In a year full of hard-hitting stories and poignant looks at the influential and depraved past and present events, here are the best documentaries of 2021. The 2021 year of documentaries follows a captivating slew of investigative stories from 2020, with the previous year’s films largely fitting into the political genre due to the 2020 election, impeachment, societal unrest due to unjust institutions, and international looks at corrupt systems. For comparison, some of the most popular and best documentaries of 2020 were much more personal and uplifting, such as My Octopus Teacher, Crip Camp, and Dick Johnson Is Dead.
While 2021 was a grand year for escapism through film in terms of fictional stories with fantastical worlds and nostalgic dramas like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Dune, No Time To Die, and ‘70s-set Licorice Pizza, 2021 was also a year that perfectly lent itself to documentary filmmaking. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, much of society has been forced to take a larger look at culture, politics, socioeconomic disparities, and both the triumphs and tragedies of mankind. When audiences weren’t escaping through sci-fi films and dramas, 2021 documentaries offered viewers a personal look into close-hitting, poignant stories of musicians like the broken-up Beatles, POC activists, cultural influences, heroic true stories, and the long-hidden truth behind corrupt institutions.
In a year filled with just as much unrest, anxieties, and reflections on culture, politics, and society as 2020, the 2021 array of documentaries is set to make history for their powerful takes on timely stories. From political commentaries, cultural celebrations, rock docs, internationally-relevant societal stories, to against-the-odds inspirational events, there’s no shortage of personally-investigative accounts of extremely important themes in this past year’s documentary library. While looking back on the past year its production of non-fiction stories as the world heads into 2022, here’s an exploration of the best documentaries of 2021.
9. Ascension
The 2021 American documentary Ascension takes a gripping look at the Chinese Dream, particularly how the nation’s culture prioritizes productivity and innovation throughout social classes. The documentary, which is available to stream with Paramount Plus' movies, is a personal examination of the intersections of class, identity, and expectations of Chinese citizens as they’re exploited for consumeristic goals in factories and trained for business etiquette in offices. The documentary’s captivating visuals, frequent humor, and unobtrusive observations keep viewers engaged throughout as director Jessica Kingdon exhibits stark contrasts between social classes while exposing how citizens thrive on their hard-working pursuit of success. What makes the documentary so incredible is how it so cleverly scrutinizes China’s global-superpower reputation while sympathizing with the lifestyles and hard-working pursuit of success by everyday citizens to attain the false hope of the Chinese Dream. While the documentary is an informative look at Chinese factories with how much access is afforded to first-hand looks of the process in Ascension, its dialogue-light observations don’t offer enough into the everyday lives of the polarized citizens throughout their pursuit of a socioeconomic dream largely made unattainable to them.
8. President
Camilla Nielsson’s Sundance Film Festival-premiering 2021 documentary President offers a cautionary tale of the preciousness of democracy as exemplified by the supposedly fair and transparent presidential elections in Zimbabwe in 2018. The elections came after Zimbabwe had finally rid itself of dictator Robert Mugabe, but his tyrannical influence still permeated the votes as his ruling party maintained control over the nation. President’s sobering exhibition of the fragility of freedom and democracy is enough to chill citizens around the world as they reflect on the vulnerability of their own democratic systems - even if they wouldn’t expect their nation to be subject to such frailties. President’s gritty exploration of an alarming example of democracy on the brink of destruction is a wake-up call to the corruption of freedom and voices around the world. While Zimbabwe’s iniquitous democratic breakdown wasn’t a new story for viewers paying attention to global politics, the 2021 documentary was more of an eye-opener to self-reflection of one’s own societal fragility.
7. The Rescue
The 2021 Nat Geo documentary is the type of story that Hollywood would turn into a heroic disaster movie with a major story as the diver to save children in a cave, but this is the type of heartbreaking and inspirational tale that almost defies belief - it was real, and only happened three years ago. The story took over international media as Thailand officials and divers worked out how to save thirteen 11-to-16-year-old boys trapped in a flooding cave, in a dire situation in which all odds were stacked against them. From real footage of the families outside of the cave, news reports, cave officials testing out rescue strategies, and the intense feeling of the clock for survival ticking down as the documentary progresses.
The Rescue places viewers in the eyes of the daring rescue mission and the loved ones dreading their sons’ probable deaths as the boys face nature’s lethal wrath. While the October 2021 movie is a story that people around the world already know, they’ve never experienced it in such an intense manner as depicted by National Geographic. The only missing piece from The Rescue is the boys themselves, which would have benefitted by their voices being heard.
6. The Velvet Underground
Apple TV+’s The Velvet Underground documentary takes an artsy avant-garde film approach to tell the story of the 1960s’ most avant-garde rock band. Bringing back original Velvet Underground band members like John Cale and Maureen Tucker with archived audio footage from the late Lou Reed, Todd Haynes’ documentary is a gritty chronicle on one of the most influential rock bands of all time. Documenting the formation of The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed’s difficult past, the break-ups, and its intersection with the greatest art movements in New York of the 1960s, Haynes’s unconventional filmmaking style for Apple TV+'s divisive streaming service brilliantly captures the distinctive aesthetic of the band’s style and their place in this era. While the background of The Velvet Underground’s early influences, style, formation, and growth in the New York art scene is captivating in the documentary’s first half, the remaining hour tends to slow as Haynes visualizes the decay of the band.
