More Instant Doc Watching On Hulu.com

A few weeks ago I recommended some documentaries on Watch Instantly to readers who subscribe to Netflix. Hulu.com allows everybody to watch a limited number of docs instantly (and legally!), and it has some great ones up right now.

Super Size Me (2004), which is also up on Netflix, famously documents Morgan Spurlock's quest to expose the fast food industry by putting his own health on the line. Although his follow-up, Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008) didn't do as well, this documentary has become a classic.



In the same vein, Hulu also has The Future of Food (2004), which is "an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade." I think the discussion about genetically modified foods is going to blow up pretty soon, and this doc is a great opportunity to know more about it.



A really cool documentary that they just added is Life After People (2009), a television series where scientists and experts speculate about what the Earth could be like if humanity were to disappear suddenly, leaving everything behind. Although the premise is far-fetched, it's interesting to wonder about how the environment would be getting along without us.

Hulu has tons of other documentaries and feature films up, along with TV shows. It seems like the one thing it doesn't have is The Daily Show, which recently got pulled from the site for revenue reasons.

Lifetime Premiers Awareness Campaign Along With Movie

The Lifetime Channel is definitely not my go-to place for movies. To be fair, as a 21-year-old college student, I'm not really their target audience. But it's undeniable that the channel has a loyal following and wide national exposure. And in between crime thrillers and feel-good weight-loss narratives, they occasionally hit on important issues.

With their new movie, The Pregnancy Pact, Lifetime is launching a mini-awareness campaign on their website, partnering with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The film "explores the costs of teen pregnancy with a story of a fictional 'pregnancy pact' set against the backdrop of actual news reports about teen pregnancy from June 2008."

Along with information about the film, Lifetime is providing its viewers with two PSAs, discussion guides, and links to resources for pregnant teens. Giving viewers tools to digest what they learned, as well as working with an established non-profit, is a great model for television content that deals with societal issues.

According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, three in 10 girls in the U.S. get pregnant at least once by the age of 20. It's a problem, and kudos to Lifetime for being part of the solution instead of just exploiting the scandal.

Check out the video they are highlighting about teen pregnancy: