What Documentary Movies to watch on Tubi
Find what to watch on Tubi including the latest releases. Filter by movies, TV shows, release years, genres and more.
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
IF A TREE FALLS is a rare behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat.' With unprecedented access and a nuanced point of view, the documentary tells the story of Daniel McGowan, an ELF member who faced life in prison for two multi-million dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. The film employs McGowan's story to examine larger questions about environmentalism, activism, and terrorism.

- Metascore65
- 2011
Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story
Celebrates the contributions of Jewish major leaguers and the special meaning that baseball has had in the lives of American Jews.

- Metascore53
- 2010
Bombal
MarÃa Luisa Bombal logró por primera vez dar voz erótica literaria a la mujer. Una creadora cuya ceguera emocional la condujo a perder la razón y hacer de su propia vida una ficción completamente desmesurada, vengando con sangre las traiciones del amor.

- 2011
Becoming Santa
The story of one man entering the culture and character of Santa Claus for a single season. We follow Jack as he bleaches his hair and goes to Santa School. He tries to do everything that Santa is asked to do. He works as a sidewalk Santa, does home visits, a Polar Express Train and a parade. Along the way, Jack collects children's wishes, learns about the benefits of belief, the history and origin of Santa and the ordinary people keeping the spirit alive.

- 2011
Dreaming the Quiet Man
This documentary delves into the psyche of John Ford and his twenty year struggle to bring his homage to his parents homeland to the screen.

- 2010
Thus Spoke De Crescenzo
One of the world's best selling Italian writers, it is a hard character to define. Through his life he has been a boy scout, a brothel's auditor, a poet, an athletics champion, an art seller, a speed boat racing pilot, an essayist, a novelist, a philosopher, an illustrator, a photographer, a commentator, a script writer, a film director, an actor, an anchorman, a tip tap dancer and finally an engineer. On thing is certain, two qualities are required in order to live such an extraordinary life: an open mind and an infinite love for living.

- 2016
White Water, Black Gold
An investigative point-of-view documentary about David Lavallee's journey down the Athabasca River and across Western Canada in search of answers about the battle between water and oil. Following an imaginary drop of water, and later an imaginary drop of oil, he discovers the threats to the third largest watershed in the world and two separate oceans. White Water, Black Gold is a film about the inextricable link between water and oil in our modern world.

- 2011
Boys of Bonneville: Racing on a Ribbon of Salt
Boys of Bonneville: Racing on a Ribbon of Salt is about an America that has all but disappeared, when lucrative business deals were cemented by a handshake and state of the art automobiles were designed on the backs of envelopes. It tells the story of an unsung hero and self-made man, David Abbott Jenkins, who, with almost superhuman stamina and boyish charm, set out to single-handedly break every existing land speed record on his beloved Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. Over 50 years later, many of "Ab's" records remain unbroken and the legacy lives on in his custom car. Looking like something Batman would have owned, the story comes full circle when Ab's son Marv, restores the 12-cyclinder, 4800-pound "Mormon Meteor" to its glory days for a ceremonial lap on the salt. The film features pristine archival footage of Ab, Marv, and their races, as well as recently shot HD interviews with a stellar list of car and racing aficionados (including Jay Leno and Col. Andy Green, the current land speed holder). The car resides in Salt Lake City's Price Museum of Speed.

- 2011
Koch Brothers Exposed
An exposé on the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who helped finance the conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.

- 2012
Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger
Twenty five years after the death of Rock Hudson, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, biographers and movie historians discuss his career, his personal life and his death, all especially in relation to his closeted homosexuality. Born Roy Fitzgerald, Hudson treated who was known as "Rock Hudson" as being a studio creation that was somewhat outside himself. However, he sometimes was still "Rock Hudson: movie star" to those who knew him. Publicly, he had to maintain the façade of that creation, the public who saw in him a handsome, rugged, masculine yet likable and safe leading man and movie star. That façade included a short two-year marriage of convenience to Phyllis Gates. His movie career on the most part also supported that façade, especially when there was a foil of a more effeminate or nebbish male character playing against him. His life changed when he was diagnosed with AIDS - the disease which would eventually take his life - at a time when little was known about it beyond it afflicting most specifically homosexual males and it being a probable death sentence. Although it ravaged him physically and emotionally - the latter in some respects due to his homosexual orientation becoming common public knowledge - it also opened up the discussion about the disease within the public consciousness since he became the first true public face of the disease.

- 2010
H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer
Depicts the entire life of Herman Mudgett, AKA Holmes, and his castle of horrors. Also known as the torture doctor, Holmes designed his own building, complete with torture chambers, where he rented rooms to unsuspecting victims visiting the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Focuses on Dr. Holmes' entire life of crime and villainy (1861-1896). Threaded with on-location footage from Holmes' past haunts, such as his childhood home in New Hampshire and the Philadelphia courtroom where his trial was held. It's a visual tour-de-force of reenactments, expert interviews, and period photography.

