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As we have mentioned many times before, the documentary is currently experiencing one of its golden periods, with the fact that reality goes beyond any script becoming quite obvious throughout the plethora of entries we have been seeing during that last few years. Furthermore, as a number of courageous filmmakers shed light to issues that are dangerous to depict (to say the least) or even hard to watch, the quality of the category continues to improve. Add to that the biographical ones, the ones that present real but relatively unknown sides of each country’s society and you have the majority of reasons for what we mentioned in the beginning.

Without further ado, here are the 15 Best Asian Documentaries of 2024, in reverse order. Some may have premiered in 2023, but since they mostly circulated in 2024, we decided to include them.

15. Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen Aparna Sen © Mayaleela Films

“When actors become mainstream stars,...

Malala Yousafzai – activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and self-confessed “Stranger Things” fan – is in production on her first project for Apple, ‘Variety’ has revealed. Her production company Extracurricular has partnered with the indie studio A24 for a still-untitled feature documentary on the legendary “haenyeo” society of fisherwomen, who live on South Korea’s Jeju Island.

The Apple Original Films title is directed by Peabody Award nominee Sue Kim (“The Speed Cubers”) and is the first project to go into production from Extracurricular’s partnership with Apple TV+, which was struck in March 2021, notes ‘Variety’.

Malala unveiled her first slate of film and TV projects for Apple TV+ through Extracurricular on Monday.

Headlining the slate is the feature film adaptation of Elaine Hsieh Chou’s acclaimed book “Disorientation”, which was published earlier this year. A sharp-edged, celebrated satire, “Disorientation” is about a college student’s revealing dissertation on a young poet.

Malala Yousafzai — activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner and film and TV producer — is in production on her first project for Apple, Variety can reveal.

Her production company Extracurricular has partnered with indie studio A24 for a still-untitled feature documentary on the legendary “haenyeo” society of fisherwomen, who live on South Korea’s Jeju Island.

The Apple Original Films title is directed by Peabody Award nominee Sue Kim (“The Speed Cubers”), and is the first project to go into production from Extracurricular’s Apple TV+ partnership, which was struck in March 2021.

The film tells the story of the “haenyeo,” dubbed “Korea’s mermaids” — a community of elderly free divers whose work catching seafood off the coast of Jeju Island has supported their community for generations.

Matriarchs, breadwinners and rowdy grandmas, the haenyeo’s numbers have dwindled in the past few decades. However, their youngest descendants are now helping to revive the...