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.
Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA
Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and The NRA tells the stories of how guns, and the billions made off of them, affect the lives of everyday Americans. It features personal stories from people across the country who have been affected by gun violence, including survivors and victims' families. The film exposes how the powerful gun companies and the NRA are resisting responsible legislation for the sake of profit - and thereby putting people in danger. The film looks into gun tragedies that include unintentional shootings, domestic violence, suicides, mass shootings and trafficking - and what we can do to put an end to this profit-driven crisis.

- Metascore57
- 2016
The Armor of Light
What price conscience? Abigail Disney's directorial debut, THE ARMOR OF LIGHT, follows the journey of an Evangelical minister trying to find the courage to preach about the growing toll of gun violence in America. The film tracks Reverend Rob Schenck, anti-abortion activist and fixture on the political far right, who breaks with orthodoxy by questioning whether being pro-gun is consistent with being pro-life. Reverend Schenck is shocked and perplexed by the reactions of his long-time friends and colleagues who warn him away from this complex, politically explosive issue. Along the way, Rev. Schenck meets Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, an unarmed teenager who was murdered in Florida and whose story has cast a spotlight on "Stand Your Ground" laws. Along with McBath's lawyer, John M. Phillips, she is on a difficult journey of her own, trying to make sense of her devastating loss while using her grief to effect some kind of viable and effective political action-where so many before her have failed. ARMOR follows these unlikely allies through their trials of conscience, heartbreak and rejection, as they bravely attempt to make others consider America's gun culture through a moral lens. The film is also a courageous look at our fractured political culture, and an assertion that it is, indeed, possible for people to come together across deep party lines to find common ground.

- Metascore69
- 2015
Havana Motor Club
Reforms have offered opportunity in Cuba but the children of the Revolution are unsure of the best route forward. For a half-dozen drag racers, this means last-minute changes to their beloved American muscle cars, as they prepare for the first sanctioned race in Cuba since 1960. Punctuated by a lively Cuban soundtrack, Havana Motor Club offers a fascinating glimpse at the resilience and ingenuity of the competitive spirit.

- 2015
The Diplomat
THE DIPLOMAT tells the remarkable story of the life and legacy of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, whose singular career spans fifty years of American foreign policy - from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Told through the perspective of his eldest son David, the documentary takes you behind the scenes of high stakes diplomacy where peace is waged and wars are ended. As a young man, Holbrooke was sent to Vietnam as a junior foreign service officer and saw up close what went wrong. Thirty years later, he is tasked by President Clinton to bring another conflict to an end, this time in Europe where the Bosnian war is raging. This success earns him fame but not his dream job of Secretary of State, yet he soldiers on, getting an impossible mission from President Obama of ending the war in Afghanistan. The effort does not go well, as Holbrooke runs into obstacles in Kabul and Washington and dies on the job in December 2010 when his heart gives out. Processing his father's death, Holbrooke's son David realizes that he did not know this historical figure's legacy well enough. Holbrooke was always on the road, which created an inevitable distance between father and son. In the course of grieving, David decides that he needs to understand his father better in death than in life and he sets out into his world. The film will be released in 2015, the 20th anniversary of Holbrooke's crowning achievement: the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the Bosnian war.

- 2015
Rude Dude
Legendary and award-winning comic book artist Steve "The Dude" Rude confronts the extreme suffering he experiences caused by his bi-polar disorder and decides at age 53 to leave the industry that made him famous to pursue a new and quieter lifestyle, out of the comic book limelight, as a fine artist.

