Each week, streaming sites like Netflix, HBO, and Amazon release a whole spate of new movies for us to gobble up.

Global Citizen has scoured the endless landscape of TV, movies, and streaming services to find the best things for you to watch. Check back every week as we present the latest and best offerings for you to enjoy.

Streaming:

1. “Fire at Sea,” Netflix

While the Netflix original, Oscar-winning documentary, “The White Helmets,” looks at the Syrian refugee crisis through the lens of first-responders within Syria, “Fire at Sea,” also nominated for best feature length documentary at the Oscars, looks at the same crisis through the lens of inhabitants of the Italian island of Lampedusa. 

2. “Man Down,” Amazon, Google Play, Vudu

“Man Down,” featuring America’s favorite method actor Shia Labeouf, considers not so much the perils of war, but the challenges of returning home from it. Labeouf plays Gabriel Drummer, a former US Marine who returns home to a country much different from the one he left.  

3. “Favela Rising,” Google Play

“Favela Rising” tells the story of Brazilian reggae star, Anderson Sá, who escaped the extreme poverty of Rio de Janeiro’s famous slum communities through music, and who, after rising out of poverty, set up a cultural institution to educate and inspire the next generation. 

4. “Cries from Syria,” HBO GO

Rather than telling the stories of Syrians through Western eyes, this documentary puts the voices of Syrian families at the forefront — allowing them to recount their personal histories in their own words. 

5. “La Reina del Sur,” Netflix, Hulu

“La Reina del Sur,” or “Queen of the South,” flips the traditional narrative about the drug trade and drug kingpins on its head — with a woman, instead of a man, building a vast narcotics empire. Although the main character of the show, Teresa Mendoza, is not a real person, there have been powerful women who have lorded over vast drug empires, such as “The Queen of the Pacific,” or Sandra Ávila Beltrán. 

Despite having been born in the upper echelons of Mexico’s high crime society, Beltrán understood the main cause of drug and gang violence in Mexico: poverty. “First you have to attack poverty,” she told the Guardian. “Poverty is what causes violence. You start to be a delinquent and then become violent.”

In theaters: 

“A United Kingdom” 

“A United Kingdom” considers the interracial marriage of Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana and Ruth Williams Khama, a white Londoner, in the early 1960s. In office for 14 years, Khama played a huge role in turning the country — one of the ten poorest in the world when he took office — into an economic powerhouse in sub-Saharan Africa, bringing industrial jobs and tapering back government corruption. 

Digests

Demand Equity

6 Movies Global Citizens Should Watch Right Now

By Phineas Rueckert