Five superb documentaries you can stream now

Documentaries are our first love. Drama is great, comedy is dear to us but documentaries are what gets the little grey cells firing off, the hairs on the neck standing up and the world left to be seen a little differently. We're lucky in the UK to have BBC4, a channel dedicated to enriching content, most of which could not be made if produced for commercial gain. However, if you haven't got a TV licence or don't live in the UK, the main streaming services also have some of the best documentaries available.Here are five documentaries, some feature, some series, which are available on either Netflix or Amazon Prime and which are truly excellent.

Senna

http://amzn.eu/iF2Te3ESenna is the first of the master Asif Kapadia's two documentaries on this list. It is the story of Aerton Senna, the virtuoso F1 racing driver. Even if you find racing driving a bit dull, you'll find the tragic arc of this story compelling.

Amy

http://amzn.eu/6cMSvkZNumber 2 of Kapadia's offerings on this list runs on a theme, the prodigy who died tragically young. It is classic tragedy, in that you can see so many opportunities for her to avoid her fate but you know that ultimately it was inescapable. If you enjoyed both of these documentaries then listen to the Soundtracking podcast interview with Kapadia, where he talks about how these documentaries were conceived.

Virunga

https://www.netflix.com/title/80009431In many documentaries, the headline topic is merely a vehicle to explore a larger, meatier, subplot. Such is the case in Virunga, whereby a documentary about the Virunga national park and its gorillas actually manages to provide a gripping insight into the conflict in the Eastern DRC region, the complicity of Oil companies in circumventing the sanctity of the national park and more.

Ken Burns' American Civil War

https://www.netflix.com/title/70202577Ken Burns was such a pioneer in this series, creating massively engaging layered documentaries from, basically, photos. It is a fair, balanced depiction of the war, told via contemporary accounts voiced by an incredible list of A-listers and with additional insights provided by the molasses voiced phenomenon that is Shelby Foote. Probably one of the finest documentary series ever made. Burns' technique of bringing photos to life by adding pans, crops, zooms and reveals to their content was so successful that you'll often find video editing apps and software have a "Ken Burns effect" option.

Planet Earth

https://www.netflix.com/title/70219642Another landmark series. To devotees of the BBC and Attenborough, this is merely the latest in a long line of series going right back to Life on Earth and probably Zoo Quest. But this was on a whole new scale of vision and cinematography. Not just a study of habitats but all of those habitats, around the entire globe, in sequential episodes. Beautiful cinematography.