Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 200

Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It

2015

Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It

2015
6.6
A documentary exploring how money and the trading of value has evolved, culminating in Bitcoin.
The Search for General Tso

2014

The Search for General Tso

2014
6.5
From New York City to the farmlands of the Midwest, there are 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., yet one dish in particular has conquered the American culinary landscape with a force befitting its military moniker—“General Tso’s Chicken.” But who was General Tso and how did this dish become so ubiquitous? Ian Cheney’s delightfully insightful documentary charts the history of Chinese Americans through the surprising origins of this sticky, sweet, just-spicy-enough dish that we’ve adopted as our own.
You Don't Need Feet to Dance

2013

You Don't Need Feet to Dance

2013
In the film "You Don't Need Feet to Dance," African immigrant Sidiki Conde, having lost the use of his legs to polio at fourteen, balances his career as a performing artist with the almost insurmountable obstacles of life in New York City, from his fifth-floor walk up apartment in the East village, down the stairs with his hands and navigating in his wheelchair through Manhattan onto buses and into the subway. Sidiki struggles to cope with his disability and to earn a decent living, but he still manages to teach workshops for disabled kids, busk on the street, rehearse with his musical group, bicycle with his hands, and prepare for a baby naming ceremony, where he plays djembe drums, sings, and dances on his hands.
Lies, Politics and Democracy

2022

Lies, Politics and Democracy

2022
7
Frontline’s season premiere investigates American political leaders and choices they’ve made that have undermined and threatened democracy in the U.S. In a two-hour documentary special premiering ahead of the 2022 midterms, Frontline examines how officials fed the public lies about the 2020 presidential election and embraced rhetoric that led to political violence.
The Superfood Chain

2018

The Superfood Chain

2018
7
Every year, the western world is introduced to a new 'superfood' that boasts extraordinary nutritional features, and year after year we buy them. The Superfood Chain is a feature documentary that explores the facts and myths behind superfoods, and reveals the ripple effect of the 'Superfood' industry on farming and fishing families around the world.
Elena

2013

Elena

2013
7.3
Petra heads to New York in search of her older sister after a long time of being separated. They are both movie actresses and heirs of the wounds of the Brazilian dictatorship. But Petra has only a few clues: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary...
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

2019

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

2019
6.5
Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.
A Promise to My Father

2013

A Promise to My Father

2013
We re-trace the steps of Holocaust survivor Israel Arbeiter as he returns to Poland and Germany for the final time to look for items buried in 1939 in the basement of his old home in Plock, Poland as the German army advanced. We also travel with "Izzy" to Treblinka death camp where his parents and younger brother were murdered and to other camps, most notably Auschwitz-Birkenau, where "Izzy" used the motivation of his father's final words to him to stay alive.
Page One: Inside the New York Times

2011

Page One: Inside the New York Times

2011
6.9
Unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom yields a complex view of the transformation of a media landscape fraught with both peril and opportunity.
Parkland Rising

2020

Parkland Rising

2020
Follow the high school's students and families who became fierce leaders of a national movement for gun reform following the shooting of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.
Jan Vermeer: Light Love and Silence

2006

Jan Vermeer: Light Love and Silence

2006
Not much is known about Jan Vermeer. He only produced around 35 works of art, yet they made him immortal. He was born in Delft and never left the town; he married there, worked as an art-dealer and died in debt. Michael Gill delves into the master's world and talks about the camera obscura and Vermeer's interest in science and cartography. Together with experts, he explores Vermeer's secrets of perspective, space, allegory and symbolic relationships in his works.
Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall

2020

Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall

2020
7.7
Jim Marshall was a maverick with a camera. An outsider who captured the heights of Rock’N’Roll music and the seismic changes of an era, from the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, to the civil rights movements and some of the most iconic moments of the 60’s.
Residente

2017

Residente

2017
6.8
After taking a DNA test, Latin America's most decorated artist – René Pérez (AKA Residente) – embarks on a global adventure to trace the footsteps of his ancestors and record his latest album.
Rivers of Sand

1974

Rivers of Sand

1974
6
The people portrayed in this film are called Hamar. They dwell in the thorny scrubland of southwestern Ethiopia, about one hundred miles north of Lake Rudolph, Africa's great inland sea. They are isolated by some distant choice that now limits their movement and defines their condition. At least until recently, it has resulted in their retaining a highly traditional way of life. Hamar women eagerly accept their ritual whipping when boys come of age. Part of that tradition was the open, even flamboyant, observance of male supremacy. In their isolation, they seemed to have refined this not uncommon principle of social organization into a remarkably pure state. Hamar men are masters and their women are slaves. The film tries to disclose the effect on mood and behavior of lives governed by the idea of sexual inequality.
Time Passages

2024

Time Passages

2024
A pandemic rages across the globe. In the final months of his mother Elaine's late-stage dementia, gay filmmaker Kyle Henry uses his extensive family archive to travel back in time, exploring the complicated bonds of identity, history, and belonging in his large Texas family. Charting Elaine's promising early life through her years of motherhood and self-sacrifice, finally tracing their relationship to its inevitable end, Time Passages explores Kyle's conflicting feelings of love, grief, guilt, and helplessness. Beneath the Kodachrome smiles and grainy Super-8 home movies lie the difficult truths that so many families hide. With their unearthing, Time Passages becomes a memento mori: a testament to love, legacy and the things that carry us through life's most challenging times.
Empathy

2017

Empathy

2017
6.6
Ed is commissioned to make a documentary intending to change those habits of society that are harmful to animals. But completely alien to the animal protection movement, he will realize that to carry out the project, he must first convince himself.
Alone on the Island of the Blue Dolphins

2018

Alone on the Island of the Blue Dolphins

2018
7
A documentary about the true story that inspired the novel Island of the Blue Dolphins, telling the story of a 12 year-old Native American girl who was left alone for 18 years on San Nicolas Island, the most remote of California's Channel Islands, during the 19th century. The 'Lone Woman' survived with her dog for 18 years before being 'rescued' and brought to Santa Barbara. She died there and is buried in the Santa Barbara Mission.
Vietnam Symphony

2005

Vietnam Symphony

2005
8
In 1965 during the Vietnam War, students and teachers from the National Conservatory of Music in Hanoi were forced to flee to a small village in the countryside. With the help of villagers they built an entire campus underground where they lived, studied and played music for five years as the war raged around them. This documentary records the coming together of the former conservatory students and villagers for a reunion concert 30 years after the war, to paint a moving portrait of life in Vietnam then and now.
Truelove: The Film

2023

Truelove: The Film

2023
8
"Truelove: The Film" is a documentary feature film following Callie Truelove, a teenager with Williams syndrome who was blessed with the superpower of love. On this journey, Callie travels across America to meet other individuals with Williams syndrome who get to tell their stories and showcase the wondrous effects of this rare genetic disorder. Callie's goal is to spread her unique brand of unconditional love and awareness for Williams syndrome, while shining a light on these very pure and precious souls, so that together they can help to heal this fractured world. With the help of some recognizable faces, audiences will get a glimpse of what it's like to see life through Callie's unburdened eyes, while humans of this planet get to realize that there is no better medicine for all the negativity and darkness in life - than a dose of Truelove.
Why We Fight: The Battle of China

1944

Why We Fight: The Battle of China

1944
6.5
The sixth film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series illustrates Japan's occupation of China, including Madame Chiang Kai-Shek's stirring address before congress, the rape of Nanking, the great 2,000 mile migration, and Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers.