The Best (and Most Anticipated) Documentaries of 2024 (2024)

While the end of 2023 and first months of 2024 have yielded a trove of ambitious, frightening, and heartbreaking documentaries (see: Occupied City, Dario Argento Panico, 20 Days in Mariupol), along with a soupçon of celebrity dish (see: Frida, Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces), the spring and summer seasons promise a hodgepodge of nonfiction films that are similarly insightful, scandalous, activist, or unmistakably bizarre. Here, our quick guide to a few of the most exciting documentaries coming soon to a theater or streaming service.

Kim’s Video

Kim’s Video tells the quirky true story of how New York dry cleaner Youngman Kim founded Kim’s Video, a downtown institution that inspired a generation of cinephiles, filmmakers, and hipsters with its catalog of 55,000 independent, obscure, and bootlegged films. When Kim decides to close his chain of stores in 2008 and offer his video collection to buyers, a small Sicilian town with artistic aspirations purchases it intact, only to bury its location. Directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin travel to the small Italian town to find out what became of Kim’s collection—and hopefully return it to New York.

How to watch: In select theaters

Ennio

This documentary follows the celebrated Italian film composer Ennio Morricone, whose soundtracks for 1960s and ’70s spaghetti westerns, political dramas, gialli, and, later on, American melodramas and action films often rivaled or outshone the movies themselves. Ennio contains detailed interviews with the composer (Morricone died in 2020) on some of the 400 soundtracks that he produced throughout his lifetime. The film also includes a who’s who of filmmakers and musicians, including Quentin Tarantino, Bruce Springsteen, Quincy Jones, and Clint Eastwood, who share their thoughts on or memories of Morricone.

How to watch: Stream on Apple TV, Prime Video, or YouTube.

High & Low: John Galliano

This portrait of enfant terrible and culture vulture John Galliano—former creative director of Givenchy and Dior, and current head of Maison Margiela—recalls his ousting from the heights of the fashion world after a very public anti-semitic tirade in Paris was caught on video. Kevin Macdonald’s film digs into both the public figure and the private world of Galliano, while also examining the high-stakes setting of an industry that causes its leading lights to flame out, often in vividly self-destructive spectacles. Macdonald does not apologize for Galliano’s blunders, misdemeanors, and addictions, but neither does he shy away from the industry titans that abetted them.

How to watch: In select theaters or stream on Mubi from April 26

Uncropped (April 26)

Uncropped is D.W. Young’s chronicle of the life and work of photographer James Hamilton, who captured the famous, infamous, and unique figures of New York City for The Village Voice, Harper’s Bazaar, Creem, and The New York Observer. Hamilton relays the stories behind some of his most famous photogenic subjects, from Lou Reed to Alfred Hitchco*ck. But Young also manages to bring together colleagues and friends from Hamilton’s Voice days so that the film also acts as an elegy to an era when photojournalism and alternative weeklies still had a tremendous authority to document and to celebrate underground culture. Executive produced by Wes Anderson, the film also includes interviews with Anderson, Thurston Moore, and Sylvia Plachy, among others.

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (May 3)

Catching Fire is billed as a never-before-seen portrait of the Rolling Stones muse, actress, and fashion plate, told from the perspective of her children, lovers, and friends, including Keith Richards, Marianne Faithful, and Marlon Richards. The film tackles her infamous public reputation as well as her private life through an archive of home movies and family photos. It also includes excerpts from Pallenberg’s unpublished memoir, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

Power (May 10, on Netflix May 17)

This provocative political documentary by Yance Ford (The Color of Care, Strong Island) makes the case for policing’s historic and contemporary role in the maintenance of a racist and classist status quo. Ford relies on a heavy mix of archival footage and academic, press, and social justice interviewees (including a former police officer-turned-advocate) to explore how the complex hierarchies of law enforcement from the 18th and 19th centuries continue to play out in current battlegrounds such as Minneapolis, the site of George Floyd’s 2020 murder by police officers.

Taking Venice (May 17)

Presented in the manner of a heist or caper film, filmmaker and art critic Amei Wallach’s doc examines the true stories behind the scandalous rumors that Robert Rauschenberg’s Grand Prize win at the 1964 Venice Biennale was rigged. The reason behind the supposed cheat? The American government’s desire to wield soft power over the Russians through cultural export. Wallach looks at the top players working between government and art, including legendary gallerist Leo Castelli and Jewish Museum curator Alan Solomon (an early champion of Neo-Dada), whose efforts helped to shift the global capital of art from Europe to America.

Queen of the Deuce (May 24)

Valerie Kontakos’s film is a zany family portrait of Chelly Wilson, a Greek-born Jew who escaped Athens on the eve of World War II and resettled in New York City, where she eventually ran a network of p*rn theaters in Times Square. A savvy businesswoman in an industry then dominated by men, Wilson helped to make 42nd Street into the Deuce, a mecca for sex tourism in the ’70s and ’80s. Her most unusual story is told through archival recordings, home movies, animation, and family interviews.

Rowdy Girl (May 31)

Rowdy Girl centers on the titular Texas cattle ranch turned animal sanctuary founded by Renee King-Sonnen and her husband, Tommy. After their story becomes a national media sensation, King-Sonnen sets up the Rancher Advocacy Program to encourage other ranchers to transition to plant-based agriculture and adopt a vegan lifestyle. First-time director Jason Goldman follows King-Sonnen over two years as she shares her personal story of conversion and her efforts to transform an industry one ranch at a time.

The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout (June 1)

This Hollywood insider doc from William Nunez examines the fascinating story behind the making of The Conqueror, Howard Hughes’s soapy epic starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan. Considered one of the worst movies of the 1950s, The Conqueror became notorious for another reason: its filming had taken place close to the Nevada military site where nearly a dozen atomic bombs had been tested in the previous year. Nunez investigates the US government’s brazen negligence during the height of its atomic tests, along with the movie studio’s willful ignorance of the dangers. The director also tracks the dozens of cases of terminal cancer suffered by The Conqueror’s cast and crew, including Wayne and Susan Hayward.

Union (release date TBA)

The winner of this year’s US documentary special jury award for the art of change at Sundance, Union spotlights a small group of Staten Island-based Amazon workers from the Amazon Labor Union, founded by organizer Chris Smalls (named one of Time magazine’s most influential people of 2022). The film follows the group as it attempts to unionize against one of the most powerful and profitable companies in the world.