Because the first step is admitting you have a problem. | Photo: Brian Cantoni, CC BY 2.0
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My friends and I joke that I’m part of a very selective program, similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. Only instead of alcohol, I’m addicted to documentaries. I’m the only member, and my “sponsors” are my best friends, K and M, who got really, really tired of me bingeing documentaries, becoming incredibly depressed, and then calling them and telling them how shitty the world is and how little we can do to fix it. (The really surprising part of this sentence is that after displaying such behavior, I can still write sentence fragments like “my best friends, K and M”). But, like a lot of addicts, I don’t usually keep my thirty day chips for very long. I’m addicted to documentaries, and Netflix is my dealer.
In my defense, there are a lot of fantastic things you can learn from documentaries. While they often have their own biases and faults, they also do a good job of distilling important things into understandable forms. And since I’m traveling for work this week, I figured I’d pass off my usual duties of educating people. Instead, I present to you Elle’s Watchlist of Documentaries for Intersectional Learning, and Doing Other Stuff Good Too. And then an “Elle’s Future Watchlist,” because Netflix has a queue function and I’m weak. All of the documentaries I’m listing are currently available on Netflix. I also trust you all to be able to Google things on your own and not rely on summaries from me. It’s part of your proactive learning process.
Elle’s Watchlist of Documentaries for Intersectional Learning, and Doing Other Stuff Good Too
Paris is Burning
13th
Miss Representation
Reel Injun
The White Helmets
The Hunting Ground
The Mask You Live In
What Happened Miss Simone?
Audrie and Daisy
Addendum: Elle’s Future Watchlist
Trapped
The True Cost
The Black Power Mix Tape
How to Survive a Plague
It Happened Here
We Were Here
Hate Crimes in the Heartland
Matt Shepard Was a Friend of Mine
Love Between the Covers
Code Girls
Welcome to Leith
Growing Up Coy
We’re Not Broke
Tricked
The Witness
The Thin Blue Line
Blood Sweat and Sequins
Babies Behind Bars
The Vasectomist
Revenge Porn
Requiem for the American Dream
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Elle Irise is a regular contributor to This Week In Tomorrow. When she’s not suggesting watching material for Netflix addicts, she studies gender in popular culture.
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