Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

In less than two years, Al Capone has risen from a humble bookkeeper to second-in-command of Johnny Torrio's criminal empire in Chicago. The empire is worth the modern-day equivalent of $35 million. Capone purchases a home for his family and moves them from New York to Chicago. Torrio and Capone expand their empire from Chicago's South Side to the North Side, which is controlled by Chicago's second largest gang, the Irish. Violence erupts as ruthless Irish gang leader Dean O'Banion protects his territory and bootlegging business from Torrio and Capone.

This series shines a spotlight on the influential builders, dreamers and believers whose feats transformed the United States, a nation decaying from the inside after the Civil War, into the greatest economic and technological superpower the world had ever seen. The Men Who Built America is the story of a nation at the crossroads and of the people who catapulted it to prosperity. In the first episode, Cornelius Vanderbilt grows from a steamboat entrepreneur to the head of a railroad empire, and gets into a heated rivalry with Jim Fisk and Jay Gould; the up and coming John D. Rockefeller founds Standard Oil. Many business owners lay their own rail lines which leads to the Panic of 1873. Later, Rockefeller starts to expand his wealth by diverting his business from the railroads to a new innovation, oil pipelines.

Tyson begins the episode by explaining the nature of the speed of light and how much of what is seen of the observable universe is from light emanated from billions of years in the past. Tyson further explains how modern astronomy has used such analyzes via deep time to identify the Big Bang event and the age of the universe. Tyson proceeds to describe how the work of Isaac Newton, William Herschel, and James Clerk Maxwell contributed to understanding the nature of electromagnetic waves and gravitational force, and how this work led towards Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, that the speed of light is a fundamental constant of the universe and gravity can be seen as distortion of the fabric of space-time. Tyson describes the concept of dark stars as postulated by John Michell which are not visible but detectable by tracking other stars trapped within their gravity wells, an idea Herschel used to discover binary stars. Tyson then describes the nature of black holes, their enormous gravitational forces that can even capture light, and their discovery via X-ray sources such as Cygnus X-1. Tyson uses the Ship of Imagination to provide a postulate of the warping of spacetime and time dilation as one enters the event horizon of the black hole, and the possibility that these may lead to other points within our universe or others, or even time travel. Tyson ends on noting that Herschel's son, John would be inspired by his father to continue to document the known stars as well as contributions towards photography that play on the same nature of deep time used by astronomers.

In this deeply intimate and moving documentary, musician Jon Batiste attempts to compose a symphony as his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, undergoes cancer treatment.
In 2022, musician Jon Batiste finds himself the most celebrated artist of the year with eleven Grammy nominations including Album of the Year. In the midst of that triumph John embarks on his most ambitious challenge to date, composing an original symphony. This trajectory was upended when Batiste's life partner best-selling author Suleika Jaouad learns that her long-dormant cancer has returned.

This featured films offers a gripping dive into one of the most dramatic moments in space exploration history. In April 1970, what began as a routine mission to the moon turned into a life-threatening ordeal when an unexpected explosion crippled the Apollo 13 spacecraft. With limited oxygen, power, and no margin for error, three astronauts found themselves in a desperate fight for survival. This documentary unveils the heart-stopping events that unfolded over four days, capturing the tension, innovation, and teamwork that made their safe return possible. Featuring never-before-seen footage and firsthand accounts, it's an unforgettable story of human endurance and ingenuity.

Step into the Beatlemania Era: Beatles '64 takes you back to February 1964, when four young musicians from Liverpool turned the United States upside down. Relive the frenzy of their iconic debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by over 73 million viewers, and feel the pulse of their groundbreaking performance at the Washington Coliseum. Featuring rare, never-before-seen footage captured by acclaimed filmmakers Albert and David Maysles, digitally restored, this documentary unearths the Beatles’ meteoric rise to superstardom and the cultural revolution they ignited.
Experience History Reimagined: With fresh insights from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and audio remixed using cutting-edge technology by Giles Martin, Beatles '64 brings the spirit of the era to life like never before. Explore the personal dynamics of the Fab Four as they navigate a whirlwind of fame, fan hysteria, and musical innovation. Accompanied by a vibrant soundtrack featuring their timeless hits, this film immerses you in an extraordinary moment when music and culture collided, changing the world forever.