Movies like Black Mother (2018)
The best movies like Black Mother (2018) are My Mom Jayne (2025), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) and Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020). If Black Mother hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)7.9/10 from 447 votes
- NewestMadame Favre's (2026)Released 2026
My Mom Jayne (2025)
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAll the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)
The life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
With this inventive portrait, director Kirsten Johnson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThey'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018)
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me (2023)
From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMcQueen (2018)
Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVal (2021)
For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood's most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors, has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne More Time with Feeling (2016)
Andrew Dominik's One More Time With Feeling is a remarkable black and white documentary which chronicles the creation of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' album Skeleton Tree. Originally a performance based concept, the film evolved into something much more significant as Dominik delved into the tragic backdrop of the writing and recording of the album. The result is stark, fragile and raw, and a true testament to an artist trying to find his way through the darkness. It documents the writing, recording and performing of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ sixteenth studio album, Skeleton Tree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTo Kill a Tiger (2023)
Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this78/52 (2017)
The most famous murder scene in movie history comprises 78 camera settings and 52 cuts: the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. 78/52 tells the story of the man behind the curtain and his greatest obsession.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeastie Boys Story (2020)
Here's a little story they're about to tell... Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz share the story of their band and 40 years of friendship in a live documentary experience directed by friend, collaborator, and their former grandfather, Spike Jonze.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLost in La Mancha (2002)
Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWoodstock (1970)
An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrainwreck: The Real Project X (2025)
A night of drunken chaos rocks a quiet Dutch town in this shocking documentary about a teen's birthday invite that accidentally went viral on Facebook.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
SnoozefestMovies like thisSummer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021)
During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012)
A journey into the labyrinthine heart of ideology, which shapes and justifies both collective and personal beliefs and practices: with an infectious zeal and voracious appetite for popular culture, Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek analyzes several of the most important films in the history of cinema to explain how cinematic narrative helps to reinforce prevailing ethics and political ideas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGame of Thrones: The Last Watch (2019)
For a year, acclaimed British filmmaker Jeanie Finlay was embedded on the set of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones,” chronicling the creation of the show’s most ambitious and complicated season. Debuting one week after the series 8 finale, GAME OF THRONES: THE LAST WATCH delves deep into the mud and blood to reveal the tears and triumphs involved in the challenge of bringing the fantasy world of Westeros to life in the very real studios, fields and car-parks of Northern Ireland. Made with unprecedented access, GAME OF THRONES: THE LAST WATCH is an up-close and personal portrait from the trenches of production, following the crew and the cast as they contend with extreme weather, punishing deadlines and an ever-excited fandom hungry for spoilers. Much more than a “making of” documentary, this is a funny, heartbreaking story, told with wit and intimacy, about the bittersweet pleasures of what it means to create a world – and then have to say goodbye to it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Matrix Revisited (2001)
The film goes behind the scenes of the 1999 sci-fi movie The Matrix.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)
Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDave Chappelle's Block Party (2005)
The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJ'ai décidé de mourir (2018)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Les dieux de Molenbeek (2019)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Miss Davison's Funeral (1913)
The funeral procession of suffragette Emily Davison - fatally injured at the Epsom Derby - passes through London to her final resting place in Morpeth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Lorena: Light-Footed Woman (2019)
A young woman of the Tarahumara, well-known for their extraordinary long distance running abilities, wins ultramarathons seemingly out of nowhere despite running in sandals.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Sean Penn, l'enfant terrible de l'Amérique (2024)
Sean Penn is almost a living legend. His filmography paints a picture of an 'other America': the lower class, the oppressed and the outsiders. Whether as an actor or director, he turns all the great myths upside down.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Wattstax (1973)
A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current-day Watts neighborhood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Madame Favre's (2026)
In a nursing home, a young man visits his grandmother. As she constantly repeats that she wants to go home, his grandson visits her now empty apartment, seeking to capture memories of a fading past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Het Pad van Sien (2022)
Sien (74) leaves for her hideout on the captivating island of Vlieland. Here she recollects her memories on an old tape recorder of her turbulent life as a mother, life-drawing model, squatter and activist in Amsterdam in the sixties.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Black Mother?
The closest matches to Black Mother are My Mom Jayne (2025), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) and Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Black Mother?
Start with My Mom Jayne (2025), the closest match to Black Mother.
What is the highest-rated movie like Black Mother?
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991), rated 7.9/10 by 447 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Black Mother?
Madame Favre's (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Black Mother?
Yes: My Mom Jayne (2025), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) and Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020).
How are movies similar to Black Mother chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Black Mother, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.