Media Consolidation Teach-In Resources List
idastaff
Fri, 12/19/2025 – 08:46
Media Consolidation Teach-In Resources List
idastaff
Fri, 12/19/2025 – 08:46
Image Description: A statue that features heads shaped into blocks. Image courtesy of Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash
I know it’s been more than a minute since my last blog post. Maybe you haven’t missed me. But I have missed me. I have long been a forgiving sort who writes about giving oneself grace when not actively creating and embracing zig-zag approaches to the creative process. I even wrote about ways to stretch those creative muscles when you are feeling stuck.
But what happens when you reach an existential block?
That is a bit how I’ve been feeling for the past few months. My most recent book event was in the summer. I keep saying I am going to get back into a documentary film I started before the pandemic. I started making some notes about a new book idea. I keep trying to get my creative juices going by doing everything from taking walks, listening to music I haven’t tuned into in years, painting rocks, paper (but not yet scissors), and trying to stay attuned to what other artists are up to, including in disciplines that are different from my own. I spent 30 days on a social media experiment where I posted an image that brought joy to me every day for 30 days. It forced me to seek out those small moments of joy, document them, and share them. I didn’t think of it as a creative project per se, but I guess it was.
Image Description: A collage of social media images that make up the author’s “Joy of the Day” project where she posted an image every day for 30 days that brought her joy
The final few weeks on the calendar can be challenging in normal times when we are reflecting on what we’ve achieved (or haven’t) in the past year. Add to that a state of the world that is exhausting and heavy on so many levels. Worrying about whether you can progress creatively feels like such a privilege in the times in which we live. And yet this is when we most need to find ways to express ourselves, whether to make an impact or simply to remind ourselves of our own humanity.
[Insert the sound of car breaks]
That is as far as I got with this blog post for about the past two weeks. Sitting in my home office, I kept this draft open but untended to. Even this was starting to feel like a heavy lift. How could I turn this exasperation into inspiration? For you? Or even for myself? It can feel foolish sometimes to be doling out advice to others on how to navigate the ups and downs of the creative process when I feel so stuck in my own creative pursuits.
Image Description: The author’s tabs across the top of her laptop. 16 tabs is actually a pretty small number for me. But this Blockhead post has lived open in progress (or lack therof) on my laptop for the better part of a month.
Coming back to this open tab on my laptop, I stared at what surrounded it: work papers, a semi-organized but seemingly messy pile of financial documents for both me and my mother (whose finances I am now handling). Hardly the stuff that inspires. But then I turned my head to the wall where I posted my vision board for the year. As the year is coming to a conclusion, I wanted to revisit my hopes from the beginning of the year, a time which feels like a lifetime ago.
Right in the middle was something that said, “The best way out is always through.”
Words of wisdom from poet Robert Frost who was also a human artist who contended with his own challenges of the creative process.
Image Description: The author’s inspiration wall that is a mix of images and words, including a 2025 vision board that contains the quote “The best way out is always through.”
That line reminds me of one of the central points I always make about creativity: Our first thought should not be to find hacks and easy answers to avoid the challenges. It is about accepting that challenges are central to the process. We may not all navigate them in the same ways or at the same pace, but they must be navigated nonetheless.
And just because I provide some advice on navigating the creative process doesn’t exempt me from needing or listening to my own advice. Sometimes we are hardest on ourselves because we don’t reflect what we think the world should see in us.
And yet sometimes the world sees in us things we might overlook.
I was recently conversing with a former work colleague who I had not seen in many years. He eagerly told me how influential my love of documentary film had been to him. He proudly noted how he had become involved with getting a documentary made and seen and said that I had an influence on that direction for him. I have no memory of us having ever discussed documentaries when we worked together or that doing so would leave such an impression with him. But hearing this from him made me realize how much of an impact we can have in small ways that might seem inconsequential.
It made me want to finish this blog post. Not because I have come to some great magical breakthrough in my own creative process or have some exceptionally sage advice to convey to you about art-making and the meaning of life. But just maybe there is something in these words that resonates with someone reading this. Could it help you find a path forward? Or at least a knowledge that, even stagnation can be a shared experience. Sometimes the micro-actions that we may not even perceive as actions are what move us forward rather than the giant leaps.
May the rest of this year be kind to you and you be even kinder to yourself.
If you stumbled upon this blog entry on the Internet or got it from someone else forwarding you a link, please consider signing up for Erica Ginsberg’s mailing list so that you will get the next entry in the Creative Resilience series right to your Inbox. And, if you like the blog, check out the companion book.
Over the next seven days, one of the best documentaries of 2025 will be released in theaters, two of our favorite filmmakers will debut their latest features, and baby animals will be keeping our children entertained via Apple TV. Also, December 25 is coming up at the end of this week, and we’ve got a list of nonfiction Christmas movies. That was compiled nearly a decade ago, so let us know if anything else of note has been released since then. We know of ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Apple TV) and the appropriately sad feature So This is Christmas (free on Prime Video, Tubi, and Fandango at Home). If only there were 14 days of Christmas to allow the additions.
Speaking of the holidays, we have another (not sponsored or paid for) deal to share: you can gift (to yourself or someone else) a subscription to OVID at 50 percent off using the code HALFOFF. The streaming service is regularly adding documentaries, as you’ve seen in our weekly listings section, and is essential to all nonfiction film fans. See our list of the best documentaries on OVID, which shouldn’t be too dated.
Without further ado, below are this week’s documentary highlights, including capsule reviews of new nonfiction films and series. They are followed by daily listings for all known notable releases and broadcasts, plus a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive more in-depth highlights and reviews in the future, plus access to special posts like our best of 2025 and most anticipated of 2026 lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have a doc in need of coverage or a mention in our listings, you can reach me at christopherbartoncampbell (at) gmail.
Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Cover-Up (2025)
We’ve been getting a ton of documentaries about journalists lately, and for the most part, they’re fine, but the subjects’ work tends to overshadow the film at hand. Both in quality and importance. And the journalists aren’t always that interesting as characters. Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up isn’t the best film about journalists this year, yet it is ranked pretty well on our list of the best documentaries of 2025, partly because it does have a subject with a great screen presence.
The film follows the life and career (mostly the latter) of investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who is one of those writers who best exemplify the need for true journalists. He broke the My Lai massacre story during the Vietnam War, was an integral part of the Watergate scandal coverage, and exposed the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses, among his most significant efforts. He also has a certain charm and wit, despite also being a rather peevish person. Add him to the list of reluctant but relatively cooperative and thorough documentary subjects. He’s a good storyteller and does well talking about his personal and professional lives. Just don’t ask him about his sources, apparently.
You could say Hersh is “old school,” but that’d be a shame. He should be an elder archetype for how journalism should be perceived and practiced still. One of the reasons Cover-Up is so substantial now is that we’re still seeing stories like the ones he famously reported on. We can see My Lai parallels in the Venezuela boat strikes, corruption within the Nixon administration parallels in the Trump White House, and Iraqi prisoner roundups and torture in everything ICE is doing. Yet there’s little of the media infrastructure that allowed for intrepid and principled journalism like Hersh’s to flourish and rise to national attention. There’s also little in the way of such national attention. We need Americans to want and demand journalism, not just expect it.
Cover-Up opens in theaters on Friday, December 19, ahead of its exclusive Netflix streaming debut on Friday, December 26.
Other Documentary Highlights
Breakdown: 1975 (2025)
After executive producing this year’s series SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, Morgan Neville sticks with the commemoration of the events and entertainment of 1975 with this feature combining world history with film history. Narrated by Jodie Foster and featuring interviews with figures who were there and then (like Martin Scorsese) and others who weren’t even born yet (such as Seth Rogen), the film looks at what was going on in America 50 years ago and how movies released, produced during, and carried over in 1975 reflected the national mood and zeitgeist.
