Indiewire's Summer Preview: The 10 Must-See Documentaries

The summer moviegoing season might have already launched with "Furious 7" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron" breaking records around the world, but for indie film lovers, it's just about to begin. In our first of two summer indie previews, Indiewire highlights the most anticipated documentaries opening between June and August.

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The Yes Men duo of Andy Bichlebaum and Mike Bonanno (not their real names) have made a career out of filming activist pranks that trick corporations into revealing ugly truths. They achieved a lot in their first two films, "The Yes Men" and "The Yes Men Fix the World," but it's the third film, "The Yes Men Are Revolting" which was directed by Laura Nix, that brings a more personal touch. This time around, the issue is climate change, and the pair oversees an attempt to launch "survival balls" across the East River to raise environmental awareness. But though the film contains their usual stunts and exposing of corruption, "The Yes Men Are Revolting" also explore's their home lives, Mike with his wife and child (and another on the way) and Andy who starts dating a new boyfriend. It's these intimate inclusions that make this third installment a step up from the previous two incarnations.

Crystal Moselle, 34, had one of the most buzzed-about documentaries coming into Sundance... and also one of the most baffling. As Sundance director John Cooper told Indiewire back when the competition lineup was first announced, "No matter how much you read about it, it's going to sound odd." Odd or not, the film was a hit with audiences and critics -- and won the first-time filmmaker the U.S. Grand Jury Prize (Documentary). Her haunting and artfully rendered achievement centers on six teen brothers whose father forced them to spend their entire childhood locked away from the outside world in a cramped apartment on New York's Lower East Side. During their years of solitude, the boys turned to movies to teach them about life. Moselle meets them when the boys begin to break out of their insular world. "The Wolfpack" is unlike any documentary you've ever seen and marks the arrival of a major new talent.

Netflix is quickly becoming a prestigious destination for documentaries thanks to Oscar-nominated hits "The Square" (2013) and "Virunga" (2014), and Liz Garbus’ portrait of the iconic recording artist and civil rights activist should be another success story for the online streaming platform. Using Simone’s own songs, diary entries and letters as a narrative backbone, plus rare concert footage and interviews with her daughter, friends and collaborators, Garbus dives into the soul of the troubled blues singer, uncovering her devotion to empower black America and exposing her abusive personal life, her controlling managers and her own spiral into bipolarism. Writing for Indiewire from the Sundance Film Festival, Anisha Jhaveri stated, "Watching Simone discuss her life and art is simultaneously inspiring and saddening… Whether she's speaking about her music's ability to empower or divulging her battles with depression, it's her magnetic presence on screen that breathes life into the film." Whether or not Netflix has another awards darling on its hands remains to be seen, but the haunting quality of Simone’s music and the genius of her creative process should make for a powerhouse doc.

Director Les Bank's first documentary feature-length film was released in 1974 and received a proper restoration at SXSW back in March. This summer, it will see theater release by Janus Films. Needless to say, "A Poem is a Naked Person" has been on quite a ride recently, which is oddly intriguing considering it's an over 40-year-old film. Following the musical happenings of Leon Russell's Oklahoma recording studio from 1972 to 1974, the film captures the essence of the era, and it's ready to be seen by an entirely new generation.

This article is related to: Best of Enemies, The Yes Men Are Revolting, What Happened, Miss Simone?, Documentary, Summer, Summer Movies, Do I Sound Gay?, Stray Dog, The Wolfpack, A Poem is a Naked Person, The Look of Silence