Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home.
Now streaming on American Experience, The Vote, a two-part series directed and written by Michelle Ferrari, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, telling the story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote.
Streaming on American Masters, Unladylike 2020, an animated documentary series directed by Charlotte Mangin, profiles female trailblazers from the Progessive Era (1890s through 1920s) who broke barriers in male-dominated fields such as science, business, aviation, journalism, politics, medicine, exploration and the arts.
Streaming on Netflix, Mucho Mucho Amor, from Cristina Costantini, Kareen Tabsch and Alex Fumero, explores the magic, mysticism and love of iconic Latinx astrologer Walter Mercado, who, for 30 years, captivated over 120 million Latinx viewers across generations and around the world. And then, at the peak of his fame, he faded into reclusivity.
Sue Ding's short The Claudia Kishi Club, premiering July 10 on Netflix, celebrates Claudia Kishi, the Japanese American protagonist from The Baby Sitters Club novel series, through the reflections of Asian American artists who grew up idolizing her as an icon for representation.
Marshawn Lynch: A History, from David Shields, is not a sports documentary about the legendary NFL running back, but rather a study, through 700 clips of archival footage, of Lynch's resistance against the American sports-media complex and its racial oppression.
Black Journal was a pioneering public television series that ran in the 1960s and ‘70s; it was produced for, about and by African-Americans, including the legendary William Greaves, who guided the program to an Emmy Award for excellence in public affairs programming. The American Archive of Public Broadcasting has made available several episodes of the series, including interviews with activist and author Angela Davis, minister and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as well as episodes and segments about the Black community in Compton, the role of the Black artist, and the importance of education in newly-independent Guyana.