On the lookout for a terrific non-fiction story? We have you coated.
Whereas Hulu was higher recognized for its tv exhibits whereas Netflix was the go to for film choices, the streaming service has taken large leaps and strides to alter that. At present, Hulu is residence to a tremendous number of films, particularly documentaries. Offering choices for purchasers of all pursuits, Hulu has discovered a option to turn out to be a one-stop vacation spot for these looking for unbelievable non-fiction tales. With so many choices now, we’ve decided the very best documentaries on Hulu for you, making certain you’ll be capable of settle in and loosen up with ease.
On the lookout for extra documentaries? Try our record of the very best ones on Netflix and Prime Video, or see our suggestions for the very best films on Hulu.
Editor’s observe: This text was up to date September 2023 to incorporate Steve Jobs: The Man within the Machine.
Summer time of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Might Not Be Televised) (2021)
Picture through Searchlight Photos
Run Time: 1 hr 58 min | Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
In the summertime of 1969, Harlem held a 6-week-long music pageant with among the greatest names in soul music of the day. It was a large success, massively in style and recorded. And but, nobody has ever heard of it till now. Perhaps as a result of a couple of hours away there was one other pageant referred to as Woodstock that will steal all of the headlines. Questlove steps out from behind the drum set to direct and produce an enchanting have a look at this pageant that was forgotten by historical past till the current discovery of all of the footage. He interviews live performance attendees, performers, and individuals who have been satisfied it was all a dream within the fascinating Oscar nominee. – Jennifer McHugh
Watch on Hulu
Steve Jobs: The Man within the Machine (2015)
Picture through Magnolia Photos
Run Time: 2 hr 8 min | Director: Alex Gibney
Emmy-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology & the Jail of Perception) presents a deep dive into the legacy of the co-founder of Apple and peels again the layers of his public persona to disclose the difficult man beneath. Steve Jobs: The Man within the Machine includes a assortment of archival footage and interviews with individuals who each grew up with Jobs and labored carefully with him as he and Steve Wozniak constructed the pc empire that will function the inspiration for the tech business as we all know it. Gibney doesn’t draw back from the tough edges and the path of damaged lives that Jobs left behind, so in the event you’re anticipating a puff piece, you’re in for a shock concerning the darker facet of Steve Jobs.
Watch on Hulu
The Jewel Thief (2023)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 40 min | Director: Landon Van Soest
Forged: Gerald Blanchard, Joseph Flore, Tristan Welsh
Not solely impressed by unbelievable true occasions, The Jewel Thief is an unbelievable first-hand account of 1 man’s world crime spree. Centering on small-town nerd Gerald Blanchard, who regales together with his personal historical past, The Jewel Thief particulars the person’s journey from a small-town thief to a money-making machine earlier than turning into a global felony mastermind. That includes in-depth interviews with Blanchard and his mom, in addition to the detectives who tracked him throughout the planet, and dramatic reenactments that includes Joseph Flore as Blanchard, director Landon Van Soest shines a light-weight on this man’s quest for fame and its final prices. – Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
Fairly Child: Brooke Shields (2023)
Picture through Paramount Photos
Run Time: 2 hr 18 min | Director: Lana Wilson
Forged: Brooke Shields, Scaachi Koul, Isobel Coleman
Award-winning director Lana Wilson (After Tiller) turns her digital camera in the direction of a deep dive into the lifetime of mannequin and actress Brooke Shields (Fairly Child) on this two-part documentary. Fairly Child: Brooke Shields not solely digs into the exploitation of Shields as a baby star but in addition the calls for of the modeling and movie star business for younger ladies and the way in which it formed perceptions of ladies by sexualizing them earlier than they even attain their teen years. It’s a shocking exploration of how Shields turned an idol towards her will and the methods she was in a position to break away and discover herself as an grownup. – Tauri Miller
Watch on Hulu
Queenmaker: The Making of an It Lady (2023)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 23 min | Director: Zackary Drucker
Forged: Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Tinsley Mortimer, Olivia Palermo
While you’re well-known, each element of your life is out on show for the general public eye to scrutinize, and it turns into straightforward to lose management of the narrative — particularly again within the early 2000s when weblog tradition was on the rise. Queenmaker: The Making of an It Lady is a tasty oral historical past of the peak of the It Lady Period when Manhattan elites and company royalty like Paris Hilton, Tinsley Mortimer, and Olivia Palermo caught the eye of the nation by their lavish events and aspirational life — whereas additionally being torn down by in style bloggers like Perez Hilton and the nameless creator of Park Avenue Peerage, who’s unmasked on this documentary. For a nostalgic slice of a bygone period, take a look at this charming documentary.
