Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart

In June 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart is taken from her bedroom at night in Utah. She is held for nine months by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, then recognised in the street and recovered. The documentary tells it in Smart's own words. Benedict Sanderson directed; it went out on Netflix on 21 January 2026 and runs ninety-one minutes. Two things sit at the centre: Smart speaking for herself and previously unreleased archive material. Among those talking are her younger sister Mary Katherine, who witnessed the abduction, her father Ed Smart, other family members, detectives and reporters. Its most striking section is how the search was run: months spent on the wrong suspect, and the voice her sister remembered only being taken seriously later. The telling avoids sensation; the violence of what happened is described but not staged. Who it is for: viewers who want true crime told in the victim's own voice. Who it is not for: anyone sensitive to the subject; what is described is hard.