Typically actual life is stranger than fiction, and typically it is simply much more fascinating. For those who’re within the temper for a documentary that’ll get your pulse pumping, your coronary heart aching, or your thoughts working, you may need to take a look at Prime Video.

Now streaming on Prime Video is a wealth of mesmerizing true tales, starting from private tales of trials and triumph to harrowing crime investigations to quirky and heart-warming explorations of distinctive artistic imaginative and prescient.

Whether or not you are within the temper for one thing academic, emotional, or simply downright wild, this record of top-notch documentaries has bought you coated.

1. Man on Wire

Credit score: ©2008 Jean-Louis Blondeau / Polaris Photographs / Magnolia Photos

Depicting the excessive wire artist Philippe Petit’s mind-boggling 1974 stroll on a wire between the Twin Towers in NYC, this doc from filmmaker James Marsh makes use of uncommon video footage of Petit’s prep together with recreations of the occasion and current-day interviews with everybody concerned to craft a heart-racing heist movie. Profitable each award inside attain, as much as and together with the Oscar, the movie memorializes not simply Petit’s stunt but additionally these buildings, and the legend of their monumental standing. — Jason Adams, Contributing Author

watch: Man on Wire is now streaming on Prime Video.

2. Phil Tippett: Mad Goals and Monsters

The identical man who gave us the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park gave us the holographic chess recreation in Star Wars, the killer bugs in Starship Troopers, and the terrifying Enforcement Droid in RoboCop. That man’s identify is Phil Tippett, and people are simply 4 of the particular results wizard’s credit that this 2019 documentary on the person options. It is all coated within the run as much as the lengthy, lengthy, lengthy-delayed launch of his stop-motion surrealist masterpiece Mad God — principally as a result of Tippett might by no means convey himself to cease tinkering with it – which additionally will get loads of a lot deserved love right here. Anyway, we find it irresistible when behind-the-scenes cinematic craftspeople of notice get their correct due, and Tippett’s one of the crucial deserving there ever was or will likely be. A magician. — J.A.

watch: Phil Tippett: Mad Goals and Monsters is now streaming on Prime Video.

3. Residing With Chucky

The Kid’s Play franchise — that means the slasher movies starring Chucky the murderous doll that started in 1988 proper up by the TV sequence that is presently in its third season — has been within the fingers of the identical individuals all the time, save one spin-off reboot that we are going to not focus on. Specifically, creator Don Mancini and his crew of pleasant wackadoos. That is given the franchise not only a thematic throughline that the opposite ’80s slasher franchises have lacked, however an precise private one, since a long time of relationships have bloomed behind the scenes. 

And that is the juice that this 2022 doc thrives on. For instance, director Kyra Elise Gardner fairly actually grew up with Chucky; her dad Tony has been engaged on make-up and puppeteering for all issues Kid’s Play for many years. That non-public contact provides this doc a sweetness and an intimacy, and possibly these aren’t the phrases you’d sometimes affiliate with a killer doll, however right here we’re. — J.A.

watch: Residing With Chucky is now streaming on Prime Video.

4. Dior and I

Whereas a glance behind the scenes on the staging a vogue present can usually induce terror, director Frédéric Tcheng’s 2014 have a look at the primary high fashion assortment of Raf Simons for the legendary home is so awash in magnificence that you simply hardly even discover any of that. Narrated by way of excerpts of Dior’s autobiography, which was unpublished and solely found at the beginning of the movie’s manufacturing, Dior and I is as intimate and beautiful as the clothes themselves. — J.A.

watch: Dior and I is now streaming on Prime Video.

5. Jiro Goals of Sushi

Credit score: Magnolia Photos

David Gelb’s 2011 doc trains its eye on sushi chef Jiro Ono, the then-85-year-old proprietor and sushi grasp behind Sukiyabashi Jiro. This tiny sushi bar solely has ten seats and is predicated inside a subway station in Tokyo, and but it is the primary sushi restaurant to ever obtain three stars from Michelin. (It is since misplaced its stars on account of its reservation coverage.) Given the truth that Jiro has been making sushi since he was seven years previous, and he opened Sukiyabashi Jiro in 1965, you possibly can assume he is aware of a factor or two about fish. 

