Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home.
Premiering June 14 on Showtime, Richard Rowley’s 16 Shots, an IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund grantee, examines the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke and the cover-up that ensued. After the police initially declared the shooting as justified, journalists and activists fought for footage of the event to be released, sending the Chicago Police Department and local Chicago government officials into upheaval as the community demanded justice. Rowley’s film dissects the cover-up through first-hand witness accounts which led to the unprecedented conviction that fractured the political landscape of Chicago.
Airing June 11 on American Experience and streaming online throughout the month, Stonewall Uprising, from Kate Davis and David Heilbronner, documents the major turning point in the modern LGBTQ+ movement around the world, when, on June 28, 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village, triggering a week of violent protests.
Premiering on Netflix June 12, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, Rolling Thunder is a one-of-a-kind experience, from master filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
New on Field of Vision, CABLESTREET, directed by Meredith Lackey and shot along the path of a submarine fiber optic cable designed by the controversial Chinese tech company Huawei, is an evocative meditation on what some have termed the new "Cold War" of technology: a struggle for power between the United States and China.
Premiering June 16 on Smithsonian Channel, Apollo’s Moon Shot, one of many docs commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing that will be airing and streaming through July, revisits an era when NASA's team of engineers and astronauts gambled everything to embark on humankind's most ambitious journey, brought to life through archival interviews, rarely seen footage, and artifacts from the vaults of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.