In 2020, many new documentaries are being released which will feature celebrities, major societal events, and political figures. 

Documentaries such as “Us Kids” which is about the Parkland school shooting survivors and “Surviving Jeffrey Epstein” which discusses the case against the sexual predator are more centered on present time, while documentaries such as “Ali and Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes” and “The Last Dance” are more historic. 

Some documentaries are even as controversial as the Aaron Hernandez “Killer Inside” documentary, which is about the football star who killed two people and ended up in prison. “I can’t wait to know the outcome of the case with Hernandez. The whole thing had blown up and to see what really happened and all the evidence would be really interesting,” states junior Sean Harrington. 

Over the past two years, the documentary industry has experienced a large growth in attention. Consumers have rekindled an interest in these films recently, which in change has brought in an enormous sum of money.

“I honestly think most celebrities make documentaries for the publicity. To be like ‘Hey, I did this’ or ‘I overcame that. Now give me more money,’” says freshman Bridget Duffy.

“I mean, some celebrities legitimately do want to, like, help do certain things, but they also can’t change the world too much because they live in a capitalist society in which they need to make money by being famous,” adds in junior Sean Stahler.

On the other hand, others feel as though celebrity documentaries are quite progressive. 

“The McDonald’s documentary sounds interesting enough. It has to do with a very popular food chain we all eat at,” said junior Aleena Bano about the new McDonald’s documentary, “McMillions,” that is set to be released later this year. 

Rather than watching documentaries to help celebrities gain more publicity and cash, both Stahler and Duffy agree that they would want to see a documentary on something more apparent. A main topic they wanted to see was a documentary on climate change, seeing that it is such a prevalent topic in today’s society.

The pair agree they would like to see a documentary about celebrity Greta Thunberg where she shares her opinion on the status of climate change. Thunberg is a teenage activist who wanted to raise awareness and learn more about climate change, but people shot her down when she tried.

Junior Sean Stahler states that he would watch a documentary on anything his friend recommended to him, showing that people still have interest in this type of media. 

As the year progresses, more documentaries will be released to give insight into the lives of those in the spotlight and information of moments of societal importance.