• Frutiger Aero, a Gen Z favorite, combines early internet nostalgia with a utopian tech vision.
• Fans say the aesthetic represents a "future that was promised" by tech but never arrived.
• Some recent tech releases have hinted at a Frutiger Aero revival.

Looking at 22-year-old Sammy Conti's room is like looking into a fishbowl.

Shades of blue fill the space, interspersed with neon green and the occasional pop of orange or yellow. Vines, bubbles, and jellyfish hang from the ceiling. Moving lamps are everywhere: lava lamps, bubble lamps, aquarium lamps with roving tropical fish. Then there are objects that feel out of place: a purple Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64 cartridges, Wii and PlayStation game cases hung like art on a gallery wall, and a DIY mirror in the shape of an old Microsoft Windows logo.

The confluence of nature and old-school tech isn't random. It's Frutiger Aero, an aesthetic inspired by the early internet, embraced by Gen Zers who say it represents a future that was promised but never arrived — one where technology is a source of inspiration and fuel for creativity, coexisting with nature and helping us ascend to our highest selves.

"You grow up thinking the world is going to be this green utopia where we coexist with nature and have technology and it helps us," Conti told Business Insider. "Then as I started getting older, things became very sleek and modernist, very gray."

For Conti, whose Frutiger Aero content has earned her more than 700,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, the aesthetic represents a promise tech abandoned. "We could have lived in that future," she said. "It could have been taken care of responsibly in a way that doesn't take people's jobs, doesn't pollute the environment, but it's not."

A corporate tech aesthetic gets a glow-up

A fervent online community has formed around the term after it first gained traction in 2023, according to Google Trends data. There's an active Discord and Subreddit, plus millions of views for #frutigeraero on TikTok.

Sofi Xian, a researcher and founding member of an online community called the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute, coined the term Frutiger Aero in 2017 to describe a corporate tech aesthetic prevalent from the mid-2000s through the early 2010s. Some defining characteristics included glossy surfaces, glass or transparent materials, and macro photos of grass. "Frutiger" refers to a specific typeface, while "Aero" was Microsoft's name for the interface design of its Windows Vista operating system, which came out in 2006.

"Nobody at the time really thought it was cool," Xian said of the design style. "It was a corporate product. It was sold to us."

The recent embrace of Frutiger Aero remains somewhat of a mystery to Xian, who says the term has blossomed well beyond what she first documented. Her book on the style, "Archaeology of a Promised Future," is set to come out in November.

The modern version of the aesthetic still incorporates some of the classic elements, and then some. "Bliss," the iconic photo of rolling green hills beneath a bright blue sky with clouds — the default wallpaper on Windows XP upon its release in 2001 — remains an almost sacred image to Frutiger fans. Conti recently made a pilgrimage to the area in Sonoma County, California, and called it "just as beautiful as it is in the photos."

The future that never showed

"The future that was promised" is a central theme in the world of Frutiger Aero and is frequently invoked alongside images of clean, glistening skyscrapers set against grassy fields.

"It's really a vision of technology that is quite different to what we have," Maria Gemma Brown, a cultural studies researcher at the University of Queensland, told Business Insider.

Many young people now see technology as bland, lifeless, addictive, or even sinister. AI is increasingly associated with war, mass surveillance, and environmental degradation. Data centers, one of the most controversial physical manifestations of modern tech, face fierce opposition over environmental concerns.

Richy Srirachanikorn, a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia University, has interviewed more than 30 people in the Frutiger Aero community. He said it's about nostalgia for a feeling more than about the specific objects or design that inspired it.

"Whatever this aesthetic was as a kid, it made me optimistic, not about the future, but about the present," he said was how the people he interviewed described it.

That could help explain why it's especially appealing to Gen Z, a generation rife with concerns about environmental, technological, and financial doom. Srirachanikorn said he found Frutiger Aero is used almost as a "coping mechanism" and the associated online communities as places to take "respite from the uncertainties of the world."

Lovers of Frutiger Aero are also rejecting a broader design shift toward minimalism and neutral colors. In consumer tech, translucent clamshell laptops and bright pink MP3 players have given way to sleek, uniformly gray designs, as if they're explicitly meant to disappear into the background of our lives.

"I feel like products had almost a personality. Which color you picked or what design you picked was a loud extension of you," Conti said, adding that now it feels like everything merely wants to "fit in."

The old-school tech may also represent a level of agency that feels unattainable now, Srirachanikorn said. In the early 2000s, consumer tech companies may have embraced bright colors and images of nature to make their products more appealing as they still needed us to buy in. Today, their products are almost impossible to escape.

Hope for a new bloom

Austin Horey, founder of the New York-based brand Unjust Jewelry, makes a range of products inspired by Frutiger Aero and similar strains of nostalgia. He's sold over 10,000 bottles of a Frutiger Aero-inspired fragrance — oceanic, clean, soapy — that comes in a box that, when opened, plays an original Frutiger Aero-inspired song.

Horey said not only is there a huge appetite for Frutiger Aero content and products, but that major tech companies seem to be taking notice. His work has been embraced by an icon of the Frutiger Aero movement: Microsoft. When he released a Windows XP bracelet featuring the classic application icons from the operating system, the company partnered with him to make a necklace as well.

Fans of Frutiger Aero celebrate every time Big Tech makes a move they think signals a return to the aesthetic, like Xbox introducing a new glossy neon-green logo and the release of the budget-friendly Apple MacBook Neo, which comes in a bright yellow-green. Apple's introduction of the Liquid Glass design last year also set off the Frutiger Aero antennae. Microsoft even posted a TikTok suggesting the design was reminiscent of Windows Vista.

Conti said the colorful MacBook Neo was the most Frutiger Aero product a tech company had released in years. While she's been disappointed in modern tech, the underlying vibe of Frutiger Aero is one of optimism, and she still sees the ideas behind it as something to strive for, "especially as Gen Z moves into these positions of power as we get older."

"I think it's important not to forget what it still could be," she said.

Founding member of Planxty, Lunny went on to play for bands such as Moving Hearts, the Bothy Band and Coolfin

The Irish traditional musician Dónal Lunny has died at the age of 79 from cancer.

Lunny rose to prominence in the trio Rakes of Kildare alongside his brother Frank and Christy Moore. He went on to play in bands such as Planxty, Moving Hearts, the Bothy Band and Coolfin among others and toured the world.

By the end of his pre-trial detention at Moscow's infamous Lefortovo Prison, American journalist Evan Gershkovich had developed a curious rapport with the FSB investigator tasked with proving he was a spy.

"Most people break after four months or so, but you're still holding strong

Before I walked into Milwaukee County Stadium in 1982, I had never been to a professional sporting event. I was 9 years old, and I can vividly recall being overwhelmed by the lights and the number of people there. The first-place Milwaukee Brewers were playing the Oakland A’s, and Rickey Henderson tied the record for most stolen bases in a season. The Brewers would go on to play in the World Series that year, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in an epic seven-game series, and even though we didn’t get to celebrate a championship, I imagined a full life of cheering on a winning team.

It was the last time the Brewers would make the playoffs for 26 years. During that time, I grew hardened, believing I would die before I ever saw the Brewers return to the World Series. Bad personnel moves and a payroll that couldn’t match the league’s top-tier teams made winning seem like mere folly. Fans showed up at the games to cheer on the racing sausages more than the actual players on the field.

Yet when the Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays open the World Series on Friday, both teams’ highest-paid players will earn salaries rivaling the price of the animatronic bird that Kelly Clarkson so desperately desired. Neither franchise spends like a superpower. Neither plays in a media capital. And neither got here by doing what most of baseball has decided is the only way to win.

The Brewers won a franchise-record 103 games, then swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers — a hedge fund masquerading as a baseball team — in the National League Championship Series. Milwaukee is making its first World Series appearance since 1982. The Rays, meanwhile, went 98-64 for the best record in the American League. They did it on a payroll that ranks 25th in baseball and in what is arguably the sport’s toughest division.

It would be tempting to cast these two teams as rebels against the analytics nerds, a pair of stubborn traditionalists sticking it to the spreadsheet. It would also be wrong. The Rays are perhaps the most analytically obsessive organization in professional sports. They treat roster construction the way a quant treats arbitrage. The Brewers’ pitching staff finished second in baseball in strikeouts, because Milwaukee believes in velocity and spin rate as devoutly as anyone in Silicon Valley believes in disruption. Nobody here is burning copies of “Moneyball.”

What these teams have figured out is subtler and more interesting. Analytics is a tool, not a philosophy. And the data, read honestly, keeps pointing back to things your Little League coach told you for free.

Play

Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield discusses his new memoir, ‘Touching All the Bases’ September 14, 2026 / 09:12

Look at how they score. Milwaukee and Tampa Bay finished first and second in the league in batting average. Both were top five in stolen bases. Both were top seven in ERA. The Brewers were tied for second-to-last in home runs, yet they finished second in all of baseball in runs scored. That last fact should be impossible in the modern game, where the prevailing theory holds that you swing as hard as you can, accept the strikeouts and wait for the three-run homer. Milwaukee kept putting the ball in play, taking the extra base and making the defense prove it could make a throw.

