The 5 Most Eye Opening Documentaries Of 2020
By: Mark Alden
Tags: Current Events, Entertainment, Documentary, Culture, Film

With 2020 nearing a close one thing at least most of us can agree on is that it has not been a good year for much. A lot of tragedy. A lot of civil unrest. Loss of lives and livelihoods. A lot of bad politics. If there has been a silver lining anywhere to be found it is perhaps that we have had a chance to slow down a little and more carefully evaluate what is truly important to us and what is not.

It has been a highly profitable year for streaming platforms with so many people in lock down for weeks or months depending on where you are and what you do. Thanks to Netflix and Hulu and all the rest there is never a shortage of things to binge-watch, whatever your tastes, for some much-needed distraction. In my case, I always seem to gravitate toward documentary film. If you are like me in that regard, good news; some first-rate docs have been released this year. Here are the five best I have seen to date.

1. The Netflix original film The Social Dilemma directed by Jeff Orlowski should, in my humble opinion, be on everyone’s must watch list this year especially if you are a regular user of any of the major social media platforms. And if you are reading this article right now…well, I think it can be safely assumed that you are. If you watch only one of the five docs recommended here, this might be the one I’d make the strongest case for simply because there is so much insight into how the technologies that drive our every move in the world these days work and what we need to know to keep ourselves and our families as safe as we can while using them now and in the future.

2. A documentary titled Planet Of The Humans was actually made in 2019 but streamed to the masses earlier this year on executive producer Michael Moore’s YouTube channel for free. Directed by Jeff Gibbs, the film provides a searing look into the fossil fuel industry and its horrific effects on climate. Of course, we have all seen this sort thing before, but what sets this film apart is that it also probes deep into another industry that many of us have long looked to for future solutions. This doc may alter everything you thought you knew about green energy and where many of your recyclables actually go. I must admit after watching this I felt angrier and more disparaged than ever about the future of humanity on planet earth. Still, for the sake of awareness, it is well worth the time. Inconvenient truths must be faced if there is ever to be any hope of correcting them.

3. Ron Howard and National Geographic Film’s production of Rebuilding Paradise focuses on the aftermath of the tragic wildfire in 2018 that all but wiped out the entire town of Paradise, California in roughly three hours. With interviews from both first responders and Paradise residents who recall the sequence of events that tragic day, this is a dramatic, heartbreaking account of the sheer devastation and loss of life from the deadliest wildfire in California History killing at least 85 people and injuring dozens more.

4. Directed by Alex Gibney, Totally Under Control, now streaming on You Tube, highlights the early days of the Covid-19 from its beginnings in Wuhan, China to its mass spread across the globe, and especially the Trump administration’s absurd, gross mishandling, and outright denials of the virus even as the number of cases and death toll escalated in the United States. This is a highly relevant and eye-opening documentary that provides greater insight into the origins of how we arrived at our current moment in time.

5. Journalist and filmmaker Seth Porges gives us a glimpse inside what was arguably the world’s most dangerous theme park in his film Class Action Park currently streaming on HBO Max. This is an entertaining and positively jaw dropping expose of New Jersey’s Action Park during the eighties and nineties and how far its owner (described by some as a genius and others a madman) was willing to go to fulfill his wildly eccentric visions.

It has been a stressful year for many people already, yes, I know, and if you are looking for a pure escape from reality and angst, fair warning, these films may not be for you. If you are in search of something highly compelling, insightful, or even shocking on the other hand, I do not think you will be disappointed with any of the films on this list.

Thanks for reading.