Soul and R&B have a documentary advantage that other genres do not. The music was often recorded in rooms where somebody happened to have a camera, and a lot of that footage sat in warehouses for decades before anyone thought to look at it. Summer of Soul is the famous example. It isn’t the only one.
Many of these films also confront the systems surrounding the music: segregation, erased credits, exploitative contracts and the expectation that extraordinary singers remain just outside the spotlight. The history is inseparable from the performances.
Begin with Summer of Soul for recovered history, Amazing Grace for performance and Standing in the Shadows of Motown for the musicians whose work was heard everywhere while their names remained unfamiliar.
The available catalog changes regularly, and newer films will be added when they bring reporting, access or archival material that expands the list.
This genre gets less documentary attention than any other and somehow turns out more films worth watching. That’s why the page runs long.
The list, at a glance
Everything here with credits, because half of these films are about people you will not recognise by sight.
| Film | Year | Director |
|---|---|---|
| Standing in the Shadows of Motown | 2002 | Paul Justman |
| Amazing Grace | 2018 | Stan Lathan |
| 20 Feet From Stardom | 2013 | Morgan Neville |
| What Happened, Miss Simone | 2016 | Liz Garbus |
| Mavis! | 2015 | Jessica Edwards |
| Buena Vista Social Club | 1999 | Wim Wenders |
| Soul Power | 2008 | Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte |
| The Girls in the Band | 2013 | Judy Chaikin |
| Mary J Blige, My Life | 2021 | Vanessa Roth |
| Tina | 2021 | T.J. Martin, Daniel Lindsay |
| Summer of Soul | 2021 | Questlove |
| Call Me Country, Beyonce and Nashville’s Renaissance | 2024 |
Start here
Summer of Soul, 2021. Questlove found footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival sitting in a basement after fifty years. Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, all recorded and then ignored by every network that was offered it. It also sits at the center of our main music documentary list. What makes the film more than a recovery project is the context. It keeps cutting to the neighborhood, the politics, the reasons the footage was abandoned in the first place. It won the Oscar, the BAFTA and the Grammy.
Trailer for Summer of Soul, from the official Searchlight Pictures channel.
Amazing Grace, 2018. Stan Lathan’s film, Aretha Franklin singing at a church in Los Angeles in nineteen seventy two, filmed over two nights and then stuck in legal limbo for decades. The footage is astonishing and the film is almost entirely just her singing. That is a compliment. Nothing needs to be added.
Trailer for Amazing Grace.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown, 2002. Paul Justman’s film, with the Funk Brothers, the session musicians behind an extraordinary run of hits, finally getting named and paid attention to. It shares DNA with The Wrecking Crew and is if anything angrier about how the industry treated the people behind the curtain.
The portraits
What Happened, Miss Simone, 2016. Liz Garbus on Nina Simone, largely in her own words, drawn from tape she recorded herself. It doesn’t flinch from her volatility or from the industry that exploited her, and it makes clear those two things are connected. Nominated for the Oscar the same year Amy won.
Tina, 2021. T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay let Tina Turner decide what to say and what to leave, decades after walking away from the worst of it. Unsparing about the abuse and unusually clear-eyed about the cost of the comeback.
Mavis!, 2015. Jessica Edwards on Mavis Staples, who has been singing about civil rights since she was a teenager and has the clearest, warmest voice in this entire list of films. The most purely enjoyable portrait here.
Mary J. Blige’s My Life, 2021. Twenty-five years after the album that defined her, Blige returns to the circumstances surrounding its creation and explains what the songs carried for her at the time.
Concert and performance films
Soul Power, 2008. Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte on the nineteen seventy four concert in Kinshasa that was supposed to be Muhammad Ali’s night and became a music event. James Brown, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz, all performing in a stadium. It sat unreleased for years and it is a blast.
20 Feet From Stardom, 2013. Morgan Neville on the backup singers who were told to stay put. We lead with it on the main list, and it’s still the only documentary about backup singers that treats them as artists rather than supporting evidence. It won the Oscar, and it is the film that best captures how the industry systematically took Black women’s voices and told them to remain behind someone else.
Trailer for 20 Feet From Stardom, from Radius.
The ones worth seeking out
The Girls in the Band, 2013. Female jazz musicians of the thirties and forties, written out of the history, and the first film on our jazz list. It crosses into jazz territory but belongs on this list too, because the erasure it documents is the same one.
Buena Vista Social Club, 1999. Filed under Latin more often than soul, and the pleasure of watching elderly musicians finally get the recognition they were denied lands the same either way. It’s one of the first films we recommend on Max.
Call Me Country, Beyonce and Nashville’s Renaissance, 2024. Country’s refusal to accept her and what that says about the genre’s boundaries. Pairs naturally with our best country music documentaries list.
Where to watch
Availability changes frequently.
Max carries Tina, Mavis!, Summer of Soul through the HBO library, and Call Me Country.
Hulu carries Summer of Soul and is where several Black music histories land first.
Amazon Prime has Mary J Blige, My Life included rather than rented, along with The Girls in the Band.
Apple carries Amazing Grace and 20 Feet From Stardom in rotation.
Netflix has What Happened, Miss Simone and The Greatest Night in Pop.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown and Soul Power are older titles and usually need digital rental. Both are worth the few dollars.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best soul and R&B documentary? Summer of Soul, 2021, for the strongest overall film. Amazing Grace, 2018, if you would rather just watch Aretha Franklin sing.
What is the best documentary about Motown? Standing in the Shadows of Motown, 2002, which tells the story through the session musicians rather than the famous names.
Which music documentaries have won an Oscar? Summer of Soul and 20 Feet From Stardom both won Best Documentary Feature. What Happened, Miss Simone was nominated the same year Amy won.
What is the best R&B documentary on Netflix? What Happened, Miss Simone, 2016, which covers Nina Simone across jazz, soul and civil rights.
Are there good documentaries about backup singers? Yes. 20 Feet From Stardom, 2013, is the definitive one and it won the Academy Award.