5. Attica
A story that very few can forget, Attica is a retrospective look at the titular 1971 prison uprising that shook the nation for its unprecedented violence and groundbreaking declaration for prisoners’ rights. The 2021 documentary shares the voices of men who survived the uprising, which makes the emotional history of institutional racism in the U.S. and the abuse of power and cruelty onto human beings all the more bone-chillingly poignant.
The powerful documentary on Showtime (home to 2021's Yellowjackets) indirectly connects the present to the past amidst a year filled with activism, injustice, and unrest for Black Americans, and examines how little progress has actually been made in the 50 years since the riots. Director Stanley Nelson Jr’s use of surveillance footage, initial news coverage, and first eye-witness accounts makes the powerful, angry, and compassionate tribute to an infamous historical moment a triumph in documentary filmmaking. It’s hard to believe that Attica won’t be included in schools’ history curriculum for generations to come.
4. Procession
A subject that many wish to avoid addressing, Netflix’s Procession is an angry, inspiring, and heartbreaking story of six men who were abused as children in the Catholic Church processing their trauma by scripting, staging, and filming fictional scenes that reflect their memories, experiences, and dreams. While depicting the harrowing yet inspiring process of healing from their trauma, the incredible Netflix documentary explores the systems, rituals, and culture in the church that enabled their abuse and effectively silenced it. In such a sobering tale of corruption and sickening practices, Procession is also a story of redemption for these men as they reclaim the spaces of their trauma through the cathartic processes of drama therapy and a nurturing community with other survivors. Procession isn’t an easy watch, but it’s one that deserves to be seen by all with its powerful imagery, exposition on institutional corruption, and redemptive personal accounts.
3. The Beatles: Get Back
Upon its sequential weekly release in November, the Disney+ rock doc The Beatles: Get Back enraptured audiences in a retrospective on the most influential band of all time. Peter Jackson’s documentary series covers the making of The Beatles’ 1970 hit album Let It Be, bringing in footage originally captured for a 1970 documentary of the album. The Beatles: Get Back’s true story has been described as a “documentary about a documentary,” which changes the long-held myth that Let It Be’s making was full of tension and enmity among the Beatles.
Jackson's documentary shows that while there was minor drama, the making of the beloved band’s groundbreaking album was more full of uplifting comradery and artistry. The Beatles: Get Back allows fans of the iconic band to sit in on their artistic process with joy and nostalgia, while also being the fly-on-the-wall for their quiet, more emotional moments that contributed to their transcendence in culture. The immersive documentary is one of the best in-the-moment looks at the warmth and creativity of a generation-defining band.
2. Flee
While many documentaries take one story from a culture whose themes can connect to societies around the world, 2021’s Flee is an actual internationally-collaborative documentary produced by six nations. Flee, narrated by Amin Nawabi himself (and by Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Riz Ahmed in the English-language version), is a moving and emotionally compelling retelling of a man revealing his hidden past of fleeing his native Afghanistan for Denmark 20 years ago. He shares this experience on the eve of marrying his husband, as he needs to address his past which he fears will ruin his future.
Aside from its international effort and subject matter, Flee will go down in history for its groundbreaking take on documentary filmmaking, as it presents the true animated memoir of a man’s self-exploration, human experience, and reckoning of one’s past for one’s future. The Riz Ahmed-produced movie's animated storytelling and visual style are bound to make it a classic documentary to inspire generations to come, addressing reachable themes of distrust, a longing for home, and fear after such a traumatizing and humanity-questioning experience.
1. Summer Of Soul
It’s hard to believe that Summer of Soul could be missing on any shortlist of the best documentaries of 2021, not to mention one of the best movies of the year full-stop. Depicting the background, events, and later influence of the six-week-long 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is a timely, poignant look at mainstream pop culture’s ignorance of Black musicians and culture in this era amidst artists that would influence generations to come. The Hulu-released movie kicks off with the statement that the Harlem Cultural Festival was widely attended and featured performances by some of the greatest artists of the era, the footage from the festival was locked in a basement for 50 years until this documentary. Summer of Soul spends its 2-hour documentary celebrating Black joy and community while investigating why such an important event was buried unground.
Aside from being a powerful restoration of live performance imagery, the impact of Black artistry, and cultural influence from a time when such voices were silenced, Summer of Soul is one of the most engaging documentaries of all time. Questlove's movie (who also starred in Soul) not only connects to the wider milieu in race relations of today in an indirect (yet obvious, if viewers have been paying attention) manner, but celebrates some of the most brilliants artistic minds and the powerfully connected community in their audience that, along with the festival, were outrageously labeled as “obscure” in their time. Concert documentaries tend to put viewers back into the feeling of moments like these very easily, and Summer of Soul accomplishes this flawlessly by engaging with the heartbreaking and compellingly inspirational spirit of this watershed moment, thus earning the crown for best documentary of 2021.