The 10 Best Netflix Documentaries That Inform and Entertain

Fans of documentaries are spoiled for prime connected streaming platforms similar Netflix, which offers a wide postulation of titles alongside its regular movie and amusement catalog.

Apart from its numerous true-crime documentaries, which are informative successful their ain right, Netflix besides offers a large room of entertaining documentaries focused connected nature, science, and past that present a generous serving of knowledge. Here are the 10 champion informative documentaries that tin besides entertain you.

10 Our Planet

A Stunning Look astatine the World We Live In

Interested successful learning much astir the satellite we unrecorded on, and the flora and fauna that we stock our onshore with? Our Planet is 1 of the astir visually stunning and insightful subject and quality documentaries that Netflix has to offer. This quality bid is narrated by David Attenborough and led by the creators of different impactful quality documentaries, specified arsenic Blue Planet and Planet Earth. From the narwhals successful the Canadian Arctic to the Bengal Tiger successful India, Our Planet covers a wide breadth of habitats crossed the Earth, focusing connected however clime alteration tin interaction wildlife each implicit the world.

Production of Our Planet took implicit 9 years, and is Netflix's archetypal ever quality documentary. According to Netflix, this documentary garnered implicit 100 cardinal views by 2021. The docuseries is divided into 2 parts, with 8 and 4 episodes successful each season, respectively. A behind-the-scenes documentary was released arsenic a follow-up to Our Planet successful 2019.

9 Elephant Whisperers

A Heartwarming Story About an Orphaned Elephant

One of the champion quality documentary films that Netflix has to connection is The Elephant Whisperers. This Indian documentary depicts the heartwarming communicative of Raghu, an orphaned babe elephant, who is adopted by a mates successful Mudumalai National Park (Tamil Nadu, South India). The elephant caretakers, belonging to the Kattunayakan tribe, caregiver the injured calf to health, and assistance him turn beardown portion their enslaved deepens. The unit moving connected the documentary spent astir 5 years surviving with the caretakers and Raghu. The documentary besides delves into the subject of elephant rescue and care, arsenic good arsenic calf rearing.

This documentary has received praise for its visuals and gentle yet persuasive storytelling. The Elephant Whisperers is good known for winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film astatine the 95th Academy Awards. It is the archetypal Indian movie to triumph successful that category.

8 Crip Camp

The Beginning of a Disability Revolution

Crip Camp is an Oscar-nominated societal contented documentary movie that tells the communicative of Camp Jened, a summertime campy successful New York for teenagers with disabilities. The acquisition that they spell done inspires them to articulation the disablement rights movement, mounting dominoes tumbling for historical disablement rights legislation. Crip Camp received precocious praise and ratings from critics, with appreciation for its humane and inspiring communicative and message. The documentary is simply a bully commentary connected the presumption quo and however it discriminates against radical with disabilities, portion highlighting the emergence of the disablement rights movement.

Premiering astatine the Sundance Film Festival successful 2020, the movie was aboriginal released connected Netflix that year. It bagged six awards, including a Peabody Award and a Sundance Film Festival award.

7 American Factory

The Cultural Juxtaposition Between Two Different Worlds

American Factory is simply a abbreviated yet gripping documentary movie astir the taste clashes betwixt the Chinese and American workforce. It follows the opening of a caller mill of the Chinese solid accumulation company, Fuyao, successful Ohio, which generates jobs for implicit 2 1000 blue-collar American workers. Once the institution takes implicit the abandoned General Motors factory, the taste disagreement and tensions betwixt high-tech China and working-class America is rapidly exposed. The documentary uses a unique, fly-on-the-wall communicative and benignant to amusement however the events unfurled.

The documentary took adjacent to 2 years to decorativeness production, with 2 Chinese filmmakers facilitating the Mandarin Chinese portions of the documentary. American Factory won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, on with 3 Emmy nominations and 1 triumph (Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program).

6 History 101

Bite-Sized Pieces of History Lessons to Learn Easier

For past geeks, Netflix has the cleanable acquisition documentary bid that explores a scope of mini-lessons successful history's astir important inventions and governmental topics. Featuring premium archive footage and infographics to get the constituent across, History 101 explores autarkic subjects successful each episode, from the emergence of China to the invention and interaction of IVF. History 101 is not conscionable a blast into the past, but besides examines the contiguous and aboriginal implications of the taxable astatine hand.

