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.
Breaker Morant
During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.

- Metascore73
- 1980
Dark Days
Near Penn Station, next to the Amtrak tracks, squatters have been living for years. Marc Singer goes underground to live with them, and films this "family." A dozen or so men and one woman talk about their lives: horrors of childhood, jail time, losing children, being coke-heads. They scavenge, they've built themselves sturdy one-room shacks; they have pets, cook, chat, argue, give each other haircuts. A bucket is their toilet. Leaky overhead pipes are a source of water for showers. They live in virtual darkness. During the filming, Amtrak gives a 30-day eviction notice.

- Metascore75
- 2000
Cass
An orphaned Jamaican baby is adopted by an elderly white couple and brought up in an all white area of London and becomes one of the most feared and respected men in Britain. Based on a true story.

- 2008
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead
Featuring rare and never-before-seen footage, this is the mind-boggling story of "The National Lampoon" from its subversive and electrifying beginnings to rebirth as an unlikely Hollywood heavyweight, and beyond. A humor empire like no other, the impact of the magazine's irreverent, often shocking sensibility was nothing short of seismic: this is an institution whose (drunk stoned brilliant) alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture. Both insanely great and breathtakingly innovative, "The National Lampoon" created the foundation of modern comic sensibility by setting the comedy bar impossibly high.

- Metascore74
- 2015
Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story
Based on a true story, former parole officer Marilyn Gambrell and a colleague set up a pioneer trial-based program in one of America's toughest high schools to help the children of incarcerated parents regain control of their own lives and not expect the same thing to happen as it did to their parents. To the surprise of everyone, the program works, but the administration warns the duo that it will not last unless every senior student is able to pass his or her final exams and graduate with the class. As the end of the school year approaches, Gambrell faces a crisis to save everything she believes in or lose it all.

- 2005
Modigliani
Set in Paris in 1919, this biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days and his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. The Jewish Modigliani has fallen in love with young, beautiful Catholic Jeanne. They have an illegitimate child, whom Jeanne's bigoted parents send to a faraway convent to be raised by nuns. The distraught Modigliani needs money to rescue and raise his child. The answer arrives in the shape of Paris' annual art competition. Prize money and a guaranteed career await the winner. Neither Modigliani nor his dearest friend and rival Picasso has ever entered the competition, believing that it is beneath true artists like themselves. But push comes to shove with his child's welfare on the line, and Modigliani signs up for the competition in a drunken and drug-induced tirade. Picasso follows suit, and all of Paris is aflutter with excitement about who will win. With the balance of his relationship with Jeanne on the line, Modigliani tackles this work with the hopes of creating a masterpiece, and knows that all the artists of Paris are doing the same.

- Metascore25
- 2004
Fighting with My Family
Former wrestler Ricky and his wife Julia make a living performing with their children Saraya and Zak. When brother and sister get the chance to audition for WWE, they learn that becoming a WWE Superstar demands more than they ever imagined possible.

- Metascore68
- 2019
Factory Girl
A beautiful, wealthy young party girl drops out of Radcliffe in 1965 and heads to New York to become Holly Golightly. When she meets a hungry young artist named Andy Warhol, he promises to make her the star she always wanted to be. And like a super nova she explodes on the New York scene only to find herself slowly lose grip on reality...

- Metascore45
- 2006
Salem Witch Trials
A masterful work accurately details the current consensus of what exactly occurred to prompt the colonial witch trials.

- 2002
Carry On
During the brutal withdrawal of Japanese forces at the end of WWII, a Chinese father does whatever he can to save his family.

- 2014
Murderball
Quad rugby as played by the US team, between 2002 games in Sweden and the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. Young men, most with spinal injuries, play this rough and tumble sport in special chairs, seated gladiators. We get to know several and their families. They talk frankly about their injuries, feelings in public, sex lives, competitiveness, and love of the game. There's also an angry former team member gone north to coach the Canadian team, tough on everyone, including his viola-playing son. We meet a recently injured man, in rehab, at times close to despair, finding possible joy in quad rugby. After Athens, the team meets young men injured in war: the future stars of Team USA.

