The best documentaries on Hulu right now

Ironically, Three Minutes is longer than three minutes but shorter than a typical documentary. The movie nonetheless packs a devastating punch. Helena Bonham Carter narrates as viewers are presented with a home video depicting a Jewish town in Poland in 1938 — before the Holocaust decimated Nasielsk and Europe’s larger Jewish community. The home video is only three minutes, but it is edited and played out in ways to point toward the lives being led by the Jewish community members that were cut tragically short. The rare footage from more than 80 years ago feels prescient at a moment when anti-Semitism is becoming more visible in the U.S.

Like winding stories that seem to get crazier as they go along? Check out Enemies of the State. If the DeHart family seems too good to be true, that’s because at least one member is in the eyes of the government: son Matt DeHart. His follies on the dark web included an association with Anonymous and hosting a server for Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. What follows is a tale of conspiracy theories, confusion, and accusations of being involved in child pornography. The movie is reminiscent in a lot of ways of Citizenfour, the Edward Snowden documentary that weaves its way through the same general destination as Enemies of the State. At times, this movie makes no sense. At other times, it’s impossible to look away from.

Nudity in film has become less and less taboo but you may be surprised to learn just how long nudity has been appearing in feature films. Skin studies the changes in morality since the days of silent films to the present, examining how nudity in film reflected the political, sociological, and artistic shifts of the age. Additionally, Skin examines the gender inequality that until recently has long plagued nudity in film.

The coronavirus pandemic remains an ongoing scourge across the globe, but it’s not too early to begin looking at how the world has arrived at its current point. There is an endless number of stories and decisions to discuss surrounding COVID-19, and Totally Under Control looks at the United States government’s response to the crisis, studying it through the eyes of public health officials. Like so much of the current situation, it’s almost impossible to extract politics from the crisis, and filmmaker Alex Gibney doesn’t try, recognizing how greatly the response differed from that of the previous administration. The documentary is a difficult watch, as so many people have been personally affected by the pandemic and still are — the timeliness of the film is a feature, not a bug. It’s also bound to make people from all walks of life outraged.

The Villages, the world’s largest retirement community, appears to have something for everybody in its Florida oasis. Filmmaker Lance Oppenheim’s view of the community quickly shows that not everything is as it’s cracked up to be, though. The film shines a light on some of the stereotypes elderly people in America are often subjected to (from the wise old man to the zany grandma), while reminding us that, like people of any age, seniors also struggle with issues surrounding love and loss, accentuated by the reality that is mortality. While The Villages isn’t necessarily the ideal home for some of the residents Oppenheim highlights, it does allow many to evaluate their own dreams as they reach their metaphorical “back nine.” Oppenheim also creates a very stylistic world, rooted in both reality and eccentricity, which further layers the depiction of the retirement community in a way that should make the director one to watch in the future.

Soleil Moon Frye is having a moment. Fresh off the heels of starring in Peacock’s revival of Punky Brewster, the former child star gets behind the camera with Kid 90, a documentary built from the videos Frye recorded herself when she was a child actor and growing up in the limelight with fellow kid stars such as Saved By the Bell‘s Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Beverly Hills 90210‘s Brian Austin Green. Most people watch home videos now with glee with the family’s one working VCR, but it’s always interesting to peer into the private lives of others, especially someone who was riding the fame train like Frye was at the time. For those nostalgic about all things ’90s pop culture, Kid 90 will take you on a fascinating trip down memory lane.

Nothing hits harder than a documentary following journalists on the dogged pursuit of exposing a system that will do anything to silence scandal. The journalists in Collective work primarily at Gazette, a daily newspaper in Romania slowly uncovering corruption and public healthcare fraud in the wake of a fire that kills dozens, only for more to succumb to injuries due to a lack of good medical care. The primary focus of disinfectant dilution isn’t eye-popping, but the importance of the product grows throughout the movie, leading all the way to the top of both Hexi Pharma and the government. The Romanian documentary won numerous awards around the world and was shortlisted in two categories for the 93rd Academy Awards.

Contrary to the title, this is not a documentary about killing fire-breathing monsters before they wreak havoc on small island villages. Instead, it tackles the topic of gerrymandering, which is not necessarily exciting to all, but it should be vital to everyone. The practice of resetting district boundaries to artificially impact election results is viewed as a dire topic by the filmmakers, who see it as a path towards eroding democracy and keeping those in power entrenched in their positions. In the wake of a contentious election, there may be no more important political documentary to watch than Slay the Dragon.