MUST-SEE: Top documentaries to watch on Showmax this March

MUST-SEE: Top documentaries to watch on Showmax this MarchA fan of documentaries? The list of doccies showing on Showmax during the month of March will have you binging in no time!

by Mariette van Niekerk

09-03-2022

in SA TV and Film

From Black Art: In the Absence of Light' to Girls Can't Surf' and true-crime, these are the must-see documentaries on Showmax this March. Image: Supplied/ Showmax

If documentaries are your thing, you don't want to miss these must-see titles on Showmax during the month of March. Titles, such as The Sparks Brothers, Final Account, I'll Be Gone In The Dark, The Crime of the Century and The Last Cruise, will leave you glued to your screen!

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DOCUMENTARIES TO STREAM ON SHOWMAX THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY

From Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, The Inventor), The Crime of the Century is a searing indictment of big pharma and the political operatives and government regulations that enable over-production, reckless distribution and abuse of synthetic opiates.

With the help of whistleblowers, newly leaked documents, exclusive interviews, sobering testimony from victims of opioid addiction, and access to behind-the-scenes investigations, Gibney's expos posits that drug companies are in fact largely responsible for manufacturing the very crisis they profit from, to the tune of billions of dollars - and thousands of lives.

Produced in association with The Washington Post, The Crime of the Century was named Best Political Documentary at the 2021 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards, where it was also up for Best Documentary Feature and Best Narration for Gibney.

THE LAST CRUISE

A terrifying origin story of the pandemic, HBO's 40-minute documentary The Last Cruise chronicles the first big outbreak of the novel coronavirus outside China: the Diamond Princess cruise liner.

As the uncontained outbreak on the luxury vessel at the start of the pandemic in January 2020 became a global spectacle and a faraway symbol of the new virus and its potential to upend any sense of normalcy, passengers aboard the ill-fated cruise ship were quarantined in their staterooms for weeks as the crew tended to the sick, delivered room service and slept and dined in cramped, shared quarters.

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Through never-before-seen footage from passengers and crew, we watch class divisions erupt as humanity misses its chance to contain COVID-19.

Directed by Hannah Olsen (Baby God), The Last Cruise was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the 2021 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards, with The Film Stage calling it a vital and horrifying record of a crisis that we should have quickly learned from, that captures the moment with the immediacy of Facebook Live or Snapchat.

JOHN WAYNE GACY: DEVIL IN DISGUISE

John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise follows the chilling story of one of the world's most notorious serial killers, as told through the words of Gacy himself, those who were forever changed by his unspeakable deeds, and those who believe that the full truth remains concealed to this day.

Directed by Emmy-nominated producer Rod Blackhurst (Amanda Knox, Welcome to Earth), this comprehensive six-part documentary series details the case that shook the world, drawing on a multi-hour death-row interview with Gacy himself, most of which has never been seen before, along with exclusive audio and video interviews.

Almost 50 years since the crimes took place, new questions are emerging about what really happened, and who else may have played a part in the deaths of Gacy's 33 victims.

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BLACK ART: IN THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT

Directed by Oscar nominee and five-time Emmy winner Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, When the Levees Broke), the HBO documentary film Black Art: In the Absence of Light explores the oft-neglected contributions of African American artists to both the art world and American culture at large.

Opening with the landmark exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art curated by the late David Driskell at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the documentary looks at the major Black art movements of the past half-century, and speaks to contemporary luminaries like Jordan Casteel, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and Kehinde Wiley, among others.

The documentary has a 92% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Boston Globe calling it an essential and revelatory glimpse at the accomplishments of today's Black artists, and Wall Street Journal saying:

The film never dips into saccharine platitudes, and it is unafraid to examine the defects within artistic movements that, while fighting for racial justice, had their own blindspots.

ADRIENNE

Waitress, starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, won five international awards in 2007 the year after its writer-director, Adrienne Shelly, was brutally murdered. It went on to inspire the hit Broadway musical, penned by Grammy winner Sara Bareilles.

Directed and produced by Shelly's husband Andy Ostroy, Adrienne is an intensely personal look at Shelly's life, death and career, featuring the likes of Russell, Fillion, Bareilles, actor Paul Rudd, and director Hal Hartley, who gave Shelly her acting break in The Unbelievable Truth and the Sundance winner Trust.

Adrienne has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Decider praising it as heart-breaking and bittersweet an understated, deeply personal essay about grief. As Indiewire warns, Bring tissues.

GIRLS CAN'T SURF

It's the 1980s and the world of professional surfing is a circus of fluro colours, peroxide hair and male egos. Girls Can't Surf follows the journey of a band of renegade surfers who took on the male-dominated professional surfing world to achieve equality and change the sport forever.

Featuring surfing greats Jodie Cooper, Frieda Zamba,

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