- 2004

- Metascore67
- 2010
Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel
A documentary on DIY producer/director Roger Corman and his alternative approach to making movies in Hollywood.

- 2011
Eyes of the Mothman
Feature length documentary of the real story behind the legend of The Mothman.

- 2011
Cézanne et moi
Cezanne et Moi traces the parallel paths of the lives, careers and passionate friendship of post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne and novelist Emile Zola. The two boys grew up in Aix-en-Provence. Emile was fatherless and poor. Paul came from a wealthy family. As young men, dreaming of glory and beautiful women, they left the south to conquer the art scene in Paris. Soon Emile had it all, success, money, and the perfect wife, and embraced the very bourgeoisie he mocked in his books. Meanwhile, Cezanne rejected the Parisian scene to focus only on his work, ignored by his peers and the establishment.

- Metascore54
- 2016
Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements
For some aging music fans and kids with a passion for musical history, The Replacements are rock and roll defined. This Minneapolis quartet took a teenage-punk attitude, threw it in a blender with classic and pop rock, and then poured it into a Middle American pint glass. Over the band's 12-year existence, its live sets were magical, a total mess, or both-depending on your mood and the members' respective blood alcohol levels. Gorman Bechard's remarkable history of the 'Mats takes us from their first show as the Impediments to their 1991 onstage breakup in Chicago, and everywhere in between. Bechard bravely eschews including the band's music, photos, and live footage, instead relying solely on the fans: their well-kept memories, hilarious anecdotes, and differing points of views about the foursome's wildly varied discography and infamous antics. Bechard has recruited an impressive roster of influential fans: musicians such as Husker Du, Babes in Toyland, The Decemberists, The Hold Steady, Archers of Loaf, Titus Andronicus, and Goo Goo Dolls; writers such as Jack Rabid, Legs McNeil, Robert Christgau, Jim DeRegotis, and Greg Kot; and actors such as George Wendt, Tom Arnold, and Dave Foley. Sprinkled in among that esteemed group are the more mainstream fans, who often give the most insightful and heartfelt perspectives of all. Follower or not, after taking in COLOR ME OBSESSED, you'll be ready to run home, gather some 'Mats albums, and design a perfect soundtrack of your own.

- 2011
Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place
Directors Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood present footage culled from a road trip to the 1964 New York World's Fair, which author Ken Kesey and the Merry Band of Pranksters made while on drugs.

- Metascore59
- 2011
Back in Brooklyn
BACK IN BROOKLYN is an inspirational and joyous cinematic exploration into the life of one of today's most influential jazz musicians and composers as he crafts his album "Brooklyn". Known worldwide for his versatility, sensitivity and tone, John Patitucci has played bass with some of music's biggest names including Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, B.B. King, Natalie Cole, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Stan Getz, Bonnie Raitt, Sting, and Bono among countless others. Combining live performances, exclusive footage from rehearsals and the recording studio, and candid interviews with family and musicians such as Herbie Hancock,Chick Corea, and Wayne Shorter provides an utterly compelling insight into the talent and passion of an extraordinary man.

- 2016
Letter from Masanjia
When a desperate SOS letter penned by a political prisoner turns up in Halloween decorations sold in Oregon, it sparks a nail-biting chain of events that exposes appalling human rights violations and leads to sweeping labor reform in China.

- 2018
Madonna and the Breakfast Club
The incredible untold story of pop icon Madonna’s struggling pre-fame years in New York City with her musician boyfriend, Dan Gilroy, and their first band Breakfast Club.

- 2019
Bill Coors: The Will to Live
Bill Coors is known for being a titan of the brewing industry but what is less known is the heroic personal journey he undertook to discover a holistic answer to treat the depression and anxiety that had plagued his family for generations. Bill's journey is told parallel to several young internet influencers - although 100 years divides them - their stories are eerily similar.

- 2018
Blood Brother
Blood Brother is an intimate portrait of Rocky Braat, a young man who longed to find a family. He didn't know it, but this desire would lead him to an AIDS hostel in India, a place of unspeakable hardship, where he would find almost more love and need than he could bear.

- Metascore71
- 2013
The Islands
Based on the incredible true story of Chiefess Kapiolani, who descended into an active volcano to demonstrate her new-found faith and ushered in a new beginning in Hawaii.

- 2019
Active Measures
Russian president Vladimir Putin attacks the 2016 American presidential election in collaboration with the Trump campaign.

- Metascore68
- 2018