This is the real lesson of “Moneyball,” which was never entirely about on-base percentage. It was about finding what the market undervalues. In 2002, that was walks. In 2026, after a generation of front offices poured money into training hitters to focus on exit velocity and launch angles, the undervalued asset turns out to be the player who makes contact. Or the one who can play three positions. Or who goes first-to-third on a single. When every team bids up the same skill, the bargain bin overflows with fundamentals.

Call it situational hitting, tight defense and multidimensional players. Not long ago, that was just called “baseball.” It is also, not incidentally, more fun to watch. A ball in play is a play. A strikeout, a walk or a solo homer is an event the other eight fielders watch like spectators.

Contrast this with the New York Yankees, who have spent roughly the GDP of Lithuania assembling a lineup of lumbering sluggers. Their approach is built on the assumption that baseball is a home run derby with occasional defensive interruptions. It produces impressive highlight reels and October collapses in roughly equal measure.

A lesson here extends well beyond the diamond. American institutions have spent the last decade optimizing for the home run. In politics, the cable news haymaker, the floor speech engineered for clips, the fundraising email written in all caps are all big swings meant to circumvent the actual work of legislating. Both parties have come to treat governing as something staffers do between appearances: passing a budget on time, staffing an agency competently and filling the potholes are the sacrifice bunts of public life. Nobody makes a highlight package out of them, and so nobody gets paid to do them.

But the scoreboard does not care about the highlight package. Teams that strike out 1,600 times a year still lose in October to pitchers who can deliciously locate pitches on the corners. And governments that specialize in outrage still find, eventually, that outrage does not deliver the mail. Competence is unglamorous until it becomes the only thing that matters.

The Brewers and Rays have shown that you can use every modern tool available and still respect what the old tools were for. Data told them where the inefficiencies were. Discipline let them exploit those inefficiencies. That combination is rarer than it should be, in baseball and everywhere else.

So whichever team wins, the 2026 World Series will crown a franchise that refused to confuse flash with substance. In a culture that increasingly prefers entertainment to competence, that alone qualifies as a revolutionary act, even if it looks a lot like the game your grandfather used to watch.

The post Why the Brewers-Rays World Series matchup is a revolution for Major League Baseball appeared first on MS NOW.

The film honors generations of dancers, choreographers, and artists.

On Wednesday, the documentary “Afternoon Echoes,” directed by Cuban filmmaker Lourdes de los Santos, was presented at the Yara Cinema in Havana as part of the activities organized during Cuban Culture Week.

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The film explores the history and significance of the ballet “Afternoon Echoes,” created by choreographer Alberto Mendez in 1973 and considered one of the most important pieces in the repertoire of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC).

It shows the links between dance, painting, and cinema, taking as a reference point the influence attributed to the painting “The Noon,” by Cuban painter Guillermo Collazo, on the conception of the choreographic work.

According to its director, the documentary constitutes a tribute to generations of dancers, choreographers, and artists who contributed to the formation and consolidation of the Cuban School of Ballet.

The text reads, “The Camaguey Contemporary Ballet, within the framework of the Cuban Culture Week, presented the ‘Escape’ event, which is a window of creation where the dancers reaffirm that artistic dedication goes beyond any obstacle.”

The production also highlights the historic collaborative relationship between the BNC and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), reflected in numerous audiovisual works dedicated to dance.

Among the central elements of the narrative are the testimonies of prominent figures associated with ballet, including Maria Elena Llorente, one of the most renowned performers of “Afternoon Echoes,” to whose memory the documentary is dedicated.

ICAIC president Alexis Triana emphasized that this production inaugurates a new line of work within the institution’s Documentary Department, focused on exploring topics related to Cuban culture and history.

teleSUR: JP

Source: Prensa Latina

• The US House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a state congressional district.
• US representatives do not need to be natural-born citizens in order to take office.
• See the 26 current representatives born outside the US.

Similar to the US Senate, members of the House of Representatives do not need to be natural-born citizens in order to take office.

In fact, the only members of government who do are the president and vice president.

The House of Representatives, one of the two chambers of Congress alongside the Senate, has 435 voting members. They represent congressional districts allocated among the states based on population and serve two-year terms with no term limits.

To qualify as a US House representative, a person must be:

• At least 25 years old
• A US citizen for at least seven years.
• Live in the state they want to represent at the time of the election.

Many current House members were US citizens at birth despite being born in another country — for instance, because they were born to American parents working in government positions abroad.

Here are the 26 active House representatives born outside the US.

Becca Balint (D)

State: Vermont

District: At Large

Place of birth: Germany

Balint has served in Congress since 2023. She was born in Germany while her father was serving in the US armed forces, making her a US citizen at birth.

Donald S. Beyer Jr. (D)

State: Virginia

District: 08

Place of birth: Free Territory of Trieste (now Italy)

Beyer has served in Congress since 2015. He was born to a US Army officer, making him a citizen at birth.

