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Screen Time

Your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home.


Mon, 12/12/2022 - 17:50
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Well, the juries and the people have spoken. The 38th edition of the IDA Documentary Awards is now part of IDA lore, but you, as IDA Members, can still check out the Member Voting Portal through December 17 at 11:59 p.m. PT to watch the nominees and winners in the Features and Shorts categories, including multi winners All That Breathes (Best Director—Shaunak Sen; Best Editing—Charlotte Munch Bengtsen, Vedant Joshi; Pare Lorentz Award) and Fire of Love (Best Cinematography
Bob the Drag Queen poses in drag, dressed in a red, white and blue cowgirl outfit. From “We’re Here.” Photo courtesy of Greg Endries/HBO.
Mon, 11/28/2022 - 14:00
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Older Than the Crown , from Derrick Lemere, investigates the trial of Rick Desautel, a Sinixt tribal member who, while hunting elk on his ancestral land in Canada, was charged with hunting without a permit and being a non-resident. In 1956, Sinixt people were said to be extinct by the Canadian government. The documentary delves into the limits of law and its unjust origins as Sinixt tribal members demand their rights. Available to watch on PBS. The two-time Emmy-winning
Protestors of gerrymandering gather outside of the Supreme Court, from Chris Durrance and Barak Goodman's ‘Slay the Dragon’. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Tue, 11/08/2022 - 14:56
Screen Time Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. It’s Election Day in the US, so in the voting spirit, most of these documentaries in this week’s Screen Time delve into the struggles and challenges of voting—the harm of gerrymandering to the vulnerability of the electoral system. The Emmy-nominated documentary The Great Hack , from Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim, investigates how the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica used data to influence people’s perspectives on political issues prior to the 2016
Dilma Rousseff, the former president of Brazil, is applauded  while  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, her predecessor, who was just elected president for the second time, on October 30, 2022, raises her hand in the air. From Petra Costa’s ‘The Edge of Democracy.’ Photo courtesy of Netflix.
Mon, 10/31/2022 - 00:00
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. In observance of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential win in Brazil, Petra Costa’s 2019 documentary The Edge of Democracy explores the convoluted path to democracy in Brazil. The documentary is both an IDA Award nominee and an Academy Award nominee, and is able to transform complex politics into an absorbing and interesting documentary. Watch now on Netflix. In the festivity of Halloween, many of these documentaries feature pressing issues that may forge fear. Though only
A woman wearing a hijab stands on a podium looking out at a crowd. Photo: Capital-K Pictures. Courtesy of POV.
Mon, 10/17/2022 - 14:56
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Now more than ever, people are reclaiming narratives to ensure their voices are heard. Misrepresentations and tropes about marginalized groups in the media have been an issue since its inception. These documentaries are giving power back to the people and allowing often skewed stories to be steered straight. From POV , Nausheen Dadabhoy’s An Act of Worship , an IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund grantee, reflects on the experience of Muslim people in the US over the past 30
A woman in a white dress dances while people clap around her.  From Mathew Ramirez Warren’s 'We Like It Like That.' Courtesy of 'We Like It Like That' and 'America ReFramed.'
Mon, 10/03/2022 - 00:00
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. October is a month for expressions–whether it be through celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month, or syncing with the spooky season. This week’s list of documentaries highlights narratives, many of which are queer, rooted in self-expression in pursuit of fulfillment. From Outfest’s the outmuseum.org comes Pele (Skin) , a short documentary by Adam Golub and Liana Nigri that shares the experiences of a trans teenager and activist living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Rather than
Black and white image of Habu Abdella, a young Ethiopian woman holding a stem of khat leaves. From Jessica Beshir's 'Faya Dayi.' Courtesy of Feyatey LLC
Mon, 08/29/2022 - 00:00
Screen Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. There is no rulebook for documentaries, and the form’s beauty derives itself from the infinite creative decisions filmmakers make when trying to artfully capture a narrative. This week’s selection highlights new releases that dont just tell a story, but question and redefine the documentary form as they present poetic visuals that captivate us and draw us in. All of these films have a dreamy filter to them, as they capture the ethereal in reality, however rough that
Caption: A collage of family photos of the director Edward Buckles Jr. From Edward Buckles Jr.’s ‘Katrina Babies.’  Courtesy of HBO Max
Mon, 08/22/2022 - 13:43
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Community is a universal necessity often taken for granted. Though lives are heavily influenced by those in close proximity, oftentimes struggles to feel individual. These documentaries are a reminder of the power of community and how interconnected our worlds are. From a New Orleans native and first-time filmmaker Edward Buckle comes Katrina Babies , an intimate look at the children who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. “In America, especially during disasters, Black
A Black woman with short curly hair stands in front of a red background, bare-shouldered and staring at the camera. From Juliana Kasumu’s Baby Bangz: Black Power in Hair.
Mon, 08/08/2022 - 14:50
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Frontline ’s Afghanistan Undercover , which exposes the reality of women living under Taliban rule, airs August 9. Correspondent Ramita Navai shares stories of not only women facing punishments from Taliban officials, but the women activists fighting to rescue them. Watch the documentary on PBS. Camilla Nielsson’s President follows the complexities behind the test for political power in Zimbabwe in the 2018 general election. As Nelson Chamisma challenges current president
Kirsten Kleist Petersen is a young woman wearing a gray shirt. She is sitting on a chair by a window and petting her cat. From Sidse Torstholm Larsen and Sturla Pilskog’s ‘Winter’s Yearning.’ Courtesy of 'POV.'
Mon, 08/01/2022 - 13:37
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel’s feature documentary Shadow Game shares the reality facing immigrants, who flee from war-torn homes. The documentary follows teenagers leaving European countries, as they “travel through a shadow world of minefields, bears, fast-flowing rivers, smugglers and border guards, desperately trying to win what they call ‘The Game.’” Watch the film on True Story and see the lengths that these teenagers will go to in pursuit of a better life. A