The streaming landscape can feel endless. It’s not and we’re here to help. Netflix has hundreds of documentaries in its streaming library, but they’re not all created equal, and we’ve narrowed down the options for you with 25 of our top picks for the best documentary movies currently available to watch on the streaming platform. If you’re looking for something light and visually stunning, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re looking for something gruesome yet fascinating, there are options for you below. If you only have half an hour or 40 minutes to kill, Netflix has something for you.
So peruse our list below, and get watching!
“Athlete A” Netflix
One of the best documentaries in recent years, “Athlete A” works on multiple fronts: First, it effectively chronicles the abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar, a former sports medicine physician who used his position...
So peruse our list below, and get watching!
“Athlete A” Netflix
One of the best documentaries in recent years, “Athlete A” works on multiple fronts: First, it effectively chronicles the abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar, a former sports medicine physician who used his position...
- 11/3/2023
- by Kayti Burt
- The Wrap
When we first see Terry Donahue on screen in the documentary A Secret Love, the octogenarian is wearing a green t-shirt emblazoned with the words, “There’s No Crying in Baseball.” Movie fans know that cherished line of dialogue from A League of Their Own, the 1992 film based on the true story of the first women’s professional baseball league, founded during World War II.
There’s good reason Donahue is wearing that shirt. She was one the real-life athletes who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
“One of the first things we did [for the documentary project] was we went to a reunion of the league [in] 2013,” recalls producer Alexa Fogel. “It was just extraordinary…to see the older girls and just how revered they were.”
Chris Bolan directed the Netflix documentary, which is now in contention for Emmy nominations. The film’s primary focus is not the baseball league of yesteryear,...
There’s good reason Donahue is wearing that shirt. She was one the real-life athletes who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
“One of the first things we did [for the documentary project] was we went to a reunion of the league [in] 2013,” recalls producer Alexa Fogel. “It was just extraordinary…to see the older girls and just how revered they were.”
Chris Bolan directed the Netflix documentary, which is now in contention for Emmy nominations. The film’s primary focus is not the baseball league of yesteryear,...
- 6/5/2020
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
There's no secret here: A Secret Love has pulled on the heartstrings of Netflix viewers. Warning, spoilers for the documentary film follow. The documentary tells the story of the decades-long relationship between Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel and their late-in-life health decline and conflicted decision to enter an assisted living facility. Directed by the pair's great-nephew Chris Bolan, A Secret Love features the two women recalling their early love story in the 1940s when they played baseball with the organization that served as the inspiration for A League of Their Own and tracks the family conflict surrounding Terry's declining health. "They just started telling us their story, dating...
- 5/5/2020
- E! Online
Sade may have sung the praises of “no ordinary love,” but what happens when an ordinary love becomes, over time and against obstacles, something quite extraordinary? From the relatively comfortable vantage point of 2020, Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel’s nearly seven-decade-long relationship looks just like any other enduring long-term partnership. Throughout the new documentary “A Secret Love,” the two elderly women field visits from family, attend dinner parties with friends, and keep each other fed, rested, and medicated. They hold hands, they kiss, they reminisce. So easy and natural are these simple moments of domestic bliss that they are almost rendered unremarkable. But of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
The magic trick of “A Secret Love” is to shine a light on this quietly intimate story, which . It is unfortunately all too rare for young Lgbtq people to interact with their elders, and “A Secret Love” provides...
The magic trick of “A Secret Love” is to shine a light on this quietly intimate story, which . It is unfortunately all too rare for young Lgbtq people to interact with their elders, and “A Secret Love” provides...
- 4/30/2020
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Several years ago, filmmaker Chris Bolan gathered with the rest of his family at the suburban Chicago house of his two great aunts, Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel. Over some rum and Cokes, Terry and Pat let their family know there was something they had to tell them. Terry and Pat weren’t just lifelong friends and roommates; they are gay and have been each other’s romantic partner for decades.
The statement opened up a floodgate of emotions, with the family roundly supporting the pair and asking them questions about their relationship. Terry and Pat were finally able to open up about their story: how they met in the 1940s, fell in love, and were able to build a life together. Bolan was struck with the audacious, simple beauty of the moment.
“They got up and then they started dancing together in the living room. I remember looking at them going,...
The statement opened up a floodgate of emotions, with the family roundly supporting the pair and asking them questions about their relationship. Terry and Pat were finally able to open up about their story: how they met in the 1940s, fell in love, and were able to build a life together. Bolan was struck with the audacious, simple beauty of the moment.
“They got up and then they started dancing together in the living room. I remember looking at them going,...
- 4/29/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
This heartwarming documentary traces the lives of a baseball star and her partner, now in their 90s, who pretended to be ‘just good friends’ for decades
This documentary from Netflix is a real heart-soother. Directed with tremendous sensitivity and intimacy by Chris Bolan, it’s a love story about two women now in their 90s – Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel, who have been together since the 1940s.
For decades they kept up the pretence of being “just good friends” to their families before finally coming out a few years ago. Talking to outsiders, they still describe each other as “cousins”. The legacy of shame and fear among older people in the gay community is explored in the film, but the overwhelming mood here is love.
This documentary from Netflix is a real heart-soother. Directed with tremendous sensitivity and intimacy by Chris Bolan, it’s a love story about two women now in their 90s – Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel, who have been together since the 1940s.
For decades they kept up the pretence of being “just good friends” to their families before finally coming out a few years ago. Talking to outsiders, they still describe each other as “cousins”. The legacy of shame and fear among older people in the gay community is explored in the film, but the overwhelming mood here is love.
- 4/29/2020
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
This week, Netflix will premiere a new Ryan Murphy project in which gay characters in the 1940s must keep their sexual orientation a secret for fear of losing their jobs and being rejected by friends and family — but we’re not talking about Murphy’s seven-part miniseries “Hollywood,” which covers some of that territory as it tells a fictional story set against the backdrop of the movie business after World War II.
Murphy’s other Netflix release this week is “A Secret Love,” a documentary directed by Chris Bolan, produced by Murphy and executive produced by Jason Blum, among others. The film, which premieres on Wednesday, deals with a seven-decade relationship between two women who met in 1947 when one of them was playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was later celebrated in “A League of Their Own”.
“A Secret Love” spans more than 70 years in the lives...
Murphy’s other Netflix release this week is “A Secret Love,” a documentary directed by Chris Bolan, produced by Murphy and executive produced by Jason Blum, among others. The film, which premieres on Wednesday, deals with a seven-decade relationship between two women who met in 1947 when one of them was playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was later celebrated in “A League of Their Own”.
“A Secret Love” spans more than 70 years in the lives...
- 4/28/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The love story between Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel is finally getting the spotlight it deserves.
The couple is at the center of Netflix’s upcoming documentary A Secret Love, and the trailer released Thursday shows how they met, fell in love and continued to hide their relationship for six decades. The documentary will hit Netflix on April 29.
The trailer starts with Donahue and Henschel touring a retirement facility and learning they’d be the first same-sex couple to stay there, which launches into their story. It then flips back and forth as it highlights the struggles of the Lgbtq...
The couple is at the center of Netflix’s upcoming documentary A Secret Love, and the trailer released Thursday shows how they met, fell in love and continued to hide their relationship for six decades. The documentary will hit Netflix on April 29.
The trailer starts with Donahue and Henschel touring a retirement facility and learning they’d be the first same-sex couple to stay there, which launches into their story. It then flips back and forth as it highlights the struggles of the Lgbtq...
- 4/22/2020
- by Ale Russian
- PEOPLE.com
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