Watch on Hulu
Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop (2023)
Picture through Olive Chiacchia
Run Time: 56 min | Produced by: ABC Information
Forged: AJ McLean, Melanie Martin, Taylor Helgeson
Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop is a heartbreaking documentary chronicling the unbelievable life and devastating dying of musician Aaron Carter. The documentary not solely options archive footage of the younger expertise but in addition interviews with the individuals closest to him, together with Carter’s fiancée Melanie Martin, Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean, and his supervisor Taylor Helgeson. Exploring the specifics of Carter’s struggles rising up within the highlight, Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop reveals the extra prevalent insidiousness of the leisure business because it pertains to the intertwining of dependancy, psychological sickness, and fame. – Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
All of the Streets Are Silent (2021)
Picture through Greenwich Leisure
Run Time: 1 hr 29 min | Director: Jeremy Elkin
Forged: Eli Morgan Gesner, Rosario Dawson, Darryl McDaniels, Moby
Narrated by Zoo York co-founder Eli Morgan Gesner, All of the Streets Are Silent is an enchanting documentary that explores the sudden convergence of two iconic subcultures. Via interviews with Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka), Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels, and Moby, in addition to skilled skate boarders and different creatives, All of the Streets Are Silent highlights the synergy constructed when hip-hop and skateboarding intersected, particularly in New York Metropolis through the late Eighties and early Nineties. Via footage and recollections of the individuals who lived it, director Jeremy Elkin uncovers the cultural collision and connectivity of those distinct inventive types and languages. – Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
The Donut King (2020)
Picture through Greenwich Leisure
Run Time: 1 hr 30 min | Director: Alice Gu
Forged: Chuong Pek Lee, Susan Lim, Ted Ngoy
Sink your candy tooth into this in-depth journey by the lifetime of Ted Ngoy, Los Angeles’s personal Donut King. Director Alice Gu makes her function movie debut with this snappy and detailed recounting of the rise and fall of the person who constructed an empire of donut retailers all through Los Angeles County by giving Cambodian refugees a spot to name residence and make a buck. Gu, being an LA native, brings an exquisite perspective to the story and her use of interviews, archival footage, and animation appears like a love letter — not simply to her hometown however to the triumph and satisfaction of the American immigrant story. – Tauri Miller
Watch on Hulu
RELATED: The Greatest Documentaries on Netflix Proper Now
The Final Vacationer (2021)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 40 min | Director: Tyson Sadler
Forged: Alexander Ayling, Lem Baing, Elizabeth Becker
In The Final Vacationer, filmmaker Tyson Sadler unabashedly explores the horrendous methods wherein conventional tourism unintentionally negatively impacts the very factor it got here to witness. The Final Vacationer intentionally places fashionable tourism on trial, visiting over 15 international locations to reveal the results of humanity’s damaging forces when venturing into distant villages, untouched seashores, and wildlife habitats. Guided by conservation consultants, environmental visionaries, and leaders in sustainable tourism, The Final Tourism confronts the burdens magnified by unethical journey forces on susceptible communities across the globe. – Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
Altering the Recreation (2019)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 28 min | Director: Michael Barnett
Forged: Mack Beggs, Sarah Rose Huckman, Terry Miller, Andraya Yearwood
Director Michael Barnett captures the realities of college sports activities and the discriminatory challenges for transgender athletes within the well timed documentary Altering the Recreation. Centered on a number of younger trans athletes, together with Texas State wrestling champion Mack Beggs, Altering the Recreation permits for quite a lot of views to be shared, in addition to reveals the true vary of experiences for these gifted people. That includes tales from a Connecticut-based monitor star who’s overtly transitioning (Andraya Yearwood) and Sarah Rose Huckman, a New Hampshire-based activist and skier, every path is exclusive. – Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
Ballet Now (2018)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 14 min | Director: Steven Cantor
Set inside the famed program of the identical title, Ballet Now reveals the true story of Tiler Peck, a Prima Ballerina for the New York Metropolis Ballet, chosen as the primary girl to curate this system. That includes a various group of top-tier world dancers, Peck’s imaginative and prescient for the high-profile occasion features a cleverly crafted mixture of expertise, highlighting quite a lot of types, like faucet, hip-hop, and even clown artistry. Director Steven Cantor captures the uncooked and unfiltered realities as Peck prepares to execute her distinctive and groundbreaking goal. Ballet Now chronicles the week main as much as the efficiency, the place Peck serves not solely as director and producer however will even dance in a number of items. – Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
Go away No Hint (2022)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 48 min | Director: Irene Taylor
Go away No Hint is a tough however essential watch that explores the epidemic of sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts. Advised by a mixture of interviews with a number of of the courageous survivors and archival footage, the documentary, which was directed by Peabody and Emmy-winning journalist Irene Taylor, meticulously investigates how the group systematically coated up a lot for therefore lengthy. – Taylor Gates
Watch on Hulu
Untouchable (2019)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 38 min | Director: Ursula Macfarlane
A tough however essential watch, Untouchable explores the rise and fall of Harvey Weinstein. The documentary options interviews with each former colleagues and among the courageous girls who got here ahead about their sexual misconduct. Untouchable examines the tradition that allowed this abuse to occur – and dives into the next #MeToo motion when a few of these horrific crimes turned public. Director Ursula Macfarlane does a masterful job approaching the topic with empathy, tackling the tough matter with care, complexity, and readability. – Taylor Gates
Watch on Hulu
Homeroom (2021)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 30 min | Director: Peter Nicks
