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  • Abel leaves LA
    Self-deportation from Trump’s America

    In a time of escalating ICE raids and the ache of uncertainty, 38-year-old Abel has made a radical decision: he’s leaving the United States. Not because he has to, but to escape his perpetual limbo and see the world

You may have missed

  • Ukrainian soldier Kyrylo Chuvak in the Guardian documentary, No Time To Heal, by Ksenia Savoskina

    No Time To Heal
    The psychological rehabilitation of a Ukrainian soldier after Russian captivity

  • Thailand's critically endangered dugongs form the subject of a Guardian documentary, Thailand's Last Dugongs (15 mins). The background of this image has been extended for design purposes.

    Payuun
    The influencer racing to save Thailand’s most endangered sea mammal

  • Nickie Aven and her threshold choir in the Guardian documentary ‘Threshold’ (21 mins)

    Threshold
    The choir who sing to the dying

  • Professor Cristina Dorador searches for life-saving antibiotics in the salt flat of the Atacama, Chile

    Life Invisible
    The fight against superbugs starts in the driest place on Earth

  • Since founding Courtney’s House in 2008, Tina Frundt, 49, believes that her organization has helped about 2000 survivors of sex trafficking. Her current case load of 72 survivors means non-stop phone calls and texts, helping to find placement for people, get counseling for others, and lending an ear to some who just need to be heard.

    Give Me Shelter
    Protecting trafficked children in the US

  • A child feeds a horse in Ukraine. From the series 5K from the Frontline.

    You Don’t Think It Will Happen To You
    What life is really like on Ukraine's frontline

  • Between Moon Tides Deirdre catching a bird

    Between Moon Tides
    Hacking nature to save the saltmarsh sparrow documentary

  • Dr Lina Qasem-Hassan, a Palestinian doctor in Israel's healthcare system, in the documentary, The Oath

    The Oath
    To be a Palestinian doctor in Israel’s healthcare system - documentary

Environment

Films from the frontline of the climate emergency
  • Guardian documentary - Atomic Secrets, by Zhanana Kurmasheva

    Atomic Secrets
    A Chornobyl scientist warns of a toxic future

    Dmitry Kalmykov is a Ukrainian scientist who has dedicated his life to investigating environmental disasters, first at Chornobyl and now in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan – formerly the Soviet Union’s primary nuclear weapons testing site. He teaches schoolchildren about how bombs were tested, and how – more than 30 years after the site was decommissioned – the community is only beginning to comprehend radiation’s lasting deadly effects. Against the backdrop of war in Ukraine and the long shadow of a nuclear conflict across the region, Dmitry debates Kazakhstan’s nuclear future with its next generation
  • Rakel Nystabakk in the Norwegian documentary, Rowdy Flock made by filmmaker Rebekka Nystabakk

    Rowdy Flock:
    A daughter, her dreams, and a sheep farm in Norway

  • Two pilots sat in the flight deck

    Guilt Trip
    Pilots torn between flight and the fight for the planet - documentary

  • Nina Gualinga in the Guardian documentary, Waska

    Waska
    The cost of spiritual healing in the Amazon

  • Phuntsho Tshering in the documentary, Bhutan Mountain Man by film-maker Arun Bhattarai

    Bhutan Mountain Man
    Video diaries from a lone glaciologist

  • Truck driver Maikhuu in the film 'Lady of the Gobi,' directed by Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig

    Lady of the Gobi
    Trucking coal across the desert to China

  • Eve documentary image

    Eve
    The off-grid life of a nine-year-old climate activist

Biodiversity

Capturing the variety of life on Earth
  • Steven Fuller, from the Guardian documentary The Winterkeeper, directed by Laurence Topham and David Levene

    The Winterkeeper
    A lifetime spent protecting the wilderness

    Steven Fuller has lived and worked at Yellowstone national park for the past 50 years, but now faces an uncertain future as the climate crisis intensifies
  • Guardians of the Gibbons, a film by Ragini Nath and Chinmoy Sonowal

    Guardians of the Gibbons
    Can India save its only ape species?

