Too Hot to Handle: Streamers Favor Celebrities and Crime Sprees to Complicated and Controversial Political Docs
variety.comAddie Morfoot Contributor At their best, political documentaries make sense of complex issues. But getting them seen has become more challenging than ever given Hollywood’s preference for celebrity or true-crime nonfiction offerings over anything grappling with thorny, complicated issues or figures.
This hasn’t stopped top documentary filmmakers from tackling such topics. Errol Morris’ “Separated,” a look at Trump administration immigration policies on the U.S.
border, will debut at the Venice film festival. Docs about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, gun control and antisemitism are also in the works and could end up at fall festivals.
There is also chatter about a doc focusing on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. It’s not at all clear who might distribute these films, which follow in the footsteps of political documentaries like Michael Moore’s record-breaking “Fahrenheit 9/11” and Amazon Prime Video’s 2020 offering “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” directed by Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés, given retrenchment on the part of buyers.
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