New Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 193

Prisoners in Freedom City

2007

Prisoners in Freedom City

2007
Civil rights activist Hu Jia was held under house arrest from 2004 to 2008 in the upscale eastern suburbs of Beijing. One day Hu picked up a video camera and began to document things outside the window: his watchers, shepherds tending their flocks, spiders in the rain, and his fellow activist and wife, Zeng Jinyan, going to and from work under the unnervingly close watch of plainclothes police.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream

2007

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream

2007
7.6
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich and packed with rare concert footage and home movies, this documentary explores the history of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, including Petty's famous collaborations and notorious clashes with the record industry. Interviews with musical luminaries including Jackson Browne, George Harrison, Eddie Vedder, Roger McGuinn, Jeff Lynne, Dave Stewart and Petty himself shed some revelatory vision.
China's Stolen Children

2007

China's Stolen Children

2007
7
Ten years after the policy-changing and award-winning film, The Dying Rooms, the same team returns to a very different China where the infamous One Child Policy has had the horrific side effect of a boom in stolen children. With extraordinary access to devastated parents desperately searching for their stolen son; a man who brokers the deals and has sold his own offspring; and prospective parents grappling with giving up their soon-to-be-born daughter through lack of options, we are brought face to face with the crisis that such a stringent government policy has created among China's poorest people.
For the Bible Tells Me So

2007

For the Bible Tells Me So

2007
7.1
An exploration of the intersection between religion and homosexuality in the U.S. and how the religious right has used its interpretation of the Bible to stigmatize the gay community.
She's a Boy I Knew

2007

She's a Boy I Knew

2007
1
Using interviews, animation, old family footage, and voice mail, Vancouver filmmaker Gwen Haworth documents her gender transition partially through the voices of her anxious but loving family, best friend, and wife. Calling for a new era of DIY transgender self-representation, Haworth's feature debut is a comic, heartbreaking, and uplifting autobiography that breaks away from the marginalized depictions of trans people that populate mainstream media and focuses on the interpersonal relationships of a family who unexpectedly find their bonds strengthening as they overcome their preconceptions of gender and sexuality.
Back to Normandy

2007

Back to Normandy

2007
5.6
A filmmaker returns to Normandy thirty years after a working on a movie based on a local homicide and tries to find the actors who worked on the project.
Up the Yangtze

2007

Up the Yangtze

2007
7.3
A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze - navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as "The River." The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history. At the river's edge - a young woman says goodbye to her family as the floodwaters rise towards their small homestead. The Three Gorges Dam - contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle - provides the epic backdrop for Up the Yangtze, a dramatic feature documentary on life inside modern China.
Bulgaria's Abandoned Children

2007

Bulgaria's Abandoned Children

2007
7.5
An insight into the lack of treatment and care unwanted Bulgarian children get in care homes.
Helvetica

2007

Helvetica

2007
7.2
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.
Surfwise

2007

Surfwise

2007
6.9
The inspiring and tumultuous story of 85-year old surfer, health advocate and sex guru, Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, his wife Juliette, and their nine children who were all home-schooled and raised in a small camper on the beach, where they surfed and had to adhere to the strict diet and lifestyle of animals in the wild.
A Jihad for Love

2007

A Jihad for Love

2007
5.2
A documentary on gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims across the Muslim and Western worlds.
Fairytale

2007

Fairytale

2007
Fairytale chronicles the making of an installation-cum-performance of the same name. In 2007, Ai Weiwei invited 1001 Chinese citizens of varying ages and backgrounds to travel to Kassel, Germany, for one week each, all expenses paid. This film describes the many challenges facing the artist and his volunteers in coordinating the work.
War Made Easy

2007

War Made Easy

2007
7.2
War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
The 11th Hour

2007

The 11th Hour

2007
6.7
A look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutions for restoring the planet's ecosystems. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world, including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolse
Women Behind the Camera

2007

Women Behind the Camera

2007
7
Reveals the courageous lives of pioneer camerawomen from Hollywood to Bollywood, from war zones to children’s laughter, in a way that has never been seen before. Based on a book by Alexis Krasilovsky, the film tells the stories of camerawomen surviving the odds in Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Mexico, the U.S. and other countries, as well as exploring their individual visions.
This Is Nollywood

2007

This Is Nollywood

2007
5
The story of Nigeria's home grown film industry, which is gaining recognition as a cultural and cinematic phenomenon.
The Camden 28

2007

The Camden 28

2007
7
The Camden 28 explores how and why 28 individuals intentionally placed themselves at risk of arrest and imprisonment while protesting the war in Vietnam. Featuring a treasure of archival materials and current interviews with former FBI agents involved in the case and scholars such as Howard Zinn, The Camden 28 is a story about a potent form of dissent that has special relevance to our current political climate.
Automorphosis

2007

Automorphosis

2007
AUTOMORPHOSIS looks into the minds and hearts of a delightful collection of eccentrics, visionaries, and just plain folks who have transformed their autos into artworks.
9 Star Hotel

2007

9 Star Hotel

2007
6.3
Slipping through the predawn darkness over highways, through traffic and across the border, Palestinian construction workers go to work clandestinely in Israel every day. Haar's raw, handheld photography follows workers who build their own border shanty community to enter Israel more easily, with no choice but to risk their lives simply to earn a living.
The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film

2007

The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film

2007
The first comprehensive treatment of the subject of librarians. A vivid blend of factual documentary, feature film and storytelling, it reveals the history and realities of librarianship in the entertaining and appealing context of American movies. Interviews with actual librarians, intercut with film clips of cinematic librarians, examine such issues as literature, books, and reading, censorship, library funding, citizenship and democracy. For the first time, we see and understand the real lives and real work of American librarians who for decades have been a cultural for hiding in plain sight.