Its timeline is a bit scattered, its memory a bit generalizing, its points wandering, but I do like it when Neville cross-cuts different movies together (example: Chinatown and All the President’s Men) to seem to be in conversation with one another. The best is probably when it cuts from Kim Richards getting an ice cream cone in Escape to Witch Mountain to Kim Richards being shot while holding an ice cream cone in Assault on Precinct 13. Also, the segment on the Oscar win for Hearts and Minds is worth seeing. I recommend pairing it with the new short Song of My City (now on HBO Max), which portrays New York City in the 1970s as depicted in films of the era.
Breakdown: 1975 premieres on Netflix on Friday, December 19.
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders (2025)
This three-part true-crime docuseries presents the story of an Australian woman accused of murdering three people with beef Wellingtons that she cooked with poisonous mushrooms. It’s the latest overlong entry in the genre where the case is so contemporary that the documentary has to address the true-crime culture and its response to the story in real time. It’s a wild case, but those who would be interested in it likely already know everything, so it feels like an obligatory recap to add to the shelf, merely for the sake of genre completionism.
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders begins streaming via CNN on Friday, December 19.
Happy And You Know It (2025)
Four years after her must-see Music Box entry Listening to Kenny G, Penny Lane has made another entry for the series with a similar approach. Like the previous film, which profiled the titular smooth jazz icon with acknowledgment that a lot of people think he’s uncool, Happy and You Know It explores the niche of children’s music as something that exists outside of critical and cultural appreciation.
It’s a broad subject to cover in just 78 minutes, and as a parent and elementary school substitute teacher (Jack Hartmann is our friend), I can’t help but feel there are a lot of worthy examples missing from the conversation. Still, it makes its points well enough, both concisely and comprehensively, while focusing on a varied sampling of artists. And I think, as she did with Kenny G, Lane makes us see that we shouldn’t so simply dismiss art and entertainment that’s not for us.
Happy and You Know It premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Thursday, December 25.
Life (2021)
Jafar Panahi’s Life premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival as part of the anthology feature The Year of the Everlasting Storm. You can still find it opening that film (alongside short documentaries by Laura Poitras and Malik Vitthal, grouped with narrative works), which is currently streaming for free on Kanopy and Tubi. The segment is receiving a new life, though, as a standalone short documentary released on its own by Neon, partly in celebration of Panahi’s current awards season success with his latest narrative feature, It Was Just an Accident.
Whether by itself or part of the anthology film, Life feels like a sequel to Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s 2011 documentary This is Not a Film. That showed Panahi under house arrest while appealing a prison sentence and filmmaking ban. This shows him sheltering in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s funny because similar films that came out of the pandemic, including the locally related Our Iranian Lockdown, felt like remakes of This is Not a Film. Of course, only Panahi’s two films feature his pet iguana, Iggy, who once again steals the show in Life.
You can watch Life for free via Neon’s YouTube channel below.
Awards Highlights
Academy Awards Shortlists
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released shortlists for several Oscar categories last week, including Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short. On the former, we have 2000 Meters to Andriivka (available on PBS via Frontline), The Alabama Solution (HBO Max), Apocalypse in the Tropics (Netflix), Coexistence, My Ass! (in theaters), Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple TV), Cover-Up (coming to Netflix on 12/26), Cutting Through Rocks (in theaters), Folktales (Kanopy), Holding Liat (in theaters on 1/9), Mr. Nobody Against Putin (currently unavailable), Mistress Dispeller (VOD), My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (in theaters), The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix), Seeds (unavailable), and Yanuni (unavailable).
The shortlist for the short documentaries includes All the Empty Rooms (Netflix), All the Walls Came Down (unavailable), Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO Max), Bad Hostage (unavailable), Cashing Out (YouTube via The New Yorker), Chasing Time (PBS via POV), Children No More: Were and Are Gone (unavilable), Classroom 4 (PBS via POV), The Devil is Busy (HBO Max), Heartbeat (unavailable), Last Days on Lake Trinity (YouTube via The New Yorker), On Healing Land, Birds Perch (unavailable), Perfectly a Strangeness (unavailable), Rovina’s Choice (YouTube via The New Yorker), and We Were the Scenery (The Criterion Channel).
Additionally, the following documentaries landed on other shortlists: Diane Warren: Relentless (Kanopy) is on the Original Score list for Lesley Barber’s music for the film; the tune “Dear Me” from that documentary, written by Diane Warren and performed by Kesha, “Dying to Live” from Billy Idol Should Be Dead (unavailable), written by Billy Idol and J. Ralph and performed by Idol, “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from Come See Me in the Good Light, written by Sara Bareilles and performed by Bareilles with Brandi Carlile, and “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi! (unavailable), written by Nicholas Pike and performed by Ana Maria Martinez, are all on the Original Song list.
Cinema Eye Honors Final Nominations
Last week, the Cinema Eye Honors announced the last wave of their nominees and honorees for their upcoming 19th annual awards event. Their final contenders for their Nonfiction Short Film category are All the Empty Rooms (streaming on Netflix, Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO Max), The Devil is Busy (HBO Max), Mama Micra (unavailable), Perfectly a Strangeness (unavailable), and We Were the Scenery (The Criterion Channel). Their finalists for the hybrid-focused Heterodox Award are BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (in theaters), East of Wall (VOD), Peter Hujar’s Day (in theaters), The Rehearsal Season 2 (HBO Max), To a Land Unknown (VOD), and The Voice of Hind Rajab (in theaters).
They also announced this year’s Legacy Award recipients. That’s plural because there are four classic titles recognized this year: Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason (Kanopy, The Criterion Channel, OVID, Metrograph, and Kino Film Collection), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams (The Criterion Channel), Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (Kanopy and The Criterion Channel), and Marlon Riggs’s Tongues Untied (Kanopy and OVID). And speaking of legacies, the Cinema Eye Honors revealed a new career achievement spotlight called the Cinema Eye-Con Award, which is going to editor Janus Billeskov Jansen. Among the essential documentaries he edited, we recommend The Act of Killing (Kanopy and Fawesome), Strong Island (Netflix), Flee (Tubi), Putin’s Kiss (Kanopy and Tubi), and Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (VOD).
Critics Group Winners
We’ve reached the part of the awards season where regional critics groups are trying to differentiate themselves with their nominees and winners. This is most evident with the Boston Society of Film Critics, which recognized Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude (now on Mubi) for their Best Documentary award and Endless Cookie (in theaters) for Best Animated Feature. Also with the Indiana Film Journalists Association, which chose The Tenderness Tour (unavailable) as Best Documentary Film, with Orwell 2+2=5 (on VOD) as the runner-up.
The San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle, meanwhile, named Orwell 2+2=5 (on VOD) Best Documentary Feature, with The Alabama Solution (HBO Max) being called out as the runner-up for the award. The St. Louis Film Critics Association and the San Diego Film Critics Society also picked Orwell 2+2=5 for their Best Documentary award. The latter chose Billy Joel: And So It Goes (HBO Max) as their runner-up. The Seattle Film Critics Society, meanwhile, went with something more locally relevant: WTO/99 (in theaters).
The Chicago Film Critics Association, the Phoenix Critics Circle, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Austin Film Critics Association, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association all went with the more mainstream choice of The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix). The New York Film Critics Online also recognized The Perfect Neighbor, but only as its runner-up. Their primary pick was BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (in theaters). The Southeastern Film Critics Association named Predators (Paramount+) as their Best Documentary runner-up.
