Welcome to The Watchlist 008.
Big news! From 26th to 29th November we’re hosting the first ever Docs to Watch online premiere.
Hyper: The Stevie Hyper D Story is an amazing doc about an unsung hero of the 90s rave scene. It sold out cinemas in the UK and US, but it’s another case of a great indie doc that broadcasters didn’t give a chance to find its audience. So me and the film team have decided to do it ourselves, for one weekend only you can rent it through Kinema.
Every ticket sale helps the filmmakers to clear the music and archive rights to give it a permanent online release, so you’ll really be helping an indepedent film secure its future. Details here (and below).
01 THIS WEEK’S PICKS
Directed by Jamie Ross-Hulme · 2025 · Available to rent through Kinema, 26–29 November only.
HYPER: The Stevie Hyper D Story
Take yourself back to the peak of the 90s rave scene. Lasers, sweaty nights in warehouses, pirate radio, Mitsubishis, and over the top of all of it an MC who could ride a jungle beat faster than anyone else in the room. That was Stevie Hyper D, and if you were anywhere near that world you’ll know the voice. Outside it he’s barely known, which is a big part of why this film exists.
Mixmag said it might be the greatest jungle film ever made. We’re hosting it for one weekend only, 26th to 29th November, and advance tickets are on sale now.
Rent it here.
Directed by Richard da Costa and Alex Parkinson · 2019 · Available to rent on YouTube, Amazon Prime, Apple TV.
Last Breath
Imagine being on the ocean floor with only five minutes of back up air, knowing help is 30 minutes away.
That’s the whole premise of this doc from 2019, which I rewatched recently and it is a rollercoaster of a watch.
A saturation diver a hundred metres down in the North Sea has the cable connecting him to the ship severed, and the crew above have to work out how to get him back.
Directed by Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous · 2017 · Available to rent on Amazon Video and Apple TV.
The Painter and the Thief
Two paintings get stolen from a gallery in Oslo, the thieves are caught on CCTV, and the artist does something nobody would expect: she goes to the trial, finds one of them and asks if he’ll sit for a portrait. He says yes.
The scene where he sees the finished painting for the first time is one of the best things I’ve seen in a documentary, full stop. I won’t say any more than that.
02 CINEMA RELEASES
It’s cinema season, so go support some indie docs on the big screen. There’s a whole bunch coming out.
In the UK: Naza is from two of the No Other Land directors. Ex-Israeli soldiers interviewed on Tel Aviv rooftops explaining how the Gaza strikes were ordered. Being spoken about as the most important documentary of the year. Cinemas from 16 October.
All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea is Jeanie Finlay’s new one, a Hartlepool fisherman trying to find out why thousands of dead crabs washed up on his beach. Select cinemas from 23 October.
And Derek vs Derek is two neighbouring Devon farmers, both called Derek, falling out over rewilding. Touring cinemas now.
In the US: Once Upon a Time in Harlem opens 16 October. A 1972 party in Duke Ellington’s living room for every surviving star of the Harlem Renaissance, finished by the director’s son 50 years later.
One in a Million is ten years following a Syrian girl from selling cigarettes on a street corner in Turkey at 11 through the whole migrant crisis. Won both the audience and directing awards at Sundance. Opens 21 October.
And Closure, a father searching a river in Poland for his missing son, last seen on CCTV near a bridge. I saw it at Sheffield and it’s an amazing film about grief, and a father trying to process something he can’t. Opens 28 October.
03 THIS WEEK ON DOCS TO WATCH
Aside from the Stevie Hyper D doc it’s business as usual!
Thanks for reading!
See you next week.
Cheers, Patrick.