Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 173

Voices of Transition

2012

Voices of Transition

2012
Voices of the Transition is an enthusiastic documentary on farmers- and community-led responses to food insecurity in a scenario of climate change and peak oil.
Radio Unnameable

2012

Radio Unnameable

2012
7.6
The story of legendary New York City disc jockey Bob Fass who pioneered free expression on the airwaves with his long running FM program 'Radio Unnameable'.
Slumdog Children of Mumbai

2010

Slumdog Children of Mumbai

2010
10
Shot over 3 months through the Monsoon, Nick Read's film captures the unvarnished reality of life for four children living in the slums and on the streets of Mumbai: seven-year-old Deepa, who lives next to an open rubbish dump and runs barefoot through Mumbai traffic selling flowers to help support her family; 11-year-old Salaam, who, a few weeks after running away from his abusive stepmother lives rough outside the main railway station; and twins Hussan and Hussein, also 11, who risk cholera and infection fishing for scraps in a filthy canal so they can earn money to eat.
In Exile: A Family Movie

2017

In Exile: A Family Movie

2017
5.5
The life stories of Juan Francisco's grandparents and parents, who arrived in Mexico in 1939 as refugees at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). A family saga, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.
Shadowman

2017

Shadowman

2017
4.5
Richard Hambleton was a founder of the street art movement before succumbing to drugs and homelessness. Rediscovered 20 years later, he gets a second chance. But will he take it?
The Poetry of Exactitude

2009

The Poetry of Exactitude

2009
Since 1946, Lucien Mouchet has been making small-scale reproductions of carousels and fairground scenes that existed in the past or are still in operation today. A machinist by trade, Mouchet retired nearly two decades ago, but his obsession with precision and detail has continued. To date, he has created 48 carousels; each is a functioning masterpiece that is constructed to be exactly 1/20 scale of the original. Mouchet works from photographs and measurements he has taken over the years of carousels that have toured France and across Europe. Mouchet tediously prepares shop drawings and hand-tooled parts, analyzing the different modes of assembly and the varying principles of movement. He combines an expertise in engineering with whimsical recreations of the carnival atmosphere, replete with electrical motors, lights, signage, transport trucks and miniature people, made by him and hand-painted by his wife, Georgette.
Oscar Arias: Without a Shot Fired

2017

Oscar Arias: Without a Shot Fired

2017
6
This is the story of a tiny country that made a decision to do something that no other country had ever done -- it decided to abolish its army and declare peace to the world. And this is the story of a young boy who grew up in that country, and how he ended up challenging -- and sometimes even convincing -- the greatest powers in the world to follow Costa Rica's example. "Oscar Arias: Without a Shot Fired" is a Don Quixote-like saga with great historical touchstones -- Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Cold War politics and Communism, Central American War and Peace. It follows a slight, academic, and most unlikely hero over the course of more than fifty years, as he travels the world in a quest to stop the spread of the weapons of war. In the end, it is a story about the triumph of reason, of the sparrow triumphing over the eagle, and how the impossible dream can sometimes come true.
The Image Book

2018

The Image Book

2018
6.3
In Le Livre d’Image, Jean-Luc Godard recycles existing images (films, documentaries, paintings, television archives, etc.), quotes excerpts from books, uses fragments of music. The driving force is poetic rhyme, the association or opposition of ideas, the aesthetic spark through editing, the keystone. The author performs the work of a sculptor. The hand, for this, is essential. He praises it at the start. “There are the five fingers. The five senses. The five parts of the world (…). The true condition of man is to think with his hands. Jean-Luc Godard composes a dazzling syncopation of sequences, the surge of which evokes the violence of the flows of our contemporary screens, taken to a level of incandescence rarely achieved. Crowned at Cannes, the last Godard is a shock film, with twilight beauty.
Brand Irish

2016

Brand Irish

2016
Why is it that St Patrick’s Day is the only national holiday that is celebrated in almost every country across the world? Why can Irish pubs be found from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe? It seems that nearly everybody on the planet has some sort of a connection to Ireland.
#Female Pleasure

2018

#Female Pleasure

2018
7.7
A plea for the liberation of female sexuality in the 21st century. The film questions millennial patriarchal structures, as well as todays omnipresent porn culture. It accompanies five extraordinary women around the globe, reveals universal contexts and shows the successful fight of these courageous women for a self-determined female sexuality and an equal, passionate relationship between the sexes.
Who Does She Think She Is