- Metascore87
- 2005
The Summit
In August 2008, 18 mountain climbers reached the top of K2. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had died or simply vanished into thin air. With breathtaking cinematography and jaw dropping reenactments, The Summit is a thrilling attempt to solve the mystery of what happened on K2 that fateful day.

- Metascore63
- 2012
Rosewater
Based of a true story about a journalist who gets detained and brutally interrogated in prison for 118 days. The journalist Maziar Bahari was blindfolded and interrogated for 4 months in Evin prison in Iran, while the only distinguishable feature about his captor is the distinct smell of rosewater. An interview and sketch that Maziar did with a journalist on The Daily Show (1996) was used as evidence that Maziar was a spy and in communication with the American government and the CIA.

- Metascore67
- 2014
The Fencer
Fleeing from the Russian secret police because of his controversial past, a young Estonian fencer named Endel is forced to return to his homeland, where he begins to train a group of young children in the art of fencing. However, the past catches up with him and he must choose between letting his students down or putting his life in danger. The movie is partially based on the real-life story of Estonian fencer Endel Nelis (1925-1993).

- Metascore60
- 2015
Iris
IRIS pairs the 87-year-old Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how, even at Iris' advanced age, a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. IRIS portrays a singular woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art and people are life's sustenance and reminds us that dressing, and indeed life, is nothing but an experiment. Despite the abundance of glamour in her current life, she continues to embrace the values and work ethic established during a middle-class Queens upbringing during the Great Depression. I feel lucky to be working. If you're lucky enough to do something you love, everything else follows.

- Metascore80
- 2014
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale I
During the Japanese rule of Taiwan, the Seediq were forced to lose their own culture and give up their faith. Men were subject to harsh labor and kept from traditional hunting; whereas women had to serve the Japanese policemen and their families by doing the household work and giving up their traditional weaving work. Above all, they were forbidden to tattoo their faces. And these tattoos were seen as the Seediq's traditional belief to transform themselves into Seediq Bale ("true humans"). Mona Rudao, the protagonist, witnessed the repression by the Japanese over a period of 30 years. Sometime between autumn and winter 1930, when the slave labor is at its harshest, a young Seediq couple are married and a joyful party is thrown. At the same time, a newly appointed Japanese policeman goes on his inspection tour to this tribe. Mona Rudao's first son, Tado Mona, offers wine to the policeman with gusto, but is in return beaten up because his hands were considered not clean enough. With anger, Tado Mona and his brother Baso Mona attack the policeman. And from that day onward, their tribe is living in the shadow of being the object of revenge by the Japanese. In a few days, a group of youth surround Mona Rudao. They strongly request him to lead the retaliation against the Japanese. Mona Rudao struggles for a long time between extending his fellow's lives and fighting back for dignity, until he sees these youngster's faces - clear without Seediq's tattoos - that he made up his mind. He tells the youngsters, "Japanese troops out-number the stones in Dakusui River, more intensive than the leaves in the forest, but my determination fighting them is ever stronger than Mt. Kire." "Children! On the tip of the Rainbow Bridge led to home of our ancestor's spirits, there is another beautiful hunting range. Our ancestors are all there! Remember, only brave spirits can enter this place, and we can never lose it. My fellows, let us hunt the heads of our enemies, and we wash our spirits with blood so that we walk the Rainbow Bridge to be always with our ancestors." The film Seediq Bale depicts the Wushe Incident, which occurred in central Taiwan during the Japanese rule. When the Seediq Bale, believing in the Rainbow, and the Japanese, believing in the Sun, met one another, they fought. The leader of Seediq Bale, Mona Rudao, led 300 warriors fighting against 3000 Japanese troopers. The only thing they forgot was whether it was the Rainbow or the Sun they believed in; they actually believed in the same sky.

- Metascore62
- 2011
Interlude in Prague
In 1786 Prague, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart spends a few turbulent months escaping the frustrating, privileged elite of Vienna, but his unconventional presence soon unleashes a series of dramatic and tragic events. Overwhelmed by the tangled web of violence and intrigue that surrounds him, and with his mind affected, Mozart creates the astonishing music and drama that becomes 'Don Giovanni'.