Salud O. Carbajal (D)

State: California

District: 24

Place of birth: Mexico

Carbajal has served in Congress since 2017. He emigrated from Mexico at age 5 and became a naturalized citizen in 1990.

Sean Casten (D)

State: Illinois

District: 06

Place of birth: Ireland

Casten has served in Congress since 2019. He was born to American parents, making him a US citizen at birth.

Juan Ciscomani (R)

State: Arizona

District: 06

Place of birth: Mexico

Ciscomani has served in Congress since 2023. He moved to Arizona when he was 11 and became a naturalized citizen in 2006.

Andrew S. Clyde (R)

State: Georgia

District: 09

Place of birth: Canada

Clyde has served in Congress since 2021. He was born to American parents, making him a US citizen at birth.

Dan Crenshaw (R)

State: Texas

District: 02

Place of birth: Scotland

Crenshaw has served in Congress since 2019. He was born to American parents, making him a US citizen at birth.

Sharice Davids (D)

State: Kansas

District: 03

Place of birth: Germany

Davids has served in Congress since 2019. She was born in Germany to a mother who served 20 years in the US Army, making her a US citizen at birth.

Diana DeGette (D)

State: Colorado

District: 01

Place of birth: Japan

DeGette has served in Congress since 1997. She was born in Japan while her father served in the US armed forces, making her a US citizen at birth.

Adriano Espaillat (D)

State: New York

District: 13

Place of birth: Dominican Republic

Espaillat has served in Congress since 2017. He came to the US as a child and became a naturalized US citizen in the early 1980s. Espaillat is the first formerly undocumented member of Congress.

Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D)

State: Illinois

District: 04

Place of birth: Mexico

García has served in Congress since 2019. He emigrated to Illinois in 1965 and became a US citizen in 1977.

Robert Garcia (D)

State: California

District: 42

Place of birth: Peru

Garcia has served in Congress since 2023. He emigrated to the US when he was a young child and became a naturalized citizen in his early 20s.

Carlos A. Gimenez (R)

State: Florida

District: 28

Place of birth: Cuba

Gimenez has served in Congress since 2021. His family emigrated to Miami in 1960, and he became a US citizen in 1976.

James A. Himes (D)

State: Connecticut

District: 04

Place of birth: Peru

Himes has served in Congress since 2009. He was born to American parents, making him a US citizen at birth.

Pramila Jayapal (D)

State: Washington

District: 07

Place of birth: India

Jayapal has served in Congress since 2017. She emigrated from India at age 16 in 1982 and became a naturalized citizen in 2000.

Young Kim (R)

State: California

District: 40

Place of birth: South Korea

Kim has served in Congress since 2021. She emigrated to the US at age 12 and later became a naturalized US citizen.

Raja Krishnamoorthi (D)

State: Illinois

District: 08

Place of birth: India

Krishnamoorthi has served in Congress since 2017. The exact year of his naturalization is not in the public record, but he moved to the US with his family as a child.

Ted Lieu (D)

State: California

District: 36

Place of birth: Taiwan

Lieu has served in Congress since 2015. The exact year of his naturalization is not in the public record, but he moved to the US with his family as a child.

Ilhan Omar (D)

State: Minnesota

District: 05

Place of birth: Somalia

Omar has served in Congress since 2019. She was naturalized in 2000, five years after arriving in the US from Kenya, where her family had lived in a refugee camp after fleeing Somalia.

David Rouzer (R)

State: North Carolina

District: 07

Place of birth: Germany

Rouzer has served in Congress since 2015. He was born at Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany, where his father was stationed, making him a US citizen at birth.

Raul Ruiz (D)

State: California

District: 25

Place of birth: Mexico

Ruiz has served in Congress since 2013. He was born in Mexico and raised in Coachella, California, after his aunt and uncle adopted him as a baby. He is a naturalized US citizen.

Victoria Spartz (R)

State: Indiana

District: 05

Place of birth: Ukraine

Spartz has served in Congress since 2021. She arrived in the US in 2000 and became a US citizen in 2006.

Marilyn Strickland (D)

State: Washington

District: 10

Place of birth: South Korea

Strickland has served in Congress since 2021. She was born to an American serviceman father and Korean mother, making her a US citizen at birth.

Shri Thanedar (D)

State: Michigan

District: 13

Place of birth: India

Thanedar has served in Congress since 2023. He was naturalized in 1988 after emigrating from India a decade earlier.

Norma J. Torres (D)

State: California

District: 35

Place of birth: Guatemala

Torres has served in Congress since 2015. She emigrated to the US as a young child in the early 1970s and became a naturalized citizen in 1992.