2008

Who Does She Think She Is

2008
1
"Who Does She Think She Is?," a documentary by Academy Award winning filmmaker Pamela Tanner Boll, features five fierce women who refuse to choose. Through their lives, we explore some of the most problematic intersections of our time: mothering and creativity, partnering and independence, economics and art.
A Gamer's Life

2016

A Gamer's Life

2016
5.7
Go behind the scenes to uncover the truths of being a professional gamer for a living. Can you really make a living from being a gamer?
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: A Environmental Art Duo

1995

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: A Environmental Art Duo

1995
Beginning with their small wrapped objects of 1958, this portrait examines the continuously bold and ambitious artistic ventures of the enigmatic duo, CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE. Though their large scale environmental projects, such as Running Fence and Wrapped Coast, are often met with distress and concern from the surrounding community, perceptions of the project are likely to shift when it comes time to interact with the grand, finished piece. Neither permanent nor purchasable, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works exude the essence of freedom and exist only for the sake of existing.
Living At Risk

1985

Living At Risk

1985
Originally broadcast on PBS, the film features the Barrios, a middle-class family both activated and fractured by the conflict. Instead of fleeing their country, the siblings are guided by a religious and socialist desire to help those most vulnerable and destitute, mostly peasants in the rural areas.
Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day

2025

Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day

2025
A musical documentary following 74-year-old Walter Day - the father of esports and star of "The King of Kong" - as he battles a lawsuit threatening his legacy while fulfilling his dream of recording and performing the rock-opera style love songs he has been hearing in his head since having his heart broken at the height of the arcade era.
Chely Wright: Wish Me Away

2012

Chely Wright: Wish Me Away

2012
4.5
After a lifetime of hiding, Chely Wright becomes the first commercial country music singer to come out as gay, shattering cultural stereotypes within Nashville, per conservative heartland family and, most importantly, within herself. With unprecedented access over a two-year period, including her private video diaries, the film layers Chely's rise to fame while hiding in the late 90's with the execution of her coming out plan, culminating in the exciting moment when she steps into the media glare to reveal she is gay. The film shows both the devastation of internalized homophobia and the transformational power of living an authentic life. The film also documents the conflicting responses from Nashville, the heartland and the LGBT community as Chely Wright prepares for an unknown future.
The Hoy Boys

2019

The Hoy Boys

2019
4.5
Brings alive - through archival footage and other never before seen treasures alongside interviews with Carl Bernstein and other luminaries - the world of photojournalism as it used to be. Frank Hoy and Tom Hoy, twin brothers managed to secure jobs at the two most prominent DC newspapers: The Washington Post and The Evening Star.
Robert Motherwell: Summer of 1971

1972

Robert Motherwell: Summer of 1971

1972
At work on his Elegies and Windows series, Motherwell examines his place in the Abstract Expressionist movement, which he calls the first original American movement in the "mainstream," and its practitioners "the last romantics." He distinguishes between his large paintings and his intimate papier collée. Motherwell recollects the state of American art in the 1940s and the impact of European emigré painters on the younger generation of emerging artists. He discusses the significance of collage, or papier collée, as an artist's medium and explains how he first became involved with this process. Motherwell offers his interpretations of earlier directions in art and his response to the object oriented painting that emerged in America in the 1960s. A unique document of one of the founding members of the New York School. He died in 1991.
Motley's Law

2015

Motley's Law

2015
5.6
This captivating documentary follows tough-as-nails lawyer (and former Mrs. Wisconsin) Kimberley Motley, the only American allowed to practice law in Afghanistan. Motley defends US and European citizens caught in the country’s legal and political quagmire, even as she finds herself under threat of assassination. While Motley brazenly chastises Afghani judges on behalf of her clients, she must also balance the needs of her family a world away.
Under the Same Sky

2017

Under the Same Sky

2017
The Chinese government is sponsoring a national campaign on "equal" education. UNDER THE SAME SKY documents school children in the city as well as the country to compare the two educational experiences. UNDER THE SAME SKY had been nominated for best short documentary at the 2017 Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2017 St. Louis International Film Festival, Long beach indie Film Festival and Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival. It's also been shown and won awards at 15 other film festivals around the world, including the Cannes Short Film Corner and The Impact Docs Awards.