Top Documentaries of All Time on YouTube & Download Them Now (2022) (2024)

YouTube is a great platform where you can watch lots of documentaries for free. In this post, I collect 9 best documentaries on YouTube, including nature, education, technology, food, crime, etc. If you want to watch them offline, you can try MiniTool Software to download them.

There are numerous videos on YouTube. In today’s post, I would like to focus on the best documentaries of all time on this platform. What genres of documentary do you like? If you prefer documentaries related to nature, education, food, or crime, you can find the best documentary you prefer in this post.

In this post, I recommend nature documentary, education documentary, food documentary, and crime documentary for you and also show you how to download them to your devices if you want to see them offline.

What’re the Best Documentaries on YouTube?

Watching documentaries can broaden our horizon, encourage critical thinking, and so on. According to the viewers’ interests, I mainly focus on the following aspects.

  • Nature documentary.
  • Education documentary.
  • Food documentary.
  • Crime documentary.

Nature Documentary

"Our planet, the Earth, is, as far as we know, unique in the universe. It contains life. Even in its most barren stretches, there are animals. Around the equator, where those two essentials for life, sunshine and moisture, are most abundant, great forests grow. And here plants and animals proliferate in such numbers that we still have not even named all the different species. Here, animals and plants, insects and birds, mammals and man live together in intimate and complex communities, each dependent on one another…"David Attenborough’s opening narration

Honestly, I am a fan of nature documentaries. I like to explore our planet through a documentary as it seems that I break the space and time limitation and go everywhere with the narrator in the documentary, standing at the foot of high mountains, waking on the snow-covered grasslands, going throng jungles…

Do you also like this genre? Here, I mainly introduce three top documentaries of nature on YouTube. They unveil in mysteries of our living planet and you can learn more about it.

Frozen Planet

If you care about polar penguins and polar bears, you can have a look at Frozen Plant. This nature documentary is a 2011 British nature documentary series, co-produced by the BBC and The Open University. In May of the next year, the documentary won in three categories at the British Academy Television Craft Awards.

It focuses on the Arctic and Antarctic and it reveals the two regions at the greatest risk from global warming by the following 7 episodes.

  • To the Ends of the Earth;
  • Spring;
  • Summer;
  • Autumn;
  • Winter;
  • The Last Frontier;
  • On Thin Ice.

Nature’s Great Race

The documentary was released by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in 2016 and it promises epic footage following the world’s most significant land migration. This PBS documentary consists of three episodes and each episode focuses on one animal–elephant, caribou, and zebra.

In the documentary, a scientific team tracked individual animal journeys precisely by using the latest tagging technology in that time to capture all of the actions, the close calls, the success, and the failures.

As we know, every decision in migration could decide life or death. Now, through the lens of the scientist team, let’s see what compels these animals to risk everything and why they must win these great and dangerous races.

Wonderful Earth

Nature is the greatest magician and this has proved in Wonderful Earth. Through interactive elements, this documentary shows us the entire beauty of our earth. Lots of viewers are shocked by the planet.

Some viewers commented:

  • God's nature is amazing ... A finest good job.
  • Beautiful collection! God is glorified by his creation.
  • One of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Truly amazing and wonderful. The most beautiful planet in the universe.

Tip: Do you know that YouTube allows your comment to be Bold, Italic, and strikethrough? Read YouTube comment formatting to learn about that.

It is also perfect for little guys as it is a good teacher who guides them to explore our planet and they will learn how to take care of the wonderful earth.

Education Documentary

Education documentary can broaden kids’ horizon and encourage critical thinking. Especially, if a teacher plays it in the class, students are guaranteed to spark a great discussion.

Here two documentaries are introduced and you can play them for your kids or students.

Am Not Your Negro

I Am Not Your Negro released in 2017 is based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House. The documentary explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin’s reminiscence of civil rights leaders–Medgar Evers, Malcolm, and Martin Luther King Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson’s observations of American history.

He Named Me Malala

To encourage your daughter or schoolgirl be braver, you can play He Named Me Malala for her. The documentary presents a young Pakistani female activist named Malala Yousafzai who has spoken out for the rights of girls, especially the right to education, since the girl was very young.