Eugene Simon Vindman (D)

State: Virginia

District: 07

Place of birth: Ukraine

Vindman has served in Congress since 2025. The exact year of his naturalization is not in the public record, but he moved to the US with his family as a child.

Portugal is launching a new €35 million support scheme aimed at bringing 200 young farmers into the sector, Agriculture Minister José Manuel Fernandes has announced. Speaking at the first Young

The post €35 million fund aims to bring 200 young farmers into Portuguese agriculture appeared first on Portugal Resident.

Fjord is a movie about having your children taken by the state. The tone is calm, clinical, measured, and by the books. No violence is depicted on screen. People rarely even raise their voices. Everything unfolds in the distant and impersonal style of bureaucratic procedure. 

But the movie, which won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is utterly enraging, a fierce, ferocious, gut-punch of a film. It's a haunting portrait of the consequences of unchecked state power, especially the kind that purports to be for one's own good.

Much of the film's power comes from the fact that it simply depicts what happens when a person, or a family, comes under suspicion by the state. There's no commentary, no lecturing, no big speech at the end. Instead, writer-director Cristian Mungiu, a Romanian filmmaker whose sympathies are clearly with the family, simply shows us, unblinking, what it's like to lose one's rights and freedoms at the hands of a bureaucracy that respects no power and no authority but its own. 

When the film begins, the Gheorghiu family—a mother (Renate Reinsve), father (Sebastian Stan), and their five children—moves from Romania to a small town in Norway. Soon, school authorities notice the children have bruises. We in the audience know the bruises weren't caused by the parents, but the children, who don't speak Norwegian, give conflicting statements. After being brought in for questioning by the police, the father admits to sometimes spanking or lightly slapping his children on the behind, for correction. In order to go free, he's required to sign a statement that contorts his words, making his admission of spanking sound like something more sinister and violent. 

He's also a conservative Christian, which has caused some social tension: He's played Christian music, without singing the lyrics, on a piano at school, a no-no in a state that strictly curbs proselytizing. School officials are concerned that he requires his children to pray and study the Bible; the children aren't allowed to play video games or watch YouTube. One of his children spoke out against homosexuality in school during a session on gender. There's suspicion among the teachers and administrators that he might be indoctrinating his kids.

So the school authorities alert Child Protection, Norway's powerful family bureaucracy. They remove the kids, including a breastfeeding baby, from their parents' custody and place them in three separate foster homes. At first the parents are allowed no visitation, and they are not told where the children are located.

Then they go to court, initially for a civil trial, but with a criminal trial for child abuse looming in the background. As the legal process proceeds, they are told repeatedly that essentially anything they do to fight for their children will make the outcome worse. The state wants compliance and admission that they wrongly abused their kids. But if they admit to abusing their kids, doesn't that give the state evidence they are unfit to parent? Doesn't that make the criminal trial more likely to go against them? As their own, mostly sympathetic lawyer, informs the two parents, "Frankly unless you convince them that you understand and regret it, the risk of you going to prison is considerable." 

Later, at the trial, a representative from Child Protection calmly says there's no reason to believe children might be better off with their biological parents, noting the family's restrictions on video games, internet, and YouTube. In their view, the state knows what's best for the kids; the culturally backward, religious conservative parents do not. It's not for nothing that one character, a conservative political figure from Romania who has come to help publicize the situation, analogizes the power of Child Protection to the power of the Soviet state. 

Part of what makes Fjord so effective is its lack of sermonizing. You don't have to be a trad, a conservative, a family values evangelical, to see that what's happening to the Gheorghiu family is simply wrong. They are railroaded by an imperious bureaucratic state that distorts reality to turn them into villains, with the goal of separating children from their parents and each other. Who are the real child abusers here? 

The story is fictionalized, but not hypothetical. Fjord is based on the true story of the Bodnariu family, conservative Romanian immigrants whose five children were taken from them by the Norwegian state in the 2010s on similarly flimsy justifications. The family eventually left Norway. After watching Fjord, it isn't hard to see why. 

The post Family Separation Drama <i>Fjord</i> Is a Haunting Depiction of Unchecked State Power appeared first on Reason Magazine.

New World Orchestra’s musicians are shocked at French police targeting peaceful gathering with teargas

• Europe live – latest updates

As riot police encircled Place de la République last week, lobbing teargas canisters to disperse demonstrators, the conductor Étienne Jarrier and his orchestra played on. They kept playing even after everyone else had disappeared and teargas was being fired into the central Paris square.

It was only when Jarrier noticed his musicians were being directly targeted that he ordered them to stop. “There were teargas canisters landing in the double bass and music stand cases, and starting fires the musicians had to stamp out,” he told the Guardian.

