2025 Magical International Movie Awards: Documentaries
The best documentaries of 2024, plus a showcase of Israel's invasion of Palestine and Lebanon (which includes free viewing).
Titles are linked to trailers.
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Dir Johan Grimonprez, Belgium set Congo, assassination, neocolonialism, exposing United Nations)
Total Trust (Dir Jialing Zhang, China, activism, surveillance technology)
Black Box Diaries (Dir Shiori Itō, Japan, rape, chauvinism, investigative, government corruption)
To Kill A Tiger (Dir Nisha Pahuja, India, child rape, chauvinism)
The Bibi Files (Dir Alexis Bloom, USA set Israel, government corruption)
Skywalkers: A Love Story (Dir Jeff Zimbalist & Maria Bukhonina, USA set Russia, daredevils, rooftopping, sport, romance)
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (Dir Lucy Walker, women abuse, self-empowerment, sport, mountaineering)
Death Without Mercy (Dir Waad Al-Kateab, Syria set Turkey, disaster, earthquake, survivalism)
Money Electric - The Bitcoin Mystery (Dir Cullen Hoback, USA, finance, digital)
My Mercury (Dirs Joëlle Chesselet & Pippa Ehrlich, South Africa set on Namibian island, environmentalism, psychology)
The Lost Children (Dirs Orlando von Einsiedel & Jorge Duran & Lali Houghton, UK set Colombia Amazon, rescue, survivalism)
The Truth vs Alex Jones (Dir Dan Reed, USA, propaganda, conspiracy, justice)
The Echo (Dir Tatiana Huezo, Mexico, poverty, rural, family)
Special mention to the always essential Ken Burns who delivered the two-part, four-hour Leonardo da Vinci.
STORYTELLING FROM BEYOND
Crew Bravery: No Other Land - shot over 4 years from within a Palestinian village being destroyed and occupied.
Crew Commitment: ‘Yintah’ - shot over a decade, showing the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s fight against the Canadian government in league with oil producers. ‘Alice On & Off’ was filmed over 10 years by director Isabela Tent (good for a double feature with 2022’s ‘Apolonia, Apolonia’ which was shot over 13 years).
SHOWCASE: ISRAEL, PALESTINE & LEBANON
Three of these documentaries, as marked, are free viewing.
The Bibi Files (Dir Alexis Bloom, USA set Israel, government corruption)
No Other Land (Dirs Basel Adra & Hamdan Ballal & Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor, Palestine set West Bank)
The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza [full doccie] (Dir Kavitha Chekuru)
Life and Death in Gaza [full doccie] (Dir Natasha Cox but filmed by 4 Palestinians)
Bye Bye Tiberias (Dir Lina Soualem, Israel set Palestinian village of Deir Hanna, about actress Hiam Abbass)
Anxious in Beirut (Dir Zakaria Jaber, Lebanon)
Israelism [full doccie] (Dirs Erin Axelman & Sam Eilertsen, USA, Zionism)
Where Olive Trees Weep (Dirs Maurizio Benazzo & Zaya Benazzo, USA-Italy, about Palestine)
CATCH MORE MORE OF THE MIM AWARDS 2025
Documentary (you are here)
Also view ‘2024's Oddball Doccies’ and ‘Fabulously Fun Documentaries 2024’.