Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home.
The announcement last week that WarnerMedia would shut down FilmStruck at the end of November has sent shock waves of dismay throughout the community of cinephiles. In its all-too-brief existence--it was launched in November 2016-- FilmStruck has hosted both The Criterion Channel and TCM, the former of which is a treasure trove of some of the greatest docs of all time--Chronicle of a Summer, Dont Look Back, Harlan County USA, and so many more! So, while we’re confident that FilmStruck or The Criterion Channel will find a new home, we encourage you to take one last month-long deep dive into this vital gene pool of nonfiction.
Elsewhere on the home screen...
Premiering October 29 on Independent Lens, Wildland, from Alex Jablonski and Kahil Hudson, takes viewers through two recent wildfire seasons in Oregon, from the perspectives of the firefighting crew as they struggle with fear, loyalty, dream and demons.
Premiering November 2 in Netflix is They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Morgan Neville’s companion piece documentary to Orson Welles’ final film, The Other Side of the Wind, in which the surviving artistic personnel reflect on the tumultuous creation of Welles’ valedictory statement.
With the midterm elections just around the corner, HISTORY takes you back to another divisive time, with Watergate, a four-hour series from Academy Award-winning director Charles Ferguson. The film takes you through the timeline and ramifications of one of the biggest scandals in US history--one that led to 40 convictions and the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Shut Up and Dribble, a new series from executive producers LeBron James and Maverick Carter, premieres November 3 on Showtime. The series provides a powerful inside look at the changing role of athletes in our fraught cultural and political environment, through the lens of the NBA.
Premiering November 4 on HBO, just ahead of the midterms, Axios is a docu-news series that will highlight the week ahead in politics, business and technology — and other topics shaping the future. Axios is produced by Matthew O’Neill and Perri Peltz.