This weeks Friday 5 is taking a look at documentaries I have seen that I couldn’t recommend more. Whether the focus is on an individual, a movement, sports it doesn’t matter. I personally love watching documentaries as it informs and entertains me.
Here are 5 Documentaries I think You Should Watch:
5. The Fog of War: The documentary looks at 11 life lessons from life of Robert S. McNamara. McNamara was the former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Over the course of the documentary, Morris distills McNamara’s philosophy of war into eleven basic tenets. This is an interesting look into major events in the history of war including cold war and Vietnam. I highly recommend this one as it is fitting to this day with things happening around the world today.
4. Icarus: The first from Bryan Fogel on the list is about blood doping in sports and along the way the director gets connected with Russian scientist Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory. Rodchenkov creating a plan for Fogel to take banned performance-enhancing drugs in a way that will evade detection from drug-testing, helping Fogel’s experiment to prove that the current way athletes are tested for drugs is insufficient. Along the way Rodchenkov eventually reveals that Russia has a state-sponsored Olympic doping program that he oversees. The documentary is a good one to watch even if you are not a fan of sports, it shows the lengths some people are willing to go to win an event or the Olympics or even how seriously some countries like Russia take these games.
3. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: The documentary looks at the life and legacy of one of the most famed children’s television show personalities and programs in history. It tells the story of Fred Rogers and how he came to create Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and his fight for educational public television programs and networks. It also looks at the backlash in more his later life and how he became politicized and blamed for the “snowflake” generation of people. The documentary is a good insight into Rogers life and that despite what you saw on camera he wasn’t perfect but not in a cancel him way.
2. The Dissident: This 2020 documentary is the 2nd from Academy Award winner Bryan Fogel on the list. It looks at the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia’s effort to control international dissent. Central to the documentary is the story of the Saudi activist and video blogger, Omar Abdulaziz. Haven’t heard of this one well that is becasue it can be hard to find. The film struggled to find a distributor for eight months and was not able to run on a large streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. It is widely believed this was due to those platforms’ fear of offending the Saudi Arabian government and possibly losing subscribers. It is an important one to watch and Canada plays an interesting role with the story of Omar.
1. Rising Phoenix: A documentary on Netflix that focuses on the stories of 9 Paralympians, while telling the story of the Paralympics including how the 2016 Paralympics in Rio almost didn’t happen. The documentary tells of how Brazil all but looked to be the 2nd Olympic host to not host the Paralympics and all the issues surrounding it. This documentary will have you reaching for the tissues but is one that EVERYONE needs to watch.
– Everett
