Documentary of the Week

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) turns to documentary with “13th,” a film essay about the Constitution’s 13th amendment, which abolished slavery with the loophole clause “except as a punishment for a crime.” The film interviews African-American authors such as Michelle Alexander (“The New Jim Crow”) and Bryan Stevenson (“Just Mercy”) along with conservatives like Newt Gingrich to look at how the criminal justice system impacts black lives.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary “Theo Who Lived,” directed by David Schisgall, profiles the freelance American journalist Theo Padnos, who spent nearly two years held captive by Islamic fundamentalists in Syria. Fluent in Arabic, Padnos could communicate with his captors. Despite his harsh treatment, he’s able to see their human side and he retains a sense of humor in telling his story.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

New York City’s shifting tides of gentrification are vividly revealed in the HBO documentary Class Divide. Director Marc Levin (Brick City) focuses on West Chelsea, where the Elliott housing project is located across the street from the Avenues private school. The film looks at the growing income disparities through the eyes of young people in the neighborhood.

 — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the film web site at HBO.

How are American police forces becoming more militarized? In the documentary Do Not Resist, director Craig Atkinson travels the country from Ferguson, Missouri to Washington, D.C., to observe the rise of armored equipment, SWAT teams, aerial surveillance and tracking technology. The film forces us to think harder about the costs of our mistakes.

 — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

John McAfee made millions with his anti-virus software, then moved to the jungles of Belize in a compound set up like a modern-day “Heart of Darkness.” After his neighbor was murdered in 2012, Belize police sought him for questioning and he fled the country. Director Nanette Burstein's documentary Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee investigates the unsolved murder and uncovers new allegations.

 — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Based on the book by Eric Schlosser, the documentary Command and Control plays like a thriller about an accident in a nuclear bomb facility in 1980. Filmmaker Robert Kenner (“Food, Inc”) tells a gripping story set in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor. Combining interviews with artful re-enactments, the film forces us to question our sense of safety.

 — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

How should we interpret the dramatic rise and fall of literary sensation J.T. Leroy? Two documentaries offer different perspectives. “Author: The J.T. Leroy Story,” directed by Jeff Feuerzeig, profiles the writer Laura Albert who invented the orphaned teenage boy J.T. Leroy, impersonated the character by phone and enlisted her sister-in-law to portray him in public. “The Cult of J.T. Leroy,” directed by Marjorie Sturm, tells the story from the perspective of J.T. Leroy’s unsuspecting friends and associates, who felt betrayed by the elaborate false identity.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information on Author: The J.T. Leroy Story, click here to visit the official film web site.

For more information on The Cult of J.T. Leroy, click here to visit the official film web site.

Walter Reuther rose up from working on the Ford assembly line to become president of the United Auto Workers. The documentary Brothers on the Line traces his rise along with his brothers Roy and Victor as they fought labor battles in the Depression, supported the civil rights movement and responded to anti-union backlashes. Filmmaker Sasha Reuther, a grand-nephew of Walter, doesn’t shy away from his family’s controversy.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In The Dog, filmmakers Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren profile John Wojtowicz, the larger-than-life bank robber portrayed by Al Pacino in “Dog Day Afternoon.” While the famous fiction film only captured one day in his life, this documentary explores his background in the early gay rights movement and what happened after he came out of jail as an infamous New York character.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Werner Herzog has explored extremes of human behavior in films like Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. His new documentary Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World explores the internet, artificial intelligence and where modern technology is taking us.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.