Show features live chat sessions with breeders, a podcast and updates on dogs’ progress from birth to weigh-ins

A 24-hour Finnish TV show dedicated entirely to the live progress of a dog and her six newborn puppies is drawing millions of viewers.

As well as a 24-hour webcam, Pentulive (Puppy Live) includes live evening chat sessions with the dogs’ breeder, a podcast and an instant notification service that updates followers on the puppies’ progress – from their birth to weigh-ins and first nail trims – for eight weeks.

• The Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything" earned $15.6 million in its debut weekend.
• That makes it the second-highest-grossing traditional docufilm opening weekend of all time.
• Business Insider compiled the 25 biggest documentary opening weekends using Box Office Mojo data.

Something unusual is happening right now: a documentary is drawing crowds to theaters at a level rarely seen for the genre.

The Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything," directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, grossed $15.6 million in the US and Canada during its opening weekend in October.

That makes it the second-biggest theatrical docufilm debut ever, behind director Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which saw a nearly $24 million opening in 2004. "You Can See Everything" was filmed in the month before Holmes reported to prison in May 2023 after she was convicted of defrauding investors in connection with her now-defunct blood-testing company, Theranos.

Theatrical documentary premieres have become rarer since the streaming era began, as the genre has found a major audience on streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Besides the new Holmes docufilm, only two others on the list were from this decade: "Melania" debuted to $7.1 million in January 2026, and "After Death," a documentary about near-death experiences, opened to $5 million in 2023.

Still, theatrical docufilms were once a cultural force, especially in the 2000s and 2010s, when a wave of nature-, political-, and celebrity-focused ones premiered in theaters to much fanfare.

Here are the 25 highest-grossing traditional documentary film openings at the box office, using data from Box Office Mojo. Several hit concert docufilms, like "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" and "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," earned more but were omitted from this list to focus on traditional nonfiction documentaries.

25. Whitney (2018)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $1,265,572

Directed by Kevin Macdonald, "Whitney" chronicles the life and career of singer Whitney Houston.

The documentary uses archival footage and interviews with people close to Houston to explore her rise to fame, personal struggles, and her death in 2012.

24. Imagine: John Lennon (1988)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $1,412,213

The documentary, directed by Andrew Solt, looks back on John Lennon’s life and career through archival footage, home movies, interviews, and recordings.

It covers Lennon's time with the Beatles, his solo work, and his relationship with Yoko Ono.

23. That's Dancing! (1985)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $1,506,802

Directed by Jack Haley Jr., "That's Dancing!" chronicles how dance evolved in Hollywood films through clips from musicals.

It features performances by Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and more.

22. Rize (2005)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $1,574,787

David LaChapelle directed the documentary that focuses on the different dance styles across Los Angeles, including krumping and clowning.

It follows dancers who use dance as an outlet in South Central LA.

21. Babies (2010)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $2,160,460

Directed by Thomas Balmès, the documentary follows four infants from birth through their first year in Namibia, Mongolia, Japan, and the US.

20. Penguins (2019)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $2,282,593

Directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson, the Disneynature documentary, narrated by Ed Helms, follows a penguin as he searches for a partner and starts a family in Antarctica.

19. The Real Cancun (2003)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $2,300,000

"The Real Cancun" follows 16 American college students on spring break in Mexico.

The documentary captures the students as they party, hook up, argue, and more during a 10-day stay in Cancún's Hotel Zone.

18. Death of a Nation (2018)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $2,356,522

Conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza co-directed "Death of a Nation" with Bruce Schooley.

The documentary uses reenactments and interviews to argue that Donald Trump is comparable to Abraham Lincoln and that the Democratic Party has historical ties to racism and fascism.

17. Meet the Mormons (2014)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $2,509,808

Produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the documentary follows six church members around the world, including the US, Costa Rica, and Nepal, to depict their daily lives and beliefs.

16. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $2,970,848

Directed by Nathan Frankowski, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" challenges the teaching of evolution and includes interviews with scientists, writers, and religious figures.

15. Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $3,008,563

Director Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9," a follow-up to his 2004 documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," examines the political climate surrounding Donald Trump's election and presidency.

The documentary ranges from the Flint water crisis to the Parkland school shooting and criticism of Democratic leaders.

14. Religulous (2008)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $3,409,643

Comedian Bill Maher travels the world questioning believers, clergy members, and religious institutions in "Religulous," directed by Larry Charles.

The documentary takes a comedic and confrontational look at Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other religions.

13. Terror in the Aisles (1984)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $4,009,866

Directed by Andrew J. Kuehn, "Terror in the Aisles" dives into the history of horror cinema.

Actors Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen introduce clips from films including "Psycho," "The Exorcist," "Halloween," and "The Shining," while discussing why audiences enjoy being scared.

