Living Proof Creative Team Recommends Their Favorite Documentaries

The past month has seen many countries relax the COVID-19-imposed quarantine measures and lives slowly getting back to the new normal. Social distancing and #staycations are still strongly advised, and what better way to enjoy the relative comfort of your home than watching some quality TV?

The Living Proof Creative team has assembled a list of documentaries that have recently kept us entertained and informed, and that we’d like you to see too.

Four seasons deep into Hip-Hop Evolution, Netflix’s audience is familiar with everything from the early days of hip-hop in the South Bronx to the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry. The series not only does a great job of breaking down the music but also the culture from which the music has emerged. We love how powerfully it points out that art isn’t just created in a vacuum, but reflects the lived realities of those involved.

There’s no denying that Michael Jordan is one of the best players who has ever stepped foot on the basketball court. Right now, you can take a trip down his incredible career in a new documentary mini-series called ‘The Last Dance‘. The series paints the story behind Jordan’s departure from the team and is a blend of present-day interviews, gameplay from Jordan’s time with the Bulls, and some exclusive rare archival footage.

Fyre unpacks the disastrous behind-the-scenes realities of the scam orchestrated by entrepreneur-turned-felon Billy McFarland. What was initially promoted by supermodels, influencers, and rapper Ja Rule as a luxury concert experience in the Bahamas was soon revealed to be a multi-million dollar swindle that left numerous investors defrauded and hundreds of wannabe attendees stranded in a bleak wreckage site thousands of miles away from home.

Actor and space enthusiast Morgan Freeman doubles as a host and narrator of the new series Through The Wormhole. This exploration into the greatest mysteries of the universe was produced by Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment and seeks to answer the big questions: Are we alone? Where do we come from? Is there life on other planets?

From NASA’s latest explorations and private enterprise facilities to emerging academic research and theories, this series looks at black holes, possibilities for colonizing the other planets, string theory, and more. Morgan Freeman picks up where Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” left off and explores the new frontiers.

From saving people from car wrecks and shootings to domestic-violence calls, seemingly chaotic streets of Mexico City provide The Midnight family with a way to make a living. The Ochoa family is part of an army of private, for-profit ambulance services dedicated to filling the gaps left by the city’s deeply broken medical system.

In this stunning documentary, Fernando and his sons race through traffic to be the first at the scene, deal with bribe-hungry cops, competing EMTs, and victims who cannot or simply refuse to pay, yet somehow manage to find the time to be a normal, caring family — and to hold onto a belief that, even amidst all the mayhem, tomorrow will be a better day.

The Beasties’ story is about as old and wholesome as the birth of hip-hop itself, and anyone who has ever watched a TV special about the group can bet that’s the truth.

In this new documentary, Horovitz and Diamond trace back their childhood memories, reminisce of the times they met the late Adam “MCA” Yauch at a Bad Brains show and have discovered the music of Run-D.M.C., and how they eventually crossed paths with Rick Rubin. It is a joyful, infectious story of the human capacity to change, and the importance of creative freedom to guide that change.

Honeyland is a portrayal of the delicate balance between humankind and nature, a glimpse at a fast-disappearing way of life, and a testament to one extraordinary woman’s resilience. Hatidze Muratova lives with her ailing mother in a village without roads, electricity, or running water. She’s the last in a long line of Macedonian beekeepers who farm honey in small batches and sell it in the nearby city.

When a traveling family arrives, Hatidze’s peaceful existence faces disarray. Though she optimistically offers the family her beekeeping advice, the family’s patriarch soon casts Hatidze’s advice aside in his hunt for profit, causing a breach in the natural order and threatening Hatidze’s means of survival.

Consisting of eight episodes running a half-hour each, the Dark Net docu-series explores roughly 80% of Internet activity that occurs in and around the so-called dark web. This is the place Internet surfers go to indulge the fetishes and desires that they’d rather keep out of the public eye. The series also examines how the technology that makes the deep web possible is now insinuating itself, more and more, into everyday life.

It’s impossible not to admire Bruce Lee. His charisma explodes out of the screen and radiates from every television appearance. For those unfamiliar with Bruce Lee, 30 for 30: Be Water is a fascinating, intimate look at not just those final, defining years of Lee’s life, but the complex, often difficult, and an unstable journey that led to his ultimate rise as a film and martial arts icon and the connection between the eastern and western world.