Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson

Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson 2021

6.80

In 2004, a culture war was brewing when the Super Bowl halftime show audience saw a white man expose a Black woman's breast for 9/16ths of a second. A national furor ensued. The woman was Janet Jackson, and her career was never the same.

2021

Last Letters Home

Last Letters Home 2004

8.00

Ten families read letters from their loved ones killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in this powerful and moving HBO documentary by Oscar and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Bill Couturie (Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam). Photos of the soldiers in military and civilian life are shown as family members read the final correspondence received from Iraq and share their thoughts and memories about the fallen troops and the realities of war.

2004

Island in Between

Island in Between 2023

6.40

The rural Taiwanese outer islands of Kinmen sit merely 2 miles off the coast of China. Kinmen attracts tourists for its remains from the 1949 Chinese Civil War. It also marks the frontline for Taiwan in its escalating tension with China.

2023

9 Kisses

9 Kisses 2014

6.20

2014's best actors pair up in a series of intimate encounters.

2014

The Legacy of J Dilla

The Legacy of J Dilla 2023

1

In his short lifetime, J Dilla was a musician, producer and visionary who profoundly influenced rap and hip-hop. Given how prolific he was in his 32 years, why didn't his accolades come sooner?

2023

Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil 2011

6.90

Some of 2011's stand-out film actors appear in "a video gallery of cinematic villainy" for New York Times Magazine.

2011

Time

Time 2020

6.90

Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.

2020

Move Fast & Vape Things

Move Fast & Vape Things 2021

6.00

Two Stanford graduate students had an inspired idea and an idealistic mission: create an e-cigarette that would help millions of people stop smoking. How did the founders of Juul lose their way and end up accused of addicted a whole new generation?

2021

Some Kind of Heaven

Some Kind of Heaven 2021

7.20

Behind the gates of a palm-tree-lined fantasyland, three residents and one interloper at America’s largest retirement community strive to find happiness.

2021

Making a Scene

Making a Scene 2013

5.40

For this year's Movies Issue, The New York Times Magazine commissioned lines from an eclectic and talented group of screenwriters — writers responsible for some of the best scripts of 2013. We asked them each to write a single line for us — not a scene, a script or a scenario, but simply an intriguing, amusing or captivating line of dialogue. Then we gave these lines to one of the great movie artists of our time: the cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, a two-time Oscar winner. Kaminski used these lines as inspiration to create 11 original (very) short films. Each short evokes a style or genre of the cinematic past and stars an actor who gave an especially memorable performance in 2013.

2013

Great Performers: Horror Show

Great Performers: Horror Show 2017

6.70

Horror films dominated the cultural conversation in 2017. From the surprise hit “Get Out” to the movie adaption of “It” to the campy “Happy Death Day,” scary movies had an unusual hold on the collective imagination during that year. Maybe it's because reality was pretty horrifying, too. To punctuate the end of a hair-raising year, The New York Times Magazine asked ten actors who gave the best performances to play a series of eerie roles.

2017

Bill Cunningham New York

Bill Cunningham New York 2011

7.60

Doubling as a cartography of the ever-changing city, Bill Cunningham New York portrays the secluded pioneer of street fashion with grace and heart.

2011

Framing Britney Spears

Framing Britney Spears 2021

7.10

Her rise was a global phenomenon. Her downfall was a cruel national sport. People close to Britney Spears and lawyers tied to her conservatorship now reassess her career as she battles her father in court over who should control her life.

2021

Controlling Britney Spears

Controlling Britney Spears 2021

7.20

Britney Spears has said that her conservatorship had become “an oppressive and controlling tool against her”. This New York Times investigation reveals much of how it worked, including an intense surveillance apparatus that monitored every move she made.

2021

Walk Run Cha-Cha

Walk Run Cha-Cha 2019

5.60

Paul and Millie Cao lost their youth to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they have become successful professionals in Southern California-and are rediscovering themselves on the dance floor.

2019

The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story

The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story 1996

7.00

The childhood, adolescence, and incredible adult years of Al Hirschfeld, celebrated creator of thousands of line drawings of famous people - many in the entertainment industry - over a span of more than sixty years. He is still drawing in his nineties. His interesting domestic life, political, and cultural views are highlights. In addition, he talks about himself a bit - seriously and lightly.(At one point he he claims that his only form of exercise has been to live in his Manhattan townhouse: stairs). He drives his car around Manhattan - an adventure in itself. Brief interviews with, and reminiscences of many friends and associates.

1996

A Concerto Is a Conversation

A Concerto Is a Conversation 2020

7.00

A virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer tracks his family's lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

2020

Boeing's Fatal Flaw

Boeing's Fatal Flaw 2021

8.00

An investigation of Boeing’s flawed 737 Max jet and the crashes that killed 346 people. With the New York Times, revealing the commercial pressures, flawed design, and failed oversight behind the creation of Boeing’s fastest-selling plane.

2021

The Teenager Who Hacked Twitter

The Teenager Who Hacked Twitter 2020

1

Elon Musk. Bill Gates. Kanye West. Joe Biden. Barack Obama. They and dozens of others were being hacked recently, and Twitter appeared powerless to stop it. Who had brought the tech giant to its knees? A 17-year-old kid in Tampa.

2020

A Short History of the Highrise

A Short History of the Highrise 2013

1

“A Short History of the Highrise” is an interactive documentary that explores the 2,500-year global history of vertical living and issues of social equality in an increasingly urbanized world. The centerpiece of the project is four short films. The first three (“Mud,” “Concrete” and “Glass”) draw on The New York Times's extraordinary visual archives, a repository of millions of photographs that have largely been unseen in decades. Each film is intended to evoke a chapter in a storybook, with rhyming narration and photographs brought to life with intricate animation. The fourth chapter (“Home”) comprises images submitted by the public. The interactive experience incorporates the films and, like a visual accordion, allows viewers to dig deeper into the project’s themes with additional archival materials, text and microgames.

2013