Watch These 15 Francophone Documentaries to Feel Smarter

What does it mean to be human? Yann Arthus-Bertrand talks to people from all over the world to make us understand what it means to be human. The documentary explores stories of love and happiness but also stories of hatred and violence since humans can’t seem to get along even though we’ve been living together for thousands of years. Even though every single human is different, there are some universal feelings that unite us no matter what. The French environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand and his team took three years to make this documentary and they interviewed more than 2000 people in 60 countries all over the world.

This documentary explores our obsession with beauty. Léa Clermont-Dion is a Québec feminist, author and body image advocate who struggled with anorexia and body issues when she was younger. Her two-part documentary depicts our obsession with staying young and being beautiful. She interviews numerous Québec public figures about what they think about staying beautiful for a longer amount of time.

This difficult documentary is a 566 minute (over 9 hours) film about the Holocaust. The director, Claude Lanzmann, interviews survivors, witnesses and perpetrators of this atrocious moment in history. The documentary is divided into three parts: Survivors, witnesses and perpetrators. The documentary travels to the various German extermination camps across Poland. This is a critically-acclaimed documentary that won numerous awards. The difficult stories you hear throughout this documentary are heart-wrenching but are important to hear because this was such a disgusting and low point in human history. From resilient and courageous Jews to hateful and fearful Germans, this is a must-see.