As recommended by readers of Electric Speed in February 2024.

• The King of Kong is my all-time favorite movie and happens to be a documentary. It's about competitive video gamers from the heydays of 1980s arcades. As a character study, it cannot be topped. Hilarious. Highly recommend. —Catherine Baab-Muguira
• Regarding documentary films folks might not know about, I have a suggestion: Paper Tigers (2015): Documentary about a high school in Walla Walla, WA, where the faculty engages with students in meaningful ways by understanding the complex trauma of which many of the students suffer. —Dave Malone
• I just had the absolute pleasure of stumbling across the 2022 British documentary Hello, Bookstore while on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Manchester to New York. Matt Tannenbaum owns a used and selectively curated new bookshop in Lenox, Massachusetts, that falls upon hard times during the pandemic. But Matt is determined to keep his community resource open despite mounting debt. Incredibly touching interactions between Matt and local readers feature him finding the best book to suit each customer's needs and desires. These are interspersed with Matt reading aloud utterly gorgeous passages from works he loves, reflecting upon his indoctrination into the book selling vocation at New York's legendary Gotham Book Mart, and sharing loving exchanges with his concerned family. This documentary is a gem and Matt is a literary treasure. —Megan McDonald
• Documentary everyone should watch: The Need to Grow —Barbi McSwain
• I enjoyed watching Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, a documentary that is about the 25 year friendship that developed between the person who was filming the documentary and Vonnegut. It's on Amazon. Lots of footage shot in and around Indianapolis on trips when Vonnegut came back to see the house he grew up in, the high school he went to, etc. And you don't have to be a gardener to appreciate the beauty and story of The Gardener, a documentary about Frank Cabot and the making of his famous garden Les Quatre Vents in Quebec. (It is still one of my great regrets that I didn't take advantage of the opportunity to tour that garden in 2013 when I had the chance. Silly me went to Quebec City for a garden communicators conference but didn't sign up for the tour of this garden, which was a post-conference event, because it would have meant taking another vacation day from work!) And I hope everyone has watched The Booksellers also on Amazon. All about the rare booksellers around New York City. —Carol Michel
• Agnes Varda is an oldie but un tres tres bon, goodie. Surely, yes, I feel certain. You must know her work. This link takes you to one of my absolute favorites, Daguerréotypes, her documentary about Rue Daguerré, the street where she lived in Paris since the 1950's. It's such a great view into the people, the quirky characters who live there. More people may be familiar with her documentary The Gleaners and I, which focuses on foraging by folks at the edges of society - I can say that after watching it, I (and lots of others) had the quite amazing experience of foraging at the close of market off of Rue Edgar Quinet in Paris. —Dorette Snover
• My current favorite documentary that few people know about is “You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment.” It’s about a group of identical twins who change their diets for eight weeks to see how foods affect the body and mind. —Izolda
• I recommend "You are What You Eat" as much for environmental issues as for health. If everyone watched this it could be a new world! —Lizwriter
• Documentary recs (coming from documentary filmmaker): Nobody's Business by Alan Berliner (1996 - a masterpiece), In Pursuit of Silence (2015), and A New Kind of Wilderness (2024 - premiered at Sundance - absolutely incredible Norwegian film) —sorayasimi
• A documentary I recommend is The Farthest, about the scientists who experienced the thrill-ride of the Voyager spacecraft mission starting in 1977. Even if you’re not a space or science nerd, the emotional testimony of each scientist just might make you cry. I recommend watching it with a loved one now for FREE (with a few PBS house ads in the beginning). —meier_link
• The Other F Word was a fun documentary about punk rock stars who are now dads. i love documentaries, so I'm so glad you picked this topic! —Hollie
• The Horse Boy: Kristin Neff, the self-compassion guru, and her husband, a filmmaker, take their profoundly autistic son to Tibet to see if a shaman can help him. Because the boy finds horses soothing, the film traces the family’s journey on horseback across unbelievably beautiful Tibetan scenery in their search for the nomadic tribe of a renowned shaman. —Kristin Luker
• A third program from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, Masters of the Air. It’s on Apple TV+, but because it’s current, you have to wait for a weekly update (after an initial sample of 2 episodes) instead of being able to binge it all. Still, an excellent series and emphasizes how dangerous it was to be flying bombers in World War II. —Lary Kirchenbauer
• A State of Mind: the first British crew allowed to film in North Korea, the movie traces the path of two child gymnasts to participation in the Mass Games, the world’s largest patriotic pageant. It’s the best example I’ve ever seen of “show, don’t tell” because they could not criticize the government or bring up anything political. They don’t have to—we see the empty storefronts outside the bus windows, the joy of the family getting an extra chicken to feed their gymnast daughter, and the propaganda speaker inside their home that can be turned down but not off. I’m still waiting for it to be safe enough, but this is the film that made me want to visit the DPRK. —Allison K Williams
• Studio 54 is the documentary that I will never forget. It's Hell on earth. After 30 minutes of waiting outside to be accepted inside, I left. And after I saw this, I was very glad that I never went inside. —L Rockhill
• Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) An almost incredible look at how the electric car was sabotaged in its early incarnation by pressure from the fossil fuel industries. The early cars were only available to lease and when the leases were up, they could not be renewed. Wait until you discover what happened to the cars and who bought the company that manufactured the electric car batteries. Shocking. Stream/rent from Amazon, Google or Vudu. —Gabi Coatsworth
• Loving Highsmith, a documentary about author Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers on a Train, Carol) came out in 2022 and is a must-see for Highsmith fans. It’s on Kanopy. (Subscribe free through your library.) —Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
• Documentary: AMY TAN, Unintended Memoir. —Elizabeth Winthrop
• Recently, a George Clooney movie came out: "The Boys in the Boat," but long before the movie was the documentary: "The Boys of '36." Available on Amazon Prime (and possible other venues, I don't know), it's the TRUE story of the nine guys from the University of Washington who took the gold metal at the 1936 Olympics. This is the same Olympics that brought Jesse Owens fame. I write this while admitting I haven't yet seen Clooney's movie, but I loved the documentary, which I thought was emotionally strong, not just facts. —Aline Soules