Overview
We've all got that one friend whose media diet exists solely of documentaries. They're usually, to be honest, the most interesting of us all wielding their accumulated eccentric knowledge. However, documentaries and doco-style films have long become mainstream and the capitalist marketplace has heard our hungry cries for more. Introducing DocPlay, the new Netflix for docos.
It's an Australian and New Zealand-based service that lets you stream documentaries directly. Their libraries are stuffed full of all the big names — Blackfish, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Advanced Style — complemented by some niche Aussie and international titles with a big emphasis on music.
A premium member fee of $6.95 a month (or $69.95 a year) will grant you access to their ever-growing library. And if sign up to a free account, you'll get access to their rotating selection of docos. This week features Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens, Academy Award winner The Cove, Ai Wewei: Never Sorry, and A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures amongst others. Not bad, not bad at all. If you don't want to cough up though, you can expect ads aplenty.
It's still a pretty fresh service and can only get better with time. But anything that enables us to while away a Sunday watching back-to-back docos can only be good thing.