Documentary of the Week

In “America to Me," director Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) spends a year examining a high school in Oak Park, Illinois that struggles with a performance gap along racial lines. The 10-part series on Starz looks at both students and faculty trying speak across divides of age, gender, race and income. — Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary “Crime + Punishment” follows the case of the NYPD 12, who spoke out against biased policing. Filmmaker Steven Maing covers their story from the inside as they risk their careers in a documentary that plays like a modern day “Serpico.” — Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The documentary “Minding the Gap” follows three skateboarding friends of different races — white, black and Asian — who are grappling with childhood abuse as they transition to adulthood. One of the trio is director Bing Liu, who started filming skateboard stunts as a teenager and now uses the camera to penetrate the shells of his peers. — Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary classic “The Atomic Cafe,” an archival-footage essay about America’s relationship with the atomic bomb, is back in theaters with a new 4k restoration. Filmmakers Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty and Pierce Rafferty compiled government propaganda, newsreels, educational films — like one that tells students to “duck and cover” if a bomb hits — for a dark comedy. — Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers For more information, click here to visit the film web page.

The documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” profiles Scotty Bowers, who was a sexual procurer for movie stars in the studio era. Filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer reveals the closeted lives of Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn and many more, as Scotty revisits his past having reached the age of 90. — Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Over 70 million Americans have some kind of implanted medical device including birth control, joint replacements and pacemakers. In the Netflix documentary "The Bleeding Edge," filmmaker Kirby Dick looks at patients who have suffered from such devices and traces problems to lack of government regulation in the industry. — Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary "Far From the Tree," based on the award-winning book by Andrew Solomon, explores the dynamics in families when kids turn out different from their parents' expectations. Filmmaker Rachel Dretzin profiles families encountering cases of Down's Syndrome, autism, dwarfism and incarceration. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The documentary “Dark Money” looks at how mysterious sources of campaign financing corrupts the political process. Filmmaker Kimberly Reed uses a case study in her home state of Montana where politicians in both parties found themselves being smeared by negative campaign ads that were difficult to trace. The film illustrates how the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has a lasting impact on American elections. "Dark Money" opens in theaters today.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin MacDonald delivers a sensitive exploration of the troubled life of Whitney Houston in “Whitney.” With generous samplings of her music and candid interviews with her inner circle, the film helps us understand her motivations and addictions. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The documentary “Three Identical Strangers” looks at the saga of triplets who were separated at birth and accidentally met each other at age 19. Director Tim Wardle follows the twists and turns of their lives and explores the question of whether the greatest influence on a person is nature or nurture. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The documentary “Love Means Zero” profiles the controversial tennis coach Nick Bollettieri and his broken relationship with Andre Agassi. Filmmaker Jason Kohn frames the story around three classic tennis matches that defined their careers. Like a great tennis match, the film is filled with suspense, joy and tears. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer, the documentary “Eating Animals” challenges us to think more carefully about what we eat and where it comes from. Narrated by Natalie Portman and directed by Christopher Quinn, the film profiles both independent farmers and those working for food conglomerates.

The documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” profiles the Presbyterian minister-turned-children’s TV host Fred Rogers. Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom”) draws upon the vast archive of “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” and interviews insiders and family members.

The four-part Showtime series “The Fourth Estate” looks at the reporters and editors covering the Trump administration in its first year. Oscar-nominated director Liz Garbus (“What Happened Miss Simone?”) chronicles the changing nature of journalism in the age of Twitter, podcasts and the 24-hour news cycle.

The Gospel According to André profiles the highly quotable arbiter of taste from Vogue magazine. Filmmaker Kate Novack explores his journey as a rare black man in the predominantly white world of fashion. Talley pays tribute to his grandmother who raised him, and Diana Vreeland, who launched his career. The documentary hits select theaters today. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

