9 Essential Docs to Watch Before the End of 2025

Stories to fuel your breakthrough, pivot, or the long game

Use this library of documentaries as fuel for wherever you are in the journey. Whether you’re working in the wait before your breakthrough, navigating a pivot, or building something designed to outlast you – these documentaries are evidence that the path to greatness is rarely linear.

Wherever you are, there’s a story here that meets you.

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BEFORE THE BREAKTHROUGH

Docs to remind you that big ideas start in small rooms.

HITSVILLE: THE MAKING OF MOTOWN — For those of us building a new system.

Where To Watch: Paramount Plus

In the late 1950s, before the Civil Rights Act banned segregation, before the Voting Rights Act ensured all Americans had the right to vote, and before Martin had a dream, a 27-year-old working in the factory for Ford Motor Company decided to quit his job and focus on making music. Taking what he’d learned from the assembly line and an $800 loan from his family, he purchased a home in Detroit that would become Motown—headquarters for one of the most important record labels in history. Alongside Smokey Robinson and a small team of incredible writers and musicians, they built a best-in-class system that produced incredible artists like The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and the Jackson 5. The doc is an incredible watch for anyone feeling like the current systems are failing us. It reminds you that there was a time when people had to build what they’d never seen exist. As Motown’s first head of A&R put it: “It was all a divine movement for a purpose. To let other talented people know you don’t have to suffer under the system. Create for yourself. So Motown became a model.”

SELENA Y LOS DINOS — For those of us wondering when all this effort will finally add up.

Where To Watch: Netflix

Selena y Los Dinos is a reminder that greatness is rarely sudden — it’s practiced. What stays with you is not just Selena’s talent, but the sheer number of repetitions it took for her voice, her sound, her style, and even her movement to become undeniable. You watch her grow in real time, shaped by countless performances, long drives, small stages, and the quiet discipline of showing up again and again. The same is true of everyone around her — her family, her band, her collaborators — each putting in the work before anyone was watching. The documentary gently reframes “breakthrough” as accumulation, offering reassurance that what can feel like delay or obscurity is often the very process that makes a gift unmistakable when the moment finally arrives.

JEENYUHS: A KANYE TRILOGY — For those of us doing the work before the world watches.

Where To Watch: Netflix

One of my favorite docs of the last decade, Jeen-yuhs gives us a rare glimpse into the messy and magnificent journey of becoming great before the world catches on. Before the controversial artist known as Ye, there was Kanye—an awkward kid with braces from Chicago who dared to believe in himself, his music, and his story. This epic three-episode saga chronicles Kanye’s 8-year journey in the music scene that led to his debut album The College Dropout, his bond with his mother, the late Donda West, and the complicated nature of what fame and rejection can do to us. But what’s often overlooked is the resilient and empathetic storytelling of his longtime friend Coodie Simmons. Coodie had the foresight to pick up a camera and preserve intimate footage of Kanye well before Netflix started making original content. For over 20 years, throughout the course of their enduring and sometimes complicated relationship, Coodie captured over 267 hours of footage, which he and his creative partner Chike Ozah were unsure would ever see the light of day. Coodie (and Kanye’s) story is an example of doing the work before the world takes notice and a reminder that the platforms that will amplify your work may not even exist yet.

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THE PIVOT POINT

Docs to help you get through the messy middle.

IN THE ARENA: SERENA WILLIAMS — For those of us who need joy in a world that keeps trying to take it.

Where To Watch: Hulu

Serena: In the Arena is an eight-episode ESPN documentary series that offers a deeply personal and chronological look at Serena Williams’s 27-year tennis career, from the public courts of Compton to becoming one of the most dominant athletes in history. It’s so much more than just a chronicle of dominance; it’s bearing witness to what it looks like to keep choosing joy even when the pressure never lets up. What stayed with me wasn’t just the winning, it was the insistence on finding pleasure in the process when the stakes feel unfairly high, and the margin for error feels impossibly small. The series quietly reminds us that difficulty does not disqualify joy — and that resilience is more than endurance. It’s also refusing to let hardship steal the thing that brings you life.

MARTHA — For those of us weighed down by an image that’s no longer serving us.

Where To Watch: Netflix

Martha Stewart is an American icon. She used her knack for homemaking and entertaining to turn herself into a media empire and became a self-made billionaire in 1999, before creator-led brands were a thing. She represented an aspirational, almost unattainable image of domestic excellence—one rooted in the impossibly high standards her critical father placed on her. And it almost crushed her. The price of perfection? Five months in prison for lying to investigators about insider trading.

But even in prison, Martha found productive pursuits: cooking hors d’oeuvres out of commissary items, making ceramics, scrubbing floors. This is where Martha went from good to great for me. There was something about her during and after prison that felt like a weight had lifted. She no longer had to be perfect. She could focus her genius on making something out of nothing, not making the perfect thing. On what she could create, not what she had to maintain.