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Food Documentary

Food documentary puts complex information together in a more interesting and active way, especially for visual learners. As our society’s interest in food grows, so there are lots of food documentaries . In this part, I recommend two best food documentaries on YouTube.

H.O.P.E. What You Eat Matters

As a Chinese probe goes, food is the paramount necessity of the people. Nowadays, for most people in the world, there is no need to worry about food scarcity, but what tastes good and how to eat healthily are concerned about more. In terms of wellness, I recommend H.O.P.E. What You Eat Matters.

H.O.P.E. What You Eat Matters that was launched in Austria, 2016 tackles subjects, including obesity, food insecurity, and natural resource depletion.

Nowadays, terrible diseases like heart attack, diabetes, cancer, and more can be blamed on what we are eating and this is revealed in the documentary. It also exposes the relationship between our modern’s eating lifestyle and environment destruction.

This documentary also points out a solution–plant-based nutrition. Switching the meat-based diet to the plant-based diet will rebalance not just our health but our planet itself.

The highest form of living, the highest value–is compassion. And when there is compassion. we maximize well-being. Well-being does not mean money in the hands of a few, it means being shared across life’s spectrum.Dr. Vandana Shiva

Super Size Me

How often you go to McDonald’s for French chips or hamburgers? Twice a week, less or more? A guy named Morgan Spurlock (an American independent filmmaker) went to this fast food restaurant for three meals in a month in 2003 and this was recorded in Super Size Me.

The documentary witnessed the drastic effect of Suprlock’s lifestyle on his physical and psychological well-being and explored the fast food industry’s corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.

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Crime Documentary

Although crime documentary is based on cold hard facts, it is quite fascinating and exciting to follow the clues in documentaries to clear away the miasma and get the truth. In this part, I list two best crime documentaries on YouTube. What are them? Keep reading.

West of Memphis

If you have watched Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, West of Memphis is another true crime documentary you won’t want to miss. The documentary focuses on the crime that happened in 1993–three boys were cruelly killed in Memphis.

The director of the documentary reconstructed everything in that year and showed us a series of unexposed materials such as investigations and lawsuits.

A Murder In The Family

If you are interested in crime and drama, A Murder In The Family is highly recommended. It narrates that a British businessman was killed in his sleep and his mother tried to prove her daughter-in-law was responsible for her son’s death.

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Are you searching for the best documentaries on YouTube? Read the post that lists documentaries about different fields, including nature, food, education, and crime.Click to Tweet

Download Best Documentaries on YouTube

Can you download YouTube videos? You can do that but there is a premise that the videos you want to download are just for yourself and not for dissemination.

How to download YouTube videos? Although there is no downloadable button, you can take advantage of some software to save them. Here I would like to introduce an easy-to-use tool for YouTube video downloading that is MiniTool uTube Downloader.

This tool is free and 100% clean and it is available for Windows users. With it, you can finish the following items with ease.

  • save YouTube playlists;
  • turn URL to MP4;
  • convert YouTube MP3;

How to down the nest documentaries on YouTube via this tool? Here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Download MiniTool uTube Downloader by clicking the following button. Install it and then launch it on your computer.

Step 2: Search for the documentary you want to watch and then click the downloadable icon.

  • You can input the documentary name in the search bar.
  • Or you can copy the link of a documentary from YouTube and past it in the search bar.

Top Documentaries of All Time on YouTube & Download Them Now (2022) (1)

Step 3: Save the YouTube video to your computer.

  • Choose the video format.
  • Keep the Subtitle box ticked if you need the subtitles.
  • Click the DOWNLOAD button to save this video.

That’s quite easy, right? If you want to save YouTube documentary to other devices, like phones, you can refer to the methods mentioned in this post.

How to download the best documentaries from YouTube? Read the post right now.Click to Tweet

I Want Your Voice

Documentary guides us to explore the world and enlighten us and it is worth watching one in the free time. In today’s article, I have introduced different genres of documentary and hope they meet your taste.

As a fan of documentary, you might have watched numerous documentaries. Please feel free to share your most-liked ones with us in the following comment zone.

If you have some questions when downloading YouTube videos with MiniTool uTube Downloader, please contact us via [emailprotected].

Best Documentaries on YouTube FAQ

???? What are the 6 types of documentaries?

  • Poetic Documentaries;
  • Expository Documentaries;
  • Observational Documentaries;
  • Participatory Documentaries;
  • Reflexive Documentaries;
  • Performative Documentaries.

???? What is a good documentary to watch on YouTube?

Here are 9 best documentaries on YouTube:

  • Frozen Planet;
  • Nature’s Great Race;
  • Wonderful Earth;
  • I Am Not Your Negro;
  • He Named Me Malala;
  • H.O.P.E. What You Eat Matters;
  • Super Size Me;
  • West of Memphis;
  • A Murder In The Family.

???? How can I download a documentary from YouTube?

To download a documentary from YouTube, you can try MiniTool uTube Downloader. This tool is free and 100% clean and you just need three steps to save it on your computer.

  • Get MiniTool uTube Downloader.
  • Search for the documentary you want to watch and then click the downloadable icon.
  • Select what you want to download from the list. Click DOWNLOAD and then choose a location to save it.

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Top Documentaries of All Time on YouTube & Download Them Now (2022) (2024)

FAQs

Where can I find interesting documentaries? ›

Netflix has a bountiful of great documentaries that cover a diverse range of subjects, from true crime to sports to even filmmaking.

What is the longest running documentary? ›

The Up series is a British documentary strand which returns to the same set of individuals at seven year intervals to see how their lives have developed. The series began on the 5th May 1964 with Seven UP!

What is the highest grossing documentary made so far? ›

Fahrenheit 9/11

What is the best 30 for 30 documentary? ›

ESPN 30 for 30: Ranking Every Film from the Hit Series
  • "Marion Jones: Press Pause" 2 of 31. ...
  • "Straight Outta LA" 5 of 31. ...
  • "The Birth of Big Air" 6 of 31. ...
  • "Muhammad and Larry" 7 of 31. ...
  • "Little Big Men" 8 of 31. ...
  • "Fernando Nation" 9 of 31. ...
  • "The House of Steinnbrenner" 10 of 31. ...
  • "One Night in Vegas" 11 of 31.

Where can I find documentaries for free? ›

Below are the 10 best sites to watch documentaries for free:
  • SnagFilms. Launched in 2008, SnagFilms offers more than 10,000 free documentaries, each categorized and graded by users.
  • Crackle. ...
  • The Documentary Network. ...
  • PBS. ...
  • Vimeo. ...
  • True/False Film Fest. ...
  • VICE. ...
  • Viewster.
16 Jan 2015

How can I download a documentary for free? ›

So, the best way is to download documentaries.
...
3 Steps to Download Documentary with the Best Free Documentaries Downloader
  1. Click Download Video Button to Download Documentary Movies. ...
  2. Copy and Paste the Movie's URL to the Box and Analyze It. ...
  3. Start to Download Documentary.
25 May 2021

What is the longest movie to ever exist? ›

Guinness World Records says the longest film ever made is "The Cure for Insomnia" released in 1987. The 85-hour experimental film was directed by John Henry Timmis IV.

What is the longest series to exist? ›

List of longest-running scripted American primetime television series
Number of seasonsSeriesNetwork
34The SimpsonsFox
24Law & Order: Special Victims UnitNBC
22Law & OrderNBC
21Family GuyFox
73 more rows

What is the longest show on earth? ›

List of longest-running television shows by category
RankYearsShow name
177The Championships, Wimbledon
276Lord Mayor's Show
374Meet the Press
473CBS Evening News
45 more rows

What is the most money lost on a movie? ›

Biggest box office bombs
TitleYearEstimated loss (millions)
Adjusted for inflation
Deepwater Horizon2016$68–126
Doctor Dolittle1967$88
Dolittle2020$52–105
71 more rows

What movie made the most profit? ›

With a worldwide box-office gross of over $2.9 billion, Avatar is proclaimed to be the "highest-grossing" film, but such claims usually refer to theatrical revenues only and don't take into account home video and television income, which can form a significant portion of a film's earnings.

