pivotal to Japan’s #MeToo movement.  

Of course there are all sorts of activism on screen. Queendom is Agniya Galdanova’s account of the dissident Russian artist Gena Marvin and her provocative performances, highlighting that government’s persecution of LGBTQ+ people. 2023’s Phantom Parrot looks at government surveillance of data through the case of a human rights activist arrested after refusing to share his data with border patrol, while the animated doc Flee from 2021 follows the journey of an Afghan refugee to Denmark in search of a place of safety. That was Oscar nominated too. Is There Anybody Out There?, from Ella Glendining, uses her own rare condition to explore ableism and self-love too, because prejudice against those with disabilities is still an underexplored topic. 

There has also been some fascinating historical storytelling in recent years. Steve McQueen (Widows, Blitz, 12 Years a Slave) recently made Occupied City, juxtaposing footage of present-day Amsterdam with the same spots in World War II to mesmerising and sometimes horrifying effect. 7/7: Homegrown Terror, at Sheffield DocFest this year, looks at the London terror attacks of 2005. And on a more micro scale, The Mission examines faith, pride and colonialism through the all too short life of John Allen Chau, who died when trying to minister to a remote tribe. 

This is, of course, before we even mention traditionally fruitful areas for documentary makers. The father of the wildlife documentary, Sir David Attenborough (Blue Planet, Planet Earth), is still out there narrating, explaining and campaigning with this year’s Ocean with David Attenborough at the age of 99. His latest film offers a way to save our seas and maybe, with them, the planet. For the times when he’s not available, we have sterling efforts from Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville, who narrates last year’s The Secret Lives of Animals, or you could turn to Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), who voiced Octopus! last year. Even Ryan “Deadpool” Reynolds (Life) gets in on the action in Underdogs, while Tom Hanks (Inferno) headlines The Americas. 

Fashion addicts will find the hottest stories in McQueen – the story of Alexander rather than Steve, above – or High & Low - John Galliano. If you prefer true crime, try The Diamond Heist or Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story or Curse of the Chippendales. 

Film fans, unsurprisingly, have a plethora of options. Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger is a sweeping look at the mid-century masterpieces of that filmmaking team, led by Martin Scorsese, or you could try the wild filmography of Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer or The Real Charlie Chaplin, if you prefer to go further back. For something more moving, try last year’s Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, and if you need a laugh after that Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror was at Sheffield this month and charts the course of that cult favourite through the decades. 

As ever, music fans are spoiled for choice. Just in the last couple of years we’ve had Simple Minds: Everything is Possible about the titular Scottish band, which makes an interesting companion piece to Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound, given that they’re also Glaswegian. One to One: John & Yoko does the impossible and finds untold stories about the legendary love affair of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, while Becoming Led Zeppelin sheds light on the legendary band and is their first ever authorised documentary. Or try the Luther Vandross story in Luther: Never Too Much, or only a couple of years back you can check out If These Walls Could Sing, about the iconic Abbey Road Studios. Blur: To The End showed that band reuniting for their first live shows in years, while Meet Me in the Bathroom looks at the New York indie rock scene of the 1990s and early 2000s. 

If sports is more your thing, there’s Copa 71, about the attempts to launch the Women’s World Cup; Beckham, the fun and intimate documentary about the soccer star and F1: The Academy, about female race car drivers. For something sports-related but less competitive, try Long Way Home, where friends Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman somehow cross 17 countries on their motorbike trip from Scotland to England, in another instalment of their long (emphasis on the long) running travel series (after Long Way Round, Long Way Down and Long Way Up). 

There is, in short, a wealth of real-life material out there to inspire you, infuriate you or simply inform you about our world. The only question is where to start.