While lots of the most popular Netflix documentaries tend to be true crime or profiles of famous celebrities, the world’s biggest streamer now and then manages to put out a really powerful doc too, and that’s the case right now with a new documentary which has been released on Netflix.
This documentary movie is called Yintah, which was added to Netflix on Friday, October 18. It’s already enjoyed a successful Film Festival run which has already resulted in Oscar nods and fantastic reviews.
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It touches on themes of climate change, the mistreatment of native people and grassroots activism. According to the movie’s directors (in a statement to Netflix’s blog Tudum) the filmmakers were on the frontline almost as much as the Wet’suwet’en people, routinely being threatened, detained and arrested just for documenting the conflict.
This proactive style of filmmaking paid off though — at the time of writing (prior to Yintah hitting Netflix) every single Rotten Tomatoes review is positive, though there aren’t enough for a percentage score just yet.
Yintah played at a few film festivals prior to its Netflix release including Hot Docs, where it won the audience award, Camden International Film Festival and Sheffield DocFest (which also saw another fantastic Netflix doc, Mountain Queen).
The movie wasn’t made by Netflix, only being acquired by the streamer mid-way through the festival run. As per Variety, Netflix will ensure that Yintah qualifies for the Academy Awards, setting up hopes for it to be a contender for Best Documentary Feature.
This refers to the fact that movies need a theatrical run in order to qualify for contention, and Netflix is presumably ensuring that this will happen.
Of all the streaming services Netflix is the strongest in the Best Documentary Feature arena, having already won the category with Icarus and My Octopus Teacher in the past, and judging by its reception Yintah could be in with a chance of joining that prestigious list.
You can watch Yintah on Netflix right now, and it clocks in at just over two hours long.