What is the #1 podcast in 2022? ›

The top 10 shows based on measurement from Q3 2021 – Q2 2022 are as follows: The Joe Rogan Experience.

Who has the #1 rated podcast? ›

Top podcasts
Podcast Industry Ranking
Top 20 Podcasts
1The DailyThe New York Times
2Dateline NBCNBC News
3MorbidWondery
20 more rows

What is currently the most popular podcast? ›

Joe Rogan Experience: Spotify No. 1 Most Popular Podcast in 2022 - Variety.

Why do they call it 30 for 30? ›

The title, 30 for 30, derived from the series's genesis as 30 films in celebration of ESPN's 30th anniversary in 2009, with an exploration of the biggest stories from ESPN's first 30 years on-air, through a series of 30 one-hour films by 30 filmmakers.

What was the first 30 for 30 episode? ›

What are the new 30 for 30 episodes? ›

What is a most beautiful thing rated? ›

December 4, 2020 | Rating: 8.5/10 | Full Review… Mary Mazzio, writer/director of "A Most Beautiful Thing," takes us on an inspiring 'call to action' voyage - her sharp lens brings us one of the Best documentaries of 2020.

What's the best documentary on Netflix at the moment? ›

Documentaries
  • Intervention.
  • Inside the World's Toughest Prisons.
  • Animal.
  • Ancient Aliens.
  • Life After Death with Tyler Henry.
  • Formula 1: Drive to Survive.
  • Inside the Mind of a Cat.
  • The Hidden Lives of Pets.

How do I find a documentary? ›

Where to Watch Documentaries For Free
  1. Documentaries on PBS. The main PBS site has a ton of educational and news-related content available for instant free streaming online. ...
  2. Top Documentary Films. ...
  3. Discovering Raw Archive Footage. ...
  4. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. ...
  5. Hidden Category Codes. ...
  6. Doc Alliance Films. ...
  7. Hulu. ...
  8. Discovery Channel.
6 Jan 2022

Where can I find documentary videos? ›

8 Great Sources of FREE Public Domain Footage for Your Documentary!
  • Pond5 Public Domain Project.
  • Prelinger Archives housed at Archive.org.
  • The Internet Archive Moving Image Archive.
  • The National Archives Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Holdings.
  • Library of Congress American Memory Film Collection.
  • NASA.
9 Oct 2015

Where can I watch Real documentaries? ›

Watch on July 6
  • Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey. Netflix. ...
  • Our Father. Netflix. ...
  • Bad Vegan. Netflix. ...
  • The Tinder Swindler. Netflix. ...
  • Worst Roommate Ever. Netflix. ...
  • Why Did You Kill Me? Netflix. ...
  • LuLaRich. Amazon Prime. ...
  • The Raincoat Killer. Netflix.
30 Jun 2022

How much is a 30 minute documentary? ›

As a general rule of thumb, producers assume an average cost of $1,000 per finished minute for a short film. So, if you're planning a documentary that is in the estimated length of 30 minutes, you can potentially anticipate an expense of $30K.

Is there a documentary app? ›

With the DOCUMENTARY+ App you get: - Stream documentaries from the top studios in the world, curated by acclaimed filmmakers. - Full access to watch a documentary anytime, anywhere on your mobile device, tablet, computer, and connected tv.

How can I download movies to watch offline? ›

Download videos
  1. Make sure your device is connected to the internet.
  2. Open Google Play Movies & TV .
  3. Tap Library.
  4. Find the movie or TV episode you want to download.
  5. Tap Download .