The movie additionally will get to know Jiro’s two sons, one in every of whom began his personal sushi restaurant close by, and the opposite who nonetheless toils underneath his father, getting ready to take over when he passes. This portrait of lifelong obsession manages to seize that ineffable one thing all of us lengthy for — to dwell the life we have been made for, to find the factor we have been destined for, and to seek out what appears to be like like peace by it day-after-day. — J.A. 

watch: Jiro Goals of Sushi is now streaming on Prime Video.

6. The Queen of Versailles

Credit score: Photograph by Lauren Greenfield / Magnolia Photos

Motion pictures like Saltburn have confirmed that the time has undoubtedly arrived for mid-aughts nostalgia. And there may be no higher time capsule of that decade than this 2012 doc from Technology Wealth filmmaker Lauren Greenfield. Like one of many decade’s celebrity-driven actuality sequence (suppose The Osbournes or something involving Paris Hilton) sharpened right into a hari-kari sword, The Queen of Versailles wades into the nouveau riche cesspool of Westgate Resorts’ house owners Jackie and David Siegel’s existence of the wealthy and gaudy. 

Watching them construct their obscene Florida mansion in 2008 — which Jackie, with typical understatement, has dubbed “Versailles” — because the financial system crashes round them is actually a metaphor for American extra, as are the piles of feces left behind by their military of toy canines. A responsible pleasure writ massive, magnified by the themes’ complete incapability to resolve their very own issues (or hold a pet lizard alive). — J.A.

watch: The Queen of Versailles is now streaming on Prime Video.

7. One Youngster Nation

In China between the years 1979 and 2015, the federal government had a one-child coverage; due to the surging inhabitants, households have been “inspired” to solely have a single youngster. In Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s 2019 documentary, they interviewed each the enforcers of that coverage and the enforced-upon, and an image of real horror emerges. 

The propaganda from the period appears downright goofy, however it had a chilling impact. Infanticide and human trafficking ran rampant. However essentially the most transferring components of the doc are those seen from the bottom stage, particularly from inside Wang’s household, the place her personal mom speaks of the horrible selections she needed to make. — J.A.

watch: One Youngster Nation is now streaming on Prime Video.

8. Nelly and Nadine

Searching for blossoms of hope inside tales of the Holocaust can typically really feel like a idiot’s errand, however Magnus Gertten’s 2022 documentary a couple of love affair between two ladies who met in a focus camp by some means manages that transferring feat. Sylvie Bianchi spent most of her life too afraid to look into her grandmother Nelly’s letters about her time within the female-only Ravensbrück camp. As soon as Sylvie does look into Nelly’s letters, she discovers a a secret love story between her grandmother and one other girl named Nadine. One way or the other, these two ladies managed to seek out love amid all of the horror, and years later they reunited and ran off to Venezuela to be collectively. It is astonishing stuff, and a reminder of how dealing with the worst conceivable factor will make the sweetness in life shine all of the brighter.  — J.A. 

watch: Nelly and Nadine is now streaming on Prime Video.

9. Blackfish

Credit score: Photograph by Suzanne Allee / Magnolia Photos

Blackfish focuses on the terrible story of Tilikum, a male orca whale pushed to extremes of aggression by his captivity at SeaWorld. Filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s incendiary documentary paints a horrifyingly vivid portrait of the truth behind these charming vacationer points of interest and the cruelty of conserving these clever creatures in captivity. Inside simply three years of the movie’s launch, all such exhibits have been phased out fully, so profitable was the movie at exposing the reality behind these alluring vacationer points of interest. — J.A.

watch: Blackfish is now streaming on Prime Video.

