Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 173

The Man Who Drove with Mandela

1998

The Man Who Drove with Mandela

1998
10
During the time of apartheid Nelson Mandela drove around South Africa in a limousine disguised as a chauffeur while organizing the armed struggle against the apartheid regime. But who was the distinguished looking white man sitting in the back seat? Meet Cecil Williams, an acclaimed gay white theatre director and communist.
Mahalia Jackson: The Power and the Glory

1997

Mahalia Jackson: The Power and the Glory

1997
10
Documentary narrated by Paul Winfield, this documentary follows the course of Mahalia Jackson's extraordinary life - from her humble beginnings as a sickly child singing in New Orleans churches to her breakthrough with Columbia Records and her ascendancy to Carnegie Hall and Europe's great stages. Her story's told through archival footage and interviews with those who knew her best.
Building Bombs

1989

Building Bombs

1989
6
This Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles everyday life in Aiken, S.C. -- ground zero for America's hydrogen bomb-making facility, the Savannah River Plant. Through interviews with residents, politicians, activists and factory workers, the incisive film looks at the consequences of living in the shadow of nuclear weapons and the illegal dumping of radioactive waste. Actress Jane Alexander narrates.
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop

2009

Gogol Bordello Non-Stop

2009
6.3
A vibrant chronicle of one of today's most notorious and revered live bands, Gogol Bordello Non-Stop follows Eugene Hütz s gypsy-punk brigade around the world as they spread their liberating libertine musical gospel. Filmmaker Margarita Jimeno tracks their raucous gigs from 2001 to 2006, from NYC to Italy, as the band rises from dingy basements to festival main-stages. The cast is a rotating circus of polyglot personalities from Israel, Russia and America, who dish on their music, their heritage, and their favored vices. Hütz, a sardonic mustachioed Ukrainian immigrant and the group ringleader, fuses his gypsy heritage with a love of punk rock and burlesque. Part carnival barker, social organizer, and poet, he s a mesmerizing presence on-stage and off. Gogol Bordello Non-Stop is an artful documentary that mixes flamboyant costumes, intricate dance choreography, a relentless beat and an explosive energy not seen since the dawn of rock n roll.
A.I. Revolution

2024

A.I. Revolution

2024
Can we harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems without creating an uncontrollable force that ultimately destroys us? New A.I. tools like ChatGPT can now answer complex questions, write essays, and generate realistic-looking images in a matter of seconds. In NOVA “A.I. REVOLUTION,” correspondent Miles O’Brien meets some of the scientists who are at the forefront of A.I. advancement and explores the promise, perils, and possible future of this unprecedented technology taking the world by storm.
India's forgotten people

2020

India's forgotten people

2020
8.5
Soyalism

2018

Soyalism

2018
6.4
Food production has increasingly become a huge business for a handful of giant corporations. SOYALISM follows the industrial production chain of pork and the related soybean monoculture, from China to Brazil through the United States and Mozambique. This eye-opening documentary describes the enormous concentration of power in the hands of these Western and Chinese companies and the impact this is having on the food we consume.Hundreds of thousands of small producers have gone out of business and entire landscapes have been permanently transformed. The system has been exported across the world. From waste-lagoons in North Carolina to soybean monoculture in the Amazon rainforest, is this demand for soy bean jeopardizing the environmental balance of the planet?
SELANDIA: The ship That Changed the World

2012

SELANDIA: The ship That Changed the World

2012
8
The Ship that Changed the World is a historical drama about the birth of the world's first ocean-going diesel-powered ship Selandia. A groundbreaking invention that changed the world forever. The film shows Selandia and the creators receiving worldwide acclaim. But for two of them success was short-lived. They died under mysterious circumstances shortly after the maiden voyage of Selandia. On the brink of the World War, and with Germany and England showing great interest in this invention, is it too farfetched to believe that these deaths were more than coincidental. - Written by Michael Schmidt-Olsen
Sunken Eldorado: The New Underwater Gold Rush?

2019

Sunken Eldorado: The New Underwater Gold Rush?

