National Geographic Documentary Films

The Pelletier family sets out on an epic journey to see the beauty of the world when three of their four children are diagnosed with an incurable eye condition.

Follow Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall. With no ropes or safety gear, this would arguably be the greatest feat in rock climbing history.

Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet’s vulnerability. In BECOMING COUSTEAU, from National Geographic Documentary Films, two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century’s most unique and renowned environmental voice — and the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth.

Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.

The enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand.

A doomed love triangle between intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, and their beloved volcanoes.

Twenty-five years after the verdict in the Rodney King trial sparked several days of protests, violence and looting in Los Angeles, LA 92 immerses viewers in that tumultuous period through stunning and rarely seen archival footage.

Uganda has one the youngest populations in the world and one of its most flagrantly anti-democratic governments. These are ingredients for revolution, and Bobi Wine and his wife Barbie Kyagulanyi are stirring the pot. When the charismatic Bobi, a musician and member of parliament, announces his campaign for president, Uganda’s youth are ecstatic, filling parks and streets for every speech, and singing Bobi’s anthems of peace and freedom. But then comes the crackdown, orchestrated by Yoweri Museveni, a brutal dictator who has ruled Uganda for 36 years. Bobi and his crew survive arrests, beatings, torture, riots and raids.

American Christian missionary John Chau was murdered when he tried to illegally contact and convert some of the world’s last uncontacted indigenous people. Through exclusive interviews and archival footage of John’s journey, THE MISSION explores themes that strike deep at the heart of religion, colonialism, and anthropology, questioning where we draw the line between faith and fanaticism, exploration and exploitation, imagination and destruction.

Deep beneath the surface in the Syrian province of Ghouta, a group of female doctors have established an underground field hospital. Under the supervision of paediatrician Dr. Amani and her staff of doctors and nurses, hope is restored for some of the thousands of children and civilian victims of the ruthless Syrian civil war.

The story of the last months of the 20-year war in Afghanistan through the intimate relationship between American Green Berets and the Afghan officers they trained.

The two-hour episode proposes a revealing journey into intimacy and the rediscovery of this figure who marked the music scene with his art. The production has the collaboration of his family, in front of and behind the camera, more than one hundred hours of unpublished material, testimonies and exclusive access to recordings rarely seen.

From Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, "Wild Life" follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. After falling in love in mid-life, Kris and the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they'd helped pioneer like Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit, and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina. "Wild Life" chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to effect the largest private land donation in history.

​On November 8, 2018, a spark flew in the Sierra Nevada foothills, igniting the most destructive wildfire in California history and decimating the town of Paradise. Unfolding during the year after the fire, this is the story of the Paradise community as they begin to rebuild their lives.

The vaquita, the world’s smallest whale, is nearing extinction as its habitat is destroyed by Mexican cartels and the Chinese Mafia, who harvest the totoaba fish, the “cocaine of the sea.” Environmental activists, the Mexican navy, and undercover investigators are fighting back against this illegal multimillion-dollar business.

Over seven years, three couples involved in the extreme sport of BASE jumping test the limits of love and life itself. Risking everything for the thrill of the jump, their dedication is put to the ultimate test.

Uncover the little-known stories of the first Black pilots, engineers and scientists seeking to break the bonds of social injustice to reach for the stars, including Guion Bluford, Ed Dwight and Charles Bolden among many others.

A passionate conservation biologist brings together a river bushman fearful of losing his past and a young scientist uncertain of her future on an epic, four-month expedition across three countries, through unexplored and dangerous landscapes, in order to save the Okavango Delta, one of our planet's last pristine wildernesses.

The Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people have seen their population dwindle and their culture threatened since coming into contact with non-Native Brazilians. Though promised dominion over their own rainforest territory, they have faced illegal incursions from environmentally destructive logging and mining, and, most recently, land-grabbing invasions spurred on by right-wing politicians like President Jair Bolsonaro. With deforestation escalating as a result, the stakes have become global.