MTV Documentary Films Slate Premiering on Paramount+

Paramount+ is exclusively premiering MTV Documentary Films’ slate, which includes two feature-length documentaries, four documentary shorts and one animated short.

The features Sabaya and Ascension debuted exclusively on Monday, while shorts Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker, Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day”, R.I.P. T-Shirts, Bree Wayy: Promise Witness Remembrance and The Musician will bow on November 22.

Winner of the Directing Award at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Sabaya takes viewers inside the Al-Hol refugee camp in Syria. With just a mobile phone and a gun, Mahmud, Ziyad and their group risk their lives trying to save Yazidi women and girls being held there by ISIS as sabaya (sex slaves). Ascension, an exploration of the pursuit of wealth and the paradox of progress in modern China, examines what living the so-called “Chinese Dream” looks like today.

Directed by Dawn Porter, Bree Wayy: Promise Witness Remembrance looks at how the art world responded to the death of Breonna Taylor. Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker tells the story of the artist who was forced to keep his sexuality a secret, with his coded imagery speaking directly to the gay community and laying the foundation for LGBTQ representation in advertising today.

Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day” tells the story of how Black activists subverted the titular souvenirs, which were celebrations of white supremacy, in the fight against lynching. Directed by Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, R.I.P. T-Shirts takes an intimate look at gun violence and the effect it has on young teenagers through the eyes of a T-shirt shop owner just outside Washington, D.C.

The animated short The Musician centers on a young musician and the love of his life who are separated from each other at the time of the attack of the Mongols.

Sheila Nevins, executive producer of MTV Documentary Films, said: “MTV Documentary Films further opens up the competitive documentary gate with seven noteworthy projects, spanning features, shorts and animation, that will have even greater visibility via Paramount+. Each of these titles has been carefully curated or originally produced, and they all represent the upcoming excellence of our underdog documentary division.”

Tanya Giles, chief programming officer at ViacomCBS Streaming, added: “Paramount+ features an extensive variety of documentaries and docuseries, and we are thrilled to have such a highly prestigious and curated slate from Shelia Nevins, Nina L. Diaz and Liza Burnett Fefferman of MTV Documentary Films. The addition of these award-winning features and shorts on the service further expands our offering of incredible documentary storytelling, and we look forward to introducing our subscribers to these fantastic films.”