What Documentary Shows and Movies to watch on Plex
Find what to watch on Plex including the latest releases. Filter by movies, TV shows, release years, genres and more.
Divine Divas
The Divine Divas are the icons of the first generation of Brazilian transvestite artists in the 1960's. One of the first stages to host men dressed as women was the Rival Theatre, ran by Américo Leal, the director's grandfather. The film shows the intimacy, the talent and the stories of a generation that revolutionized the sexual behavior and defied the moral of a time.

- 2016
Bruno Sammartino
Bruno Sammartino sold-out Madison Square Garden 189 times! Arnold Schwarzenegger called him “The Star of all-stars”. The escape from the Nazis to the world’s strongest man… root for Bruno all-over-again, the greatest champion of all time.

- 2019
After Jackie
Follows the second wave of Black baseball players, such as Bill White, Curt Flood and Bob Gibson, in their fight for equality.

- 2022
Festival Express
In the summer of 1970, a chartered train crossed Canada carrying some of the world's greatest rock bands. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Buddy Guy, The Flying Burrito Brothers and others lived (and partied) together for five days, stopping in major cities along the way to play live concerts. Their journey was filmed.

- Metascore85
- 2003
Stander
In mid-1970s Johannesburg, white police officer Andre Stander (Thomas Jane) suffers a crisis of conscience due to his involvement in apartheid and becomes a notorious bank robber on the run. Then from 1983 to 1984, the "Stander gang" (Stander, Alan Heyl, and Patrick McCall) rob as many as four banks a day.

- Metascore62
- 2003
Trumbo
Through a focus on the life of Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), this film examines the effects on individuals and families of a congressional pursuit of Hollywood Communists after World War II. Trumbo was one of several writers, directors, and actors who invoked the First Amendment in refusing to answer questions under oath. They were blacklisted and imprisoned. We follow Trumbo to prison, to exile in Mexico with his family, to poverty, to the public shunning of his children, to his writing under others' names, and to an eventual but incomplete vindication. Actors read his letters; his children and friends remember and comment. Archive photos, newsreels and interviews add texture.

- Metascore71
- 2007
The Courage to Love
In 19th century New Orleans a new class of colored people has arisen. They are creoles, a result of relations between African-Americans and wealthy European people. Children are born, there is love, but marriage is out of the question. Colored people are still not considered equal. Henriette Delille is a very religious creole. The time she has she spends on educating, care and helping out in church. On the day her father Jean-Baptiste leaves her mother Pouponne to marry a white woman, Henriette is supposed to meet her arranged future 'caretaker' Paul Cartier. But she refuses him, defying every tradition and so bringing her mother to madness. She becomes friends with the French doctor Gerard Gaultier. He is in love with her and wants her to move to France, so they can be legally married. Henriette is torn apart by her feelings for Gerard and her devotion to the church. She must choose, but neither choice is going to be an easy one as there are people who greatly disapprove of Henriette's ideas of breaking traditions.

- 2000
Polytechnique
On December 6, 1989, a lone gunman walked into Montréal's École Polytechnique (in Canada), a post-secondary institution focusing primarily in engineering, and began a shooting massacre. This event and its aftermath are shown from the perspective of three people. The first is the shooter himself, who blamed the problems in his life on who he considered feminists, such as female engineering students, who were his primary targets. This event was the culmination of a seven year plan, which had a self-defined end. The second is female mechanical engineering student Valérie, who earlier that day had an interview for her dream internship, working on an aerospace project. The interview process itself was a disturbing one for her in the stereotypical view by the male interviewer, who did not believe that females could work in the business and still have aspirations to have a family. And the third is Jean-François, Valérie's friend and fellow mechanical engineering student, who was one of the few who did whatever he could to help the targeted women.

- Metascore63
- 2009
Prom Night in Mississippi
In 1997, Academy Award winning actor, Morgan Freeman, who lives in the Charleston, Mississippi community, offered to fund the first-ever integrated Senior Prom in the history of Charleston's one high school. His offer was ignored. In 2008, Morgan offered again... the East Tallahatchie County School Board accepted. In this town of 2,300 people, its high school of 415 black and white students has, to this day, always had separate proms: one black, one white prom. Our film follows the Charleston High senior class of 2008 preparing and attending their historic, first integrated prom, in the context of strong emotions, traditions, and conflict inherent in race relations in the community, and in the deep south. Some of the white parents maintained their whites-only prom.

- 2009
No Impact Man: The Documentary
Follow the Manhattan-based Beavan family as they abandon their high consumption 5th Avenue lifestyle and try to live a year while making no net environmental impact.

- Metascore66
- 2009
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Five people are killed in a freak accident, when a lofty rope bridge collapses. The film details a Priet's journey to discover if there is a divine reason for the bloody disaster. Set in Lima, Peru, during the 18th Century. Based on the Thornton Wilder novel, and first made in 1929.

- Metascore25
- 2004
I Am Slave
Based on the real-life experiences of Mende Nazer,the story unfolds as twelve-year-old Malia,daughter of champion wrestler Bah,is abducted from her Sudanese village in the Nubar Mountains by pro-government Arab militia and sold into slavery to a woman in Khartoum,who beats her for touching her daughter. After six years she is sent to London,where her name is changed,but her miserable life of servitude continues. Her passport is taken and she is told that her father will die if she goes to the authorities. Fortunately she meets a sympathetic person who seems to offer her the hope of escape and reunion with Bah,back in Sudan. For all the film's optimism an end title states that there are around 5,000 'slave' workers currently in Britain.

