Movies like The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War
The best movies like The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War are Come See Me in the Good Light (2025), Sherman's March (1986) and Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20 (2022). If The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- NewestWolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory (2026)Released 2026
Come 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 thisSherman's March (1986)
Documentarian Ross McElwee originally set out to make a travelogue of sorts tracing General William T. Sherman's infamous scorched-earth march through the Confederacy in the latter stages of the Civil War. Instead, haunted by a recent breakup with a girlfriend, McElwee ends up documenting his progress -- or lack thereof -- in starting a new relationship. His journey then becomes one of self-reflection and self-discovery rather than a historical/sociological exploration.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAvatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20 (2022)
An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMemories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes (2021)
Serial killer Dennis Nilsen narrates his life and horrific crimes via a series of chilling audiotapes recorded from his jail cell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSidney (2022)
This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisThe Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020)
A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNight Will Fall (2014)
When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCharlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAs I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006)
A documentary on the life of John Lennon, with a focus on the time in his life when he transformed from a musician into an antiwar activist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Toxic Love Story (2026)
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeing James Bond (2021)
Daniel Craig candidly reflects on his 15 year adventure as James Bond. Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die, Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNaqoyqatsi (2002)
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory (2026)
Reconnecting with a pack of wolves he has followed for seven years, Bertie sets out to capture one of the Arctic's most dangerous and rarely filmed hunts: wolves taking on a bull moose, prey roughly ten times their size. Led by Kona, a striking white breeding male, the pack faces a critical winter as dwindling food supplies, an encroaching rival wolf and an aging leader threaten its survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisNo Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad (2013)
A documentary about the making of season five of the acclaimed AMC series Breaking Bad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFuck (2006)
A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSeduced and Abandoned (2013)
SEDUCED AND ABANDONED combines acting legend Alec Baldwin with director James Toback as they lead us on a troublesome and often hilarious journey of raising financing for their next feature film. Moving from director to financier to star actor, the two players provide us with a unique look behind the curtain at the world's biggest and most glamourous film festival, shining a light on the bitter-sweet relationship filmmakers have with Cannes and the film business. Featuring insights from directors Martin Scorsese, 'Bernando Bertolucci' and Roman Polanski; actors Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain and a host of film distribution luminaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crystal Calls - Making The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)
Go behind the scenes with stars, puppeteers and creators as they bring Jim Henson's magical world of Thra back to life in a sweeping fantasy series.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDestination Home (2014)
A Liberian refugee SAM REAYAH and his family have been separated for five years and live in uncertainty waiting for family reunion. While Sam and his younger daughter Ruth continue their lives in Buduburam Refugee camp in Ghana, his wife Decontee and his older daughter Joyce have already started a life in Rochester, USA. The film explores the idea of home. Sam's family had a home in Liberia, but they had to give it up. They were forced to build homes elsewhere. They built a home in Ghana. They build a home in The United States. They built homes together, they build homes separate of each other. But which home does the heart want?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Money as Debt (2006)
Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Slave Trade in the World Today (1964)
The film documents modern slave trade through a number of African countries, under dictatorship rule. The filming was conducted both in public places, and sometimes with the use of hidden cameras, for high impact scenes of nudity, sex, and violence - and a few surprises, as slaves made out of peregrins to Asia, and slave traders paid in traveller checks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Nazaten (2025)
Frans Bromet goes in search of his family history and discovers that Hermanus Bromet was a well-known slave trader in Suriname. Should he feel guilty for what his ancestor did? How do you deal with a burdened family past?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
CIVIL WAR SURVEILLANCE POEMS (Part 1) (2019)
"CIVIL WAR SURVEILLANCE POEMS (Part 1)" is the first installment in a five-part project of experimental and hybrid-form short films contemplating a second American civil war via lyrical nonfiction, mixing call-in radio, twenty years of verité footage from the filmmaker's archive, and robots. Conceptually speculating from sixteen years in the future (and a protracted civil war), the project is partly nostalgic political travelogue, partly a quest to mine the archive for what went wrong, and part prewar surveillance records, the project deconstructs and builds to a clashing ideology, culminating in an installation of sound sculpture, four-walled video and artifacts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
How the Monuments Came Down (2021)
How the Monuments Came Down is a timely and searing look at the history of white supremacy and Black resistance in Richmond. The feature-length film-brought to life by history-makers, descendants, scholars, and activists-reveals how monuments to Confederate leaders stood for more than a century, and why they fell.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Reggae Music (1981)
Documentary about reggae in Jamaica and its history. Filmed in 1979.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (2009)
Just days after the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre. As a fractured nation mourned, a manhunt closed in on his assassin, the twenty-six-year-old actor, John Wilkes Booth. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln tracks the converging paths of the president and his killer, then tracks and draws connections between their last journeys, in the forms of Lincoln's funeral train route and Booth's desperate efforts to escape.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Lapo Chapé (2025)
The term "Lapo Chapé", derived from Martinican Creole, means "the skin color that escapes the status of a slave." This documentary thus explores the themes of skin color and mixed heritage from a unique perspective, through a series of testimonies that shed light on the invisible influences of history. These influences have shaped our social representations and continue to challenge our perceptions of identity today.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Colombia in My Arms (2022)
After 52 years of armed conflict the FARC guerrillas are about to hand over their arms in exchange for political participation and social inclusion of the poor. Ernesto is one of them. The much celebrated Colombian peace agreement throws Ernesto and the polarised society around him into chaos in which everyone is afraid of the future and their own survival.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War?
The closest matches to The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War are Come See Me in the Good Light (2025), Sherman's March (1986) and Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20 (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War?
Start with Come See Me in the Good Light (2025), the closest match to The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War.
What is the newest movie like The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War?
Wolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War?
Yes: Come See Me in the Good Light (2025), Sherman's March (1986) and Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20 (2022).
How are movies similar to The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.