  • Skyward Arjun Listening

    Skyward
    Birdwatching is belonging for two teenage conservationists

  • Image from Sam and the Plant Next Door

    Sam and the Plant Next Door
    Growing up with Hinkley Point

  • While millions of people around the world have gone into lockdown amid the coronavirus crisis, a family in the Ecuadorian Amazon has opted to move deeper into the relative safety of the jungle. 

As they reconnect with dormant ancestral knowledge, away from the distractions of modern life, their affinity with nature begins to flourish. As news spreads that Ecuador might lift lockdown soon, will the family stay?

    The Return
    A family reconnects with the Amazon as Covid threatens their village

Tech

Films about how technology is impacting our lives
  • Helen Mort, shares her disturbing story of deepfake pornography in the documentary 'My Blonde GF'

    My Blonde GF
    A disturbing story of deepfake pornography

    Helen’s world is turned upside down when she discovers that her face has been digitally edited on to images of women in sexually explicit and often violent situations.
  • Guardian Documentaries ILYA  1920x1080

    Ilya
    The AI scientist shaping the world

  • Could you live without the internet? Doctors’ appointments, job applications, personal banking, key services and more are today mostly managed online. While the UK government details its plans for a digital future to transform public services, one in seven Britons are forced to live without the internet. This film is voiced by three individuals experiencing digital exclusion, revealing how varied and complex the repercussions can be.

    The Digital Divide
    Could you live without the internet?

  • Kjell Frode - Internet Warriors

    The internet warriors
    Meet the 'trolls' in their own homes

  • Erica : Man Made

    Erica: Man Made
    The world's most human-like autonomous android

Europe

A selection of films offering a pan-European lens
  • Colette Marin-Catherine's photo album

    Colette / WINNER of Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject 2021
    Former French resistance member confronts a family tragedy 75 years later

    On the anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg trials, 90-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine confronts her past by visiting the Nazi concentration camp where her brother died
  • Scene from the documentary 'Ukrainian Factory' by Olha Zhurba

    Ukrainian Factory
    Two years of war for a Mykolaiv key worker

  • Still Ghosts of Moria Documentary 1

    Ghosts of Moria
    Living in the ashes of Europe’s largest migrant camp – documentary

  • Dalila from Guardian documentary Sindicat on the phone

    Sindicat
    Evading eviction in one of Europe’s most densely populated cities – Guardian documentary

  • A still from the Guardian Documentary, Lenka

    Lenka
    A portrait of methamphetamine addiction in the Czech Republic – documentary

  • Aya Sending Aya Back holding image

    Sending Aya Back
    The Syrian teen facing deportation in Denmark

  • A screengrab from Unsafe Passage, a Guardian Documentary. (Ed Ou/The Outlaw Ocean Project)

    Unsafe Passage
    On board a refugee rescue ship racing for Europe

Pride

Celebrating LGBTQI+ stories
  • A still from latest Guardian Documentary The Black Cop

    The Black Cop / WINNER of Bafta for Best British Short Film 2022
    A police officer’s story of racism, remorse and resistance

  • Derek Jarman being canonised by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

    Saintmaking
    The canonisation of Derek Jarman by queer ‘nuns’

  • Guardian Documentary, 'Old Lesbians' by filmmaker Meghan McDonough

    Old Lesbians
    Reclaiming old age and queerness through storytelling

  • A fan of Lebanese alternative rock band Mashrou' Leila holds a rainbow flag during their concert at the Ehdeniyat International Festival in Ehden town, Lebanon August 12, 2017. Picture taken August 12, 2017.  REUTERS/Jamal Saidi<br>A fan of Lebanese alternative rock band Mashrou' Leila holds a rainbow flag during their concert at the Ehdeniyat International Festival in Ehden town, Lebanon August 12, 2017. Picture taken August 12, 2017.  Jamal Saidi

    Beirut Dreams in Color
    The queer revolution in the Middle East

  • No Man Is An Island

    No Man Is an Island
    A British society and its historic push for gay rights

  • Still from the Guardian documentary, Dear Mamma by filmmaker Sky Neal

    Dear Mamma
    A journey of acceptance for a mother and transgender son

Rights and freedoms

Watch films on the global fight for justice
  • A child feeds a horse in Ukraine. From the series 5K from the Frontline.