2019
7.3
For thousands of years, gold has been the most treasured and coveted of all metals. But extraction sites are dwindling and what little gold that remains is harder and harder to mine. However, there is a place where you can still find vast quantities of gold. Underwater archaeology has revealed that 3 million shipwrecks litter the ocean floor, 3,500 of which sunk with cargoes of ’precious metals’ onboard. Billions of dollars worth of gold, just sitting there, at the bottom of the sea. With today’s technology, this gold is in reach.
David Cross: Worst Daddy in the World

2023

David Cross: Worst Daddy in the World

2023
3
David’s hilarious new stand-up special shot at his recent Worst Daddy in the World tour stop in Chicago, IL at The Metro.
Hopi: Songs of the Fourth World

1983

Hopi: Songs of the Fourth World

1983
A compelling study of the Hopi that captures their deep spirituality and reveals their integration of art and daily life. Amidst beautiful images of Hopi land and life, a variety of Hopi — a farmer, a religious elder, a grandmother, a painter, a potter, and a weaver — speak about the preservation of the Hopi way. Their philosophy of living in balance and harmony with nature is a model to the Western world of an environmental ethic in action.
Finding Babel

2016

Finding Babel

2016
6.3
The subversive masterpieces of Russian-Ukrainian writer Isaac Babel challenged the reality of life under rising totalitarianism, and led to his arrest and execution in 1940. In Finding Babel, Andrei Malaev-Babel confronts complex traces of a turbulent history that echo in his grandfather's writing and in the conflicts of today's Ukraine and Russia. Babel's fiction is woven into Andrei's search with ethereal animation that puts the viewer, like Babel's readers, between fantasy and reality.
The Japanese Version

1991

The Japanese Version

1991
7
How the Japanese process American pop culture and make it their own -- a mind-bending odyssey through cultural mixing.
Invisible Girlfriend

2009

Invisible Girlfriend

2009
Charles is in love with his invisible girlfriend, Joan of Arc, so he decides to ride his big red bicycle 400 miles from Monroe through rural Louisiana to find her in a New Orleans bar. Along the way, he encounters a farmer, a witch, a tin man, and a man who honors the dead. Working within the tradition of creative non-fiction, Invisible Girlfriend is a Southern tale that transcends literal interpretations of images in order to open up rich, loamy textures of humor and drama. The cinematography is startling in its intensity and violent beauty, representing an optical trope that offsets the desperate love that Charles sets off on his journey to find.
Try to Remember: The Fantasticks

2003

Try to Remember: The Fantasticks

2003
6.7
On the eve of the final Off-Broadway performance of the long-running musical "The Fantasticks," filmmaker Eli Kabillio takes a wistful look back at the show's genesis with composer Harvey Schmidt, author Tom Jones and original cast member Jerry Orbach.
Union Maids

1976

Union Maids

1976
6.5
Three women labor activists in America tell their stories of organizing in the 1930s.
Driving the Dream

1997

Driving the Dream

1997
Harrod Blank, who took us into the world of art cars with his epic first film, Wild Wheels, now focuses more in-depth on a few select art vehicles, the Grass Bus, the Hamburger Harley, and the Camera Van. As with his previous film, and the following one (Automorphosis) Blank takes a dauntless look at American car culture.
Erik H. Erikson: A Life's Work

1999

Erik H. Erikson: A Life's Work

1999
Narrated by Erikson's colleague, Margaret Brenman-Gibson, Ph.D. and Ruthie Mickles, Ph.D. Using archival materials and newly shot footage, this film introduces students to the rich wisdom of Erik H. Erikson. Best known for his identification of the eight stages of the life cycle, Erikson spent a lifetime observing and studying the way in which the interplay of genetics, cultural influences and unique experiences produces individual human lives. This film combines biographical information about Erikson with his theoretical proposals to give students an understanding of the relationship between the life experience of a theorist and the work that is produced.
My Name Is Pedro

2020

My Name Is Pedro

2020
10
This film explores what public education meant to South Bronx Latino maverick educator, Pedro Santana, and what he, in turn, meant to public education.
Plaster Caster

2003

Plaster Caster

2003
6
Portrait of legendary artist and groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster famous for plaster casting the penises of rock stars.