Stranger Than Fiction
As new TV channel Sky Documentaries launches this week, Michael Doherty looks at a range of compelling and award- winning documentaries available to watch from the comfort of your sofa
When it comes to great documentaries on screen, we’re spoiled for choice. Michael Doherty selects his favourites
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A hit at festivals around the world, Waad al-Kateab’s epic yet intimate lm records the story of how she fell in love, married and gave birth to daughter, Sama, all during ve years of uprising in Aleppo.
Laura Brennan: This is Me, RTÉ Player
This award-winning documentary chronicles the nal chapters in the life of the redoubtable Clare woman and dogged cervical cancer vaccine campaigner, Laura Brennan, who sadly passed away in 2019 at the age of 24.
The Last Dance, Netflix
You don’t need to be a fan of basketball, Nike or Michael Jordan to enjoy this compelling, slam-dunk of a documentary series chronicling the Chicago Bulls’ fateful 1993 NBA season. But it helps.
Ali & Cavett: The Tales of the Tapes, Sky Documentary
There is certainly no shortage of documentaries about Muhammad Ali. This new addition to the genre looks at the life of the boxing icon through the lens of his frequent appearances on the Emmy-winning chat show, The Dick Cavett Show.
The Act of Killing, Amazon Prime Video
It sounds like a Monty Python sketch, but director Joshua Oppenheimer really did invite former Indonesian death-squad leaders to re-enact their mass-killings according to their preferred cinematic genres. And they all duly obliged.
Flann O’Brien – An Béal Saibhir, TG4 Player
First screened in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Brian O’Nolan (aka Flann O’Brien aka Myles na gCopaleen), Brian Reddin’s compelling documentary features contributions from many Flann devotees, including Dara O’Briain, Eamon Morrissey and Fintan O’Toole.
Life in a Day, YouTube
Produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Oscarwinner Kevin Macdonald ( One Day in September), this compelling documentary uses more than 80,000 YouTube submissions to create a snapshot of life around the world over the course of one 24hour period (July 24, 2010, to be precise).
Katie, Netflix
Ross Whitaker’s acclaimed documentary is a moving y-on-the-wall account of the life and career of our boxing champ, Katie Taylor, as she navigates the professional ranks of her sport in a new country, with new challenges but without her father in her corner.
Amy, Netflix
Mitch Winehouse wasn’t too impressed but everybody else, including Oscar voters, were dazzled by Asif Kapadia’s remarkable documentary chronicling the short life and times of Any Winehouse, mostly through her own words, songs and images.
This heart-stopping documentary follows rock climber Alex Honnold as he sets out to free climb Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan cli face. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2018.
4 Little Girls, Amazon Prime Video
Spike Lee’s heartbreaking 1997 documentary recalls the events of September 15, 1963, when members of the Ku Klux Klan detonated a bomb in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls. The lm-maker had wanted to tell this story as early as 1983, six years before his rst feature lm, Do The Right Thing.
Cheer, Netflix
Anybody who believes that cheerleading merely involves waving pom-poms in the air and doing the odd high kick should watch this cracking docu-series. It follows the fortunes of the Navarro College competitive cheer squad as they undergo blood, toil, sweat and tears in an attempt to reach the US national championships.
Showstoppers, RTÉ Player
Co-directed by Blue Diamond Drama Academy student, Aimée Richardson, this charming documentary is the heart-warming story of ability, friendship and endeavour among a group of drama students with Down syndrome as they prepare for their rst professional performance.
Waking Sleeping Beauty, Disney +
This cracking documentary looks at the renaissance in the fortunes of Disney animation in the 1980s, when a group of talented executives, including Je rey Katzenberg, Roy Disney and Michael Eisner, helped turn a creaking studio
( The Great Mouse Detective, anyone?) into a hitmaking, award-winning factory once again. The documentary covers the period from 1984 to 1994, when Disney delivered such gems as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King; with Pixar and Toy Story just around the corner.
The Central Park Five, Amazon Prime Video
On April 19, 1989, a white, female jogger was raped in Manhattan’s Central Park. Despite DNA evidence implicating a di erent attacker, juries convicted ve black and Hispanic teenagers. The story became the basis for Ava DuVernay’s awardwinning mini-series, When They See Us in 2019. This is the documentary version of events, directed by Ken Burns and his daughter, Sarah.
A Brief History of Time, YouTube
Directed by acclaimed documentarian, Errol Morris ( The Thin Blue Line), this is the fascinating story of the life and career of physicist, Stephen Hawking, with plenty of access to the great man, his family and his friends.
The Civil War, Netflix
The doyen of documentary makers, Ken Burns had already racked up two Oscar nominations by the time his magnum opus came around. This nine-part American Civil War epic took ve years to make, stitching together archival photos, written accounts, new footage of battle sites and interviews with experts.