2024 Documentaries That Meet The Moment

Everyone is talking about echo chambers this week. Is Bluesky an echo chamber? Did X keep us locked into our own echo chambers that made it hard for some to imagine Trump’s election win? It doesn’t matter which social platform you choose, you’re at the whims of the algorithm and the feed you build. Before Kamala became the nominee, I felt like Biden would lose. I allowed myself to let go of that doom and gloom feeling when I saw the rush of excitement that came with a new nominee and a Midwestern hero now at the top of the ticket. I saw that excitement almost entirely on my X feed, but I embraced it to convince myself things might be okay (Twitter is dead, I call it X now for reasons described here by JP Brammer).

I ignored everything I saw around me and concerns I’d raised before Kamala: family members who became convinced of AI conspiracy theories thanks to Facebook, friends repeating misinformation and fake talking points. A youth population that felt disappointed in a party that failed them on Gaza and student loans. Maybe, that didn’t matter. My most used echo chamber, X, made me feel like everything would be okay.

Any reason for leaving X is a great reason, but I love bouncing around the internet again. Maybe one thing can’t replace Twitter. Instead, I’m enjoying the very different vibes of Bluesky, Threads, and Substack. It feels like the only online solution I can find right now to breaking out of my online walled garden.

After the election, I did the same post-game analysis everyone did. I repeated a lot of the themes you have already heard people say over and over by now. Mostly, though, I thought about a lot of documentaries that felt like they were trying to warn us of what was coming. Here are some documentaries that accomplished this over the last year.

1. The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking The Truth, Hulu/Disney+

Everyone has heard of this experiment, but did you know it’s basically all a lie? The true story of The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of media manipulation and the power of myth. The study’s standards were subpar and this was quickly revealed when just one person dug into the primary sources. Philip Zimbardo, the creator, knew how to sell the story, he could be charming in interviews and he sold the myth of his experiment.

This documentary also does that amazing thing where everyone talks about how horrible and evil one guy is and then at the end of an episode, that guy walks in to talk! In this case, it’s Zimbardo and he’s cut from the same cloth as Trump. What matters is his narrative, how he managed to benefit and the story he sells. Even when they show him evidence that he’s lying, he explains that even if the entire experiment was fake, it still says something that he chose to profit off of manipulating people. Maybe the experiment is wrong in saying ordinary men can become evil, but Zimbardo seems to say, What does that matter if evil still exists?

The interviews with the surviving subjects will give you faith that the truth might finally be able to rival the myth.

2. Join or Die, Netflix

I think we all feel incredibly isolated post-quarantine. It’s one reason we’re all looking for echo chambers to yell into is. This documentary about Robert Putnam’s theory that declining community engagement and social clubs have led to our current political state. After watching? I am convinced. Get offline and go join a club! While this technically came out in 2023, it just arrived on Netflix. Politicians like Trump thrive when people feel individualistic and at odds. This documentary offers a solution that seems pretty easy and fun.

Socializing outside of the internet is probably the best way to break out of your echo chamber.

3. Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter, Netflix

I like people who don’t give up. When Cathy Terkanian found out the daughter she gave up for adoption was missing, she felt in her gut that she’d been killed. Over decades, she puts together a case convinced she’s found the killer despite cold case teams and investigators ignoring her. Cathy is threatened with imprisonment. Her own friends and relatives think she’s lost her mind. Still, she can’t let go of her need for closure.

I don’t want to spoil this one too much, but this doc gets into the ways women harm other women and work against their interests. It also gets into the ways men are able to manipulate and harm while hiding behind power and manipulation. This country feels like it’s swinging back to the misogyny of the early 2000s and it seems so easy to give up and wait for the next rendition of The Man Show, but this documentary makes the case for not giving up when you have to face the worst.

4. Patrice: The Movie, Hulu

Fuck the government, huh? Everything on the line this election, so much at stake and the Democratic party focused on ego, Republicans and alienating people who are financially struggling. At the end of the day, no government is here to protect any of us, even the most vulnerable of us. Patrice: The Movie tells the story of a disabled couple and their fight for marriage equality. If they live together, get married or even receive money from a GoFundMe, they could lose their insurance benefits.

Patrice, Garry and their friends want to change that. They protest. They go straight to politicians and ask them: what is taking so long to change this? They hold commitment ceremonies outside of the White House. After the election, I see so many people saying they can no longer fight for others and they’re only interested in their own, but Patrice is supported by a rainbow coalition of people. It takes community. It takes differences. After watching this, you’ll see that Patrice is a superhero. She would never give up, so how can I?

5. Breath of Fire, HBO

I already wrote about this one! But the entire season is now available to stream so go watch it!

6. Skin Hunters, Max

While The Stanford Prison Experiment may be fake, Skin Hunters provides a real example of how corruption takes hold of people. It follows the case of an impoverished town in Poland where funeral homes started working with ambulances to make money. The funeral homes would pay bonuses to the ambulances if they successfully brought them the family’s business. In order to make more, the first responders started killing patients so they’d have more deaths to refer.

What starts as people in need doing something questionably bad to support themselves spirals into murder. Those involved are shocked when they realize how quickly corruption took over their friends and coworkers and caused the deaths of hundreds. Watching feels like seeing the outcome of a Trump-like policy that allows businesses to collude without considering the consequences.

7. It’s Florida Man, HBO

This counts as a documentary! People from Florida share wild true stories from their life and, well, this country has so much diversity. There’s a transphobic white gay man who loves interracial relationships. There’s witches who clearly voted for Trump. What is America? It’s this swamp!

8. Chimp Crazy, HBO

Let’s be real, the second this woman became a star we should’ve known Trump was winning.