12. Monkey Kingdom (2015)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $4,577,861

"Monkey Kingdom" follows Maya, a toque macaque, as she raises her son within the Sri Lankan jungle.

Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill directed the Disneynature documentary, narrated by Tina Fey.

11. Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $4,632,847

Director Lauren Lazin's documentary examines the life of Tupac Shakur through archive footage, home videos, interviews, and Shakur's own voice recordings.

The documentary lets Shakur's recordings guide the audience through his childhood, music career, activism, legal troubles, and his death in 1996.

10. Bears (2014)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $4,776,267

"Bears" follows a brown bear mother as she emerges from hibernation in Alaska with her two cubs.

Directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey and narrated by John C. Reilly, the Disneynature documentary tracks the family's search for food and protection as they face wolves, rival bears, and the wilderness.

9. Born in China (2017)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $4,790,367

Director Lu Chuan takes viewers across China's mountains and forests in "Born in China," a Disneynature documentary narrated by John Krasinski.

It follows a giant panda mother and cub, a golden snub-nosed monkey family, and a snow leopard raising her young in the highlands.

8. After Death (2023)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $5,051,950

"After Death" interviews people who say they had near-death experiences and returned to life.

The documentary, co-directed by Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke, also includes interviews with doctors, scientists, and others about consciousness, death, and the possibility of an afterlife.

7. African Cats (2011)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $6,003,200

Set in Kenya, the Disneynature documentary, directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, focuses on a family of lions and a cheetah raising her cubs.

It was nominated for documentary awards by the Environmental Media Awards and the Phoenix Film Critics Society.

6. Oceans (2010)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $6,058,958

"Oceans," directed by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, is a portrait of marine life around the world.

The documentary is largely filmed underwater, showcasing whales, sharks, schools of fish, and more.

5. Melania (2026)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $7,161,605

Directed by Brett Ratner, "Melania" follows first lady Melania Trump during the 20 days before Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration in January 2025.

The film offers behind-the-scenes footage of her preparations to return to the White House, including meetings, travel, and intimate moments among family members.

4. Earth (2009)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $8,825,760

Disneynature directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield directed "Earth," which follows polar bears, elephants, and humpback whales across the different seasons.

The documentary was the first release from Disneynature in the US and was among the highest-grossing nature documentaries at the time.

3. Chimpanzee (2012)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $10,673,748

"Chimpanzee" centers on a young chimp living in the forests of Ivory Coast who is orphaned after a rival troop attacks his group.

The Disneynature documentary was directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, with Tim Allen as the narrator.

2. You Can See Everything (2026)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $15,601,418

Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the documentary offers a revealing portrait of Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of fraud and conspiracy connected to her fallen company, Theranos.

Holmes allowed the directors into her life during the 34 days before she reported to federal prison to serve an 11-year sentence. It's receiving wide critical acclaim and sparking online debate about its portrayal of Holmes.

1. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Opening weekend domestic gross: $23,920,637

Director Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" takes a close look at President George W. Bush, the September 11 attacks, the war in Iraq, and the connections between American political and business leaders.

The documentary won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and became the highest-grossing traditional documentary in US box-office history.

What if the hijab were mandatory for men? That is what happens to the male actors in Head to Head, the debut feature by Iranian director Ghasideh Golmakani. 

The premise is not quite as straightforward as it sounds. Head to Head is a mockumentary about making a fictional film in which men must wear skirts and headscarves. It may have several layers, but Ghasideh is clear about what she wanted to achieve.

"I never wanted to make a conventional film. I wanted to make exactly what I made. It became just what I had imagined," Ghasideh tells The New Arab.

Although Head to Head doesn't necessarily fit the category of a documentary, the film was fully scripted, with every scene carefully planned. That said, the rehearsals allowed some flexibility.

"The structure and the dialogue were already written, but we rehearsed a lot with the actors beforehand. During those rehearsals, I gave them space to improvise a little," she explains. 

This flexibility helped Ghasideh capture the film's central reactions. We see a woman directing a production on a male-dominated set, where the actors agree to wear women's clothes and headscarves but begin to complain when the experience becomes uncomfortable.

To capture their reactions, Ghasideh asked the actors to wear the clothing during rehearsals, even before they had fully familiarised themselves with the script.

"I didn’t give them the script at the beginning. They read it before each rehearsal session, so it was very fresh in their minds when they performed it," she explains.

"During the rehearsals, I asked them to wear headscarves and dress as women. They were obviously bothered by it. It was warm, and they reacted exactly as I had written."

Beyond the veil

In this sense, Head to Head works like a sociological experiment, with predictable results, at least for Ghasideh.

