The 5 best documentaries of August 2026—on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and more

August is kind of the year’s runt of the litter when it comes to streaming—it’s often a slow stretch between summer tentpoles and the wave of new and exciting programming coming in the fall. But it appears that August 2026’s documentaries didn’t get the memo. Over the past four weeks, HBO Max, Netflix, Paramount+, and Hulu each came to the table with some compelling and fascinating nonfiction, some of which may end up on best-of-the-year lists.