Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

Putin's new law that forbids 'propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors' hits millions of gay/lesbian youngsters in Russia. Parents and friends of gay kids now are obliged to tell them they are sick, sinful and abnormal. These teens have no forum, find no help in Russia, you won't even find them on the internet: Error 404. For the first time, the bravest of them turn to the camera in the new film of 'Winter Go Away'

Mark Oliver Everett, singer of the band EELS, on his quest to get to know his later father, quantum physicist Hugh Everett III, who invented the Many Worlds theory. The film follows Mark on his journey across America, where he meets old friends and colleagues of his father. Hugh died of a heart attack in his home in 1982, where his body was found by 19-year-old Mark. Even though they had lived in the same house, the two of them were alienated. Only by entering the paradoxical world of quantum mechanics can Mark hope to understand why he was such a stranger to his own father.

At first glance, Matthew Vandyke —a shy Baltimore native with a sheltered upbringing and a tormenting Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder diagnosis— is the last person you’d imagine on the front lines of the 2011 Libyan revolution. But after finishing grad school and escaping the U.S. for 'a crash course in manhood,' a winding path leads him just there. Motorcycling across North Africa and the Middle East and spending time as an embedded journalist in Iraq, Matthew lands in Libya, forming an unexpected kinship with a group of young men who transform his life. Matthew joins his friends in the rebel army against Gaddafi, taking up arms (and a camera). Along the way, he is captured and held in solitary confinement for six terrifying months.

Director Chris Bell turns his camera on the abuse of prescription drugs and, ultimately, himself. After witnessing friends and relatives face tragedy as they become addicted to prescription drugs, Bell sets out to explore the goals of pharmaceutical companies and doctors in this ever-growing market, and asks how they are any different from back-alley drug-pushers. His journey leads to experts on the nature of addiction in our culture, as well as to pharmaceutical whistleblowers that testify to the solely dollar-driven aims of pharmaceutical companies.

This stylish mix of documentary and historical epic chronicles the reign of Commodus, the emperor whose rule marked the beginning of Rome's fall. In the first episode, the death of Marcus Aurelius brings a century of Roman triumphs and victories to an end, transferring power to his spoiled, unprepared son Commodus. When his father bequeaths him the world's mightiest empire, he is forced to spill the blood of both friends and enemies alike to keep his crown.

the rise and fall of a tech industry prodigy. Interviews with his friends and loved ones paint a portrait of Swartz as a martyr of freedom of information and hail his fight for the public's right to access tax-funded academic and scientific research, culminating in a personally devastating two-year Federal lawsuit." An avid researcher who had previously accessed otherwise private databases, Swartz, acting "in the grand tradition of civil disobedience to declare... opposition to this private theft of public culture" used MIT computers to access tax-funded research that would otherwise be held privately by for-profit publishers, an incident many viewers may remember from national headlines just a few year ago. Though neither MIT nor the digital repository Swartz accessed pressed charges, a US Attorney stepped in and filed a 13-count felony charge against Swartz, threatening him with over $1 million in fines and up to 35 years of jail time. Despite the defense of his peers, these events launched Swartz into a two-year long downward spiral of withdrawal and depression. Aaron Swartz's untimely death at the age of 26.