Documentary of the Week

WNYC
  • 4.2 (16)
  • DOCUMENTARY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Technology has made non-fiction film easier to make, more available and more popular than ever before. Here, WNYC selects the best documentaries as they come to screens of any size.

  1. 'Antidote' profiles a journalist on Russia's wanted list

    05/09/2025

    'Antidote' profiles a journalist on Russia's wanted list

    'Antidote' profiles the Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev, who's uncovered hundreds of Russian secret agents. Filmmaker James Jones follows Grozev after European authorities inform him that he's being targeted by assassins.

    2 min
  2. 'River of Grass' explores the Everglades

    05/02/2025

    'River of Grass' explores the Everglades

    'River of Grass' profiles a range of figures who interact with the Everglades in the past and present, including a Miccosukee educator, a python hunter, and the pioneering environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Filmmaker Sasha Wortzel will attend the film's New York premiere at the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History.

    2 min
  3. 'Drop Dead City' covers New York in the '70s

    04/25/2025

    'Drop Dead City' covers New York in the '70s

    'Drop Dead City' is a deeply researched history of New York's financial crisis in the mid-70s. Filmmakers Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn interview a wide range of people who were involved at many levels.

    2 min
  4. John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 'One to One'

    04/11/2025

    John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 'One to One'

    'One to One: John & Yoko' uses archival footage, including telephone calls heard for the first time, to capture the radical politics and performances of New York in the early 1970s. Filmmaker Kevin MacDonald frames the story in a way that has eerie echoes in the present.

    2 min
  5. 'We Want the Funk' moves your mind and body

    04/05/2025

    'We Want the Funk' moves your mind and body

    'We Want the Funk' explores several decades of the highly danceable music genre, ranging from James Brown to Fela Kuti. Filmmakers Stanley Nelson and Nicole London combine dazzling performance footage with sharp analysis of the politics and artistry of funk.

    2 min
  6. 'Secret Mall Apartment' explores a rebellious art project

    03/28/2025

    'Secret Mall Apartment' explores a rebellious art project

    'Secret Mall Apartment' profiles a group of Rhode Island artists who created a hidden sanctum inside the Providence Place shopping center where they lived for four years. Filmmaker Jeremy Workman interviews the key participants, many of whom have never spoken publicly before.

    2 min
  7. Looking back at Japan's Aum cult

    03/21/2025

    Looking back at Japan's Aum cult

    'Aum: The Cult at the End of the World' looks back at the religious fanaticism behind the deadly Tokyo subway attack in 1995. Filmmakers Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto explore how Aum grew in popularity and wasn't taken seriously as a criminal enterprise.

    2 min
  8. 'Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse' profiles the cartoonist of 'Maus'

    02/21/2025

    'Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse' profiles the cartoonist of 'Maus'

    'Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse' profiles the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who crafted the classic Holocaust memoir 'Maus.' Filmmakers Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin use Spiegelman's career to reveal a hidden history of comics.

    2 min
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4.2
out of 5
16 Ratings

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Technology has made non-fiction film easier to make, more available and more popular than ever before. Here, WNYC selects the best documentaries as they come to screens of any size.

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