    You Don’t Think It Will Happen To You
    What life is really like on Ukraine's frontline

  • 'We did not consent,' a Guardian documentary by filmmaker Dorothy Allen-Pickard

    We Did Not Consent
    A restaging of Britain’s undercover police scandal

  • Guardian Documentary, 'House No.30, Kabul' featuring Zaki Daryabi, the founder of the Afghan newspaper, The Etilaat Roz

    House No.30, Kabul
    Can journalism survive the Taliban?

  • Paulette5

    After Windrush
    Paulette Wilson's journey to Jamaica, 50 years on

  • The Trap: the deadly sex–trafficking cycle in American prisons

    The Trap
    The deadly sex–trafficking cycle in American prisons

  • Still from Lasting Marks documentary

    Lasting Marks
    16 men put on trial for sadomasochism

Black lives

Foregrounding films by Black filmmakers
  • The Black Panther Cubs raise their fists for a school photo

    The Black Panther Cubs
    When the revolution doesn’t come

    They are the children of the Black Panther party – the self-styled Panther cubs. Born into the 1970s revolutionary movement for Black equality and self-determination, they have lived in the shadows of a promised land that was never attained
  • The Things We Don't Say, documentary by film-maker Ornella Mutoni

    The Things We Don’t Say:
    Children of the Rwandan genocide

  • The remote island of St Helena, a British overseas territory, is best known for Napoleon’s tomb - the island’s biggest tourist attraction. However, while overseeing the construction of a long-awaited airport on the island, Annina van Neel learns that the remains of thousands of formerly enslaved Africans have been uncovered, unearthing one of the most significant traces of the transatlantic slave trade in the world.

    Buried
    How we choose to remember the transatlantic slave trade

  • With Woman: a home-birth midwife in Illinois, guides a first-time mother through her delivery

    With Woman
    With Woman: the high stakes for a home-birth midwife in the US

  • A still from latest Guardian Documentary The Black Cop

    The Black Cop
    A police officer’s story of racism, remorse and resistance

  • RIP SENI Documentary

    RIP Seni
    RIP SENI: racism, graffiti and the UK’s mental health crisis - video

  • The Circle documentary holding image

    The Circle
    Masculinity, racism and brotherhood on a Hackney estate

Indigenous voices

Films made with and about Indigenous storytellers
  • PressureAndRelease THUMBNAIL

    Pressure and Release
    Horse therapy for young Indigenous Australians

    The Kimberley region of Western Australia is a beautiful place. But it is home to communities in crisis – devastated by a pattern of suicides among young Aboriginal people. A glimmer of hope emerges in the form of Prof Juli Coffin, a Nyangumarta woman and mental-health professional who enlists her herd of horses to create deeply felt connections between animal and human. Prof Coffin’s programme uses a culturally appropriate setting to support long-term healing for some of Australia’s most vulnerable young people.
  • For use ONLY on We're All We Got documentary page

    H̓ágṃ́ṇtxv Qṇtxv Tx̌ (We’re all we got)
    The race to keep their language alive

  • A still from the documentary, Burned to the Ground, set in Lytton, Canada

    Burned to the Ground
    The Canadian village incinerated by record temperatures

  • While millions of people around the world have gone into lockdown amid the coronavirus crisis, a family in the Ecuadorian Amazon has opted to move deeper into the relative safety of the jungle. 

As they reconnect with dormant ancestral knowledge, away from the distractions of modern life, their affinity with nature begins to flourish. As news spreads that Ecuador might lift lockdown soon, will the family stay?