Documentary Release Calendar 12/19/25 – 12/25/25
Friday, December 19, 2025
Beautiful Budapest (1939) – A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores the titular Hungarian city. (TCM)
Born to Be Wild (2025) – A docuseries narrated by Hugh Bonneville following endangered baby animals. (Apple TV)
Breakdown: 1975 (2025) – An essay film directed by Morgan Neville (Piece by Piece) about the titular year, comprised of footage from movies of the time. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
Cover-Up (2025) – A documentary feature by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus about reporter Seymour Hersh. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders (2025) – A true-crime documentary about three men killed with beef wellington. (CNN)
Murder at the Motel Season 2, Episode 7: “Davis Motel” – The latest episode of this true-crime docuseries focuses on a murder in Utica, New York. (A&E)
Timestamp (2024) – A documentary feature on school life in Ukraine during the present wartime. (OVID)
The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd Season 3, Episode 7: “Dodging Death” – The latest installment of a docuseries about mysterious and bizarre people and things. (History)
Saturday, December 20, 2025
Accident, Suicide, or Murder Season 6, Episode 5: “Left to Unrest” – The latest episode of this true-crime series involves a woman who seemed to die from natural causes. (Oxygen)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Toronto Airport: Uncovered Season 1, Episodes 9 & 1: “Runway Ready” & “Against the Clock” – The latest two installments of a docuseries that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Toronto Pearson Airport. (National Geographic)
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Gadgets Galore (1955) – An Oscar-nominated short documentary about the impact of the invention of the automobile. (TCM)
Killer Grannies Season 1, Episode 7: “Granny’s Killer Gravy” – The latest installment of a true-crime series hosted by June Squibb about elderly woman killers. (Oxygen)
Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins Season 4, Episode 7: “Deadly Delusion” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about romances gone tragically wrong. (Oxygen)
Snapped: Behind Bars Season 3, Episode 7: “Danielle Hudson and Chaz Blackshear” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries featuring interviews with murderers who appeared on the show Snapped. (Oxygen)
Words + Music Season 1, Episode 4: “Alanis Morissette” – The latest episode of a music docuseries in which artists perform and discuss their hit songs. (MGM+)
Monday, December 22, 2025
Elway (2025) – A documentary feature about the former Broncos quarterback John Elway. (Netflix)
Here Come the Irish Season 2, Episode 3: “Fight or Flight” – The latest installment of a docuseries that follows the Notre Dame football team. (Peacock)
Ice Antics (1939) – A short film showcasing ice skaters and spotlighting scenes from the movie The Ice Follies of 1939. (TCM)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Moment of Contact: New Revelations of Alien Encounters (2025) – An expanded edition of a 2022 documentary directed by Ufologist James Fox about the latest information on alien encounters. (VOD)
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue (2024) – A documentary feature about the longtime editor of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. (Blu-ray)
Canadian Carnival (1955) – A short documentary about carnival celebration in Quebec. (TCM)
Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East Episode 4 – The latest installment of a docuseries that goes behind the scenes of NFL teams. (HBO Max)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo Season 2, Episode 7: “Divine Discoveries” – The latest installment of a docuseries exploring hidden worlds. (History)
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Thursday, December 25, 2025
The American Runestone (2020) – A docuseries starring actor Peter Stormare about a runestone left by Viking explorers in Minnesota in the 14th century. (Viaplay)
Happy and You Know It (2025) – A documentary feature directed by Penny Lane (Listening to Kenny G) about children’s music. *NONFICS PICK* (HBO Max)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Sneak Peek At What’s Coming Soon
12/27 – #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUr the MOVIE – A concert film starring BTS member Jin during his first solo tour. (In Theaters)
12/28 – Adventure in Wonder – A docuseries following a Texas family as they sail the Croatian seas. Watch the new trailer for the series here. (Wonder Project)
12/30 – Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story – A true-crime documentary about the titular therapist who aided Ruby Franke in child abuse. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (Netflix)
1/7 – Unlocked: A Jail Experiment Season 2 – The return of a docuseries about new approaches to rehabilitation for the incarcerated, this time in Arizona. (Netflix)
1/8 – The Tale of Silyan – A documentary feature by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tamara Kotevska (Honeyland) that follows a struggling North Macedonian farmer. *NONFICS PICK* (National Geographic)
1/16 – Seeds – A Critics Choice-nominated documentary feature about Black generational farmers. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
1/30 – Melania – A documentary feature directed by Brett Ratner about current U.S. First Lady Melania Trump. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)
1/30 – Natchez – A documentary feature about the historical legacy of the titular town in Mississippi. See where the film ranks on our list of the best documentaries of 2025. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
2/4 – Nature: Parenthood – A docuseries narrated by Sir David Attenborough showcasing animal parents around the world. (PBS)
2/23 – The Inquisitor – A documentary feature about Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan. (PBS)
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Image Description: A statue that features heads shaped into blocks. Image courtesy of Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash
I know it’s been more than a minute since my last blog post. Maybe you haven’t missed me. But I have missed me. I have long been a forgiving sort who writes about giving oneself grace when not actively creating and embracing zig-zag approaches to the creative process. I even wrote about ways to stretch those creative muscles when you are feeling stuck.
But what happens when you reach an existential block?
That is a bit how I’ve been feeling for the past few months. My most recent book event was in the summer. I keep saying I am going to get back into a documentary film I started before the pandemic. I started making some notes about a new book idea. I keep trying to get my creative juices going by doing everything from taking walks, listening to music I haven’t tuned into in years, painting rocks, paper (but not yet scissors), and trying to stay attuned to what other artists are up to, including in disciplines that are different from my own. I spent 30 days on a social media experiment where I posted an image that brought joy to me every day for 30 days. It forced me to seek out those small moments of joy, document them, and share them. I didn’t think of it as a creative project per se, but I guess it was.
Image Description: A collage of social media images that make up the author’s “Joy of the Day” project where she posted an image every day for 30 days that brought her joy
The final few weeks on the calendar can be challenging in normal times when we are reflecting on what we’ve achieved (or haven’t) in the past year. Add to that a state of the world that is exhausting and heavy on so many levels. Worrying about whether you can progress creatively feels like such a privilege in the times in which we live. And yet this is when we most need to find ways to express ourselves, whether to make an impact or simply to remind ourselves of our own humanity.
[Insert the sound of car breaks]
That is as far as I got with this blog post for about the past two weeks. Sitting in my home office, I kept this draft open but untended to. Even this was starting to feel like a heavy lift. How could I turn this exasperation into inspiration? For you? Or even for myself? It can feel foolish sometimes to be doling out advice to others on how to navigate the ups and downs of the creative process when I feel so stuck in my own creative pursuits.
Image Description: The author’s tabs across the top of her laptop. 16 tabs is actually a pretty small number for me. But this Blockhead post has lived open in progress (or lack therof) on my laptop for the better part of a month.
Coming back to this open tab on my laptop, I stared at what surrounded it: work papers, a semi-organized but seemingly messy pile of financial documents for both me and my mother (whose finances I am now handling). Hardly the stuff that inspires. But then I turned my head to the wall where I posted my vision board for the year. As the year is coming to a conclusion, I wanted to revisit my hopes from the beginning of the year, a time which feels like a lifetime ago.
Right in the middle was something that said, “The best way out is always through.”
Words of wisdom from poet Robert Frost who was also a human artist who contended with his own challenges of the creative process.
Image Description: The author’s inspiration wall that is a mix of images and words, including a 2025 vision board that contains the quote “The best way out is always through.”
That line reminds me of one of the central points I always make about creativity: Our first thought should not be to find hacks and easy answers to avoid the challenges. It is about accepting that challenges are central to the process. We may not all navigate them in the same ways or at the same pace, but they must be navigated nonetheless.
And just because I provide some advice on navigating the creative process doesn’t exempt me from needing or listening to my own advice. Sometimes we are hardest on ourselves because we don’t reflect what we think the world should see in us.