By exposing the discomfort of actors, whose profession involves stepping into other people's shoes, the film goes beyond challenging an oppressive law to reveal how deeply ingrained gender discrimination is in society.

As she puts it, "What I’m pointing to is our failure, as human beings, to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Nowadays, we judge each other so easily because of religion, nationality, gender or whatever else. I find that increasingly frightening. For me, this film goes beyond Iran. I could have made it in another country, using something other than the veil, and I think it would have carried the same message."

In sharing this, she notes that the hijab, which has been at the centre of many demonstrations, serves as a symbol of the restrictions imposed on women.

For instance, there is a scene where the director shouts 'cut' because the men dressed as women are dancing in ways that women are not allowed to in Iran. But as Ghasideh points out, discrimination against women is hardly exclusive to Iran.

"Women in other countries may not have to wear a hijab, but they still generally face more restrictions than men and are subjected to much greater scrutiny," she says.

"I left Iran when I was 18 and went to France hoping to find liberté, fraternité, égalité," she says. "To my unpleasant surprise, I discovered that we were still very far from equality. In Iranian films and Iranian society, this is more obvious because the contrast is so stark. But it also exists in other societies."

Finding humour in injustice

The restrictions women face also raise questions about the limits of activism, another theme Head to Head explores. In one scene, the crew's van is about to be stopped by the morality police.

Bahar resists putting on a headscarf, seeing it as a humiliation that would also bring the film's role-playing to an abrupt halt.

She is torn between staying true to her principles and avoiding a direct confrontation with the authorities. The reversal of power relations made possible within the film suddenly clashes with the reality outside it.

For Ghasideh, confronting such inequalities has strengthened her determination to challenge them, even if she prefers to do so through her films rather than direct confrontation.

"Somehow, that feeling of injustice between men and women became even stronger in me. I’m not doing things on a large scale, but I always try to reduce inequality in my surroundings as much as I can, and a little through my films as well," she says.

"But I don’t shout too loudly. I’m afraid that shouting can sometimes frighten the listener or the audience. That is also why I chose comedy: it stays with you differently from slogans shouted at full volume."

But how much of Ghasideh is there in Bahar? The similarities between the fictional director and the filmmaker herself are hard to ignore.

"It took me a long time to find the actress because, for different reasons, none of the people I met convinced me. Someone said, ‘Why don’t you play the role yourself? It’s you!’ But I didn’t want to take on that responsibility," she notes.

"It was my first feature, and I needed to concentrate on directing. Luckily, I found her. I think Bahar is very much like me, although she is a little more exaggerated."

The parallels between the two help reinforce the film's approach to sexism. Rather than confronting entrenched discrimination through direct political denunciation, Head to Head relies on irony and comedy to make its point.

"For someone who responds to this kind of irony, I think it works better than a serious treatment of the subject," she explains. 

Making a film in Iran can itself be an act of resistance. For Ghasideh, this was particularly apparent in her debut feature, which she wrote, directed, and produced herself despite the lack of financial support.

"I think writing, directing and producing my debut feature was the craziest thing I could have done. What was really difficult was the lack of financial support. It weighed on me so much that I couldn’t think about anything else. I live in Hamburg, so I bought a camera here, went to Iran and said, ‘I’m going to make a film. No matter what.’"

Should men try wearing the hijab?

Despite censorship, conflict and countless other difficulties, Iranian cinema continues to produce a remarkable number of films, some of which circulate widely on the international festival circuit. 

"I think we have a very strong culture of resistance. I saw a documentary about Iranian film history in which a producer described filming during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. When sirens warned of an Iraqi bombing raid, they would stop. After the bombing, they would continue shooting," she shares.

"For me, that was beautiful and sad at the same time. It is a form of resistance: art resisting war, conflict and our problems. I think this is deeply rooted in our culture.”

Ghasideh is now preparing her second fiction feature, about an Iranian-German couple in Hamburg. She describes it as "another black comedy, questioning cultural clashes." With another film in the works, we ask whether she believes art, and cinema in particular, can change the world.

She answers with conviction, saying, "I hope the film can make people pause, even briefly, and stop judging each other so easily" and that "this power game between men and women also has to stop at some point. Otherwise, we will never achieve a balanced society anywhere."

Her answer brings us back to the question at the heart of Head to Head: should all men wear a hijab, even for just one day, to better understand women’s experiences?

"No," she says. "They can do whatever they want," she adds, saying she would definitely recommend they at least watch her film.

After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and receiving a Best Screenplay nomination at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the film is now set to screen at the Chicago International Film Festival

Manuel Halpern is a journalist and film critic, founder and editor of Wild at Heart, and a member of FIPRESCI

Follow him on Instagram: @manuelhalpern_