    The Return
    A family reconnects with the Amazon as Covid threatens their village

  • Guardian Documentary: Lupita

    Lupita
    The indigenous activist leading a new generation of Mexican women

  • Tribal fighter from Lost Rambos documentary

    The 'Lost Rambos'
    How weapons and Hollywood changed tribal disputes in Papua New Guinea

  • Image from The Fight documentary

    Fighting for a pension
    Disability rights protesters in Bolivia face police barricades – video

Society

Films about community, culture and activism
  • Abel hugs a family member at his leaving party, he is preparing to leave LA after 38 years living as an undocumented migrant

    Abel leaves LA
    Self-deportation from Trump’s America - documentary

  • Since founding Courtney’s House in 2008, Tina Frundt, 49, believes that her organization has helped about 2000 survivors of sex trafficking. Her current case load of 72 survivors means non-stop phone calls and texts, helping to find placement for people, get counseling for others, and lending an ear to some who just need to be heard.

    Give Me Shelter
    Protecting trafficked children in the US

  • Gerad Argeros in the documentary Fox Chase Boy

    Fox Chase Boy
    Stand up comedy confronts trauma in a Catholic community

  • A still from Guardian documentary Harvest

    Harvest
    Is freezing my eggs the answer?

  • Lei and Abu travel to the US to freeze their eggs in the Guardian documentary, Frozen in Time, by Rongfei Guo

    Frozen in Time
    The motherhood dilemma for single women in China

  • Anonymous mask, Steubenville - Anonymous Comes To Town doc

    Anonymous comes to town
    How hackers took on high school sexual assault in Ohio

  • A flat on the 20th floor of Whitstable House

    The Tower Next Door
    Living in the shadow of Grenfell

  • In this Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013 file photo, Beitar Jerusalem F.C. soccer supporters watch a State Cup soccer match against Maccabi Umm al-Fahm F.C. at the Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. Israeli police say they have arrested dozens of members of an extremist soccer fans' group. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said on Tuesday, July 26, 2016 that 56 suspected members of the "La Familia" group of Beitar Jerusalem fans were arrested in an overnight raid. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

    Beitar Jerusalem fans
    'Here we are, the most racist football team in the country' – video

New perspectives

Fresh takes on contemporary stories
  • 'We did not consent,' a Guardian documentary by filmmaker Dorothy Allen-Pickard

    We Did Not Consent
    A restaging of Britain’s undercover police scandal

    Undercover police officers have infiltrated activist networks and forged relationships with individual women for over 50 years, some fathering children with them. Now, three women – disguised by theatrical masks – who were targeted by ‘spy cops’ seek to take charge of their own stories, restaging emblematic scenes from their lives and reclaiming the narrative
  • An image of equipment used in cryonics, part of Guardian documentary Love Immortal

    Love Immortal
    Man freezes late wife but finds new partner

  • Still from Guardian documentary, A Mouthful of Petrol, directed by Jess Kohl

    A Mouthful of Petrol
    Coming of age in the world of banger racing

  • On the set of No Ball Games, directed by Charlotte Regan

    No Ball Games
    Life and play through the eyes of children across the UK

  • The Circle documentary holding image

    The Circle
    Masculinity, racism and brotherhood on a Hackney estate

  • Guardian Documentary 'Somalinimo'

    Somalinimo
    Somali culture, blackness and Islam at Cambridge University

  • Image from Black Sheep documentary

    Black Sheep
    The black teenager who made friends with racists - video documentary

Conflict

Documentaries on those whose lives are affected by war
  • A child feeds a horse in Ukraine. From the series 5K from the Frontline.

