New Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 223

Human Remains

1998

Human Remains

1998
7.3
Human Remains is a haunting documentary which illustrates the banality of evil by creating intimate portraits of five of the 20th century's most reviled dictators. The film unveils the personal lives of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Francisco Franco and Mao Tse Tung. We learn the private and mundane details of their everyday lives -- their favorite foods, films, habits and sexual preferences. There is no mention of their public lives or of their place in history. The intentional omission of the horrors for which these men were responsible hovers over the film.
Gary Cooper: The Face of a Hero

1998

Gary Cooper: The Face of a Hero

1998
7
Known for his personification of the Western Hero, it was Montana-born Gary Cooper's horse-riding skills that first brought him bit parts in movies. And he never lost his love of the great American outdoors. Though he rarely played a villain and was an adept comedian, Cooper is best remembered for his strong, silent heroes. With his lanky country boy looks and shy hesitancy he created a unique screen presence, though his real life was one of sophisticated elegance.
Roots In The Sand

1998

Roots In The Sand

1998
A multi-generational portrait of pioneering Punjabi-Mexican families who settled, a century ago, in Southern California's Imperial Valley. Through the use of found footage, archival and family photographs, personal and public documents, Jayasri Majumdar Hart tells the touching and inspirational story of a community that grew out of a struggle for economic survival in the face of prejudice.
A Paralyzing Fear: The Story of Polio in America

1998

A Paralyzing Fear: The Story of Polio in America

1998
This is a very clear and personalized presentation of the history and human impact of a seriously debilitating disease - one which we in the western world are too often tempted to think of in the past tense.
Double Solitaire

1998

Double Solitaire

1998
The filmmaker's father and uncle, Norm and Stan, are third generation Japanese Americans. They are "all American" guys who love bowling, cards and pinball. Placed in the Amache internment camp as children during World War II, they don't think the experience affected them that much. But in the course of navigating the maze of her father's and uncle's pursuits while simultaneously trying to inquire about their past, the filmmaker is able to find connections between their lives now and the history that was left behind.
A Place Called Chiapas

1998

A Place Called Chiapas

1998
7
In 1994, the Zapatista National Liberation Army, made up of impoverished Mayan Indians from the state of Chiapas, took over five towns and 500 ranches in southern Mexico. The government deployed its troops and at least 145 people died in the ensuing battle. Filmmaker Nettie Wild travelled to the country's jungle canyons to film the elusive and fragile life of this uprising.
Pyongyang Diaries

1998

Pyongyang Diaries

1998
1
This documentary records Hoaas' personal encounter with the closed society of North Korea. As with her earlier work, Hoaas approaches her film as a cumulation of fragments encompassing different perspectives that together offer a point of entry into a complex society. Her diary-style narration signals her limited personal perspective into this culture, especially given the brief filming period and her difficulty in breaking through the facade of the showcase version of Korea insisted upon by her official guides. Hoaas' restricted visual access, and her reluctance to present over-familiar images of the hardship and depravation informed her decision to use this narrative device to frame her film within the context of the famine crisis that began in 1997 following the failure of crops caused by two consecutive years of heavy flooding.
Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life

1998

Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life

1998
5.8
Ayn Rand was born in 1905 in St. Petersberg, Russia. She escaped to America in 1926 amidst the rise of Soviet Communism. She remained in the United States for the rest of her life, where she became a much respected author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. The themes of freedom and individualism were to be her life's passion...
A Midwife's Tale

1998

A Midwife's Tale

1998
7.8
To understand eighteenth-century America through a woman's eyes, historian and author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich spent eight years working through Martha Ballard's massive but cryptic diary. "A Midwife's Tale" chronicles the interwoven stories of two remarkable women: an eighteenth-century midwife and healer and the twentieth-century historian who brought her words to light.
The Decline of Western Civilization Part III

1998

The Decline of Western Civilization Part III

1998
6.8
The Decline of Western Civilization III is a 1998 documentary film directed by Penelope Spheeris that chronicles the 'gutter punk' lifestyle of homeless teens in Los Angeles.
Juliette of The Herbs

