Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 138

Fighting for Our Lives

1975

Fighting for Our Lives

1975
5.5
Fighting for Our Lives is a 1975 documentary film produced and directed by Glen Pearcy. The film documents the striking of California grape workers from Coachella to Fresno as they negotiate for a United Farm Workers (UFW) contract in 1973. The film also depicts their non-violent struggle against police brutality on the picket lines. It was nominated for the 1976 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
This Land Is Our Land

2010

This Land Is Our Land

2010
For more than three decades, transnational corporations have been busy buying up what used to be known as the commons -- everything from our forests and our oceans to our broadcast airwaves and our most important intellectual and cultural works. In This Land is Our Land, acclaimed author David Bollier, a leading figure in the global movement to reclaim the commons, bucks the rising tide of anti-government extremism and free market ideology to show how commercial interests are undermining our collective interests. Placing the commons squarely within the American tradition of community engagement and the free exchange of ideas and information, Bollier shows how a bold new international movement steeped in democratic principles is trying to reclaim our common wealth by modeling practical alternatives to the restrictive monopoly powers of corporate elites.
Shakespeare Behind Bars

2005

Shakespeare Behind Bars

2005
5.8
Twenty male inmates in a Kentucky prison form an unlikely Shakespearean acting troupe.
Illuminating Angels & Demons

2005

Illuminating Angels & Demons

2005
6.8
This investigative documentary based on Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons seeks to uncover any possible truth behind the theories posed in the story. Is the Vatican secretly embroiled in an ancient war with the Illuminati or is the story posed by brown pure fiction?
Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay

2012

Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay

2012
6.9
The life and career of renowned magician and sleight of hand artist Ricky Jay.
An African Election

2011

An African Election

2011
7.4
Filmmaker Jarreth Merz directs this eye-opening documentary about the 2008 presidential elections in Ghana, chronicling the start-to-finish drama of campaigning in a nation that's long served as a measure of the continent's political stability.
A Ballerina's Tale

2015

A Ballerina's Tale

2015
6.4
A feature documentary on African American ballerina Misty Copeland that examines her prodigious rise, her potentially career ending injury alongside themes of race and body image in the elite ballet world.
Gurukulam

2013

Gurukulam

2013
Every individual confronts fundamental questions about the nature of reality, self-identity, and elusive happiness, yet few make these their life goal. An international group of students have traveled to a monastery in a remote area of southern India with the single purpose of discovering these answers. GURUKULAM is a journey into their lives, a wisdom tradition, and the contemplative space in which it is carried.
American Circumcision

2017

American Circumcision

2017
6.9
Circumcision is the most common surgery in America, yet America is the only industrialized country in the world to routinely practice non-religious infant circumcision. Why does America continue to cut the genitals of it's newborn baby males when the rest of the world does not?
Our Man in Tehran

2013

Our Man in Tehran

2013
6.5
Chronicles the true story behind Argo’s Hollywood embellishments by looking at the efforts of the venerable Ken Taylor, Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, who personally sheltered six American diplomats in the operation that became known as "the Canadian Caper."
The Cannabis Question

2021

The Cannabis Question

2021
NOVA investigates the story of cannabis from the criminalization that has disproportionately harmed communities of color to the latest medical understanding of the plant. What risks does cannabis pose to the developing brain? How much do we know about its potential medical benefits? As cannabis becomes socially accepted, scientists are exploring its long-term health consequences.
Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary

2016

Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary

2016
6.6
Icons of '60s counterculture, Harvard psychologists Timothy Leary and Ram Dass became estranged until an illness inspired their fascinating reunion.
Elián

2017

Elián

2017
6.5
The story of Elián Gonzalez, a five-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits, and how the fight for his future changed the course of U.S.-Cuba relations. Featuring personal testimony, interviews, and a news archive, this documentary recounts Elián’s remarkable rescue on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, after his mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba perished at sea, and the custody battle between the boy’s Cuban father and his Miami-based relatives.
Führer Cult and Megalomania

2011

Führer Cult and Megalomania

2011
6
By early in the twentieth century, Nuremberg was regarded as the most anti-Semitic city in Europe. By 1929, Hitler had decided to make Nuremberg the "City of the Party Rallies" and a symbol representing the greatness of the German Empire. Even today, it is possible to see signs in Nuremberg of the megalomaniac proportions that the system was to assume.
Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospective

1979

Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospective

1979
This film includes important examples of the Robert Rauschenberg's diverse and extraordinary accomplishments, tracing his development from his student years and his earliest experiments to a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It features Rauschenberg, John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and was released in 1979.
The Guardian of Memory

2019

The Guardian of Memory

2019
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mexico became one of the deadliest conflict zones in the world in 2017, second only to Syria. In 2008, the Mexican government sent the army to Chihuahua on the Mexico-Texas border to fight drug traffickers. What seemed like an attempt to control the cartels turned into state-sponsored disappearances and the murder of journalists, human rights activists and civilians. The survivors and those threatened by the conflict pushed at the unwelcoming border of the United States, hoping for asylum. With stunning visual poetry, director Marcela Arteaga weaves together a record of their memories told over the backdrop of the once-vibrant landscape of the Juarez Valley. She also highlights the extraordinary work of Carlos Spector, an immigration lawyer born in El Paso, Texas, who fights to obtain political asylum for those Mexicans fleeing violence.
Memory of Forgotten War

2013

Memory of Forgotten War

2013
Unknown or forgotten by most Americans, the Korean War divided a people with several millenniums of shared history. Memory of Forgotten War conveys the human costs of military conflict through deeply personal accounts of four Korean American survivors whose experiences and memories embrace the full circle of the war: its outbreak and the day-to-day struggle for survival, separation from family members across the DMZ, the aftermath of a devastated Korean peninsula, and immigration to the United States. Each person reunites with relatives in North Korea conveying beyond words the meaning of four decades of family loss. Their stories belie the notion that war ends for civilians when the guns are silenced and foreshadow the futures of countless others displaced by ongoing military conflict today.
The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen

2016

The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen

2016
For six decades Angela Bowen, classical dancer and teacher, black lesbian feminist activist, and professor has influenced and inspired untold numbers speaking out as strongly for the Arts, Black and Women's Rights as she has for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The film depicts Bowen's life across the decades, from the early fifties, with historic footage, photographs and interviews including her dance mentor, dance partner, former husband, partner, children, activists, scholars, and dance and university students. Bowen's candid and compelling stories allow us to understand how race, class, gender, age, and sexuality played into her decisions and choices, her mission, and strategies for survival. Passionate Pursuits is intended to challenge and inspire diverse audiences to pursue their own dreams with tenacity and courage, but not for themselves alone.
One Wedding and a Revolution

2004

One Wedding and a Revolution

2004
1
This short film reveals the inspiration, motivation and political challenges at San Francisco City Hall during the frantic days leading up to the first government-sanctioned same-sex marriage.
For Ahkeem

2017

For Ahkeem

2017
6
After a school fight lands 17-year old Daje Shelton in a court-supervised alternative high school, she's determined to turn things around and make a better future for herself in her rough St. Louis neighborhood. But focusing on school is tough as she loses multiple friends to gun violence, falls in love for the first time, and becomes pregnant with a boy, Ahkeem, just as Ferguson erupts a few miles down the road. Through Daje's intimate coming-of-age story, For Ahkeem illuminates challenges that many Black teenagers face in America today, and witnesses the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive.