Documentaries

After the War: Author and Aid Worker Claudia Krich Challenges the Myths of Vietnam

PUBLISHED 10/16/2025 by

American humanitarian worker Claudia Krich—co-director of the American Friends Service Committee medical relief program from 1973 to 1975—was one of only a handful of Americans who stayed in Vietnam past April, 30, 1975, after the war ended. (She and her husband finally left in July 1975.)

Fifty years later, in April, Krich published her full journal from those months in Vietnam. Those Who Stayed: A Vietnam Diary, now available from the University of Virginia Press, combines Krich’s 1975 diary—including sections originally published in Ms.‘ July 1976 print issue—with extra historical content and some first-person accounts by people mentioned in or relevant to the book.

To celebrate the book’s release earlier this year, Claudia Krich communicated with Ms. about her book and her experiences as an American woman living and working in Vietnam during this historic moment.

“People think the war was North versus South, but that’s not true. … I hope my book motivates more people to travel, to take risks, to be outspoken, to record what they experience.”

A Message From the Life of Urvashi Vaid: Do Not Remain Silent

PUBLISHED 9/26/2025 by | UPDATED 10/1/2025 at 9:01 A.M. PT

When the 18-minute documentary There Are Things To premiered in Provincetown, Mass., in 2023, it was never meant to be a global statement. It was meant to be a love letter, a short community film about a long legacy. But like the woman it honors— activist Urvashi Vaid—it refused to stay small.

And how could it? We are living through a time when naturalized citizens are being threatened with denaturalization, children are being separated from their parents during immigration raids, people are crossing state lines just to access basic reproductive healthcare, and pregnant women who desperately want children are dying in homes and hospitals or on their way to seek medical care because doctors delay or deny treatment under strict abortion laws. These are not fringe headlines—they are daily realities in one of the most powerful nations in the world.

Against this backdrop, There Are Things to Do (now available for streaming on PBS) arrives like a gentle ambush. Its power is subtle, but the provocation is clear: What if the most radical thing an immigrant could do in America is not assimilate, but organize?

Now Streaming: New Film ‘Lilly’ Tells Transformative Story of Equal-Pay Hero Lilly Ledbetter

PUBLISHED 7/18/2025 by

It’s tempting these dark days to dismiss the idea that any one person can make a difference. And yet, every day ordinary people fight injustice. And some days, those people persist long enough, resist long enough, that their fights rise to national prominence.

One such fight is chronicled in the new film Lilly, released in theaters this May and now available for rent. The brainchild of director Rachel Feldman, Lilly tells the story of Lilly Ledbetter, “an ordinary woman who became extraordinary,” in the words of Patricia Clarkson, who portrays her in the film.

Still Naming the Problem: HBO Documentary ‘Dear Ms.’ Celebrates the Radical Origins and Ongoing Impact of Ms. Magazine

PUBLISHED 6/6/2025 by | UPDATED 2/19/2026 at 10:44 A.M. PT

The new documentary Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print, celebrating the trailblazing history and enduring impact of Ms. magazine, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June and is available to stream on HBO Max beginning Wednesday, July 2, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

We are thrilled for the film’s release and the opportunity for millions more people to experience the story and legacy of the magazine. Ms. is more than a magazine—it’s a movement. And it’s crucial we continue to build an intergenerational, intersectional and diverse feminist coalition for the road ahead—because, as the film reminds us, we’re “at this crossroads moment for feminism, journalism and American values.”

Screaming for Change: Documentary Turning Women’s Fury Into Power Hits AMC+

PUBLISHED 3/9/2025 by

In OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage, Clare Major’s powerful direction and classical-violinist-turned-punk-singer Paris Hurley’s (of Object as Subject, an LA-based art punk band) high-octane music frame this riveting 30-minute documentary on Whitney Bradshaw’s ongoing social practice project, OUTCRY.

The short film follows the photographer from her home in Chicago to D.C. for a reproductive freedom march, then to Denver for an OUTCRY exhibition, and on to Dayton, Ohio, for a scream session just prior to voting on Issue 1, which enshrined abortion rights into the Ohio Constitution.

This film is available to stream from March 14 to April 12 in the AMC + “Future of Film: Athena Rising Stars” collection. 

And the Oscar for Best Documentary Should Go to … ‘Black Box Diaries’

PUBLISHED 2/27/2025 by | UPDATED 2/19/2026 at 10:50 A.M. PT

Black Box Diaries is a powerful, Oscar-nominated documentary that follows journalist and survivor Shiori Ito’s fight for justice after being raped by a powerful media figure in Japan. Using cinéma vérité techniques, surreptitious audio recordings and intimate self-documentation, Ito exposes the systemic failures that silenced her while capturing the emotional toll of her struggle.

The film highlights the global reach of the #MeToo movement and the stark realities of patriarchal impunity, culminating in a historic victory: the 2023 inclusion of consent in Japan’s rape law.

Award-Winning Doc ‘Sally!’ Introduces Sally Gearhart, the Lesbian Activist Who Took on Proposition 6 With Harvey Milk

PUBLISHED 2/3/2025 by

Most people have heard of Harvey Milk. Sally Gearhart—not as much. But in fact, Gearhart sat right beside Milk as his debate partner in 1978 when they disputed—and ultimately defeated—Proposition 6, the Briggs Initiative that would have banned lesbian and gay teachers and topics in California’s public schools. When their opponents quoted the Bible, Milk was at a loss. Gearhart, on the other hand, could quote it right back at them.

Born in 1931 into a Christian household in Virginia, Gearhart charted her own unconventional path from a career as a teacher at Christian colleges in Texas until she determined to live her life out in the open and left for San Francisco with no job in the early 1970s. Ultimately, she gained a position at San Francisco State University, where she became the first open lesbian to be tenured at a major university in the U.S. Alongside that, she became a formidable and historic advocate for lesbian and queer rights.

This historic lesbian activist is featured in Deborah Craig’s new award-winning documentary Sally!

Sahra Mani’s ‘Bread & Roses’: A Documentary ‘About Afghan Women, by Afghan Women, When the World Had Stopped Seeing Them’

PUBLISHED 12/12/2024 by

In her new documentary, Bread & Roses (available now on Apple+), filmmaker Sahra Mani reveals the fierce and courageous resistance of Afghan women defying the Taliban—who wish to make them disappear.

It’s a documentary about Afghan women, by Afghan women, at a time when the world had stopped seeing them.

Documentary ‘The Young Vote’ Introduces America to the Young People Shaping Its Future

PUBLISHED 10/30/2024 by

The Young Vote is a powerful documentary by Diane Robinson, now streaming on PBS. The film highlights the stories of young changemakers.

One of the opportunities young people have to shape their future in the U.S. is the chance to participate in the democratic process and vote. Even where there are free and fair elections, voters need to increasingly navigate their way through fake news, AI-generated deep fakes, and a splintered and polarized media landscape where it’s more difficult than ever to know what to believe and who to trust.

Documentary ‘Zurawski v Texas’ Shows the Horror of Abortion Bans—and the Bravery of Those Who Fight Them

PUBLISHED 10/29/2024 by | UPDATED 2/19/2026 at 10:52 A.M. PT

The critically acclaimed documentary Zurawski v Texas is now available for rent in the U.S. on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV/iTunes, Google Play and YouTube.

Executive produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, the film achieves the remarkable, bringing audiences directly into the lives of three plaintiffs and their lawyer in the groundbreaking lawsuit from the Center for Reproductive Rights challenging Texas’ abject failure to honor medical exceptions under its abortion ban. The documentary gets up close and personal, shedding light on the devastating consequences experienced by each of the women—their doctor’s appointments, family interactions, surrogacy attempts, courtroom testimonies and a heart-wrenching funeral—at the hands of the state.