10. Gimme Hazard

Gimme Hazard is the definitive doc of punk rock’s origin level. The Stooges have been up to now forward of their time they’d made three data and damaged up earlier than anyone might even notice what they’d performed. Jim Jarmusch spent about ten years engaged on the doc, which involves a head with their 2010 induction into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame. And all people nonetheless alive to inform the wild story fortunately tells their model of it. In fact it is Iggy, who’s spent a number of a long time hogging the highlight, who walks away with the present but once more. — J.A.

watch: Gimme Hazard is now streaming on Prime Video.

11. Silver Greenback Highway

After 2016’s I Am Not Your Negro and 2021’s Exterminate All of the Brutes, it is secure to say that director Raoul Peck is likely one of the greats working right now. 2023’s Silver Greenback Highway, which is predicated on the 2019 ProPublica article “Kicked Off The Land” by Lizzie Presser, triple underlines that assertion. The movie tells the continuing multi-generational story of the Reels household, whose prime slice of waterfront property in North Carolina grew to become the main focus of some grasping actual property builders. In simply 100 minutes, it manages to be each a lovely portrait of a loving household and an infuriating excavation of American institutionalized racism at work. — J.A.

watch: Silver Greenback Highway is now streaming on Prime Video.

12. Scotty and the Secret Historical past of Hollywood

Primarily based on the juicy and sordid autobiography of notorious Hollywood hustler Scotty Bowers, this 2017 documentary from director Matt Tyrnauer leaves it as much as us the viewers to resolve how a lot of Bowers’s fiction is reality and the way a lot is, you realize, fiction. Nevertheless, his gossip is so good that it is a good time both approach, whether or not you really consider it or not. 

Bowers tells of his post-military sojourn to Los Angeles within the Forties, the place he grew to become a full-service gasoline station attendant — emphasis on “full service.” His story goes that every one the blokes who labored there have been intercourse staff who totally serviced the wealthy and well-known, each women and men, although it is principally the previous tales he is telling. Numerous Scotty’s tales, like all of the stuff about super-agent Henry Willson’s steady of fairly boy actors like Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, have been confirmed elsewhere, however we’ll most likely by no means understand how a lot is the true true. — J.A.

watch: Scotty and the Secret Historical past of Hollywood is now streaming on Prime Video.

13. Val

Credit score: Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Val Kilmer is likely one of the greats, with out query. He is performed Batman and The Doorways frontman Jim Morrison. His efficiency in Tombstone as Doc Holliday is a steadily quoted cult hit that is impressed any variety of memes. And he is Hollywood’s finest Moses up to now, along with his star flip in The Prince of Egypt, an animated retelling of the Passover story from 1998, far exceeding that of Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments.

In Val, the famed actor who largely fell out of public view within the mid-2010s as he battled throat most cancers, bares his entire self. Kilmer himself created most of the dwelling motion pictures and behind-the-scenes clips featured on this Amazon Authentic documentary, they usually’re weaved collectively right here to color an image of his life and profession. That includes narration from Kilmer’s son Jack and phrases written by the actor himself, Val is about as private as a biographical documentary can get. — Adam Rosenberg, Video Recreation Reporter

The place to look at: Val is now streaming on Prime Video.

14. Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown

Credit score: Simon Pietri / Shutterstock

Launched in 2014, the identical yr the late Chadwick Boseman starred because the Godfather of Soul within the biopic Get On Up, Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown performs like a becoming companion piece. However with an completed documentarian like Alex Gibney on the helm, Mr. Dynamite greater than stands by itself.

Highlighted by a wealth of uncommon archival supplies exhibiting the funk and soul famous person throughout his early days, the movie chronicles Brown’s profession from his time taking part in for Black audiences when the American Civil Rights motion was nonetheless taking form, all the best way into his mainstreamed blockbuster success. Whereas Mr. Dynamite‘s largely uncritical look falls brief on chronicling Brown’s later years, there are greater than sufficient archival supplies and engaging revelations to maintain this two-hour journey by music historical past. — A.R.

The place to look at: Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown is now streaming on Prime Video.

