Upcoming documentaries to keep on your radar

It’s award season, which means some of the year’s best documentaries are set to debut within a few weeks in a row. Many are on their way directly to streaming platforms, so you do not even have to leave your house to enjoy them. We found five movies that particularly fascinated us. From an animated biography to a shocking look into the first months of the pandemic, the films on this list bring all the intense stories to the audience and ask us to explore the darker aspects of our humanity.

Adrienne

“Adrienne” follows actress and filmmaker Adrienne Shelly’s creative passion and untimely death. After appearing in 20 films, began Shelly making movements behind the camera and attracted a lot of attention as one with great potential. The whole thing was broken off when Shelly was found dead when police first ruled a suicide. Her husband, Andy Ostroy, who also directed the film, insisted that Shelly did not take himself to death. Police were investigating her death further, leading to the arrest of her killer.

Shelly’s most influential work, “Waitress”, starred Keri Russell (“Antlers”), and was released to great criticism after her death. The film was later adapted into the popular musical of the same name. Many famous faces appear in the documentary, including Russell, Sara Bareilles, Paul Rudd, Nathan Fillion and more. They join Shelly’s loved ones to bring their memories of her to the film to illuminate what it was that made her special and why her loss was such a tragedy.

“Adrienne” is coming to HBO Max on December 1, 2021.

Escape

At the top of the price season’s hype lists is the animated documentary “Flee”. Animated documentaries are not a new concept, but they are atypical. Critically acclaimed films such as “Waltz With Bashir” and “Tower” have helped normalize the format of the documentary space, and “Flee” seems to be expanding it.

“Flee” is directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, and tells the story told by a childhood friend, known only as “Amin” in the film. Amin left Afghanistan as a child refugee, and the documentary tells of the five years of unrest he spent fleeing the country when the Taliban took over. The trailer gives the impression that the film will also reveal Amin’s personal secrets along the way. Oscar-nominated Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) will vote Amin for the English dub. The film is gaining a lot of attention, and some believe that it may even be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, making it the first documentary to achieve this title.

“Flee” will be released in theaters on December 3, 2021.

The first wave

The poster for “The First Wave” has a simple tagline that does a good job of summarizing the film itself. It reads: “Four Months, New York City, 2020.” These six words are enough to conjure up a horror story without even seeing the film – our minds fill the void for us.

“The First Wave” comes from filmmaker Matthew Heineman, who also directed the Oscar-nominated film “Cartel Land.” Filmed in cinema vérité style, the film is a fly-on-the-wall look at the tumultuous stories that emerged from the early months of the pandemic. It focuses on the views of hospital workers, doctors and nurses. Some say the documentary is a grim but “necessary clock,” a sober revelation that shows the clear path between our the confusing early days of our global trauma to the place we are now.

“The First Wave” will stream on Hulu on December 5, 2021.

The eternal prisoner

“The Forever Prisoner” follows the story of “improved interrogation techniques” used by the CIA in the war on terror. These procedures, including waterboarding, are now considered by most to be torture. The story is told by people involved in the decisions made at the time. It also focuses on the imprisonment of Abu Zubaydah, one of the “high-value” prisoners still detained in Guantánamo Bay. Zubaydah even provides diaries and drawings for the film.

“The Forever Prisoner” is directed by Alex Gibney, a prolific filmmaker in the documentary space. Many of his films are focused on political and military intrigues similar to “The Forever Prisoner”. He is also responsible for other HBO favorites such as “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley” and “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” as well as the two-part documentary on the opioid crisis, “Crime of the Century.” Gibney won also an Oscar for Best Documentary for the film “Taxi to the Dark Side.”

“The Forever Prisoner” will be streamed on HBOMax on December 6, 2021.

Who we are

“Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” ​​is directed by the sister film team of Emily Kunstler & Sarah Kunstler. It’s based on a presentation given by Jeffrey Robinson, a former ACLU deputy legal director who has spoken on the subject of racism in America around the world. In 2018, Robinson gave his talk to a packed theater on Broadway. The documentary includes footage from this show, as well as archival views and interviews that help account for Robinson’s thoughts and experiences as a black man living in the United States. As mentioned on the documentary’s website, it aims to ask “all of us to examine who we are, where we came from, and who we want to be.”

Robinson also hosts a podcast with Carvell Wallace of the same name, where he continues the discussion he started in the film.

“Who We Are” will be released on January 14, 2022.

Price season favorites

We have a hard time choosing a title from this list that we are most looking forward to seeing. They each have interesting angles and unique perspectives to offer. At the same time, given how dark the topics are, we are not proposing an abundance of these titles at once. This batch of documentaries features several that are already on this year’s “best-of” lists. “Flee”, “Who We Are” and “The First Wave” all rank in the top 10 of Variety’s Oscar predictions for best documentary. So you probably can not go wrong with any of them.

Read this next: The 11 best music documentaries ever

The post Upcoming documentaries to keep on your radar first appeared on / Movie.