In the documentary “Pope Francis: A Man of His Word,” filmmaker Wim Wenders interviews the pontiff on an array of topics. Wenders explores the meaning of the first Pope to name himself after St. Francis of Asissi who took a vow of poverty and stressed the importance of having a harmonious relationship with nature. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary “Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat” profiles the artist long before he broke auction records for an American artist. Filmmaker Sara Driver combines archival footage with new interviews of Basquiat’s peers from Manhattan’s downtown art scene in the late '70s. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The documentary RBG examines the career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, demonstrating her courage and humor. Filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen deliver both a legal history and a personal portrait, including a study of Ginsburg’s early days as an ACLU lawyer crusading for women’s rights. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The 4-part Netflix series “Bobby Kennedy for President” traces the political education of the candidate who was assassinated in 1968. Filmmaker Dawn Porter combines a wealth of archival footage with new interviews with Kennedy associates such as John Lewis, Marian Wright Edelman and Dolores Huerta. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The HBO documentary “I Am Evidence” investigates the crisis of hundreds of thousands of rape kits that went untested across the United States. Actress and advocate Mariska Hargitay teams with directors Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir to focus on the crusade of Detroit prosecutor Kym Worthy and others who campaigned to rescue kits from storage. Their work led to identifying hundreds of perpetrators. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

In the documentary “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami,” filmmaker Sophie Fiennes combines performance and intimate observation to profile the singer, model and icon. “Bloodlight” is the red light outside a recording studio and “Bami” is a Jamaican flatbread. The words refer to Jones’ art and life. She constantly blurs the lines between the two and is never less than riveting. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary “ACORN and the Firestorm” traces the 40 year history of community organizers brought down by a right wing attack. Filmmakers Rueben Atlas and Sam Pollard show how a simple lie travels faster than a complicated truth. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary “The China Hustle” tells a story of global financial corruption that could be a ticking time bomb for Wall Street. Director Jed Rothstein teams with executive producer Alex Gibney for a film that’s alternately funny, infuriating and terrifying, in the tradition of “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.” — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The documentary “Seeing Allred” profiles the attorney Gloria Allred and her legal crusades on behalf of women and minorities. Filmmakers Sophie Sartain and Roberta Grossman follow Allred as represents accusers of Bill Cosby, Donald Trump and others. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The Netflix series “Wild Wild Country” looks back on the controversial religious leader Bhagwan Rajneesh who was accused of leading a sex cult in rural Oregon. Sibling filmmakers Chapman and Maclain Way team with executive producers Jay and Mark Duplass to examine how a clash of cultures turned into a massive case of poisoning, wire-tapping and immigration fraud. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

War photographer Chris Hondros took iconic images in Liberia, Iraq, Egypt and elsewhere before he was killed in Libya in 2011. Now his longtime friend Greg Campbell pays tribute to his career in the documentary “Hondros.” This is the 150th edition of Documentary of the Week. Hosts Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen discuss why they chose this film for that milestone. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The eight-part Netflix series “Flint Town” spends a year inside the police department in the Michigan city reeling from a water crisis. The filmmaking trio of Zackary Canepari, Drea Cooper and Jessica Dimmock cut through the sensationalism to highlight the city’s humanity. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen Fore more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The new documentary “Tell Them We Are Rising” tells an expansive story of historically black colleges and universities - known as HBCUs. Filmmakers Stanley Nelson and Marco Williams cover multiple eras from Reconstruction to Civil Rights to the present day. The film is streaming on PBS Independent Lens and is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

St. Clair Bourne was a pivotal figure in putting black lives on film, from the 1970s to his death in 2007. As founder of the Black Documentary collective, he also mentored generations of black filmmakers. Now a retrospective at the Metrograph provides a rare opportunity to see his documentaries on Paul Robeson, Amiri Baraka, Spike Lee and more, plus films by those who came up after him. Our segment highlights his film “Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper." — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the web site for the retrospective.

The documentary “The Peacemaker” profiles Boston bar owner Padraig O’Malley, who’s known in the world of international diplomacy for his skills at negotiating in conflict zones. Filmmaker James Demo follows O’Malley to war torn cities in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, the Middle East and beyond to understand what makes him tick. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In the documentary “The Force,” director Peter Nicks embeds with the Oakland police force for two years during a period when leaders tried to reform after past abuses of power. While there are many documentaries about law and order, few bring the depth and nuance of this one. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright best known for “A Raisin in the Sun,” gets a long overdue biography in the documentary “Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart.” Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain spent 14 years on the film, and delivers a complex portrait of Hansberry as a writer, radical and lesbian ahead of her time. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In “The Final Year," filmmaker Greg Barker follows key members of President Obama’s foreign-policy team over the course of their last year in office. As we watch Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Ambassador Samantha Power and others at work, their approach makes a striking contrast to the current administration. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Susan Froemke’s documentary “The Opera House” looks back on the history of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, focusing on the 1966 opening of its current home at Lincoln Center. The history encompasses larger than life characters including New York’s master builder Robert Moses, the Met leader Rudolph Bing and visionary director Franco Zeffirelli. The new building opened with soprano Leontyne Price. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The performance film “Prince: Sign O the Times” came out in 1987, but was out of distribution for over 25 years. Now it’s back, on platforms such as iTunes and Showtime. The visuals are very much an '80’s period piece with an abundance of neon, smoke and shoulder pads. But the main attraction is Prince in his prime, playing alongside singer Sheena Easton, drummer Sheila E, dancer Cat Glover and an extraordinary band. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information about the film, click here.