15. The Imposter

Bart Layton’s retelling of the extraordinarily curious 1997 case of the French conman Frédéric Bourdin presents us with a kind of true tales that appears too baffling to consider – certainly, when the 2009 horror movie Orphan stole this documentary’s large revelation, it got here to be thought-about one of many best horror film twists of all time! However the twist is certainly primarily based in fact, as Bourdin was in a position to impersonate a lacking Texan boy and “fortunately reunite” with the boy’s household, although he was a number of years older, had a French accent, and didn’t a lot seem like the boy in any respect. The ability of perception is a robust drive certainly. — J.A.

The place to look at: The Imposter is now streaming on Prime Video.

16. Koyaanisqatsi

Credit score: Ire Prods / Kobal / Shutterstock

This one is unquestionably a vibe – Godfrey Reggio’s experimental 1983 documentary Koyaanisqatsi (which interprets to “life out of steadiness” within the Hopi language) is 86 minutes of non-narrative, dialogue-free photos of the pure world and the technological world interacting, all set to the sleek tunes of Philip Glass. Beautiful photos of the desert meet terrifying footage of atomic bombs detonating. Buildings are collapsed, and crowds of metropolis individuals pulse in sluggish movement.

The primary and best-known of Reggio’s “Qatsi” trilogy of movies – adopted by Powaqqatsi in 1988 and Naqoyqatsi in 2002 – Koyaanisqatsi was nearly unimaginable to see for a few a long time, so undoubtedly seize the possibility to immerse your self on this tone poem of cinema distilled to its most elementary essence when you’ve bought it. — J.A.

The place to look at: Koyaanisqatsi is now streaming on prime Video.

17. The Howlin’ Wolf Story

Chester Burnett, the Howlin’ Wolf himself: Hear that voice as soon as, and you may always remember it. Burnett’s raspy, tortured growl is the sound of a freight practice moaning at midnight, and it is only one piece of the portrait painted in filmmaker Don McGlynn’s The Howlin’ Wolf Story.

The legendary Chicago bluesman left an indelible mark on tradition and rock music particularly, because the originator of what at the moment are bona fide blues requirements, like “Spoonful” and “Smokestack Lightnin’.” This documentary recounts Burnett’s early days spent studying underneath Charley Patton, his travels with Robert Johnson, his affect on the Rolling Stones (and music basically), and the larger-than-life vitality he introduced to each stage he set foot on because the Wolf. — A.R.

The place to look at: The Howlin’ Wolf Story is now streaming on Prime Video.

18. No No: A Dockumentary

Credit score: Ray Stubblebine / AP / Shutterstock

No No: A Dockumentary has one hell of a robust hook: Dock Ellis, the late Main League Baseball professional who’s its topic, as soon as pitched a no-hitter as a Pittsburgh Pirate whereas tripping his face off on LSD.

Wild as it’s, that incident is, in fact, only a second in a a lot bigger and extra complicated life. Director Jeffrey Radice assembles his image of Ellis from interviews with associates, household, and former teammates, bolstering the manufacturing even additional with a beneficiant serving to of archival supplies — together with phrases from Ellis himself.

No No is an intensive have a look at the person behind the second. The documentary anchors itself in that second solely to spotlight and heighten the life that led to and adopted it. We come away with a deeper understanding of who Ellis was, the varied forces that formed his life, and the highs and lows that characterised his journey. — A.R.

The place to look at: No No: A Dockumentary is now streaming on Prime Video.

19. Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles

Even when you realize each phrase to Broadway bangers like “If I Had been a Wealthy Man” and “Custom,” there’s nonetheless a superb probability you do not know the complete historical past and affect of the play from which they hail: Fiddler on the Roof. Properly, Jews and goyim alike ought to settle in for Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles, as a result of it is a completely pleasing have a look at one in every of Broadway’s all-time greats.

This documentary from Max Lewkowicz examines the 1964 musical from Jerry Bock (music), Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), and Joseph Stein (e-book) and the tough highway it took to achieve the stage. Fiddler on the Roof‘s provocative setting and themes — the story is about in opposition to the backdrop of early twentieth century Russia, a time when the native Jewish inhabitants confronted intense persecution — in addition to its full-force dive into Jewish tradition made it a tricky promote initially.