- 2014
Food Matters
"Let Thy Food Be Thy Medicine, And Thy Medicine Be Thy Food." - Hippocrates That is the message from the founding father of modern medicine echoed in this brave new documentary film brought to you by Producer-Directors James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch. 'Food Matters' is a hard hitting, fast paced look at our current state of health. Despite the billions of dollars of funding and research into new so-called cures we continue to suffer from a raft of chronic ills and every day maladies. Patching up an over-toxic and over-indulgent population with a host of toxic therapies and nutrient sparse foods is definitely not helping the situation. In a personal quest of discovery James & Laurentine together with a film crew and the editorial and production expertise of Enzo Tedeschi have set out on an independent mission to uncover the wholesome truth. The filmmakers have interviewed several world leaders in nutrition and natural healing who claim that not only are we harming our bodies with improper nutrition, but that the right kind of foods, supplements and detoxification can be used to treat chronic illnesses as fatal as terminally diagnosed cancer. 'Food Matters' seeks to uncover the business of disease and at the same time explore the safe, cheap and effective use of nutrition and supplementation for preventing and often reversing the underlying causative aspects of the illness. With the premise of the film being: access to solid information helps people invariably make better choices for their health. The 'Food Matters' duo have independently funded the film from start to finish in order to remain as unbiased as possible, delivering a clear and concise message to the world. Food Matters.

- 2008
Seraphine
In 1914, Wilhelm Uhde, a famous German art collector, rents an apartment in the town of Senlis, forty kilometers away from Paris, in order to write and to take a rest from the hectic life he has been living in the capital. The cleaning lady is a rather rough-and-ready forty-year-old woman who is the laughing stock of others. One day, Wilhelm who has been invited by his landlady, notices a small painting lying about in her living room. He is stunned to learn that the artist is no other than Séraphine.

- Metascore84
- 2008
Black Sun
Gary Tarn's remarkable, award-winning documentary, BLACK SUN, investigates this through the story of Hugues de Montalembert, a New York-based artist and filmmaker who was blinded by a vicious attack in 1978.
- 2005
Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton
This is the remarkable story of an American icon who changed the sport of big wave surfing forever. Transcending the surf genre, this in-depth portrait of a hard-charging athlete explores the fear, courage and ambition that push a man to greatness--and the cost that comes with it.

- Metascore66
- 2017
The Aristocrats
Comedy veterans and co-creators Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza capitalize on their insider status and invite over 100 of their closest friends--who happen to be some of the biggest names in entertainment, from George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Drew Carey to Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Paul Reiser and Sarah Silverman--to reminisce, analyze, deconstruct and deliver their own versions of the world's dirtiest joke, an old burlesque too extreme to be performed in public, called "The Aristocrats."

- Metascore72
- 2005
Sicko
A documentary comparing the highly profitable American health care industry to other nations, and HMO horror stories including shotgun deaths.

- Metascore74
- 2007
Every Second Counts: The Story of the 2008 CrossFit Games
Every second counts takes an inside look at the Crossfit culture and community, where time on a stopwatch reigns as the supreme measure of performance. Those who reach the elite ranks in the burgeoning sport of CrossFit push themselves beyond the limitations imposed by the mind and flirt with the limits of physical capacity. The film chronicles the dramatic journey of five athletes as they prepare for and compete in the most comprehensive test of fitness on the planet, the CrossFit Games. The road to this grueling two-day program of extreme challenges reveals what it takes to be the best in the world. The climactic finish, with its surprising turn of events, shows beyond any doubt that the winner of the CrossFit Games is the fittest person on earth.

- 2009
Nightwatching
The year 1642 marks the turning point in the life of the famous Dutch painter, Rembrandt, turning him from a wealthy respected celebrity into a discredited pauper. At the insistence of his pregnant wife Saskia, Rembrandt has reluctantly agreed to paint the Amsterdam Musketeer Militia in a group portrait that will later become to be known as The Nightwatch. He soon discovers that there is a conspiracy afoot with the Amsterdam merchants playing at soldiers maneuvering for financial advantage and personal power in, that time, the richest city in the Western World. Rembrandt stumbles on a foul murder. Confident in the birth of a longed-for son and heir, Rembrandt is determined to expose the conspiring murderers and builds his accusation meticulously in the form of the commissioned painting, uncovering the seamy and hypocritical side to Dutch Society in the Golden Age. Rembrandt's great good fortune turns. Saskia dies. Rembrandt reveals the accusation of murder in the painting and the conspirators plan revenge. They set out to discredit him at home and abroad. They plant a treacherous mistress, Geertje, to seduce him. They try to blind him. They plan his social and financial ruin, and to create the circumstances for his slide into penury, insult his young mistress Hendrickje, conspire to destroy his son, and bring Rembrandt to his knees. The bold and courageous painting of the Nightwatch, exceptional in aesthetics and content, is Rembrandt's most celebrated painting, it consolidated his reputation as a master-painter but it also destroyed him socially and financially.