And yet sometimes the world sees in us things we might overlook.
I was recently conversing with a former work colleague who I had not seen in many years. He eagerly told me how influential my love of documentary film had been to him. He proudly noted how he had become involved with getting a documentary made and seen and said that I had an influence on that direction for him. I have no memory of us having ever discussed documentaries when we worked together or that doing so would leave such an impression with him. But hearing this from him made me realize how much of an impact we can have in small ways that might seem inconsequential.
It made me want to finish this blog post. Not because I have come to some great magical breakthrough in my own creative process or have some exceptionally sage advice to convey to you about art-making and the meaning of life. But just maybe there is something in these words that resonates with someone reading this. Could it help you find a path forward? Or at least a knowledge that, even stagnation can be a shared experience. Sometimes the micro-actions that we may not even perceive as actions are what move us forward rather than the giant leaps.
May the rest of this year be kind to you and you be even kinder to yourself.
If you stumbled upon this blog entry on the Internet or got it from someone else forwarding you a link, please consider signing up for Erica Ginsberg’s mailing list so that you will get the next entry in the Creative Resilience series right to your Inbox. And, if you like the blog, check out the companion book.
Over the next seven days, one of the best documentaries of 2025 will be released in theaters, two of our favorite filmmakers will debut their latest features, and baby animals will be keeping our children entertained via Apple TV. Also, December 25 is coming up at the end of this week, and we’ve got a list of nonfiction Christmas movies. That was compiled nearly a decade ago, so let us know if anything else of note has been released since then. We know of ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Apple TV) and the appropriately sad feature So This is Christmas (free on Prime Video, Tubi, and Fandango at Home). If only there were 14 days of Christmas to allow the additions.
Speaking of the holidays, we have another (not sponsored or paid for) deal to share: you can gift (to yourself or someone else) a subscription to OVID at 50 percent off using the code HALFOFF. The streaming service is regularly adding documentaries, as you’ve seen in our weekly listings section, and is essential to all nonfiction film fans. See our list of the best documentaries on OVID, which shouldn’t be too dated.
Without further ado, below are this week’s documentary highlights, including capsule reviews of new nonfiction films and series. They are followed by daily listings for all known notable releases and broadcasts, plus a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive more in-depth highlights and reviews in the future, plus access to special posts like our best of 2025 and most anticipated of 2026 lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have a doc in need of coverage or a mention in our listings, you can reach me at christopherbartoncampbell (at) gmail.
Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Cover-Up (2025)
We’ve been getting a ton of documentaries about journalists lately, and for the most part, they’re fine, but the subjects’ work tends to overshadow the film at hand. Both in quality and importance. And the journalists aren’t always that interesting as characters. Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up isn’t the best film about journalists this year, yet it is ranked pretty well on our list of the best documentaries of 2025, partly because it does have a subject with a great screen presence.
The film follows the life and career (mostly the latter) of investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who is one of those writers who best exemplify the need for true journalists. He broke the My Lai massacre story during the Vietnam War, was an integral part of the Watergate scandal coverage, and exposed the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses, among his most significant efforts. He also has a certain charm and wit, despite also being a rather peevish person. Add him to the list of reluctant but relatively cooperative and thorough documentary subjects. He’s a good storyteller and does well talking about his personal and professional lives. Just don’t ask him about his sources, apparently.
You could say Hersh is “old school,” but that’d be a shame. He should be an elder archetype for how journalism should be perceived and practiced still. One of the reasons Cover-Up is so substantial now is that we’re still seeing stories like the ones he famously reported on. We can see My Lai parallels in the Venezuela boat strikes, corruption within the Nixon administration parallels in the Trump White House, and Iraqi prisoner roundups and torture in everything ICE is doing. Yet there’s little of the media infrastructure that allowed for intrepid and principled journalism like Hersh’s to flourish and rise to national attention. There’s also little in the way of such national attention. We need Americans to want and demand journalism, not just expect it.
Cover-Up opens in theaters on Friday, December 19, ahead of its exclusive Netflix streaming debut on Friday, December 26.
Other Documentary Highlights
Breakdown: 1975 (2025)
After executive producing this year’s series SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, Morgan Neville sticks with the commemoration of the events and entertainment of 1975 with this feature combining world history with film history. Narrated by Jodie Foster and featuring interviews with figures who were there and then (like Martin Scorsese) and others who weren’t even born yet (such as Seth Rogen), the film looks at what was going on in America 50 years ago and how movies released, produced during, and carried over in 1975 reflected the national mood and zeitgeist.
Its timeline is a bit scattered, its memory a bit generalizing, its points wandering, but I do like it when Neville cross-cuts different movies together (example: Chinatown and All the President’s Men) to seem to be in conversation with one another. The best is probably when it cuts from Kim Richards getting an ice cream cone in Escape to Witch Mountain to Kim Richards being shot while holding an ice cream cone in Assault on Precinct 13. Also, the segment on the Oscar win for Hearts and Minds is worth seeing. I recommend pairing it with the new short Song of My City (now on HBO Max), which portrays New York City in the 1970s as depicted in films of the era.
Breakdown: 1975 premieres on Netflix on Friday, December 19.
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders (2025)
This three-part true-crime docuseries presents the story of an Australian woman accused of murdering three people with beef Wellingtons that she cooked with poisonous mushrooms. It’s the latest overlong entry in the genre where the case is so contemporary that the documentary has to address the true-crime culture and its response to the story in real time. It’s a wild case, but those who would be interested in it likely already know everything, so it feels like an obligatory recap to add to the shelf, merely for the sake of genre completionism.
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders begins streaming via CNN on Friday, December 19.
Happy And You Know It (2025)
Four years after her must-see Music Box entry Listening to Kenny G, Penny Lane has made another entry for the series with a similar approach. Like the previous film, which profiled the titular smooth jazz icon with acknowledgment that a lot of people think he’s uncool, Happy and You Know It explores the niche of children’s music as something that exists outside of critical and cultural appreciation.
It’s a broad subject to cover in just 78 minutes, and as a parent and elementary school substitute teacher (Jack Hartmann is our friend), I can’t help but feel there are a lot of worthy examples missing from the conversation. Still, it makes its points well enough, both concisely and comprehensively, while focusing on a varied sampling of artists. And I think, as she did with Kenny G, Lane makes us see that we shouldn’t so simply dismiss art and entertainment that’s not for us.
Happy and You Know It premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Thursday, December 25.
Life (2021)
Jafar Panahi’s Life premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival as part of the anthology feature The Year of the Everlasting Storm. You can still find it opening that film (alongside short documentaries by Laura Poitras and Malik Vitthal, grouped with narrative works), which is currently streaming for free on Kanopy and Tubi. The segment is receiving a new life, though, as a standalone short documentary released on its own by Neon, partly in celebration of Panahi’s current awards season success with his latest narrative feature, It Was Just an Accident.
Whether by itself or part of the anthology film, Life feels like a sequel to Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s 2011 documentary This is Not a Film. That showed Panahi under house arrest while appealing a prison sentence and filmmaking ban. This shows him sheltering in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s funny because similar films that came out of the pandemic, including the locally related Our Iranian Lockdown, felt like remakes of This is Not a Film. Of course, only Panahi’s two films feature his pet iguana, Iggy, who once again steals the show in Life.
You can watch Life for free via Neon’s YouTube channel below.
Awards Highlights
Academy Awards Shortlists
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released shortlists for several Oscar categories last week, including Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short. On the former, we have 2000 Meters to Andriivka (available on PBS via Frontline), The Alabama Solution (HBO Max), Apocalypse in the Tropics (Netflix), Coexistence, My Ass! (in theaters), Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple TV), Cover-Up (coming to Netflix on 12/26), Cutting Through Rocks (in theaters), Folktales (Kanopy), Holding Liat (in theaters on 1/9), Mr. Nobody Against Putin (currently unavailable), Mistress Dispeller (VOD), My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (in theaters), The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix), Seeds (unavailable), and Yanuni (unavailable).