    You Don’t Think It Will Happen To You
    What life is really like on Ukraine's frontline

  • Dr Lina Qasem-Hassan, a Palestinian doctor in Israel's healthcare system, in the documentary, The Oath

    The Oath
    To be a Palestinian doctor in Israel’s healthcare system - documentary

  • Still image from documentary, The 'Spider-Man' of Sudan

    The ‘Spider-Man’ of Sudan
    The real-life superhero of the protest movement

  • Vasyl Baidak and Iryna Terekhova, from the documentary The Year that Never Ended, directed by Anton Shtuka

    The Year that Never Ended
    How a Ukrainian comedian rebuilt a stranger’s house

  • women-crowd-hf copy

    Untold Chaos
    Living through Libya's wars

  • Battle of Mosul

    The Battle for Mosul
    A dirty war in Isis's heartland

Hope

Inspiring films offering a new lens on a complicated world
  • Abel hugs a family member at his leaving party, he is preparing to leave LA after 38 years living as an undocumented migrant

    Abel leaves LA
    Self-deportation from Trump’s America

  • Nickie Aven and her threshold choir in the Guardian documentary ‘Threshold’ (21 mins)

    Threshold
    The choir who sing to the dying

  • Professor Cristina Dorador searches for life-saving antibiotics in the salt flat of the Atacama, Chile

    Life Invisible
    The fight against superbugs starts in the driest place on Earth – documentary

  • King of the Fells, a documentary by Seth Whitfield

    King of the Fells
    Joss Naylor, the shepherd with an unbeatable running record

  • Since founding Courtney’s House in 2008, Tina Frundt, 49, believes that her organization has helped about 2000 survivors of sex trafficking. Her current case load of 72 survivors means non-stop phone calls and texts, helping to find placement for people, get counseling for others, and lending an ear to some who just need to be heard.

    Give Me Shelter
    Protecting trafficked children in the US

  • still from the documentary

    My Brother’s Keeper
    A former Guantánamo detainee, his guard and their unlikely friendship

  • Still from How to make a pearl documentary

    How to Make a Pearl
    The San Francisco man who lives in darkness

  • Image from Cops and Robbers documentary

    Cops and Robbers
    The New York cop from the streets

Award winners

Watch our Oscar, Bafta, Emmy and other award-winning documentaries
  • Colette Marin-Catherine's photo album

    Colette / WINNER of Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject 2021
    Former French resistance member confronts a family tragedy 75 years later

    On the anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg trials, 90-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine confronts her past by visiting the Nazi concentration camp where her brother died
  • A still from latest Guardian Documentary The Black Cop

    The Black Cop / WINNER of Bafta for Best British Short Film 2022
    A police officer’s story of racism, remorse and resistance

    This intimate portrait of Gamal ‘G’ Turawa, an ex-Metropolitan police officer, explores his memories of racially profiling and harassing black people and homophobia in his early career. Now an openly gay man, Turawa’s story is a multi-layered one and sits in the centre of three pivotal moments in recent British history, from the black communities’ resistance of oppressive policing, to the push for LGBTQIA equality and the aftermath of the west African ‘farming’ phenomenon, where white families took care of black children outside the remit of local authorities
  • Truck driver Maikhuu in the film 'Lady of the Gobi,' directed by Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig

    Lady of the Gobi / WINNER of Grierson Award for Best Short Documentary 2023
    Trucking coal across the desert to China

  • A screengrab from Unsafe Passage, a Guardian Documentary. (Ed Ou/The Outlaw Ocean Project)

    Get Away from the Target / WINNER of Emmy for Outstanding Crime and Justice Coverage 2022
    On board a refugee rescue ship racing for Europe

  • Image from Black Sheep documentary

    Black Sheep / NOMINATED for Oscar for Best Short Documentary 2019
    The black teenager who made friends with racists

  • Image from Skip Day documentary

    Skip Day / WINNER of Quinzaine des Realisateurs Award at Cannes 2018
    High school friendship and everyday racism at the beach in Florida

  • Still of a migrant labourer The Great Abandonment documentary

    The Great Abandonment / WINNER of Rory Peck Award in News Features 2023
    The extraordinary exodus of India’s migrant labourers

  • Still image from documentary, The 'Spider-Man' of Sudan

    The ‘Spider-Man’ of Sudan / WINNER of "The World at a Crossroads" Award at Hinzpeter Awards 2022
    The real-life superhero of the protest movement

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