- 2007
Free Men
Paris, occupied France, 1942. Younes, an uneducated Algerian immigrant, ekes out a very modest living on the black market. After the police catch him, they set him free provided he infiltrates the Paris Mosque and spies on the imam. Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit is indeed suspected not only of providing false papers to Jews, but of harboring some of them as well. Once within the precincts of the mosque, Younes proves a poor secret agent, which displeases the police inspector in charge of him. In fact, at the mosque, Younes becomes more alert every day to the great tragedy in progress because of the Germans. He also develops a deep friendship with a singer named Salim Halali. To his amazement, he discovers that Salim is both Jewish and homosexual.

- Metascore58
- 2011
Control Room
A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Roundly criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian causalities as well as footage of American POWs, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see.

- Metascore79
- 2004
Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story
This biography of country music star Barbara Mandrell looks at her early career and follows her career through the tragic auto accident in 1984 which almost killed her, and her ultimate recovery and change of outlook on life. Mandrell portrays herself in her later life, and Maureen McCormick offers a good portrayal of the younger Mandrell.

- 1997
Polycarp
A young slave girl, Anna, is rescued and adopted by Christians in 2nd Century Smyrna and befriended by their aged bishop, Polycarp. As Anna is taught by Polycarp and her new family, she struggles to reconcile her beliefs with those of the Christians. When the Roman proconsul demands that all citizens worship Caesar to show their allegiance to Rome, Polycarp and the Christians must find courage to stand for their faith against the growing threat of persecution. Anna is forced to come to grips with the truth and choose whom she is willing to live-and die-for.

- 2015
A Billion Lives
The story of the vaping revolution and tragic corruption leading to a billion deaths around the world.

- Metascore35
- 2016
Meet the Mormons
Meet the Mormons examines the very diverse lives of six devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Filmed on location and across the globe, Meet the Mormons takes viewers on a journey into the day-to-day realities of individuals living in the U.S., Costa Rica, Nepal and beyond. From their individual passions to their daily struggles, each story paints a picture as rich and unique as the next while challenging the stereotypes that surround the Mormon faith.

- Metascore29
- 2014
Eden
Paul, a teenager in the underground scene of early-nineties Paris, forms a DJ collective with his friends and together they plunge into the nightlife of sex, drugs, and endless music.

- Metascore81
- 2014
Beyond Hoarding
"Beyond Hoarding" takes a fresh look at hoarding through the experiences of people afflicted with this compulsion. Mental health experts shed light on this psychiatric disorder which is treatable.

- 2019
Fine Lines
An introspective journey on the lessons life has taught 20 legends of the vertical world. At times brutally honest, other times pensive, these athletes' stories reveal the triumph of the human spirit, and the profound and unique connection formed as they overcome the world's fiercest physical and mental obstacles.

- 2019
The Real Dirt on Farmer John
The epic tale of a maverick Midwestern farmer. Castigated as a pariah in his community, Farmer John bravely transforms his farm amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and arson. He succeeds in creating a bastion of free expression and a revolutionary form of agriculture in rural America.

- Metascore78
- 2005
The Matador
We follow David Fandila, "El Fandi" (1981- ), in 2003, 2004, and 2005, three bullfighting seasons in Spain, as he seeks to become the 13th person in history to kill 100 bulls in a season. His older brother dedicated his life to being David's second. He sees little of his fiancée. His parents also assist his success. We watch him train and then fight: he's swift and theatrical. His is one of several voices explaining the sport and its meaning in Spain. Protestors speak out as well. Injury is close at hand. We watch El Fandi in surgery after a goring; he returns that day to the ring. We see gallantry, courage, and showmanship. Will he reach his goal?
- Metascore56
- 2008