There's so much to choose from on Netflix that it can often be difficult to know where to start. In amongst the scores of movies, TV shows, and the ever popular Netflix Originals, there are also some incredible documentaries to open your eyes, break your heart and make you either angry as hell or chip away at something you were convinced was true. These are my top picks:
'Amanda Knox'
This really had to be included purely because of the continued speculation surrounding the horrific murder of British student Meredith Kercher, and the fact that we still seem to have no clear idea of what happened on the night of her death.
Everyone has an opinion on this case and it was such a huge, complicated story that people were gripped right from the start. I kept up to date with the constant news, the eventual trial, and the whole saga in between. There's a real division between the people who genuinely think "Amanda Knox" was involved in the murder and those who think she was just a roommate who happened to be in the wrong country at the wrong time.
It is amazing how getting underneath the sensationalist media headlines and actually listening to the woman speaking so articulately will make you rethink your entire views on the case. It may not change your mind, but it will definitely make you think twice about what you thought you knew.
This is particularly prevalent when you hear from the British journalist who almost seems excited about the whole thing because it got him so many front pages and he managed to dredge up as many negative stories about Knox as possible.
'Extremis'
A fairly short Documentary, at 25 mins, "Extremis" takes you behind the scenes at hospital wards and takes a look at the life and death situations that our medical professionals deal with as a matter of course, every day.
It's not easy watching, by any means, but unless you work in that profession, it can be downright impossible to say how you would feel about ending a life.
Watching the compassionate and loving end of life treatment will, not only give you a new admiration for human life, but also for the staff, friends and family members that decide between suffering and living.
'The Hunting Ground'
Rarely have I been quite so shocked by a single documentary about an issue I didn't even know really existed. I watched this in the wake of the Brock Turner Stanford rape trial in which a white man was given an unjustifiably lenient sentence because he was 'promising' and, apparently a good swimmer. Because these are the things that really matter, ya know?
Anyway, the documentary goes through the personal stories of two women, both rape survivors, finding out just how many attacks happen on college campuses across the U.S. and how the University boards and donors are pretty keen to keep it under wraps so as not to tarnish their reputations and lose funding. It is, quite frankly, horrendous to see what these women have come up against in a fight, in some cases, just to have an alleged rapist merely removed from class.
Not charged or jailed. Just suspended pending investigations. Mostly, their pleas fell on deaf ears and their treatment, as well as the rape cultures in some of these prestigious Ivy League colleges, is abhorrent.
'Welcome to Leith'
Telling the story of Craig Cobb, a renowned white supremacist who moves into the small town of Leith in North Dakota, this documentary explores the horrors of Neo-Nazism and racism in the US.
After moving himself in, Cobb begins to bring in his friends and a nasty battle starts for control of the quiet, rural town ensues. Cobb wants it filled with Nazis so that they can then work to 'drive out' people of colour, and the town residents are left to battle against them to retain the dignity and decency of their home.