The shortlist for the short documentaries includes All the Empty Rooms (Netflix), All the Walls Came Down (unavailable), Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO Max), Bad Hostage (unavailable), Cashing Out (YouTube via The New Yorker), Chasing Time (PBS via POV), Children No More: Were and Are Gone (unavilable), Classroom 4 (PBS via POV), The Devil is Busy (HBO Max), Heartbeat (unavailable), Last Days on Lake Trinity (YouTube via The New Yorker), On Healing Land, Birds Perch (unavailable), Perfectly a Strangeness (unavailable), Rovina’s Choice (YouTube via The New Yorker), and We Were the Scenery (The Criterion Channel).
Additionally, the following documentaries landed on other shortlists: Diane Warren: Relentless (Kanopy) is on the Original Score list for Lesley Barber’s music for the film; the tune “Dear Me” from that documentary, written by Diane Warren and performed by Kesha, “Dying to Live” from Billy Idol Should Be Dead (unavailable), written by Billy Idol and J. Ralph and performed by Idol, “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from Come See Me in the Good Light, written by Sara Bareilles and performed by Bareilles with Brandi Carlile, and “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi! (unavailable), written by Nicholas Pike and performed by Ana Maria Martinez, are all on the Original Song list.
Cinema Eye Honors Final Nominations
Last week, the Cinema Eye Honors announced the last wave of their nominees and honorees for their upcoming 19th annual awards event. Their final contenders for their Nonfiction Short Film category are All the Empty Rooms (streaming on Netflix, Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO Max), The Devil is Busy (HBO Max), Mama Micra (unavailable), Perfectly a Strangeness (unavailable), and We Were the Scenery (The Criterion Channel). Their finalists for the hybrid-focused Heterodox Award are BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (in theaters), East of Wall (VOD), Peter Hujar’s Day (in theaters), The Rehearsal Season 2 (HBO Max), To a Land Unknown (VOD), and The Voice of Hind Rajab (in theaters).
They also announced this year’s Legacy Award recipients. That’s plural because there are four classic titles recognized this year: Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason (Kanopy, The Criterion Channel, OVID, Metrograph, and Kino Film Collection), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams (The Criterion Channel), Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (Kanopy and The Criterion Channel), and Marlon Riggs’s Tongues Untied (Kanopy and OVID). And speaking of legacies, the Cinema Eye Honors revealed a new career achievement spotlight called the Cinema Eye-Con Award, which is going to editor Janus Billeskov Jansen. Among the essential documentaries he edited, we recommend The Act of Killing (Kanopy and Fawesome), Strong Island (Netflix), Flee (Tubi), Putin’s Kiss (Kanopy and Tubi), and Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (VOD).
Critics Group Winners
We’ve reached the part of the awards season where regional critics groups are trying to differentiate themselves with their nominees and winners. This is most evident with the Boston Society of Film Critics, which recognized Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude (now on Mubi) for their Best Documentary award and Endless Cookie (in theaters) for Best Animated Feature. Also with the Indiana Film Journalists Association, which chose The Tenderness Tour (unavailable) as Best Documentary Film, with Orwell 2+2=5 (on VOD) as the runner-up.
The San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle, meanwhile, named Orwell 2+2=5 (on VOD) Best Documentary Feature, with The Alabama Solution (HBO Max) being called out as the runner-up for the award. The St. Louis Film Critics Association and the San Diego Film Critics Society also picked Orwell 2+2=5 for their Best Documentary award. The latter chose Billy Joel: And So It Goes (HBO Max) as their runner-up. The Seattle Film Critics Society, meanwhile, went with something more locally relevant: WTO/99 (in theaters).
The Chicago Film Critics Association, the Phoenix Critics Circle, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Austin Film Critics Association, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association all went with the more mainstream choice of The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix). The New York Film Critics Online also recognized The Perfect Neighbor, but only as its runner-up. Their primary pick was BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (in theaters). The Southeastern Film Critics Association named Predators (Paramount+) as their Best Documentary runner-up.
Documentary Release Calendar 12/19/25 – 12/25/25
Friday, December 19, 2025
Beautiful Budapest (1939) – A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores the titular Hungarian city. (TCM)
Born to Be Wild (2025) – A docuseries narrated by Hugh Bonneville following endangered baby animals. (Apple TV)
Breakdown: 1975 (2025) – An essay film directed by Morgan Neville (Piece by Piece) about the titular year, comprised of footage from movies of the time. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
Cover-Up (2025) – A documentary feature by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus about reporter Seymour Hersh. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders (2025) – A true-crime documentary about three men killed with beef wellington. (CNN)
Murder at the Motel Season 2, Episode 7: “Davis Motel” – The latest episode of this true-crime docuseries focuses on a murder in Utica, New York. (A&E)
Timestamp (2024) – A documentary feature on school life in Ukraine during the present wartime. (OVID)
The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd Season 3, Episode 7: “Dodging Death” – The latest installment of a docuseries about mysterious and bizarre people and things. (History)
Saturday, December 20, 2025
Accident, Suicide, or Murder Season 6, Episode 5: “Left to Unrest” – The latest episode of this true-crime series involves a woman who seemed to die from natural causes. (Oxygen)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Toronto Airport: Uncovered Season 1, Episodes 9 & 1: “Runway Ready” & “Against the Clock” – The latest two installments of a docuseries that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Toronto Pearson Airport. (National Geographic)
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Gadgets Galore (1955) – An Oscar-nominated short documentary about the impact of the invention of the automobile. (TCM)
Killer Grannies Season 1, Episode 7: “Granny’s Killer Gravy” – The latest installment of a true-crime series hosted by June Squibb about elderly woman killers. (Oxygen)
Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins Season 4, Episode 7: “Deadly Delusion” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about romances gone tragically wrong. (Oxygen)
Snapped: Behind Bars Season 3, Episode 7: “Danielle Hudson and Chaz Blackshear” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries featuring interviews with murderers who appeared on the show Snapped. (Oxygen)
Words + Music Season 1, Episode 4: “Alanis Morissette” – The latest episode of a music docuseries in which artists perform and discuss their hit songs. (MGM+)
Monday, December 22, 2025
Elway (2025) – A documentary feature about the former Broncos quarterback John Elway. (Netflix)
Here Come the Irish Season 2, Episode 3: “Fight or Flight” – The latest installment of a docuseries that follows the Notre Dame football team. (Peacock)
Ice Antics (1939) – A short film showcasing ice skaters and spotlighting scenes from the movie The Ice Follies of 1939. (TCM)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Moment of Contact: New Revelations of Alien Encounters (2025) – An expanded edition of a 2022 documentary directed by Ufologist James Fox about the latest information on alien encounters. (VOD)
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue (2024) – A documentary feature about the longtime editor of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. (Blu-ray)
Canadian Carnival (1955) – A short documentary about carnival celebration in Quebec. (TCM)
Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East Episode 4 – The latest installment of a docuseries that goes behind the scenes of NFL teams. (HBO Max)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo Season 2, Episode 7: “Divine Discoveries” – The latest installment of a docuseries exploring hidden worlds. (History)
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Thursday, December 25, 2025
The American Runestone (2020) – A docuseries starring actor Peter Stormare about a runestone left by Viking explorers in Minnesota in the 14th century. (Viaplay)
Happy and You Know It (2025) – A documentary feature directed by Penny Lane (Listening to Kenny G) about children’s music. *NONFICS PICK* (HBO Max)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Sneak Peek At What’s Coming Soon
12/27 – #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUr the MOVIE – A concert film starring BTS member Jin during his first solo tour. (In Theaters)
12/28 – Adventure in Wonder – A docuseries following a Texas family as they sail the Croatian seas. Watch the new trailer for the series here. (Wonder Project)
12/30 – Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story – A true-crime documentary about the titular therapist who aided Ruby Franke in child abuse. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (Netflix)
1/7 – Unlocked: A Jail Experiment Season 2 – The return of a docuseries about new approaches to rehabilitation for the incarcerated, this time in Arizona. (Netflix)
1/8 – The Tale of Silyan – A documentary feature by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tamara Kotevska (Honeyland) that follows a struggling North Macedonian farmer. *NONFICS PICK* (National Geographic)
1/16 – Seeds – A Critics Choice-nominated documentary feature about Black generational farmers. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
1/30 – Melania – A documentary feature directed by Brett Ratner about current U.S. First Lady Melania Trump. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)
1/30 – Natchez – A documentary feature about the historical legacy of the titular town in Mississippi. See where the film ranks on our list of the best documentaries of 2025. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
2/4 – Nature: Parenthood – A docuseries narrated by Sir David Attenborough showcasing animal parents around the world. (PBS)
2/23 – The Inquisitor – A documentary feature about Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan. (PBS)
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Over the next seven days, one of the best documentaries of 2025 will be released in theaters, two of our favorite filmmakers will debut their latest features, and baby animals will be keeping our children entertained via Apple TV. Also, December 25 is coming up at the end of this week, and we’ve got a list of nonfiction Christmas movies. That was compiled nearly a decade ago, so let us know if anything else of note has been released since then. We know of ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Apple TV) and the appropriately sad feature So This is Christmas (free on Prime Video, Tubi, and Fandango at Home). If only there were 14 days of Christmas to allow the additions.