- 2010
Sharkwater
Sharkwater - The Story "An eye-opening film...visually stunning... this movie will change the way you see our oceans." - Bonnie Laufer, Tribute Magazine For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth. Driven by passion fed from a life-long fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas. Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. In an effort to protect sharks, Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure together starts with a battle between the Sea Shepherd and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives. Through it all, Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth's history of mass extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed. Stewart's remarkable journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the world's sharks, into a fight for his life, and that of humankind.

- Metascore59
- 2006
Sinatra Club
It's 1972 and the Mafia crime families are at war, but that isn't enough to stop a young, unknown John Gotti, who has big ideas and even bigger ambitions. In order to put an end to a two decades' conflict, Gotti pulls together an unlikely crew made up of one member from each crime family to pull off a silver bullion heist. If Gotti can keep these criminal misfits from killing each other and succeed with this problem-riddled heist he will secure himself a spot in mafia history. This gang of misfit gangsters, hijackers and wanna-bees, all in their late 20's, hang out playing cards at a gambling den known as the "Sinatra Club" owned by Crazy Salvatore Polisi, the narrator of our story. At the time, nobody is getting "made" because all the families are at war. What's worse, the bosses have no idea who John and his underlings are. Determined to make a name for himself, John masterminds a scheme that will either squash the beef among the five families or get him and his whole crew killed. First he has to get his mentor and idol Charlie Fatico, a powerful captain in the Gambino crime family, to get the go ahead from the big boss Carlo Gambino. With the old man's blessing, the wheels are set in motion for a heist like no other. The plan is simple: use a guy from each family through the Club, hijack an armored truck loaded with silver bullion, and give each boss a piece of the action. What could be simpler? At the end, every Mafia boss will know who John Gotti is and, more importantly, owe him for helping end the bloodshed while enriching their coffers. He will be in the bigs and finally be a "somebody." The only problem with this simple plan is that it is anything but simple. As the clock ticks, the crew find more holes in the plan than in the mobsters who are getting whacked all over town. With the bosses of all five families waiting for their piece, the boys are off the poker table and on the street literally playing for their lives!

- 2010
The Brass Ring
In the summer of 2002, a group of friends in rural Ohio set out to create their own Super-8mm zombie epic, inspired by a generation of regional filmmakers before them. Lead by William Schotten, a salesman and horror fan with no prior filmmaking experience, and J.J. Zetts, an I.T. consultant, the group is sure that success is at hand. Or is it? This is their story.

- 2009
The Real Bruce Lee
He's back. An early Bruce Lee film found in the Chinese archives, which introduces the "new sensation" Ryong Keo and Bruce Li - the complete fury of martial arts as never before.

- 1977

- Metascore60
- 2010
Freakonomics
A collection of documentaries that explores the hidden side of human nature through the use of the science of economics.

- Metascore58
- 2010
Sons of Perdition
An inside look at former FLDS teens who have become religious refugees in mainstream America.

- 2010
Alleged
Alleged is a romantic drama based on events occurring behind the scenes and outside the courtroom of the famous Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925. Charles Anderson, a talented young reporter, feels trapped working for his deceased father's weekly newspaper and living in a tiny town (Dayton, TN) in steep decline. Seeing the "Monkey Trial" as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break into the journalistic big leagues, Charles manages to insert himself into the middle of the "Trial of the Century." Once in the midst of this staged event, however, he is torn between his love for the more principled Rose, his fiancée, and the escalating moral compromises that he is asked to make as the eager protégé of H.L. Mencken, America's most colorful and influential columnist.

- 2010
Ethos
This documentary examines the flaws in our systems, and the mechanisms that work against democracy and the environment. From conflicts of interests in politics and unregulated corporate power, to a news media that serves the interests of powerful elites; ETHOS explores the systems that lead us into over consumption and warfare. Too often the media celebrates aspects of our society that belong in the dark ages, while at the same time ignoring or ridiculing progressive thinking or ideas. Many aspects of the way our systems work almost guarantee our destruction as a society and that's what this film is about. Fractured societies, poverty, disparity, pollution, warfare. Is there something inherently wrong with the human race? Is that what we should think of ourselves? We have tried to set up forms of law and government that safeguard the public good. But, if the majority of people want to live in peace and justice in a clean environment and we look around at the world and see that isn't the case, then is our democracy broken? Every time we turn on the TV there is another environmental catastrophe. Our water, our air, poisoned. Why do we allow this? The news shows endless reels of starving refugees fleeing to escape war zones. Why are we still fighting endless wars? Why do we live like this? If these things are happening then they are the logical outcomes to the way our systems work. So, what is wrong with the system? And more importantly, how can we fix it? These are the question Ethos attempts to answer.

- 2011
Monty Python Conquers America
An affectionate look back over the years through many personal interviews with the Monty Python troupe and those who helped their launch in America starting with live shows to the release of the Holy Grail and early days of their PBS run.

- 2008
Picture Me
Supermodel Sara Ziff offers an insider's view of the glitzy world of high fashion modeling. From photo shoots with celebrated photographers to runway shows in New York, Milan, and Paris, this intimate account features in-depth interviews with noted photographers, designers, and the models themselves, giving voice to those who are often seen, but rarely heard.

- Metascore44
- 2009
True Legend
Su Qi-Er retired from his life as a renowned Qing dynasty general in order to pursue his dream of a family and his own martial arts school. However, Su's peaceful life is shattered when his vengeful adopted brother, Yuan Lie, kidnaps his son and leaves Su for dead. Saved from his demise by his wife Ying and the reclusive doctor Yu, Su resolves to perfect his technique so that he may defeat Yuan Lie and reunite his family. Suffering from visions that he aided in his training by two of the "Eight Immortals" in the form of the mystical "God of Wushu" and the eccentric "Old Sage" master of Drunken Boxing. He embarks on the path that would eventually give rise to the legend of the "King of Beggars."

- Metascore62
- 2010