HBO: It's Not TV, It's Documentaries (on Monday Nights, at Least)

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Elephant Lulu gets a loving pet from late wildlife activist Pat Derby in a promotional photo for "Apology to Elephants," an HBO documentary. The network recently dubbed Monday nights the new home of its documentary films.

Image: Courtesy of HBO

By Sandra Gonzalez2014-06-30 20:27:29 UTC

Sunday nights on HBO might be dedicated to the fantastical world of True Blood, but Mondays are all about real life.

The network has officially dubbed Monday nights the new home of nonfiction filmmaking and will henceforth use the timeslot to host its slate of wide-ranging documentaries.

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As one critic pointed out, the network has actually been airing documentaries on Monday nights informally for some time, with recent high-profile premieres like Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr, from the painter's famous actor son, the Lily Tomlin-produced An Apology to Elephants and Sundance Film Festival Winner, The Case Against 8.

But the establishment of the new programming block does point to the network's commitment to documentaries, even as its original programming — Game of Thrones and True Detective, for example — continues to be buzzy and critically praised.

Doug Block's 112 Weddings, which follows the filmmaker as he tracks down couples whose weddings he once photographed and explores how their marriages have changed over time, premieres tonight. (Watch the trailer below.) Future docs include Kate Davis and David Heilbroner’s The Newburgh Sting (July 21), Valerie Veatch’s Love Child (July 28), Peter Kunhardt’s Nixon By Nixon: In His Own Words (Aug. 4).

Topics: documentary, documentary films, Entertainment, HBO, Television