Movies like Ferguson Rises (2021)
The best movies like Ferguson Rises (2021) are O.J.: Made in America (2016), My Mom Jayne (2025) and Heart of a Dog (2015). If Ferguson Rises hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedO.J.: Made in America (2016)8.4/10 from 271 votes
- NewestPrecedent (2026)Released 2026
O.J.: Made in America (2016)
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMy 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 thisHeart of a Dog (2015)
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTongues Untied (1990)
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Not Your Negro (2017)
Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCome See Me in the Good Light (2025)
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Green Book: Guide to Freedom (2019)
In 1936, Victor H. Green (1892-1960) published The Negro Motorist Green Book, a book that was both a travel guide and a survival manual, to help African-Americans navigate safe those regions of the United States where segregation and Jim Crow laws were disgracefully applied.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this3 ½ Minutes, 10 Bullets (2015)
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving November 2012, four boys in a red SUV pull into a gas station after spending time at the mall buying sneakers and talking to girls. With music blaring, one boy exits the car and enters the store, a quick stop for a soda and a pack of gum. A man and a woman pull up next to the boys in the station, making a stop for a bottle of wine. The woman enters the store and an argument breaks out when the driver of the second car asks the boys to turn the music down. 3½ minutes and ten bullets later, one of the boys is dead. 3½ MINUTES dissects the aftermath of this fatal encounter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrips and Bloods: Made in America (2009)
With a first-person look at the notorious Crips and Bloods, this film examines the conditions that have lead to decades of devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke (2019)
This investigation examines the mysterious shooting of soul icon Sam Cooke, whose death silenced one of the most vital voices in the civil rights movement.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeliver Us from Evil (2006)
Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)
The story of the Black Panthers is often told in a scatter of repackaged parts, often depicting tragic, mythic accounts of violence and criminal activity; but this is an essential story, vibrant, human; a living and breathing chronicle of a pivotal movement that birthed a new revolutionary culture in America.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLooking for Richard (1996)
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCameraperson (2016)
As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPamela, a love story (2023)
In her own words, through personal video and diaries, Pamela Anderson shares the story of her rise to fame, rocky romances and infamous sex tape scandal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJohn Candy: I Like Me (2025)
Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisChadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King (2020)
A tribute to Chadwick Boseman, celebrating his life and legacy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like this13th (2016)
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Am Heath Ledger (2017)
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this35 Up (1991)
Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHigh Landz (TBA)
High up in the Northern California mountains there is a place, where not too many get to visit. Its called - The Emerald Triangle, real mecca of Americas cannabis game. Follow a ukrainian journalist Luka on a journey that explores lifes of real growers and hustlers and the dangers that come with it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Linnentown (2025)
The last living descendants of a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Athens, GA, come together to fight to preserve the memory of Linnentown. Their family homes were razed in a 1960s urban renewal project, and now they, along with civic-minded neighbors, unite to try to reclaim their forgotten history and seek redress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Precedent (2026)
A documentary on police brutality during the anti-corruption protest in Valjevo, Serbia on August 14th, 2025.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Malcolm X: Make It Plain (1994)
Narrated by actress Alfre Woodard, this trenchant, eye-opening doc traces the radical civil rights leader’s life from his tumultuous childhood, through his rise in the ranks of the Nation of Islam, to his 1965 assassination.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Steal This Film (2006)
Steal This Film focuses on Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde, prominent members of the Swedish filesharing community. The makers claimed that 'Old Media' documentary crews couldn't understand the internet culture that filesharers took part in, and that they saw peer-to-peer organization as a threat to their livelihoods. Because of that, they were determined to accurately represent the filesharing community from within. Notably, Steal This Film was released and distributed, free of charge, through the same filesharing networks that the film documents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Gipfelstürmer - Die blutigen Tage von Genua (2002)
A documentary about the police tactics during the G-8 summit in Genoa in 2002 which lead to the death of one person and left many people wounded.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Notes of Resistance and Erasure (2021)
This experimental short traces the lifespan of the graffiti and murals present at the occupation of NYC’s City Hall in June and July of 2020. The encampment formed to demand the abolishment of the NYPD and the reallocation of its resources to housing, education, and other social programs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Stonebreakers (2022)
In a year of uprisings and political unrest, Stonebreakers documents the fights around monuments in the United States and explores the shifting landscapes of the nation's historical memory.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020)
Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCoded Bias (2020)
Exploring the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini's startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ferguson Rises?
The closest matches to Ferguson Rises are O.J.: Made in America (2016), My Mom Jayne (2025) and Heart of a Dog (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ferguson Rises?
Start with O.J.: Made in America (2016), the closest match to Ferguson Rises.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ferguson Rises?
O.J.: Made in America (2016), rated 8.4/10 by 271 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ferguson Rises?
Precedent (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Ferguson Rises?
Yes: O.J.: Made in America (2016), My Mom Jayne (2025) and Heart of a Dog (2015).
How are movies similar to Ferguson Rises chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ferguson Rises, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.