Speaking of the holidays, we have another (not sponsored or paid for) deal to share: you can gift (to yourself or someone else) a subscription to OVID at 50 percent off using the code HALFOFF. The streaming service is regularly adding documentaries, as you’ve seen in our weekly listings section, and is essential to all nonfiction film fans. See our list of the best documentaries on OVID, which shouldn’t be too dated.
Without further ado, below are this week’s documentary highlights, including capsule reviews of new nonfiction films and series. They are followed by daily listings for all known notable releases and broadcasts, plus a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive more in-depth highlights and reviews in the future, plus access to special posts like our best of 2025 and most anticipated of 2026 lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have a doc in need of coverage or a mention in our listings, you can reach me at christopherbartoncampbell (at) gmail.
Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Cover-Up (2025)
We’ve been getting a ton of documentaries about journalists lately, and for the most part, they’re fine, but the subjects’ work tends to overshadow the film at hand. Both in quality and importance. And the journalists aren’t always that interesting as characters. Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up isn’t the best film about journalists this year, yet it is ranked pretty well on our list of the best documentaries of 2025, partly because it does have a subject with a great screen presence.
The film follows the life and career (mostly the latter) of investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who is one of those writers who best exemplify the need for true journalists. He broke the My Lai massacre story during the Vietnam War, was an integral part of the Watergate scandal coverage, and exposed the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses, among his most significant efforts. He also has a certain charm and wit, despite also being a rather peevish person. Add him to the list of reluctant but relatively cooperative and thorough documentary subjects. He’s a good storyteller and does well talking about his personal and professional lives. Just don’t ask him about his sources, apparently.
You could say Hersh is “old school,” but that’d be a shame. He should be an elder archetype for how journalism should be perceived and practiced still. One of the reasons Cover-Up is so substantial now is that we’re still seeing stories like the ones he famously reported on. We can see My Lai parallels in the Venezuela boat strikes, corruption within the Nixon administration parallels in the Trump White House, and Iraqi prisoner roundups and torture in everything ICE is doing. Yet there’s little of the media infrastructure that allowed for intrepid and principled journalism like Hersh’s to flourish and rise to national attention. There’s also little in the way of such national attention. We need Americans to want and demand journalism, not just expect it.
Cover-Up opens in theaters on Friday, December 19, ahead of its exclusive Netflix streaming debut on Friday, December 26.
Other Documentary Highlights
Breakdown: 1975 (2025)
After executive producing this year’s series SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, Morgan Neville sticks with the commemoration of the events and entertainment of 1975 with this feature combining world history with film history. Narrated by Jodie Foster and featuring interviews with figures who were there and then (like Martin Scorsese) and others who weren’t even born yet (such as Seth Rogen), the film looks at what was going on in America 50 years ago and how movies released, produced during, and carried over in 1975 reflected the national mood and zeitgeist.
Its timeline is a bit scattered, its memory a bit generalizing, its points wandering, but I do like it when Neville cross-cuts different movies together (example: Chinatown and All the President’s Men) to seem to be in conversation with one another. The best is probably when it cuts from Kim Richards getting an ice cream cone in Escape to Witch Mountain to Kim Richards being shot while holding an ice cream cone in Assault on Precinct 13. Also, the segment on the Oscar win for Hearts and Minds is worth seeing. I recommend pairing it with the new short Song of My City (now on HBO Max), which portrays New York City in the 1970s as depicted in films of the era.
Breakdown: 1975 premieres on Netflix on Friday, December 19.
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders (2025)
This three-part true-crime docuseries presents the story of an Australian woman accused of murdering three people with beef Wellingtons that she cooked with poisonous mushrooms. It’s the latest overlong entry in the genre where the case is so contemporary that the documentary has to address the true-crime culture and its response to the story in real time. It’s a wild case, but those who would be interested in it likely already know everything, so it feels like an obligatory recap to add to the shelf, merely for the sake of genre completionism.
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders begins streaming via CNN on Friday, December 19.
Happy And You Know It (2025)
Four years after her must-see Music Box entry Listening to Kenny G, Penny Lane has made another entry for the series with a similar approach. Like the previous film, which profiled the titular smooth jazz icon with acknowledgment that a lot of people think he’s uncool, Happy and You Know It explores the niche of children’s music as something that exists outside of critical and cultural appreciation.
It’s a broad subject to cover in just 78 minutes, and as a parent and elementary school substitute teacher (Jack Hartmann is our friend), I can’t help but feel there are a lot of worthy examples missing from the conversation. Still, it makes its points well enough, both concisely and comprehensively, while focusing on a varied sampling of artists. And I think, as she did with Kenny G, Lane makes us see that we shouldn’t so simply dismiss art and entertainment that’s not for us.
Happy and You Know It premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Thursday, December 25.
Life (2021)
Jafar Panahi’s Life premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival as part of the anthology feature The Year of the Everlasting Storm. You can still find it opening that film (alongside short documentaries by Laura Poitras and Malik Vitthal, grouped with narrative works), which is currently streaming for free on Kanopy and Tubi. The segment is receiving a new life, though, as a standalone short documentary released on its own by Neon, partly in celebration of Panahi’s current awards season success with his latest narrative feature, It Was Just an Accident.
Whether by itself or part of the anthology film, Life feels like a sequel to Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s 2011 documentary This is Not a Film. That showed Panahi under house arrest while appealing a prison sentence and filmmaking ban. This shows him sheltering in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s funny because similar films that came out of the pandemic, including the locally related Our Iranian Lockdown, felt like remakes of This is Not a Film. Of course, only Panahi’s two films feature his pet iguana, Iggy, who once again steals the show in Life.
You can watch Life for free via Neon’s YouTube channel below.