Post-prison, Martha finally got her swag. She roasted Justin Bieber, co-starred in a cooking show with Snoop Dogg, and covered Sports Illustrated at 81. Her authenticity resonated with an even younger audience, expanding her reach. The doc shows us the power of the second act—the one on the other side of performing. Sometimes the fall is what finally sets you free.

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM — For those of us who need to make a change.

Where To Watch: Prime or YouTube

Life is But A Dream meets Beyoncé at a key inflection point in her career. She’d just finished riding the wave of her most commercially successful album and tour up to that point (I Am Sasha Fierce) and the subsequent stress that comes with the need to keep up with that. The doc starts with her explaining how chasing that sort of fame had begun to cripple her creativity. She realized the path she was on was no longer working for her – the cost was too high. “It wasn’t enough. You can’t express yourself. You can’t grow,” she says at the start of the doc. So she decided to change course and set a goal of independence. “I don’t care if I don’t sell one record. It’s bigger than the record. It’s bigger than my career,” she says.

So she let go of her dad as manager, took control of her own company, and embarked on the journey of deciding the kind of artist she truly wanted to be. I love this doc because it follows her shift from popularity to potency. Her quest to create her best work and the resulting fruits of that labor – her purest, most soulful album, 4, the 2011 Billboard Awards performance that signalled her elevation as a live entertainer, and her journey to motherhood. We get to watch her figure out the problems in music she wants to be an answer to (“people don’t listen to a body of work anymore”), assert her desire to empower women through her art and through her own self-leadership, learn to trust her taste, and surrender to her God.

This doc gets better with age because we get to bear witness to all of this knowing just how much betting on herself worked out for her. It’s a vulnerable snapshot of resilience and the pain you must endure on the journey to trusting yourself. A portrait of a woman on the verge of groundbreaking greatness, making the decisions that put her on the path to becoming the legendary artist we see today. It’s a timely reminder to all of us of the kind of blind faith necessary on the path to our best work.

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BUILDING FOR THE LONG GAME

Docs to remind you that greatness takes time.

BARBARA WALTERS: “TELL ME EVERYTHING” — For those of us building up the courage to ask the hard questions.

Where to Watch: Hulu

The Barbara Walters documentary on Hulu is essential viewing for creatives building toward longevity rather than chasing momentary relevance. What makes it so instructive is how clearly it traces the mechanics behind her success: obsessive preparation, emotional intelligence, and a willingness to sit in discomfort long enough to ask the questions others avoided. Walters didn’t rely on charm alone—she studied her subjects, anticipated the room, and treated interviewing as both an art and a discipline.

For leaders and creatives, the film reframes ambition as endurance. You see how she navigated skepticism, gendered criticism, and institutional resistance without abandoning her voice, choosing instead to sharpen it. She understood that trust is earned, curiosity is essential, and longevity requires constant evolution. Central to her journey was a deep sense of self-trust—her conviction that celebrities could be legitimate newsmakers allowed her to pioneer a lane that would ultimately become her legacy and open doors for countless others. Walters’ career is a reminder that excellence is rarely accidental; it’s built through curiosity, courage, and an almost stubborn commitment to craft.

IN VOGUE: THE 90s — For those of us wondering if their best work is behind them.

Where To Watch: Hulu

In Vogue: The 90s is a quiet masterclass in what it actually takes to build a cultural institution. What stands out isn’t just the clothes or the moments, but watching Anna Wintour step fully into the work of her life — bringing together people she admired, trusted, and respected. Vogue wasn’t built by raw ambition or early momentum. It couldn’t have been built by twenty-somethings. It required taste refined over time, conviction earned through risk, and the discernment that comes from seeing cycles repeat — knowing what lasts, when to take a risk, and when to hold the line. The series reframes success as a long game, offering a quiet reassurance that what can feel like delay is often preparation for the work that finally warrants everything you’ve learned.

THE BLACK GODFATHER — For those that of us need evidence that the best legacies are built through collaboration and mentorship.

Where To Watch: Netflix

The Black Godfather is a masterclass in leadership that’s rooted not in spotlight-seeking, but in strategic collaboration and the vitalness of community on the path to greatness. Clarence Avant didn’t just open doors for himself – he built a web of relationships designed to pull others through, creating a quiet but powerful pattern of mentorship that outpaced what traditional systems ever taught or offered rising black leaders. The documentary reveals how real influence is cultivated behind the scenes: through trust, information sharing, and a long-term view of success that includes everyone at the table. Avant’s legacy reveals that when institutions fall short, intentional mentorship and coalition-building can become an alternative curriculum – one that teaches power, protection, and possibility all at once.