What websites give free videos? ›

To summarize, here are our top free stock video website recommendations:
  • Pixabay.
  • Videvo.
  • Pexels.
  • Videezy.
  • Life of Vids.
  • Coverr.
  • Splitshire.
  • Clipstill.
8 Nov 2022

What is technically the best movie ever? ›

Best movies of all time
  • The 400 Blows (1959) Film. ...
  • Star Wars (1977) Film. ...
  • The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Film. ...
  • Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Film. Action and adventure. ...
  • Alien (1979) Film. Science fiction. ...
  • Tokyo Story (1951) Film. Drama. ...
  • Pulp Fiction (1994) Film. Drama. ...
  • The Truman Show (1998) Film. Fantasy.
20 Sept 2022

What is the greatest trilogy ever made? ›

The 33 Greatest Movie Trilogies
  • The Jersey Trilogy.
  • Hannibal Lecter Trilogy.
  • The Ingmar Bergman Trilogy.
  • Mission: Impossible 1-3.
  • Trilogy of the Dead.
  • The Mariachi Trilogy.
  • The Millenium Trilogy.
  • The Blade Trilogy.
4 Jun 2022

Who is the greatest filmmaker of all time? ›

The 50 greatest directors and their 100 best movies
  1. Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) ...
  2. Orson Welles (1915–1985) ...
  3. John Ford (1895–1973) ...
  4. Howard Hawks (1896–1977) ...
  5. Martin Scorsese (1942–present) ...
  6. Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998) ...
  7. Buster Keaton (1895–1966) ...
  8. Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007)
30 Jun 2022

What is the top 5 biggest movies of all time? ›

Top 10 highest grossing films of all time
  • Avatar (2009), $2.8 billion.
  • Avengers: Endgame (2019), $2.7 billion.
  • Titanic (1997), $2.2 billion.
  • Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), $2.06 billion.
  • Avengers: Infinity War (2018), $2.04 billion.
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), $1.9 billion.
19 Oct 2022

Who is the best actor in the world? ›

If one happens to simply Google the term "Best Actor in the world", there's a list of actors that turns up with the top most position being held by Leonardo DiCaprio.

What is one of the most successful film series of all times? ›

The highest-grossing movie franchise of all time is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The top two highest-grossing franchises, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars, are both owned by Disney.

What is the most successful movie sequel? ›

Avengers: Endgame 2019

What is the number one trilogy? ›

The 15 Greatest Film Trilogies Of All Time Ranked
  1. Star Wars Original Trilogy. Lucasfilm.
  2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. New Line Cinema. ...
  3. The Godfather Trilogy. Paramount Pictures. ...
  4. The Dark Knight Trilogy. Warner Bros. ...
  5. Before Trilogy. Columbia Pictures. ...
  6. Back to the Future Trilogy. ...
  7. Evil Dead Trilogy. ...
  8. The Man With No Name Trilogy. ...
2 Feb 2022

Who is the best director right now? ›

The 25 best directors working today
  • 1 of 25. Martin Scorsese. Colombia Pictures. ...
  • 2 of 25. Spike Lee. Universal Pictures. ...
  • 3 of 25. Greta Gerwig. A24. ...
  • 4 of 25. Jean Luc-Godard. Criterion Collection. ...
  • 5 of 25. Adam McKay. DreamWork Pictures. ...
  • 6 of 25. Pedro Almodovar. Sony Pictures Classics. ...
  • 7 of 25. Quentin Tarantino. ...
  • 8 of 25. Claire Denis.
10 Nov 2022

Which director has won the most Oscars? ›

With four Oscars, John Ford is the most acclaimed director in the history of the awards. The films that won him these awards were The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952).

Who is the oldest director in the world? ›

Manoel de Oliveira

Who made the first documentary? ›

Nanook of the North - by American filmmaker, Robert Flaherty (1922) - Considered the first "original" documentary, this film profiles the lives of a real Eskimo family. 1926 - the first recorded mention of the term "documentary" (by Scottish-born filmmaker John Grierson) to describe a non-fiction film.

What do you call people who do documentaries? ›

doc·​u·​men·​tar·​i·​an ˌdä-kyə-mən-ˈter-ē-ən. -ˌmen-, -kyü- : one who makes a documentary.

Can you make money from documentary? ›

For the highest qualities films, a broadcast deal (HBO, TCM, Netflix, etc) can generate a nice pay-out. Learn how to sell your documentary to Netflix. Selling your film to the educational market is also an option for the right kind of film. So of course, there is the opportunity to make some money from a documentary.

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