Awards Highlights
Academy Awards Shortlists
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released shortlists for several Oscar categories last week, including Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short. On the former, we have 2000 Meters to Andriivka (available on PBS via Frontline), The Alabama Solution (HBO Max), Apocalypse in the Tropics (Netflix), Coexistence, My Ass! (in theaters), Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple TV), Cover-Up (coming to Netflix on 12/26), Cutting Through Rocks (in theaters), Folktales (Kanopy), Holding Liat (in theaters on 1/9), Mr. Nobody Against Putin (currently unavailable), Mistress Dispeller (VOD), My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (in theaters), The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix), Seeds (unavailable), and Yanuni (unavailable).
The shortlist for the short documentaries includes All the Empty Rooms (Netflix), All the Walls Came Down (unavailable), Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO Max), Bad Hostage (unavailable), Cashing Out (YouTube via The New Yorker), Chasing Time (PBS via POV), Children No More: Were and Are Gone (unavilable), Classroom 4 (PBS via POV), The Devil is Busy (HBO Max), Heartbeat (unavailable), Last Days on Lake Trinity (YouTube via The New Yorker), On Healing Land, Birds Perch (unavailable), Perfectly a Strangeness (unavailable), Rovina’s Choice (YouTube via The New Yorker), and We Were the Scenery (The Criterion Channel).
Additionally, the following documentaries landed on other shortlists: Diane Warren: Relentless (Kanopy) is on the Original Score list for Lesley Barber’s music for the film; the tune “Dear Me” from that documentary, written by Diane Warren and performed by Kesha, “Dying to Live” from Billy Idol Should Be Dead (unavailable), written by Billy Idol and J. Ralph and performed by Idol, “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from Come See Me in the Good Light, written by Sara Bareilles and performed by Bareilles with Brandi Carlile, and “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi! (unavailable), written by Nicholas Pike and performed by Ana Maria Martinez, are all on the Original Song list.
Cinema Eye Honors Final Nominations
Last week, the Cinema Eye Honors announced the last wave of their nominees and honorees for their upcoming 19th annual awards event. Their final contenders for their Nonfiction Short Film category are All the Empty Rooms (streaming on Netflix, Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO Max), The Devil is Busy (HBO Max), Mama Micra (unavailable), Perfectly a Strangeness (unavailable), and We Were the Scenery (The Criterion Channel). Their finalists for the hybrid-focused Heterodox Award are BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (in theaters), East of Wall (VOD), Peter Hujar’s Day (in theaters), The Rehearsal Season 2 (HBO Max), To a Land Unknown (VOD), and The Voice of Hind Rajab (in theaters).
They also announced this year’s Legacy Award recipients. That’s plural because there are four classic titles recognized this year: Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason (Kanopy, The Criterion Channel, OVID, Metrograph, and Kino Film Collection), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams (The Criterion Channel), Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (Kanopy and The Criterion Channel), and Marlon Riggs’s Tongues Untied (Kanopy and OVID). And speaking of legacies, the Cinema Eye Honors revealed a new career achievement spotlight called the Cinema Eye-Con Award, which is going to editor Janus Billeskov Jansen. Among the essential documentaries he edited, we recommend The Act of Killing (Kanopy and Fawesome), Strong Island (Netflix), Flee (Tubi), Putin’s Kiss (Kanopy and Tubi), and Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (VOD).
Critics Group Winners
We’ve reached the part of the awards season where regional critics groups are trying to differentiate themselves with their nominees and winners. This is most evident with the Boston Society of Film Critics, which recognized Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude (now on Mubi) for their Best Documentary award and Endless Cookie (in theaters) for Best Animated Feature. Also with the Indiana Film Journalists Association, which chose The Tenderness Tour (unavailable) as Best Documentary Film, with Orwell 2+2=5 (on VOD) as the runner-up.
The San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle, meanwhile, named Orwell 2+2=5 (on VOD) Best Documentary Feature, with The Alabama Solution (HBO Max) being called out as the runner-up for the award. The St. Louis Film Critics Association and the San Diego Film Critics Society also picked Orwell 2+2=5 for their Best Documentary award. The latter chose Billy Joel: And So It Goes (HBO Max) as their runner-up. The Seattle Film Critics Society, meanwhile, went with something more locally relevant: WTO/99 (in theaters).
The Chicago Film Critics Association, the Phoenix Critics Circle, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Austin Film Critics Association, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association all went with the more mainstream choice of The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix). The New York Film Critics Online also recognized The Perfect Neighbor, but only as its runner-up. Their primary pick was BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (in theaters). The Southeastern Film Critics Association named Predators (Paramount+) as their Best Documentary runner-up.
Documentary Release Calendar 12/19/25 – 12/25/25
Friday, December 19, 2025
Beautiful Budapest (1939) – A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores the titular Hungarian city. (TCM)
Born to Be Wild (2025) – A docuseries narrated by Hugh Bonneville following endangered baby animals. (Apple TV)
Breakdown: 1975 (2025) – An essay film directed by Morgan Neville (Piece by Piece) about the titular year, comprised of footage from movies of the time. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
Cover-Up (2025) – A documentary feature by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus about reporter Seymour Hersh. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders (2025) – A true-crime documentary about three men killed with beef wellington. (CNN)
Murder at the Motel Season 2, Episode 7: “Davis Motel” – The latest episode of this true-crime docuseries focuses on a murder in Utica, New York. (A&E)
Timestamp (2024) – A documentary feature on school life in Ukraine during the present wartime. (OVID)
The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd Season 3, Episode 7: “Dodging Death” – The latest installment of a docuseries about mysterious and bizarre people and things. (History)
Saturday, December 20, 2025
Accident, Suicide, or Murder Season 6, Episode 5: “Left to Unrest” – The latest episode of this true-crime series involves a woman who seemed to die from natural causes. (Oxygen)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Toronto Airport: Uncovered Season 1, Episodes 9 & 1: “Runway Ready” & “Against the Clock” – The latest two installments of a docuseries that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Toronto Pearson Airport. (National Geographic)
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Gadgets Galore (1955) – An Oscar-nominated short documentary about the impact of the invention of the automobile. (TCM)
Killer Grannies Season 1, Episode 7: “Granny’s Killer Gravy” – The latest installment of a true-crime series hosted by June Squibb about elderly woman killers. (Oxygen)
Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins Season 4, Episode 7: “Deadly Delusion” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about romances gone tragically wrong. (Oxygen)
Snapped: Behind Bars Season 3, Episode 7: “Danielle Hudson and Chaz Blackshear” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries featuring interviews with murderers who appeared on the show Snapped. (Oxygen)
Words + Music Season 1, Episode 4: “Alanis Morissette” – The latest episode of a music docuseries in which artists perform and discuss their hit songs. (MGM+)
Monday, December 22, 2025
Elway (2025) – A documentary feature about the former Broncos quarterback John Elway. (Netflix)
Here Come the Irish Season 2, Episode 3: “Fight or Flight” – The latest installment of a docuseries that follows the Notre Dame football team. (Peacock)
Ice Antics (1939) – A short film showcasing ice skaters and spotlighting scenes from the movie The Ice Follies of 1939. (TCM)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Moment of Contact: New Revelations of Alien Encounters (2025) – An expanded edition of a 2022 documentary directed by Ufologist James Fox about the latest information on alien encounters. (VOD)
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue (2024) – A documentary feature about the longtime editor of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. (Blu-ray)
Canadian Carnival (1955) – A short documentary about carnival celebration in Quebec. (TCM)
Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East Episode 4 – The latest installment of a docuseries that goes behind the scenes of NFL teams. (HBO Max)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo Season 2, Episode 7: “Divine Discoveries” – The latest installment of a docuseries exploring hidden worlds. (History)
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Thursday, December 25, 2025
The American Runestone (2020) – A docuseries starring actor Peter Stormare about a runestone left by Viking explorers in Minnesota in the 14th century. (Viaplay)
Happy and You Know It (2025) – A documentary feature directed by Penny Lane (Listening to Kenny G) about children’s music. *NONFICS PICK* (HBO Max)
Judy Garland Sings “Silent Night” (1937) – A short film starring Judy Garland as she sings the titular Christmas carol. (TCM)
Sneak Peek At What’s Coming Soon
12/27 – #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUr the MOVIE – A concert film starring BTS member Jin during his first solo tour. (In Theaters)
12/28 – Adventure in Wonder – A docuseries following a Texas family as they sail the Croatian seas. Watch the new trailer for the series here. (Wonder Project)
12/30 – Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story – A true-crime documentary about the titular therapist who aided Ruby Franke in child abuse. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (Netflix)
1/7 – Unlocked: A Jail Experiment Season 2 – The return of a docuseries about new approaches to rehabilitation for the incarcerated, this time in Arizona. (Netflix)
1/8 – The Tale of Silyan – A documentary feature by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tamara Kotevska (Honeyland) that follows a struggling North Macedonian farmer. *NONFICS PICK* (National Geographic)
1/16 – Seeds – A Critics Choice-nominated documentary feature about Black generational farmers. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
1/30 – Melania – A documentary feature directed by Brett Ratner about current U.S. First Lady Melania Trump. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)
1/30 – Natchez – A documentary feature about the historical legacy of the titular town in Mississippi. See where the film ranks on our list of the best documentaries of 2025. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
2/4 – Nature: Parenthood – A docuseries narrated by Sir David Attenborough showcasing animal parents around the world. (PBS)
2/23 – The Inquisitor – A documentary feature about Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan. (PBS)
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Comedian and actress Leslie Jones has lived a lot of life and she wants you to know it. The Saturday Night Live alum and veteran stand-up comic returns with a new special, called “Leslie Jones: Life Part 2.”
