New Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 168

The Circle Closes

2015

The Circle Closes

2015
6
An examination of four different films which to varying degrees center on a prop or an object or an item that crosses various characters' lives and passes from hand to hand. The story in each film is, to a certain extent, told from the point of view of the object which can neither speak nor evaluate the actions of the characters whose lives it touches and influences. The films? MME DE..., WINCHESTER '73, VIRDIANA and AU HASARD BALTHAZAR.
Tashi's Turbine

2015

Tashi's Turbine

2015
Tashi Bista dreams to install a makeshift wind turbine in Namdok, a remote village nestled high amongst the Himalayas of Nepal. Namdok, battered by wind and cold has been in darkness for centuries. Wearing Ray Bans to shield his eyes from the dust and just a leather jacket to insulate him from the bitter cold he surveys the village. He grew up in this region without electrical power. He is determined to bring lights to Namdok in an effort to prove himself to the skeptical village community. Tashi's Turbine is a character driven film that shows the impact of one man's dream for light, in a village waiting for development.
Kingdom of Shadows

2015

Kingdom of Shadows

2015
6
KINGDOM OF SHADOWS follows three people grappling with the hard choices and destructive consequences of the U.S.-Mexico “drug war”. Filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz weaves together the seemingly disconnected stories of an activist nun in deeply scarred Monterrey, Mexico, a U.S. Federal agent on the border, and a former Texas smuggler to reveal the human side of an often-misunderstood conflict that has resulted in the “disappearance” of more than 23,000 people in Mexico—a growing human rights crisis that only recently has made international headlines.
Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon

2015

Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon

2015
Media artists and social activists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke’s film speaks to the history of police violence in our society, providing a framework for understanding the systems of social control in Portland and its history of exclusion laws, racial profiling, redlining, and gentrification practices. Through conversations with community leaders that include Walidah Imarisha, author of the “Oregon Black History Timeline,” JoAnn Hardesty, and Rev. LeRoy Haynes of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice & Police Reform, Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch, and Kent Ford, founder of the Portland Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the filmmakers explore alternatives to current policing practices and consider strategies for community safety that do not employ constant surveillance and unneeded violence.
Remembering Yayayi

2014

Remembering Yayayi

2014
Remembering Yayayi reflects on a pivotal moment in the history of Pintupi people through a body of archival film. In 1974, filmmaker Ian Dunlop visited Yayayi, a remote community in Central Australia. The Pintupi people had recently moved there to get away from the difficulties of living at the larger permanent government settlement of Papunya. Dunlop had come to Yayayi to follow up on the lives of people he had photographed ten years earlier as they were leaving their Western Desert homeland for the first time. He never made a film with the material he shot there and Yayayi has long since been abandoned.
Tulare, The Phantom Lake

2014

Tulare, The Phantom Lake

2014
Tulare, The Phantom Lake explores the landscape of what was once the largest lake in America west of the Mississippi River, a lake that disappeared by the year 1900 due to water diversion and land reclamation for agriculture. The Tulare region in California's Central Valley is home to the most productive agricultural region the world has ever known. The same landscape also harbors less than five percent of the original natural landscape and the poorest Congressional region in the United States. In an age of climate change, we journey through this landscape guided by a series of individuals who never meet: an agricultural consultant; a Native American basket weaver; a journalist; a writer; a biologist; and an archaeologist.
Actresses Turned Producer/Directors

2014

Actresses Turned Producer/Directors

2014
From Mary Pickford to Barbra Streisand the successful actress turned producer/director is one of Hollywood's longest standing traditions.
Invitation to Dance

2014

Invitation to Dance

2014
At age 23, Simi Linton was injured while hitchhiking to Washington to protest the war in Vietnam. Suddenly a young disabled college student, she confronted discrimination she couldn't have imagined before. Simi emerges as a resourceful activist, and in time realizes that love, sexuality, and dance can once again be central to her life.
Jennifer Lopez: Dance Again

2014

Jennifer Lopez: Dance Again

2014
7.4
A documentary that chronicles Jennifer Lopez's life on and off-stage during her first ever world tour. Throughout the majority of her music career, beginning in 1999, a world tour by Lopez was anticipated, though it never materialized. Following the release of her seventh studio album Love? (2011), she was more intent on touring than ever. However, it was not until March 2012 when the tour came into the works. As rumors began to circulate, Lopez later confirmed that April that she would be embarking on her first world tour. It commenced on June 14, 2012, in Panama City, Panama, and concluded on December 22, 2012, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Why Knot

2014

Why Knot

2014
3.2
Why do human beings get married in almost every society in the world? Why do we cheat? Why is monogamy so important to a relationship and why does infidelity cause so much grief? These are some of the questions acclaimed documentary filmmaker Dhruv Dhawan confronts in his next feature length documentary which explores why human beings evolved cultures of marriage and monogamy that are rife with infidelity. As he attends various lavish weddings occurring within his family, Dhruv is pestered to follow suit but is haunted by his family’s history of infidelity, as well as his own and embarks on a personal quest to discover the origins of marriage, the reasons for monogamy and the pain of infidelity as he tries to mediate an open relationship with the woman he loves. Dhruv’s search takes us on a journey into the biology of sex, the history of patriarchy and the politics of monogamy told through the lives of scientists, swingers, adulterers and Dhruv’s own family.
The First Silent Night: The Christmas Carol That United the World

