Kelly1 season, 6 episodes IMDb:Lifetime aired this chilling docuseries earlier this year, revisiting allegations of abuse made by several women against the R&B star known as R. The show details Kelly’s rise to fame, his own abusive past, and how he carefully cultivated an inner circle that helped him to prey on young women, from high-school-aged fans to fellow artists like the late Aliyah. The show also follows Kelly’s current legal troubles, allegations that he’s operating a sex cult filled with underage girls, and hears testimony from Kelly’s victims, who hope he’ll see justice one day. Netflix Making A Murderer2 seasons, 20 episodes IMDb:This is one of Netflix’s most popular documentary series, and you’ll understand why after one episode. The show follows the case of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, who were arrested for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach.

But what initially appears to be a clear-cut case becomes much more questionable once filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi take you inside a system that seems designed to generate guilty verdicts rather than discover the truth. Wild Wild Country1 season, 6 episodes IMDb:This series from Netflix has inspired plenty of parodies since it’s release — SNL did a particularly — but the subject matter of the show is decidedly less funny. The documentary paints a portrait of controversial Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) who became something of a God to his many followers in the 70s. Along with help from his assistant, Ma Anand Sheela, he created a community of his followers in Oregon in the early 80s, causing a scandal, one the included a mass poisoning and an assassination attempt on a U.S attorney. CNN The Seventies1 season, 8 episodes IMDb:CNN’s ongoing decades-based documentary series provides a “remember when” account of all the major beats across US history from 1960 up to 2000. Executive produced by Tom Hanks, the series ties together reels of archival footage with interviews from scholars, celebrities, and the people who were there to give you a solid glimpse into the mindsets and emotions of the times, if not the most in-depth information on any singular topic.

Juliane Koepcke. Juliane Koepcke (born 1954), also known by her married name Juliane Diller, is a German Peruvian mammalogist. As a teenager in 1971, Koepcke was the lone survivor of the LANSA Flight 508 plane crash, and then survived eleven days alone in the Amazon rainforest.

Episodes touch on cultural zeitgeists like the battle of the sexes or specific moments like the Watergate break-in. Ken Burns: The Civil War1 season, 9 episodes IMDb:Ken Burns is a prolific documentary maker whose style of storytelling set the standard for decades to come.

1990’s The Civil War was his first series and tied together over 16,000 archival photos from the 1860s with first-hand accounts taken from the letters of those leading the country right down to the soldiers who fought and died on the battlefield. Those that love the Ken Burns signature style displayed here will undoubtedly enjoy his other documentary series currently on Netflix like (on World War II),. Netflix Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes1 season, 4 episodes IMDb:Ted Bundy is one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, so you’d think we’d know the whole of this sociopath’s exploits by now, but this docuseries manages to find a new angle on the story of Bundy’s descent into madness. Through confessional recordings, victims’ testimonies, and investigative reporting, the short series charts how Bundy, a handsome, educated white man, was able to deceive so many for so long, murdering young women along the way.

What’s even more interesting about this series is that, while the show explores how Bundy’s crimes made him an idol for some, it also does justice by his victims, detailing their backstories and interviewing their surviving family members. Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On1 season, 6 episodes IMDb:This documentary series is the sequel to the 2015 documentary movie and investigates the rapidly expanding world of pornography in the age of the internet.

From cam girls to quirky independent erotica producers to full-on porn stars, Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On explores several different facets of the industry. While the series doesn’t overtly judge its subjects, it also doesn’t shy away from asking the difficult moral questions or addressing the effects pornography has on both the people making and consuming it. Netflix Last Chance U4 seasons, 23 episodes IMDb:Last Chance U is a fascinating look at the world of college football and the young men trying to make it through into the NFL. The series focuses on East Mississippi Community College (EMCC), known both for pumping out future stars and as a place where players with bad grades or bad behavior can get a “last chance” at pulling things together and making something of themselves in the world of sports.

Even those who have no interest in football should still enjoy the individual stories told in this documentary series, which range from triumphant to heartbreaking. The Keepers1 season, 7 episodes IMDb:The Keepers is another true crime original from Netflix in the vein of Making A Murderer. Focused initially on the murder of Catholic high school teacher Sister Cathy Cesnik, the series takes viewers down a shockingly dark path into a world of sexual abuse perpetrated by those running Archbishop Keough High School in the 1960s and other members high up in the community. The Keepers paints a stark picture of a system that’s allowed powerful men to get away with horrible crimes against women — who were systematically ignored and overlooked when they attempted to get justice. BBC Planet Earth1 season, 11 episodes IMDb:This award-winning nature documentary series from David Attenborough and the BBC is probably responsible for selling more high definition televisions than any other program.