- 2017
Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story
Chef Eduardo Garcia went for a hike in the beautiful backcountry of Montana. Literally shocked when he touched a dead bear with his knife, he survived the 2400V jolt and walked out alive. Nearly two dozen surgeries take his left hand, four ribs, and significant muscle mass from his torso, legs, arms, and scalp. Despite all his loss, Eduardo says he would never go back. Charged tells Eduardo's journey from getting up off the forest floor to becoming the man he is today.

- 2017
After Porn Ends
After Porn Ends is a documentary that not only examines the lives and careers of some of the biggest names in the history of the adult entertainment industry but what happens to them after they leave the business and try and live the "normal" lives that millions of other Americans enjoy. They hailed from the rural South, steel towns, and the San Fernando Valley. As teenagers and young adults, none of them thought that porn was in their future. They were artists, baseball players, child prodigies, and even Ivy Leaguers. Now, after their lives in porn, they're TV stars, bounty hunters, writers, and social activists. What happened in between? And, now that they've moved on, can they really live a normal life after porn?

- 2012
I Am Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee is universally recognized as the pioneer who elevated martial arts in film to an art form, and this documentary will reveal why Bruce Lee's flame burns brighter now than the day he died over three decades ago. The greatest martial artists, athletes, actors, directors, and producers in the entertainment business today will share their feelings about the one who started it all. We will interview the people whose lives, careers, and belief systems were forever altered by the legendary "Father of Martial Arts Cinema". Rarely seen archival footage and classic photos will punctuate the personal testimonials. Prepare to be inspired.

- 2012
Four Horsemen
The modern day Four Horsemen continue to ride roughshod over the people who can least afford it. Crises are converging when governments, religion and mainstream economists have stalled. 23 international thinkers come together and break their silence about how the world really works and why there is still hope in re-establishing a moral and just society. Four Horsemen is free from mainstream media propaganda, doesn't bash bankers, criticize politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. The film ignites the debate about how we usher a new economic paradigm into the world which, globally, would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.

- 2012
The Best of Film Noir
Uses over 30 film clips and interviews about the tough guys and the femmes fatales to illustrate the aspects of the film noir genre. Jeffrey Wells discusses The Big Sleep (1946), Touch of Evil (1958), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), D.O.A. (1949), Out of the Past (1947), Against All Odds (1984), Laura (1944), and Kiss of Death (1947). Film noir is Hollywood's truly original vision of the shadowy, smoky underworld populated by beautiful dames and the regular Joes who fell for them. In films from the early 1940s to the present day, they entertain us with intrigue, conflict, and lust.

- 1999
A.rtificial I.mmortality
If you were able to create an immortal version of yourself, would you? Until this decade, that question was the stuff of science fiction, but now experts in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics suggest it will indeed be possible. This feature documentary explores the latest advancements in AI, robotics and biotech including such innovations as 3D mindclone avatars, brain organoids grown in petri dishes, and android robots who see beauty in the universe. Can we replicate the human mind--let alone the human soul? This question is explored with visionaries including: Nick Bostrom, author of Superintelligence; Japanese roboticist, Hiroshi Ishiguro; Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human; Ben Goertzel, founder of Singularity.net; and Deepak Chopra, who is creating his own A.I. mind twin. Some visionaries see humanity advancing toward a new age of post-biological life, a world of intelligence without bodies, immortal identity without the limitations of disease, death, and unfulfilled desire. As scientists point us toward a world where humans and machines are merged, we have to ask ourselves will AI be the best, or the last thing we ever do?

- 2021
Jackass Forever
Celebrating the joy of being back together with your best friends and a perfectly executed shot to the dingdong, the original jackass crew return for another round of hilarious, wildly absurd, and often dangerous displays of comedy with a little help from some exciting new cast. Johnny and the team push the envelope even further on February 4 in jackass forever.

- Metascore74
- 2022