2014

The First Silent Night: The Christmas Carol That United the World

2014
Renowned actor Simon Callow traces the 200-year history of Silent Night, traveling to Oberndorf and Salzburg to uncover the carol’s humble beginnings. The film follows the lives of Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber, two impoverished Austrian children whose paths converged in a small church, where Gruber’s melody joined Mohr’s lyrics to create the world’s most beloved carol. Born from hardship and hope after the Napoleonic wars, Silent Night transformed a quiet night’s story into a universal message of peace.
Shaun Micallef's Stairway to Heaven

2014

Shaun Micallef's Stairway to Heaven

2014
In his youth Shaun Micallef almost joined the priesthood. Now he wonders if he may have missed his one shot at the answers to life’s big questions. Heading to India, a country where spirituality and the search for meaning is very much a national past time, he immerses himself in the Hindu world of Gods, Gurus and the Ganges. In a bid to get to the heart of the faith, Shaun pushes well beyond his comfort zone on a physical, mental and spiritual adventure. He journeys to the source of the Ganges high in the Himalayas - all the while offering his own unique observations on his quest to find the meaning of life.
Duane Michals: The Man Who Invented Himself

2014

Duane Michals: The Man Who Invented Himself

2014
Portrait of an artist who has marked the history of contemporary photography with his images in sequences where gravity and humor and even writing are mixed. Through the emblematic themes of his work, such as love, desire, death or immortality, this film proposes to revisit the places that have marked him: Pittsburgh, the flagship city of the steel industry, the city of his childhood and his first discoveries; New York, where he has been living for many years with his companion Frédéric, a city that symbolizes encounters and desire; and finally Vermont, for the nature, the seasons and the disused hotel where he works. These places bring out the artist's fantasy, humor and emotion. Duane Michals is a young man of 80 years, with a great freedom of spirit and vitality, his enthusiasm is contagious and this film is a reflection of it.
The New Rijksmuseum

2014

The New Rijksmuseum

2014
7.8
A documentary about the fascinating and complicated process of the rebuilding of Holland's most famous museum, The Rijksmuseum. The film shows the people behind the scenes during the years of demolition, restoration, and political and financial debate. We witness their efforts, joys and struggles with one goal in common: the love of art.
How to Change the World

2014

How to Change the World

2014
7.1
In 1971, a group of friends sail into a nuclear test zone, and their protest captures the world's imagination. Using never before seen archive that brings their extraordinary world to life, How To Change The World is the story of the pioneers who founded Greenpeace and defined the modern green movement.
Born in Gaza

2014

Born in Gaza

2014
7.8
This documentary focuses on the devastating violence of the Israel-Palestine conflict and its effects on the children of Gaza.
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

2014

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

2014
6.5
The extraordinary life of Orson Welles (1915-85), an enigma of Hollywood, an irreducible independent creator: a musical prodigy, an excellent painter, a master of theater and radio, a modern Shakespeare, a magician who was always searching for a new trick to surprise his audience, a romantic and legendary figure who lived only for cinema.
Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power

2014

Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power

2014
Dive into the life of the father of the nuclear Navy: Hyman Rickover. Combative, provocative, and blunt, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was a flamboyant maverick and a unique American hero. When few thought it possible, then-Captain Rickover harnessed the power of the atom to drive the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, whose trip under the polar ice pack was one of the great adventure stories of the 1950s. Later, Rickover built the world's first nuclear aircraft carrier and the first commercial nuclear power plant at Shippingport, PA. Rickover's achievements made him into a national celebrity, and he appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Many wonder whether America can maintain its technological pre-eminence and whether we can still build and manage large-scale projects. To understand these issues, Rickover considers the story of the man who created the nuclear Navy as well as the civilian nuclear power industry: Hyman G. Rickover.
Love Is All: 100 Years of Love & Courtship

2014

Love Is All: 100 Years of Love & Courtship

2014
6.5
A magical and moving archive trip through the universal theme of love, from the very first kisses ever caught on film, through the disruption of war to the birth of youth culture, gay liberation and free love, we follow courting couples flirting at tea dances, kissing in the back of the movies, shacking up and fighting for the right to love.
The Barefoot Artist

2014

The Barefoot Artist

2014
5.3
Lily Yeh is a global artist who is fueled by a belief that art is a human right, and that artists can create a foundation for profound social change. Slight of frame, but large in spirit and vision, the 70-year-old artist was born in China, lives in Philadelphia, and now, as constant traveler, the world is her canvas. Our film explores two sides of Lily's life that are connected parts of the same journey: her international ventures helping to heal weakened spirits in communities around the world and a personal journey within, to repair her own fractured family.