The doubters have been in the end confirmed mistaken, as Lewkowicz’s documentary illustrates. With greater than 3,000 performances — the primary Broadway present to hit this milestone — and an equally charming 1971 movie adaptation from director Norman Jewison, Fiddler on the Roof left its mark after which some. That includes interviews and insights from luminaries like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Harvey Fierstein, and Jewison himself, Fiddler is must-watch materials for any fan of Broadway previous and current. — A.R.

The place to look at: Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles is now streaming on Prime Video.

20. Good Night time Oppy

Credit score: Courtesy of Prime Video

Irrespective of how a lot you thought you needed the titular star of Pixar’s animated masterpiece WALL-E to be actual, it is assured to solely be a fraction of how badly Good Night time Oppy director Ryan White and his forged of NASA nerds needed WALL-E to be actual, as a result of they set out with this film to anthropomorphize the dickens out of their Mars rover referred to as Alternative. (Or “Oppy” for cutesy brief.)

Whereas it’s at occasions a bit a lot — like when listening to those critical scientists insist their hunk of metallic doo-dads they’ve shipped 230 million miles away completely has a persona — Good Night time Oppy does not lack for celestial splendor. And making the little can-do robotic at its middle the viewers stand-in does usually end in a real sense of the enormity of this mission, and the chances all of them confronted, each actual and imagined. — J.A.

The place to look at: Good Night time Oppy is now streaming on Prime Video.

21. Tales We Inform

Sarah Polley started appearing when she was 4 years previous, which is a narrative she tells with typical intelligence and emotional precision in her 2022 memoir Run In direction of the Hazard. However a full 10 years earlier, she instructed us a completely completely different story together with her movie Tales We Inform – the one about her dad and mom, the secrets and techniques of her personal beginning (from an affair that her mom had), and in regards to the methods her household processed and did not course of this discovery over time.

The much less stated beforehand with regardsto this film’s unfolding mysteries, the higher, however simply let it’s stated you completely won’t see the place Polley is taking you. And if we’re being completely compelled to exist with out her appearing on-screen, that is additional proof (alongside her different directorial efforts, Away From Her, Take This Waltz, and Girls Speaking) that she’s bought greater than sufficient magic to share from behind the display screen. — J.A.

The place to look at: Tales We Inform is now streaming on Prime Video.

22. Judy Blume Endlessly

Credit score: Courtesy of Prime Video

We personally have been celebrating “the yr of Judy Blume” for many years. But it surely’s arduous to not make the case that 2023 – with the pleasant adaptation of Blume’s e-book Are You There God? It is Me, Margaret and this documentary each hitting screens – is an actual large yr for Blume-heads. And Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s movie on the writer is fortunately attuned to Blume’s endurance as a lot as her legacy, and so we get to listen to as a lot on her ideas in regards to the world right now as we do her profession previous. Seeing as how she’s been on the front-lines of e-book bans and censorship for many years, there isn’t any higher authority. – J.A.

The place to look at: Judy Blume Endlessly is now streaming on Prime Video.

23. Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World

Credit score: Jim Wells / AP / Shutterstock

Music is awash with secret histories just like the one explored in Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. The documentary from co-directors Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana takes a have a look at the affect indigenous populations in America had on in style music.

In reality, that title speaks very on to a kind of impacts: “Rumble” is a 1958 instrumental from Hyperlink Wray, the famed Shawnee singer/songwriter and guitarist. You most likely understand it. Wray’s signature electrical guitar distortion drives the mellow, meandering observe that anybody who has seen Pulp Fiction will acknowledge in seconds.

We additionally learn the way “Rumble” is basically the origin story for one of the crucial potent units in any rocker’s toolbox: the ability chord. However Wray is not the one focus. We meet Jesse Ed Davis, a legendary studio guitarist whose contributions on notable albums from John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison without end enshrined him within the highest pantheon of rock godhood. Influential artists like Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mildred Bailey, Redbone, even formative blues legend Charlie Patton, who’s believed to have been part-Cherokee, all share the highlight. — A.R.