1998

Juliette of The Herbs

1998
A beautiful lyrical portrait of the life and work of Juliette de Bairacli Levy: herbalist, author, breeder of Afghan hounds, friend of the Gypsies, traveller in search of herbal wisdom and the pioneer of holistic veterinary medicine. Her well-loved and now classic herbal remedies for animals and for children have been a vital inspiration to the present day herbal renaissance and holistic animal care community. For more than 60 years Juliette lived with the Gypsies, nomads and peasants of the world, learning the healing arts of these people who live close to nature, and learning from nature herself. Now 85 years of age, Juliette's life story is as colourful and exciting as her tremendous wealth of herbal knowledge. Filmed on location in many beautiful countries, and interwoven with Juliette's vast collection of archival photographs, together with scenes of Gypsies dancing and Bedouins with their herds.
Arguing the World

1998

Arguing the World

1998
A true story of four Jewish intellectuals born in New York and educated at City College during the 1930s, and their divergent paths over the next six decades.
Uncle Poison

1998

Uncle Poison

1998
A healer on healing, medicine & religion...Filmed in the modern city of Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Uncle Poison is an intimate portrait of a traditional faith healer, set against the backdrop of his community's Easter celebrations. Every day, Benito Reyes receives people at his house looking for all sorts of cures. Through his own testimony, this documentary looks at the healer's role as mediator between the social, natural and spiritual worlds. Curing someone or harvesting medicinal leaves, he must first seek permission from the plants he uses and from a variety of Saints. Like some plants and spirits, Benito has the power to extract the sickness and spells from his patients. A conjunction of sacred and profane, celebrating and mourning, Easter provides a rare opportunity to look at traditional faith healing in a wider social and religious context.
The Garifuna Journey

1998

The Garifuna Journey

1998
A celebratory documentary, with engaging scenes of fishing, cooking, dancing, cassava preparation, thatching a temple, spiritual ritual, music and dance all demonstrating the Garifuna link to the Carib-African past. Descendants of African and Carib-Indian ancestors, the Garifuna fought to maintain their homeland and resisted slavery. For this love of freedom, they were exiled from St. Vincent in the Caribbean by the British in 1797. Despite exile and subsequent Diaspora, their traditional culture survives today. It is a little known story that deserves its place in the annals of the African Diaspora. In first person Garifuna voices, this documentary presents the history, the language, food, music, dance and spirituality of the Garifuna culture.
John Szarkowski: A Life in Photography

1998

John Szarkowski: A Life in Photography

1998
Examining his double life as both curator and photographer, a career he abandoned and recently returned to with the publication of Mr. Bristol's Barn, this is a documentary on the man who helped establish photography for the first time as a true and different kind of art.
The Language You Cry In

1998

The Language You Cry In

1998
6
THE LANGUAGE YOU CRY IN tells an amazing scholarly detective story that searches for -and finds- meaningful links between African Americans and their ancestral past. It bridges hundreds of years and thousands of miles from the Gullah people of present-day Georgia back to 18th century Sierra Leone.
Lavender Limelight

1998

Lavender Limelight

1998
6.5
From Go Fish to Paris is Burning to The Watermelon Woman, this festival favorite goes behind the scenes to reveal seven successful lesbian directors. These talented movie-makers enlighten and entertain as they explore their sexual identity, growing up gay, inspirations and techniques, Hollywood vs. Indie, and of course, love and sex, onscreen and off. The conversations are intimate, the topics unlimited, and the clips from their work enthralling! Featuring Cheryl Dunye, Rose Troche, Jennie Livingston, Monika Treut, Maria Maggenti, Su Friedrich and Heather MacDonald.
Kingdom of Shadows

1998

Kingdom of Shadows

1998
5.4
Narrated by Rod Steiger, this documentary examines the frightful conventions from which the modern-day horror movie has evolved, featuring clips from classics like Dante's Inferno and Leaves from Satan's Book.
Advertising and the End of the World

1998

Advertising and the End of the World

1998
Focusing directly on the world of commercial images, Sut Jhally asks some basic questions about the cultural messages emanating from this market-based view of the world: Do our present arrangements deliver what they claim -- happiness and satisfaction? Can we think about our collective as well as our private interests? And, can we think long-term as well as short-term?
The Middle Passage

1997

The Middle Passage

1997
"Explores the 400-year era of the transatlantic slave trade, when millions of Africans were kidnapped and shipped to the Americas. Features interviews with scholars, oral histories and a dramatic recreation of the Middle Passage" (The History Channel).