One of the most ambitious documentaries of the year is PBS’ 10-part series “The Vietnam War” directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The series puts an emphasis on the voices of participants from both the American and Vietnamese sides. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Errol Morris’ six-part documentary “Wormwood” investigates the 1953 death of CIA agent Frank Olson, which has been a six-decade obsession for Olson's son Eric. Morris combines interviews and archival footage with dramatic re-enactments featuring the actor Peter Sarsgaard at Frank Olson. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The film “The Rape of Recy Taylor” documents the case of a black woman who was gang-raped in Alabama in 1944 and defied the Jim Crow south by speaking out, with the support of Rosa Parks and others. Filmmaker Nancy Buirski reconstructs the events with testimonies from Taylor and her siblings, along with historian Danielle McGuire who wrote a book on the case, “At The Dark End of the Street." — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The documentary “Quest” follows 10 years in the life of the Rainey family in North Philadelphia as they operate a community music studio in a neighborhood challenged by economic instability. Filmmaker Jonathan Olshefski creates a memorable portrait of the married couple Christopher and Christine’a Rainey and their family. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

“Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge” is a 2-part HBO documentary tracing the history of the magazine’s most memorable articles. Filmmakers Alex Gibney and Blair Foster weave new interviews with classic footage from the worlds of rock n roll, politics and more. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Actress Sonja Sohn is best known for role in "The Wire” as the police officer Kima. Now she gets behind the camera for the HBO documentary "Baltimore Rising” following activists and police officers after the death of Freddie Gray. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev explores the history of the Grateful Dead from the psychedelic sixties to the death of band leader Jerry Garcia in 1995. The six-part film on Amazon goes beyond the scope of the average rock documentary to capture the legacy of the band in a way that’s meaningful to both devoted deadheads and outsiders. For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Sammy Davis Jr. had multiple talents as a singer, dancer and actor. He broke down color barriers from Broadway to Las Vegas, even doing impressions of white actors in the 1940s. Long seen as Frank Sinatra's sidekick in the Rat Pack, the documentary "Sammy Davis Jr.: I Gotta Be Me" puts him back in the spotlight as a trailblazer. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Joan Didion, now in her 80s, had long resisted being profiled in a documentary. But she couldn’t say no when the director was her nephew, the actor Griffin Dunne. They have a warm rapport as she tells the stories behind her novels, essays and screenplays in the documentary “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold.” — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The Netflix documentary “One of Us” follows three members of New York’s Hasidic Jewish community who want to explore a more secular way of life. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp) stay with their subjects for over a year with great sensitivity. The film explores the universal theme of what it means to separate yourself from everything familiar. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary “Jane” plays like a romantic epic traversing Jane Goodall’s early days studying chimpanzees in Tanzania. Filmmaker Brett Morgen draws upon a rediscovered archive of gorgeous 16 mm footage from the 1960s, combined with a new candid interview and an original score by Philip Glass. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The HBO short documentary "Clinica de Migrantes” profiles a Philadelphia clinic, Puentes de Salud, that delivers free health care to undocumented workers. Filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin covers both the clinic's doctors and patients, reminding us of their humanity and ours. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

In “Faces Places,” the eminent French filmmaker Agnès Varda teams with the street artist JR (known for his recent mural on the Mexican border). They take a wondrous journey of making art and transforming lives in villages across France. This late career gem from the 89-year-old Varda has already won festival prizes in Cannes and Toronto. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

In April 1992, a 24-year-old unarmed black man named William Ford was shot by a white teenager during an argument in a Long Island auto body shop. But a grand jury called it self-defense, and declined to file charges. The victim’s sibling, Yance Ford, explores the case and its impact on his family in the film "Strong Island." — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

In " Unrest," filmmaker Jennifer Brea chronicles the mysterious illness Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, better known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, including her own moving struggle. Victims not only suffer multiple disabilities, but also from medical confusion over the illness and media skepticism. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.