Beautifully shot in the most remote corners of the globe, you won’t find a more breathtaking and awe-inspiring collection of footage out there unless watch Planet Earth 2, which unfortunately isn’t on Netflix at this time. Here’s some good news, though: after you work your way through this 11 episode series, you can follow it up with other series from Attenborough and the BBC on Netflix like.

Shot In The Dark1 season, 8 episodes IMDb:Fans of the Jake Gyllenhaal movie might be interested in this documentary series that follows around three rival ‘stringer’ crews in Los Angeles as they scour the police scanners for accidents and crimes they can potentially sell footage of to local news channels. As unusual and interesting as the subject matter is, it’s the characters and their often contentious relationships with each other that will keep you binge watching. Be warned, though: the show features lots of carnage and the exploitative nature of the stringer business may leave you feeling a bit sleazy for even watching.

Netflix Cocaine1 season, 3 episodes IMDb:With all the dramas on Netflix about the drug trade, it’s only fair that there’s a documentary series on cocaine out there as well. Each episode of this series gives you a different look at cocaine’s effects, and of course, none of them are very good. From the Peruvian farmers who provide drug manufacturers with the coca leaves to the drug enforcers who live and die in Rio de Janeiro, there are few happy endings here. The final episode of the series pulls back to show how the drug trade has destabilized the entire country of Colombia, leaving it on the verge of constant civil war.

On April 20, 1999, I took cover along with several friends under a cafeteria table at Columbine High School, in Littleton, Colorado, while two heavily armed shooters killed 12 of my fellow students, one of my teachers and wounded over 20 others.

They try their hardest to understand in 24 hours a condition in which some people spend their entire lives. The messengers episodes. In this show, the speakers spend a day walking in someone else's shoes. They relate to people, they love people, they reach out to people.

It has taken me nearly 20 years to want to talk about it publicly.

I've found that even the survivors of that day don't talk about the event itself. We don’t need to; we know what the other person is feeling and we don’t need to relive it.

And with the media circus that erupted after the tragedy, many of us did not feel comfortable opening up to a journalist or interviewer. Major news media only had part of the Columbine story: the headlines. It was so much more than that to us — it was more than death, fear and trauma. We felt like it was Columbine versus the world.

Stepping back to 1999

It took me nearly 20 years, but I finally began opening up to the friends I was with that day. I began working on a documentary of the shooting in 2012 and reconnected with my high school building and classmates. I was surprised by their feelings of fear, guilt, anger, and their need for predictability and stability in their lives. We shared our instinct for always knowing where our exits were, should we need to remove ourselves from stressful situations.

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In 1999, I was a 14-year-old freshman. I was concerned with getting to my classes on time, doing my homework and picking out my outfit for the day; I expected to eat lunch and go back to class. When all that changed, I had a hard time understanding what was happening. I initially thought it was an outsider who brought a gun to our school because I couldn’t comprehend how or why anyone would want to hurt so many people. School is supposed to be a safe place; I was supposed to go to class and take a test. It all seemed so innocent.

In the aftermath, I was very hard on myself for the feelings I was experiencing and how I thought I should be acting. I felt pressure to talk about what that day was like for me and I didn’t want to. I felt anxiety because I wasn’t able to focus on homework assignments, but still had to keep my grades up. I was angry that so many of my classmates and my teacher lost their lives in an instant. I was alive, yet I was scared and anxious that everyone around me was hurting and still knew that we had to find a way to move on.

Talk through the trauma

I used to compare my trauma levels to my friends’ trauma levels. I assumed that because I was in the cafeteria — not the library or a classroom — or I didn’t hear any gunshots, then my trauma was not as bad as theirs. The reality is that the students who attended Columbine High School all had a shared trauma, even though we were all in different places that day.

Over the years, I realized I had not really committed to understanding my own feelings, and how this event affects my day to day, even after all this time. During and after the filming of my documentary, I began attending therapy. Professional help and my friends' reactions and validation allowed me to admit to myself I was a trauma survivor and that my feelings and actions are consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder. Even today, the sound of gunshots is a trigger for me. Finally admitting this and discussing it were the key to my recovery.

I wanted to reach trauma survivors of all kinds, and to help them and the Columbine community find a way to move through and beyond this traumatic event. The film I made about my process is named after our school pride chant, in use before April 20, 1999, but one that has taken on much greater significance in the years since: “We Are Columbine.”

We are Columbine. We are survivors, students, teachers, professionals, mothers and fathers. We will be forever shaped by what we experienced that day, but we won't let it define us. And by finally talking about it, we found a way to heal.

Laura Farber is a documentary filmmaker. In 2012, Farber launched Lioness Productions and 'We Are Columbine' is her feature documentary directorial debut.