Documentaries harness the potential of educating the masses in a society where public image is fabricated to create polished and clean characters. As my friend José says, when executed properly, documentaries are “thought of demonstrating something raw and human” about whomever is in the spotlight.
Netflix offers some fascinating documentaries on food, design, linguistics, earth and space, and even music. Here are a few top picks:
7. Chef’s Table
If you’re a foodie and an aesthetics enthusiast, Chef’s Table might be the docu-series for you. Chef’s Table is thought to be a continuation to creator David Gelb’s renowned documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. With six episodes per season, ranging from 45 minutes to an hour long, each episode explores a distinct Michelin-starred chef and their philosophy toward food while complementing it with gorgeous cinematography. With chefs from countries like Italy, Brazil and Thailand, with cooking styles and palates as diverse as the chefs’ origins, one is left mesmerized by the far-reaching power of food and with new perspectives on it, as these chefs see it.
6. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Picture this: a ten-seat restaurant in a Tokyo railway station that only serves sushi, where a meal will cost you an average of $300. Also, picture this: a chef named Jiro who yearns to craft the perfect sushi roll. Filmmaker David Gelb undertook the task of following Jiro Ono, an 85-year-old sushi connoisseur who owns Sukiyabashi Jiro, a Michelin three-star restaurant.
This 81-minute film also follows one of Jiro’s sons and their relationship, Yoshikazu, who is tasked with succeeding his father’s success as he is the heir of his father’s restaurant. Gelb describes his fascination with Jiro’s story, “Here’s a story about a person living in his father’s shadow while his father is in a relentless pursuit of perfection.”
5. Abstract
The Netflix Original Series Abstract: The Art of Design is set to interrupt how you interpret design, one episode at a time. As with Chef’s Table, every episode in Abstract profiles a designer and their different fields within the design industry. From illustrator Christopher Niemann, who’s covered Instagram sketches to designing New Yorker magazine covers, to stage designer Es Devlin’s work for concerts, operas and plays using light and film, this series highlights the wonders (and subtleties) behind powerful design work.
4. Is The Man Who is Tall Happy?
The premise of this 2013 French animated documentary film revolves around a conversation between director director Michael Gondry and celebrated linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky. This documentary unfortunately isn’t available for streaming, but you can order it on Netflix DVD.
3. Into The Inferno
Werner Herzog’s 2016 Netflix documentary film follows follows the volcanologist and co-director Clive Oppenheimer, who seeks to minimize the destructive effects of volcanoes. Herzog and Oppenheimer’s documentary explores active volcanoes in locations like Indonesia, Iceland and North Korea. Why volcanoes? To Herzog, simply because he views them as “mysterious, violent, and rapturously beautiful.”
2. Hip-Hop Evolution
The Netflix original docu-series Hip-Hop Evolution traces the origins of the hip-hop genre right from DJ Kool Herc’s party which started it all, all the way to the 90s hip-hop scene in the U.S. on the east and west coasts, featuring interviews by some of hip-hop’s most influential artists, like Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc and DMC. If you’re at all curious about the foundation of this genre and how it evolved until the 90’s, it is worth a watch.
1. 13th
Ava DuVernay’s Netflix original documentary, with the help of scholars, politicians and activists, dissects the disproportionate criminalization of the African American population through the U.S. constitution’s thirteenth amendment, which states that prohibited slavery and freed slaves lest they deserved punishment for a crime.