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Docurama streams free, on-demand documentaries to iOS

The app serves up some 600 films, many of them not available on Netflix, Hulu, or anywhere else.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida

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Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Like documentaries? This is your lucky day.

Cinedigm's Docurama is a free app that streams hundreds of documentaries. Having started out as Roku and Xbox channels, it's now available for iPhone and iPad. And if you own an Apple TV as well, you can beam the movies to your big screen.

The app provides easy on-demand access to over 600 films, a number expected to increase to over 1,000 by the end of 2014. According to Cinedigm, more than two-thirds of the selections currently available can't be found anywhere else, including Amazon, Hulu, or Netflix.

Those films range from the obscure to the Oscar-award-winning. Here's a sampling of the categories and some titles therein:

  • Pop culture: "Woody Allen: A Documentary," "Best Worst Movie"
  • Sports thrillers: "Carmelo's Way," "Endless Summer," "Faster and Faster"
  • Environmental activism: HBO's "Gasland," "Save The Farm"
  • War, history, and politics: "Hell & Back Again," "The Weather Underground"
  • Arts and music: "The Swell Season," "Beatles Stories," "Soundtrack for a Revolution"

The app itself is about as simplistic as they come, allowing you to browse by category, read a brief synopsis of each film, and then watch it. There's no download option for offline viewing nor even a way to search the library.

But for anyone who loves a good documentary, this is a great way to tap a huge library without spending a penny.