As with each past documentary, however, support an oculus retired for sneaking biases successful definite episodes. This documentary tin beryllium a bully commencement to get into bite-sized episodes of topics that involvement you earlier you commencement looking into the topics utilizing different sources.

5 Explained by Vox

Simple Breakdowns of Layered Topics, With Entertaining Visuals

Explained by Vox would beryllium acquainted to you if you've ever travel crossed immoderate of Vox's Explained YouTube videos. This multipart docuseries features antithetic impermanent narrators specified arsenic Natasha Lyonne and J.K. Simmons, and covers topics specified arsenic the sex wage gap, cults, coding, the banal market, and diets. It besides has immoderate highly niche and absorbing episodes, specified arsenic a past of punctuation, cistron editing, and K-pop.

Each occurrence ranges betwixt 14 and 26 minutes, exploring breakdowns of analyzable topics, a little history, and aboriginal implications. Explained has received captious acclaim for its linear storytelling, wide breakdowns of abstract topics, and deficiency of a patronizing tone. Since its release, it has inspired 5 different specialized spin-off documentaries connected Netflix, including The Mind, Explained, and Money, Explained. To find the spin-off documentaries connected Netflix, effort searching "Vox" oregon "Explained."

4 Abstract: The Art of Design

The Dazzling World of Design and Its Unique Niches

Looking to larn much astir the satellite of creation and design? Start with the Netflix Original docuseries, Abstract: The Art of Design. This anthology-style docuseries explores antithetic artists and types of modern plan successful each episode. From illustrations and architecture to automotive plan and typeface design, each occurrence highlights a antithetic creator and their works, appreciating photographers, illustrators, architects, and merchandise designers.

Abstract: The Art of Design delivers stunning visuals with a broadside of storytelling, giving a sneak peek into each artist's travel portion focusing connected their unsocial instrumentality and benignant of design.

3 Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know

The Journey to Capture the First Image of a Black Hole

Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know is simply a subject documentary for anyone funny successful abstraction and the conception of achromatic holes. This documentary movie outlines the travel of scientists who attempted and succeeded successful capturing the archetypal representation of a achromatic hole. Captured and published by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration successful 2019, this representation of a supermassive achromatic spread successful the Messier 87 postulation marked a groundbreaking lawsuit for astrophysics.

The diagnostic movie outlines the journey, tribulations, and occurrence of the EHT Collaboration, the subject down achromatic holes, and the implications of the archetypal captured image.

2 13th

A Detailed Look astatine Racial Discrimination and Mass Incarceration successful the US

13th is 1 of Netflix's champion governmental and acquisition documentary films. It explores the past of radical favoritism successful the US, with the spotlight connected wide incarceration and the prison-industry complex. The film's rubric is simply a notation to the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, which abolished slavery and brought an extremity to involuntary servitude but arsenic a means to punish convicted criminals. The documentary explores assorted themes specified arsenic the disenfranchisement of achromatic radical successful America, post-Civil War discriminatory practices, and the intersection of contention and incarceration successful US prisons.

13th has been highly praised for its depiction of America's analyzable radical past and the perspectives of respective governmental and activistic voices. The documentary movie tin besides beryllium streamed for escaped connected Netflix's YouTube channel. 13th won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Documentary oregon Nonfiction Special, and was besides nominated for the Best Documentary Feature grant astatine the 89th Academy Awards.

1 How to Become a Tyrant

A Historical Anthology About Famous Dictators and Their Rise to Power

One of my favourite past docuseries that Netflix has to connection is How to Become a Tyrant. This anthology bid takes a look astatine the rise, reign, and autumn of salient dictators and authoritarians crossed countries and time, including Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, and Joseph Stalin. Narrated by Peter Dinklage, How to Become a Tyrant is simply a abbreviated watch, with six episodes that you tin wrapper up successful astir 3 hours.

This documentary is partially based connected The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics. It features archival footage with a bully premix of animation, anecdotes, and graphics, but maintains a factual code that helps you larn much astir the communicative of each dictator. How to Become a Tyrant was followed by How to Become a Cult Leader successful 2023, arsenic good arsenic How to Become a Mob Boss, aboriginal that year.

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If you're looking to observe much informative documentaries connected Netflix, you tin marque usage of the streaming platform's secret codes:

• Historical documentaries: 5349
• Political documentaries: 7018
• Nature and subject documentaries: 2595
• Biographical documentaries: 3652