Hot docs: five business films to watch over the break

Christmas is the perfect time to unwind. For some, that will involve spending priceless time with family or indulging in cheese, chocolate or Christmas pud.

But for others, me included, the magic of the season comes down to one overriding pleasure: having the time to catch up on the best long-form entertainment your schedule has so far not allowed you to consume. 

And for that second group, we present to you five unmissable documentaries, with businesses at the heart of their stories, to watch over the festive period.  

The documentary makers use animation for some of the scenes. (Image: Netflix)

Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard 

“Scammers take advantage of people’s desires,” an ominous voice warns us in the opening titles of this recent Netflix documentary about Wirecard. 

Pitting the relentless team of journalists at the Financial Times against the shady and powerful Wirecard CEO, Markus Braun, this David v Goliath story is told in an upbeat Bourne-esque spy thriller style.  

But rather than falling to the temptation of sensationalism, Skandal helps to demystify some of the financial instruments used by "German PayPal" bosses to complete their fraud.  

I won’t give away the ending, in case you didn’t catch the scandal when it broke in 2019, but the 90-minute documentary goes beyond insider talking heads and uses animation to detail manhunts, deals with terrorists and espionage.  

Watch on Netflix here (subscription required). 

DeAnne Brady and Mark Stidham. (Image:  Amazon Content Services) 

LuLaRich 

Charting the rise and breathtaking fall of a fashion brand-cum-multilevel marketing company, this four-part Amazon Prime miniseries shows you one way you can make billions in modern-day America.  

Unfortunately, in the case of LuLaRoe founders DeAnne Brady and Mark Stidham, it was through the manipulation of mostly stay-at-home mothers who were seeking financial independence but also a community – primarily through the selling of colourful leggings.  

The series perfectly deconstructs how a pyramid scheme works and the way in which it can proliferate in the age of social media. It works so well because Brady and Stidham are willing participants in the documentary, to tell the story of their success from a not-entirely-convincing point of view.  

LuLaRich presents the viewer with a stark reminder that the so-called inspirational tropes of #sidehustle and #girlboss can actually end up disempowering people.  

Despite the excellent exposé, LuLaRoe’s founders maintain that theirs is not a pyramid scheme and their website, to this day, offers the chance to join other women who have started their own boutiques and “gained freedom in their lives”. 

Watch on Prime Video here (subscription required). 

Are the Big Four too powerful? (Image: 123RF)

The Big Four: Accounting Firms Under Scrutiny 

Who watches the watchmen? Or more precisely: who audits the auditors? 

Responding to the failure of EY auditors to detect the fraud at the heart of Wirecard’s finances, this documentary asks whether the Big Four are “taking shortcuts? Are they overwhelmed? Or is the system at fault?

Aside from private consulting, this film explores how growth opportunities in auditing have largely been exhausted, leading to them offering consulting services also to governments.  

With the New Zealand government’s use of the firms in its covid response proving controversial, this German-made documentary asks the question relevant to Aotearoa: “Have the Big Four become too powerful – even out of control?” 

Watch on YouTube here. 

Rob Haerr and Wong He in American Factory. (Image: Sundance Institute)

American Factory 

You’ve likely been recommended this 2019 documentary already, but if you haven’t watched it yet, this is your final reminder.  

Set in post-industrial Ohio, this two-hour masterpiece is a tour de force in showing and not telling. 

The clash of cultural work habits and expectations is plain to see when Fuyao, a Chinese company, reopens a closed General Motors plant, raising hopes for a restoration of the city of Moraine’s economy.

Filmed over three years, the fly-on-the-wall approach highlights the complexities within union movements but also is pretty interesting if you’re curious about how glass is produced from hot sand or Chinese managers complaining about their American workers’ fat fingers.  

Watch on Netflix here (subscription required). 

Many of America and Mexico's elite were convinced to buy into the self-help programme.
(Image: HBO Max) 

The Vow 

This two-season HBO odyssey could easily be classified as a cult documentary (and for my money is up there with Wild Wild Country in that category).  

But this is a cult without religion; it is barefacedly a corporation selling aspiration and self-improvement – namely NXIVM.  

Despite their loathsomeness, it is undeniably remarkable how self-styled guru Keith Raniere and his business partner Nancy Salzman managed to convince so many of America and Mexico’s elite into buying into their professional self-help programme.  

Especially when the harms done by Raniere are revealed, evil layer by evil layer.  

Watch on Neon here (subscription required).

Honourable mention:  

The Missing Cryptoqueen 
This podcast, produced by the BBC, tells the story of the crypto scam One Coin and its founder, Dr Ruja Ignatova. The high-profile globetrotter disappears overnight and journalist Jamie Bartlett is determined to find her. The show takes him all over Europe and is a masterful case of investigative storytelling. The story has also been released as a book and would make the perfect gift for the social media sleuth in your life.