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What’s your favourite Netflix documentary? Tweet us at @411dotca

It’s cold, so we compiled our picks for the best documentaries on Canadian Netflix to warm you up this weekend. Documentaries are meant to be educational, but the best ones often create an emotional connection between you and the film. Documentaries are great for opening your eyes to larger social or political issues taking place all over the world and present them from a different, visually captivating perspective.

Living On One Dollar (2013)

Living on One Dollar is an amazing documentary created by four college students. It’s about the college students who travel to rural northern Guatemala and live in a village on about $1 a day, which is what the locals live on. The four men rent a small hut and grow radishes with a microloan from a local NGO. They pool their money together at the end of the week to buy food and pay back their loan in installments. The film is insightful to the way of life in the village and is a must watch.

IMDB rating: 7.4/10

Minimalism (2015)

Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, is by far my favourite documentary on Netflix right now. Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, known as “The Minimalists,” show you lives of families, entrepreneurs, artists etc. all who live the lives of minimalists. The film talks about how so many people look for happiness in the abundance of material possessions, only to be heartbroken when they don’t find it. They say there is nothing wrong with consumerism, but over consumption is the issue. The solution is to love people and use things, because the opposite never works. 

IMDB rating: 7/10

Food Inc. (2008)

Food Inc. is an interesting yet terrifying documentary about the state of food in America. It shows where the food we eat comes from, its vile practices, and the food industry’s corruption. This documentary is a must-watch, as filmmaker Robert Kenner does an amazing job displaying his research.

IMDB rating: 7.9/10

Miss Representation (2011)

Miss Representation is a documentary about how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in influential positions in politics, business and other industries. Director, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, dives into the opinions of teenage girls and what the media does and says about women on a daily basis. This documentary is great for beginning conversations about how women are and should be portrayed in media and how gender inequality is so prevalent throughout our current mediascape.

IMDB rating: 7.7/10

The True Cost

The True Cost is a documentary about the world of fast fashion and the real cost of the cheap clothes that are filling our retail stores. The fashion industry typically used to work on 2-4 cycles in one year and now in the world of fast fashion, we’re around 58 cycles in one year. Fast Fashion stores market their clothes in order to make you feel like you are always out of trend and need to buy the next new thing. The factories where these clothes are made have horrible working conditions and this film is out to expose them. This documentary will open your eyes to the fashion industry and make you think twice about when you buy your clothes from.

IMDB rating: 7.7/10

Virunga

Virunga is documentary showing the lives of soldiers and people who protect the Virunga National Park in the eastern Congo, currently home to over 1000 mountain gorillas. Director Orlando Von Einsiedel was able to bring many issues to light, capturing armed rebels, poaches, and even an oil company from the UK on camera. Nominated for an Academy Award, this powerful story shows the struggle between the local people and the greedy corporations willing to let an endangered species go extinct for money and oil.

IMDB rating: 8.3/10

Blackfish

Blackfish is one of the more popular Netflix documentaries. It’s about the horrible nature of orcas in captivity and the lengths conservationists will go through in order to help. Back in recent news, the main orca from the film, Tilikum, passed away at the beginning of January. This film shows you the lengths people will go through for a cause they believe in and since the release of the film, Sea World has put an end to their orca breeding program. This means this will be the last generation of orcas in their park.

IMDB rating: 8.1./10

Netflix has tons of great documentaries, so once you’ve gone through this list make sure to check the others out.

What’s your favourite Netflix documentary? Tweet us at @411dotca

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