Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home.
One of the first documentaries to stream on Apple TV, The Elephant Queen premieres November 1. The film, directed by Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone, follows an elephant herd, led by their matriarch, Athena, as they cross an unforgiving African landscape in an epic journey of family, courage and coming home.
"There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. So said Robert Evans, the legendary Hollywood mogul who passed away this morning at the age of 89. To commemorate, we spotlight The Kid Stays in the Picture, the 2002 documentary from Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen. The film, based on Evans' autobiography of the same name, features Evans himself narrating his own wild, lurid tale in his trademark smokey baritone--highlighting the highs of running Paramount Pictures and overseeing some of the greatest studio films of the 1970s, and the lows of cocaine addiction and failed marriages and his rumored connection to The Cotton Club murder. Now streaming on YouTube, Vudu, Amazon Prime, iTunes and Google Play.
Now streaming on nfb.ca is Urban.Indigenous.Proud, a film project partnership between the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres and the National Film Board of Canada. This series of shorts by Indigenous filmmakers explore the intersections of urban Indigenous culture and lived experiences at Friendship Centre communities.
Danny Gold's The Bronx, USA, premiering October 30 on HBO and available on HBO NOW and HBO GO, follows producer George Shapiro as he returns to his hometown of the Bronx. Revisiting the streets, stores and memories of his childhood, Shapiro reflects on the singularity of the NYC borough he grew up in and the close friendships he made there that have stood the test of time.
Now streaming on OVID.TV, Rabbit A La Berlin is the 2010 Academy Award-nominated story of thousands of wild rabbits that lived in the Death Zone of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. This film, from Bartek Konopka and Piotr Roslowski, tells the story of the Wall and the reunification of Germany from the rabbits' point of view.