For those of you who do not already subscribe to Netflix, I highly recommend taking advantage of their free month of access and/or signing up for their cheapest plan, which is roughly $8 per month. In addition to entertainment, Netflix also has tons of great documentaries that are relevant to topics I cover in my courses (including a few films that I typically screen in class). Here are some of my recommendations:
Journalism
- Control Room
- Page One: Inside the New York Times
- Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson
- Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
- War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State
- An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story
- Under Fire: Journalists in Combat
The Politics of Information & New Media
- We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks
- Downlaoded: Napster – The Music, The Battle, The Revolution
- Ai Weiwei: Never Story
Media Representation
- Reel Injun
- Miss Representation
- National Geographic: Vietnam’s Unseen War
Media History
- The Story of Film: An Odyssey
- Radio Unnameable
- Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film
- Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
- American Experience: Silicon Valley (PBS)
- The Amazing Shadows: The Movies That Make America
Art, Design & Photography
- Design is One: Lella & Massimo Vignelli
- Helvetica
- Style Wars
- Art of Conflict: The Murals of Northern Ireland
- Bill Cunningham New York
- An American Journey: In Robert Frank’s Footsteps
Music
- Fela Kuti: Music is the Weapon
- I Need That Record!: The Death and Possible Survival of the Independent Record Store
- 20 Feet From Stardom
- Mama Africa
- Rebel Music (MTV World series)
- Marley
- Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation
- Secret Disco Revolution
- A Band Called Death
- Muscle Shoals
- The Punk Singer
- Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam
- Punk in Africa
- Jazz (Ken Burns series for PBS)
- Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train A Comin’