The Best Documentaries of 2020 Provide Critical Insight Into The World Around Us

At this point, it's a little hard to stand out in the hundred-odd-some 30 for 30s in ESPN's library, One can only win (or lose!) so many times before it all starts blending together. In his portrait of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, Bao Nguyen has done more than made an all-time best 30 for 30. By removing the talking heads, and making the photography just as beautiful as the life Lee lived, he's made one of the definitive tellings of the star's legacy.

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American Murder: The Family Next Door is a modern American suburban nightmare. When the documentary starts, Chris Watts seems like any other good-hearted dad in the middle of any good father's nightmare. Perceptions are tricky though. When his wife Shannan and his two daughters suddenly go missing, all eyes turn to Watts. The optimist wants to believe in Watts' innocence, but the common refrain remains true; when it comes to domestic troubles, keep an eye on the husband. American Murder offers a chilling portrait of an unassuming man's turn from seemingly loving father to grotesque, horrific killer.

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On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded, leaving America heartbroken—and wondering what exactly went wrong. Challenger: The Final Flight recaps the tragedy in excruciating detail, letting those closest to the disaster tell its story.

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Yeah. We missed out on a lot of sports this year. One bright spot, though? We had no shortage of jump-out-of-your-seat sports documentaries. Rising Phoenix tops that list, documenting the origins of the Paralympic Games, profiling the sport's best and most inspiring athletes along the way.

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With Totaly Under Control, filmmaker Alex Gibney impressively managed to speed out a documentary about President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic before the election. Spoiler: Things were most definitely not under control.

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John Lewis, who passed away this past summer, is a political and civil rights legend. Or, more accurately? Just a legend. Period. John Lewis: Good Trouble captures the U.S. Representative's fight to make change in this country, from the front lines of the most important movements of the past 60 years.

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If you've found yourself—oh, I don't know, sometime during the past four years—longing for a better, simpler time, The Way I See It might be for you. The film profiles Pete Souza, who was the Chief Official White House Photographer during the Obama presidency. The documentary is a brilliant, inspiring look at the man behind iconic shots you likely know well, like Souza's look at President Obama and Hilary Clinton in the Situation Room during the Osama bin Laden raid.

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HBO's Class Action Park is definitely not the first way-too-candid look at New Jersey's Class Action Park. If you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky—the theme park of the '80s/'90s was quite literally full of rides that weren't so much of rides, as they were accidents waiting to happen. If you can stomach it, HBO's deep-dive into the park's sketchy history is worth the look.

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Since the dawn of cinema, the world has been fascinated with child stars. This documentary from Alex Winter, who's best known for his role in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, but who's also a former child star himself, examines the lives of young performers through interviews with actors including Evan Rachel Wood, Todd Bridges, Jada Pinkett Smith, Wil Wheaton, and ET star Henry Thomas.

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America in 2020 is a nation that Roy Cohn helped build. The infamous lawyer, who secured the executions of the Rosenbergs, persecuted suspected communists as Joseph McCarthy's right-hand man, and represented mobsters, was the friend and mentor to President Donald Trump. This documentary, directed by a granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, examines his life and legacy.

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One of the most powerful moments of the Me Too era occurred when more than 150 women faced convicted sexual predator Larry Nassar in court to deliver emotional impact statements. But horrifyingly, those women represented just a fraction of the former USA Gymnastics doctor's 500 victims. This documentary from Netflix examines abuses in the gymnastics world, and just how Nassar was able to get away with his crimes for decades.

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Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel fell in love in 1947 and built a relationship that spanned six decades, all while hiding the truth of their romance from friends and loved ones in the face of rampant homophobia. This film is directed by the couple's great-nephew Chris Bolan, who traces their lives together while painting a moving portrait of their later years. You might think you're made of tough stuff if you can make it through the trailer without welling up, but there's no way anyone could sit through the whole film without getting teary.

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In 1991, eight volunteer researchers locked themselves inside a greenhouse, and almost never opened the door again for two years. The controversial experiment was an effort to see if it would be possible for humans to build their own self-sustaining ecosystems on other planets, and, spoiler alert, was largely considered a fiasco. Nearly 30 years later, this documentary revisits the failed utopia.

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Compared to the ways in which the Me Too movement has shaken up Hollywood, the music industry seems far less changed. Just take the controversy surrounding this documentary, which recounts the sexual assault allegations against rap mogul Russell Simmons. Oprah Winfrey, initially signed on to executive produce, left the project, noting that Simmons had pressured her to abandon the film. (She says that this didn't influence her decision.) Despite the controversy, On the Record was released to rave reviews praising the light it sheds on sexual abuse in the hip-hop world.

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As the film's description notes, 80 percent of Americans say they don't know a transgender person—which means that pop culture representation marks the only familiarity that the majority of the population has with trans people. Unfortunately, most of that representation has been pretty terrible, made by and for cisgendered people and deeply tainted by transphobia. In this film, trans celebrities, activists, and academics examine this history of popular depictions of trans and gender-non conforming people, and chart a path towards a more inclusive future.

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There were few 2019 news stories bigger than the arrest and suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, one-time high-society financier and convicted sexual offender. And while this four-part docuseries includes interviews with Epstein’s former colleagues and associates—and particularly chilling deposition footage of Epstein himself—director Lisa Bryant focuses on the stories of the survivors, women who were drawn into Epstein’s circle and are brave enough to share their accounts with the world.

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This Norwegian film tells a surprisingly heartwarming true crime story. After an Oslo gallery was the victim of a burglary, one of the culprits admitted in court that he targeted the stolen paintings “because they were beautiful.” That spurred Barbora Kysilkova, the works’ creator, to seek out a meeting with the man who stole them. The meeting blossoms into an unlikely friendship, all followed by filmmaker Benjamin Ree.

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You’d be hard-pressed to come up with a sports documentary that’s ever been more hyped than The Last Dance. Netflix and ESPN teamed up for a 10-part series that might end up being the last word on the Jordan-Bulls dynasty, featuring interviews with Barack Obama, Michael Jordan, and Steve Kerr, and never-before-seen footage from Chicago’s defining championship 1997-98 season. Yeah. Sign us up.

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In the late 1970s and early '80s, the city of Atlanta was terrorized by the murders and disappearances by at least 30 children and youths. The children were black and often poor, often characterized by the media as "street children" born of a troubled community. In reality, they were the beloved offspring of dozens of families who are still fighting to resolve questions around their children's murder. This series examines the case and features extensive interviews with victims' families and community activists.

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Last year, surviving Beastie Boys Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond staged a live performance event documenting their three decades as a band. The whole thing was directed by Spike Jonze, and the filmed version of their stage show premiered as an Apple TV documentary this April. In the show, the musicians tell their own story and share remembrances of their late friend and bandmate Adam Yauch.

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