In this interview, Jones traces the long road to discovering her comedic voice. She speaks candidly about family life and the comedians like Richard Pryor who influenced her at a young age. We talk about the time she first fell in love with comedy in college and the many years she spent honing her craft. Jones contends that our current generation needs to accept the struggle, and not try to shortcut the process. We learn about what that creative process is for Jones as she developed her newest special. She offers her take on whether comedians have a responsibility in our culture to provoke thought or if simply getting a laugh is enough.
Comedian and actress Leslie Jones has lived a lot of life and she wants you to know it. The Saturday Night Live alum and veteran stand-up comic returns with a new special, called “Leslie Jones: Life Part 2.”
In this interview, Jones traces the long road to discovering her comedic voice. She speaks candidly about family life and the comedians like Richard Pryor who influenced her at a young age. We talk about the time she first fell in love with comedy in college and the many years she spent honing her craft. Jones contends that our current generation needs to accept the struggle, and not try to shortcut the process. We learn about what that creative process is for Jones as she developed her newest special. She offers her take on whether comedians have a responsibility in our culture to provoke thought or if simply getting a laugh is enough.
Ten short documentaries will screen in competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Sundance announced today the short film slate, which includes several Canadian talents across the field. In the non-fiction short films competition, two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot (The Last Repair Shop, The Queen of Basketball) teams up with basketball star Stephen Curry for The Baddest Speechwriter of Them All, which profiles Martin Luther King Jr.’s speechwriter and lawyer, Clarence P. Jones. The film marks Curry’s directorial debut and he produces alongside Proudfoot and Erick Peyton.
Also screening in the documentary competition is Tuktuit: Caribou, directed, written, and produced by Inuk filmmaker Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre. Tuktuit is an experimental work that uses handcrafted caribou gelatin elusion to explore the relationship between caribous, lichen, and Inuit communities in an exploration of interconnectedness.
Sundance’s short doc slate includes several profiles of notable and/or notorious figures, including Luigi Mangione in Luigi. The doc will explore how a young man accused of murder quickly became the Internet’s boyfriend and a symbol for justice in the face of a broken system. Liza Mandelup (Jawline) directed with Lauren Cioffi producing.
Meanwhile, in La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave), director/producer Cristina Costantini (Sally) and producer Alfie Koetter observe a community’s resilience in the face of immigration raids. Other docs in the competition explore the legacy of family business and nutcrackers and bees in The Chimney Sweeper and The Boys and the Bees, respectively.
Other Canadian titles announced in the Sundance shorts slate include two animated works. In Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawer of Rocks) director Louise Flaherty imagines the titular fable about two young women who draw upon the knowledge of their elders to defeat a monster and save their village. Finally, in Cabbage Daddy, Grace An explores the mind of a bilingual child and all things that are lost and found in translation. Both films screen in the animated shorts competition.
Meanwhile, the international dramatic competition of Sundance shorts includes Canadian works Jazz Infernal (Director and Screenwriter: Will Niava, Screenwriter: Kristelle Laroche, Producers: Zion Lipstein-Saffer, Samuel Caron), How Brief (Director: Kelly McCormack, Screenwriter: Tess Degenstein, Producers: Ariel Bond, Lucy McNulty, Jill Orsten), and the co-production Agnes (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Leah Vlemmiks, Producer: Priscila Gonçalves).
Sundance previously announced its feature film slate. Docs at the festival include Nuisance Bear from directors Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman, and The A.I. Doc from directors Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, making for a strong showing for Canadian filmmakers at this year’s festival.
The documentary short films announced today are:
The Baddest Speechwriter of All / U.S.A. (Directors and Producers: Ben Proudfoot, Stephen Curry, Producer: Erick Peyton) — Now 93, Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer and speechwriter reflects on the personal cost and surprising truths of making history, offering an intimate insider’s view of the Civil Rights Movement. World Premiere. Available online for public.
The Boys and the Bees / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Arielle C. Knight, Producer: Sean Weiner) — On an idyllic farm in rural Georgia, Black beekeeping parents tenderly share their knowledge of life, love, and nature with their young sons while restoring their homestead. Available online for public.
The Chimney Sweeper / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Jack Raese) — Markus — whose great-great-great-grandfather invented the nutcracker doll — makes nutcrackers for a living, as did each of his forefathers who descended from the great inventor. Markus discusses his life decisions. Available online for public.
Going Sane: The Rise and Fall of the Center For Feeling Therapy / U.S.A. (Director: Joey Izzo, Producers: Adam Ridley, Jordan Londe, Ryan Ridley) — A 1970s Los Angeles therapy collective rises with utopian promise before devolving into a business-minded cult built on control and abuse. World Premiere. Available online for public.
La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave) / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Cristina Costantini, Producer: Alfie Koetter) — During a summer of grief and fear brought on by immigration raids in Los Angeles, one small act of bravery gives a community hope. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Luigi / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Liza Mandelup, Producer: Lauren Cioffi) — When Luigi Mangione is charged with murder, he becomes the subject of fevered obsession. Through letters, fantasies, and conspiracies, strangers turn Luigi into a cultural sensation and a canvas for their rage, desire, and misplaced hope. Available online for public.
Some Kind of Refuge / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Alexandra Kern, Producer: Colin Cadarette) — On the shifting edge of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, the spirit of a fading outsider community endures through its two oldest residents. World Premiere. Available online for public.
STILL STANDING / U.S.A. (Directors and Producers: Victor Tadashi Suarez, Livia Albeck-Ripka) — On January 7, 2025, the Eaton fire destroyed over 9,000 structures in Altadena, California. Thousands more were left standing but contaminated with toxic ash. Residents face the impossible decision of whether they should risk their health to return home. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Tuktuit : Caribou / Canada (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre) — An exploration of the close and enduring connections between Inuit, caribou, lichens, and land use. A handmade caribou gelatin emulsion reveals the land where caribou struggle to survive burn events and habitat disruption. Available online for public.
The post Sundance Announces Short Documentaries in Competition appeared first on POV Magazine.