The place to look at: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World is now streaming on Prime Video.

24. Between Me and My Thoughts (2019)

It is tough to explain the enchantment of a band like Phish. Like all one of the best examples of artwork in its many varieties: You both get it, or you do not. Director Steven Cantor’s “slice of life” have a look at Phish frontman Trey Anastasio is not going to show any doubters into true believers, however it does provide a glimpse into the lifetime of the guitarist and singer who fuels most of the band’s creatively playful and infrequently deeply nerdy antics.

Whereas the movie facilities itself in a specific second — a busy interval wherein Anastasio is ending up the solo album Ghosts within the Forest as he prepares for Phish’s 2018 run of New Yr’s Eve live shows at Madison Sq. Backyard — it isn’t all in regards to the music. This can be a household affair that presents viewers with a glimpse into the subdued rocker’s dwelling life and off-stage historical past. Via that lens, we be taught a lot about the best way Anastasio thinks and approaches his work.

Identical to Phish itself, you both get Between Me and My Thoughts, or you do not. For individuals who get it, the documentary is as thorough a have a look at the Phish frontman as any fan has ever seen. — A.R.

The place to look at: Between Me and My Thoughts is now streaming on Prime Video.

25. The Booksellers

In case your toes curl in the course of the scene in Magnificence and the Beast the place the Beast exhibits Belle his monumental library and he or she spins round so we are able to stare on the cabinets of books going up, up, up into the rafters, then have we bought the documentary for you! D.W. Younger’s 2019 doc (government produced and narrated by Occasion Woman star and librarian icon Parker Posey) takes us into the world of uncommon and antiquarian e-book retailers and e-book sellers in New York. Talking with the individuals who run famed establishments just like the Strand and the Argosy, in addition to erudite authors and personalities like Fran Lebowitz and Homosexual Talese, you possibly can virtually odor the bookshop odor — you realize, that candy musty one thing — wafting off your display screen as you watch. It will make your finest Belle fantasies come roaring again. — J.A.

The place to look at: The Booksellers is now streaming on Prime Video.  

26. Welcome to Chechnya

Credit score: Courtesy of HBO

Specializing in LGBTQ refugees escaping from Chechnya, the place they have been topic to government-sanctioned torture and homicide, Survive a Plague filmmaker David France’s harrowing 2020 doc follows its topics’ flight from their homeland utilizing a wealth of contemporary tech, together with cell telephones and GoPros.

But it surely’s the movie’s utilization of AI expertise, to be able to disguise the refugees’ faces and protect their anonymity, that proved revolutionary, exhibiting that AI can really be used for good in some situations (slightly than to only obliterate all artists’ well-being, as has been the case as of late). However that tech nonetheless by no means manages to outshine the very human and really scary tales on the movie’s coronary heart — one which has solely felt nearer to dwelling with time — and which ought to shake any first rate individual to their core. — J.A.

The place to look at: Welcome to Chechnya is now streaming on Prime Video.

27. Time

Documenting Sibil Fox Richardson’s 20-year battle to get her husband Rob out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary for against the law that he very a lot did commit, filmmaker Garrett Bradley pieced collectively Time utilizing dwelling motion pictures that Richardson herself filmed over time. What the 2 summon forth is a devastating critique of the jail industrial complicated and the state-sanctioned gears that grind up households. As a result of, because the movie’s transferring footage attests at each flip, Rob’s guilt will not be who he’s, not as a person or a husband or a father. We’re all a lot greater than the errors we make, and the system because it’s designed is blind, merciless, and detached. Rob was granted clemency in 2018, 21 years after he was convicted as a first-time felony offender to 60 years in jail, with no risk for parole or probation. — J.A.

The place to look at: Time is now streaming on Prime Video.

UPDATE: Feb. 28, 2024, 11:33 a.m. EST This record was up to date to replicate the present streaming choices.