Homeroom is a well timed and touching documentary concerning the younger individuals in an Oakland, California, highschool who use their voices to talk for his or her neighborhood about police presence in faculties. Following a gaggle of graduating seniors, Homeroom dives into the problems that matter to the scholars in Oakland, revealing the inequalities and injustices they face, following the realities of finances cuts and ill-equipped amenities. In the end an uplifting story of hope, Homeroom doesn’t draw back from sharing the dramatic tribulations going through younger individuals in Oakland and throughout the US. –Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
Useless Asleep (2021)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 26 min | Director: Skye Borgman
On the lookout for true crime with a twist? Boy, do we now have the film for you. Useless Asleep explores the case of Randy Herman Jr., who was satisfied of murdering his childhood finest pal and roommate Brooke Preston. Herman, nonetheless, claims that he was sleepwalking when he killed her and thus can’t be held accountable for her dying. Spoiler alert: The documentary by no means solutions the query both method, main the viewers to attract our personal conclusions, however it does current some compelling – and stunning – proof. – Taylor Gates
Watch on Hulu
Child 90 (2021)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 11 min | Director: Soleil Moon Frye
Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) directed and produced this never-before-seen intimate glimpse at Hollywood’s little one stars of the Nineties, that includes unique clips pulled from Frye’s private collections of over lots of of hours of footage she shot rising up within the limelight. Frye unveils a behind-the-scenes have a look at herself and her buddies within the business by the lens of a camcorder that she carried round for years, capturing their secrets and techniques on movie. Child 90 is an enchanting documentary for any pop culture-loving Millennial, because it exposes the realities of childhood stardom, with tales immediately from pinnacle 90s children, like Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved By The Bell), in addition to readings from Frye’s personal personal diaries. As each narrator and filmmaker, Frye’s interplay together with her interview topics permits for a consolation that eases right into a voyeuristic examination of their childhoods. Different interviews embody David Arquette (Scream), Stephen Dorff, and Brian Austin Inexperienced (90210), who study their very own journeys as rising stars. –Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
The Orange Years: A Nickelodeon Story (2018)
Picture through Gravitas Ventures
Run Time: 1 hr 42 min | Director: Scott Barber, Adam Sweeney
Nostalgia is king, and 90s children can’t appear to get sufficient of it! The Orange Years: A Nickelodeon Story explores the beloved exhibits that launched a community from humble beginnings to the highest of kids, and even tween, programming, together with Rocco’s Trendy Life and the much-beloved duo Kenon & Kel. This documentary shares an illustrative behind-the-scenes have a look at the Nickelodeon Community throughout its iconic, slime-covered years, which to this present day continues to carry a particular place in so many hearts. The Orange Years dives deep with trustworthy tales and candid recollections from the family names the community was liable for producing, together with Kenon Thompson (SNL), Larisa Oleynik (Alex Mack), and Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants). – Yael Tygiel
Watch on Hulu
MLK/FBI (2021)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 44 min | Director: Sam Pollard
A documentary that eschews the standard cinematic language of the shape to create one thing much more reflective, director Sam Pollard’s outstanding MLK/FBI uncovers the extended surveillance marketing campaign of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and divulges the lengths to which these on the FBI would go to destroy him. Avoiding the distractions of typical speaking head cutaways, the documentary weaves their voices right into a tapestry of archival footage that it makes use of to set the stage for what was happening simply off-camera. It engages with historical past in a method no different movie has, exhibiting simply how expansive the surveillance of the civil rights activist was and what impression that had on him main as much as his assassination. Whether or not you assume you already know every part concerning the man or really feel as if you don’t know something, this documentary serves as a essential reexamination of the previous that challenges our beforehand held notions in quest of the reality. – Chase Hutchinson
Watch on Hulu
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years (2016)
Picture through Abramorama
Run Time: 2 hr 17 min | Director: Ron Howard
Oscar-winning director Ron Howard brings the frenetic touring years of the Fab 4 to the display screen in The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years. This documentary is a celebration of The Beatles; Howard is much less bothered with the in-fighting, the drug use, and the controversies that adopted the band round. As a substitute, this documentary is about Beatlemania and the way the band was labored to the bone throughout their peak years of touring. The movie additionally brings a unique perspective to the band’s touring years—race relations. Howard and author Mark Monroe embody interviews with Whoopi Goldberg and historian Kitty Oliver, who recount their experiences of being followers of the band. This section within the documentary, significantly, units The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years other than the numerous different documentaries which have been made about them. And, to seize a semblance of what it could have been wish to see the band reside on stage, the documentary ends with restored footage of the Shea Stadium live performance. That is pure pleasure for any fan of The Beatles. – Monita Mohan
Watch on Hulu
WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (2021)
Picture through Hulu
Run Time: 1 hr 44 min | Director: Jed Rothstein
Earlier than you watch WeCrashed, the Apple TV sequence starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, tune into the documentary concerning the rise and fall of WeWork. This movie explores the unprecedented development of the co-working area firm began by Adam Neumann and the way his charisma and unorthodox methods of working a enterprise each led to its huge success and supreme demise. For those who take pleasure in business-focused documentaries with an enchanting determine on the helm like Elizabeth Holmes in The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, this documentary might be proper up your alley. – Taylor Gates
Watch on Hulu