New Documentary Movies on The Roku Channel - Page 88

Smoke Traders

2012

Smoke Traders

2012
Smoke Traders is an inside look at the world of the Mohawk tobacco trade.
The Penguin King

2012

The Penguin King

2012
7
South Georgia - alone in a vast ocean. 900 miles from Antarctica, and a mere 100 miles long. A wild rugged landscape with mountain ranges, vast glaciers, windblown plains half buried beneath snow and ice. Three years ago, the Penguin King left home. Now he is returning to the place where he was born and raised: Penguin City. One of the most densely-packed, sought-after pieces of real estate in the entire southern hemisphere and somehow he must establish his own place in it. He must find a mate.
Bound by Flesh

2012

Bound by Flesh

2012
5.9
Conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton were once the cream of the sideshow crop. Taught to sing and dance at an early age, the winsome duo ascended through the early 20th-century vaudeville circuit as a side attraction (working alongside Bob Hope and Charlie Chaplin as well as a memorable turn in the Tod Browning classic "Freaks") before a cascade of unscrupulous management and harsh mistreatment brought their careers (and lives) tumbling down. This engrossing glimpse into a bygone era is filled with fascinating interviews and rare archival footage.
A.K.A. Doc Pomus

2012

A.K.A. Doc Pomus

2012
5.1
Doc Pomus’ dramatic life is one of American music’s great untold stories. Paralyzed with polio as a child, Brooklyn-born Jerome Felder reinvented himself as a blues singer, renaming himself Doc Pomus, then emerged as one of the most brilliant songwriters of the early rock and roll era, writing “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “A Teenager in Love,” “Viva Las Vegas,” and dozens of other hits. Spearheaded and co-produced by his daughter, Sharyn Felder, and packed with incomparable music and rare archival imagery, this documentary features interviews with collaborators and friends including Dr. John, Ben E. King, Joan Osborne, Shawn Colvin, Dion, Leiber and Stoller, and B.B. King, as well as passages from Doc’s private journals read by his close friend Lou Reed.
Brooklyn Castle

2012

Brooklyn Castle

2012
6.8
Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about I.S. 318 – an inner-city school where more than 65 percent of students are from homes with incomes below the federal poverty level – that also happens to have the best, most winning junior high school chess team in the country. (If Albert Einstein, who was rated 1800, were to join the team, he’d only rank fifth best.) Chess has transformed the school from one cited in 2003 as a “school in need of improvement” to one of New York City’s best. But a series of recession-driven public school budget cuts now threaten to undermine those hard-won successes.
Yogawoman

2012

Yogawoman

2012
Yoga was brought to the west from India by a lineage of male teachers. Now there's a generation of women who are leading the way and they're radically changing people's lives. From the busy streets of Manhattan to the dusty slums of Kenya, from the golden beaches of Australia YOGAWOMAN uncovers a global phenomenon that has changed the face of yoga forever.
Pablo

2012

Pablo

2012
6.9
Pablo blends documentary and animation elements to tell the saga of "famous unknown" Pablo Ferro, a man with a personal journey that spans from Havana, during the pre-Cuban revolution to his current home, in the garage behind his son's house.
The Believers

2012

The Believers

2012
March 1989: two respected chemists from the University of Utah stand in front of a wall of reporters. Flashbulbs pop as they announce they have solved the world's energy problems using seawater, batteries and a mysterious glass contraption. 'Cold Fusion' is born. Within days, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann are on the cover of Time Magazine. But three short months later, their careers in tatters and their reputations ruined, they flee the US as Cold Fusion becomes synonymous with 'bad science.' Twenty-two years later, despite continued disdain from mainstream science, a group of scientists, entrepreneurs and one high school student are confident that Cold Fusion will save the world, and that we're closer than ever to the Holy Grail of civilization. They're The Believers.
World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly

2012

World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly

2012
6.5
The British fought the Second World War to defeat Hitler. This film asks why, then, did they spend so much of the conflict battling through North Africa and Italy? Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill's conviction that the Mediterranean was the 'soft underbelly' of Hitler's Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the 'soft underbelly' became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill. Reynolds reveals a prime minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain's 'finest hour' in 1940 - a leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France. The film marks the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein in 1942.
B.B. King: The Life of Riley

2012

B.B. King: The Life of Riley

2012
6.9
Documentary charting the life of blues guitarist B.B. King, with contributions from fellow musicians.
The Cardboard Bernini

2012

The Cardboard Bernini

2012
James Grashow is an artist who has built—among many other things-- giant 15 foot tall fighting men, a city, and an ocean-- using paper mache, fabric, chicken wire and cardboard. More recently, he has begun making sculptures entirely out of corrugated cardboard and twist ties.
I Heart Monster Movies

2012

I Heart Monster Movies

2012
5.3
Documentary about horror fans
A Whisper to a Roar

2012

A Whisper to a Roar

2012
6.3
Courageous democracy activists in five countries (Egypt, Malaysia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Zimbabwe) risk it all to bring freedom to their people.
Venus and Serena

2012

Venus and Serena

2012
6.1
Venus and Serena takes an honest and unfiltered look into the remarkable lives of sisters and tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams. Through the prism of one year in their lives, the film tells the untold story of how these two great stars came to be and how they struggle to stay on top.
The New Juarez

2012

The New Juarez

2012
As Ciudad Juarez slowly recovers from a six year period of hyperviolence, a militant police chief stirs controversy, and wary citizens cast their hopes on a new national president. All the while, the tragic facts of the "drug war" begin to form a far more sinister picture.
Beauty and the Breast

2012

Beauty and the Breast

2012
4.5
A first time documentary filmmaker offers a compelling insight into a devastating reality of breast cancer, as seen through the eyes of several female patients helping demystify the disease while painting poignant and often humorous intimate portraits of survival.
Playback

2012

Playback

2012
A portrait of the Russian filmmaker Alexei Guerman via an exploration of the making of his latest film, an adaptation of It Is Difficult to Be a God, a science-fiction novel by the Strougaski brothers, on which he has been working for several years, Hard to Be God explores the director's complex relationships with his crew, who he rules with a rod of iron. The film exposes the power relations of authority and the submission of a film crew to a director who is trying to change history, fight servitude and advocate freedom.
Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus

2012

Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus

2012
6.3
Based on the best-selling religious studies book by Joseph Atwill, this documentary shows that Jesus is not a historical figure, the events of Jesus' life were based on a Roman military campaign, his supposed second coming refers to an event that already occurred, and the Gospels were written by a family of Caesars who left us documents to prove it. Besides Atwill, six other controversial Bible scholars weigh in, showing that the teachings of Christ came from the ancient pagan mystery schools, and that Christianity was used as a political tool to control the masses of the day and is still being used this way today.
La Gaita

2012

La Gaita

2012
Documentary about the Lara Brothers; Trinidad and Tobago’s oldest existing parang group.
Children of the Stars

2012

Children of the Stars

2012
4
'Children of the Stars' is the strange but true story of a UFO contactee group who relive their past lives on other planets by making their own science fiction films. In 1973, Ruth Norman, a 73-year-old widow and self described cosmic visionary, purchased 67 acres of land in the mountains east of San Diego, California as a landing site for the Space Brothers (emissaries from the Intergalactic Confederation). Nearly 40 years later, a group of dedicated followers still await their arrival.