What's on DocPlay in October

Here's everything that's streaming on DocPlay in October 2026.

This October, exceptional documentary films from the 20th and 21st centuries premiere on the platform. Alongside two remarkable late-career works from Agnes Varda, the Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk comes to DocPlay. New Danish doc Dear Tomorrow considers the loneliness epidemic in Japan, while Wisdom of Happiness (pictured) gives voice to the Dalai Lama as he approaches his 90th year. Respected veteran journalist Tony Jones makes his feature documentary debut with Sundance-premiering Sentient, which considers the impact of biomedical testing on animals - and their handlers. And from Aotearoa New Zealand, Wildboy follows a young man on a 15-year journey of self discovery.

5 October

Dear Tomorrow (Exclusive)

In Japan, loneliness has turned into a national crisis, encouraging the government to create a Ministry of Loneliness. Dear Tomorrow follows two individuals – Masato, and Shoko – struggling with isolation. Aware of their need for human connection, they embark on a journey toward healing and renewal. 

5 October

Wisdom of Happiness (Exclusive)

A deeply intimate and highly cinematic documentary featuring the Dalai Lama, who, at nearly 90 years old, offers practical advice for navigating the 21st century.

8 October

The Shepherd and the Bear (Exclusive)

High in the majestic French Pyrenees, a conflict is provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears amid a traditional shepherding community. The film follows an ageing shepherd struggling to find a successor as bears prey on his flock, and a teenage boy obsessed with tracking them down. A modern folktale examining humanity’s relationship with a vanishing natural world.

8 October

Wildboy

Brando, a young man with ADHD, embarks on extraordinary adventures in order to escape society and find purpose. At 18, he sets out to walk New Zealand’s coastline, and over the next decade, he tackles epic feats: skiing across Greenland, kayaking around Vancouver Island, and cycling across the Australian Outback. 

15 October

The Times of Harvey Milk

A true twentieth-century trailblazer, Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office. The Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) was as groundbreaking as its subject. One of the first feature documentaries to address gay life in America, it’s a work of advocacy itself, bringing Milk’s message of hope and equality to a wider audience.

19 October

Sentient (Exclusive)

A moving journey into laboratory research on animals, exposing a hidden world in which it's not just the animals getting hurt. The debut feature documentary from veteran Australian journalist Tony Jones (AU), streaming exclusively on DocPlay after premiering at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

26 October

Baby Doe (Exclusive)

30 years ago, Gail Ritchey, a young woman from a conservative Christian community in rural Ohio, gave birth alone and left her newborn in the woods. Now a mother of three, her quiet suburban life is shattered when DNA evidence links her to ‘Geauga’s Child,’ and she is arrested for murder - despite saying the baby was stillborn.

29 October

The Gleaners and I

By turns playful, philosophical, and subtly political, Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners and I (2000) is a warmly human reflection on the contradictions of our consumerist world from an artist who, like her subjects, finds unexpected richness where few think to look.