documentaries

Licensed to Pill is a one-hour special that exposes doctors betraying patients by prescribing addictive opioids to line their own pockets. It follows up on extensive investigations aired over the past year, during which time a federal raid, charges against doctors and action by Congress were all realized.

Compelling stories address issues of the day, including gun violence, climate change and immigration.

If you’re looking for documentaries these days, they’re hard to miss. Once considered more medicinal than entertaining and consigned to high-brow places like PBS and art house theaters, documentaries are scattered across the film and TV spectrum, as well as online portals like Facebook Watch or YouTube Red and on video streaming apps like go90. Even mighty NBC is getting in on the act with a documentary on Martin Luther King Jr. airing Saturday night.

Fusion TV, the Doral, Fla.-based TV network that is part of the Fusion Media Group, is cutting nearly half of its documentary staff, laying off six members of a 13-person group.

HBO has promoted Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller to executive vice presidents of HBO Documentary and Family Programming, from their current SVP roles. They will replace longtime Documentary Films President Sheila Nevins, who’s leaving the network in early 2018.

After almost 40 years, she has reels of memorable film, a pile of awards and plenty of perspective on the current battle of the sexes. With a storytelling style that grabs viewers by the throat, Nevins helped change the image of documentaries from stodgy to provocative. And she helped HBO amass such a pile of Emmys, Peabodys and Oscars.

Sheila Nevins has been one of the most influential voices in the documentary landscape for more than three decades. As the head of HBO Documentary Films since 1979, the so-called Dominatrix of Docs has produced more than 1,000 documentaries and has won more primetime Emmys than any other individual (32 to date). On a day-to-day basis, Nevins is in charge of developing and producing all the documentaries for HBO, HBO2, and Cinefax. Now 78, Nevins has written a book loosely based on her life.

The venerable Sunday public-affairs mainstay is joining forces with the American Film Institute for a film festival to be held in November in Washington D.C. Submissions for what is expected to be a slate of seven short-length documentary films are now being accepted. It’s a surprising extension of a TV mainstay that is in the midst of its 70th year on the air.

The tall tales and colossal career of Andre the Giant will be told in an upcoming HBO documentary. WWE, HBO Sports and the Bill Simmons Media Group will produce “Andre […]

NEW YORK (AP) — A&E network is set to air a documentary series focused on the Ku Klux Klan. Announced Monday, “Generation KKK” aims to expose the missions of this […]

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Norman Lear, age 94 and a native New Yorker, thought he knew a few things about the obstacles of housing in the Big Apple. But […]