Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 200

Suppressed 2020: The Fight to Vote

2020

Suppressed 2020: The Fight to Vote

2020
Deeply personal accounts from voters of color across the state of Georgia reveal deliberate, widespread voter suppression in the 2018 midterm election where Stacey Abrams fought to become the first Black female governor in the U.S. Polling place closures, voter purges, missing absentee ballots, extreme wait times and voter ID issues were in full effect again during the 2020 primaries and are on-going across the country right now, all disproportionately affecting Black Americans and minorities from casting their ballots. Now, amidst a global health crisis, the cruel weaponization of vote-by-mail restrictions has turned the constitutional right to vote into a choice between life and death.
The Homes We Carry

2022

The Homes We Carry

2022
Hammer and compass in Mozambique. We see a GDR flag waved at a rally in Maputo, carried by "Madgermanes", contract workers who once toiled in eastern Germany. Some of them founded families there, like Eulidio. His daughter Sarah grows up with her mother in Berlin. The relationship with her "second home" is slow in growing, partly thanks to Luana, Sarah's baby, whose father, Eduardo is also from Mozambique.
Children of Labor: A Finnish-American History

1977

Children of Labor: A Finnish-American History

1977
How Finnish immigrants came into contact — and conflict — with industrial America. Three generations of Finnish-Americans recount how they coped with harsh realities by creating their own institutions: churches, temperance halls, socialist halls, and cooperatives.
Jasper Johns: Decoy

1973

Jasper Johns: Decoy

1973
Jasper Johns’s Decoy is rooted inside the notions of reproduction, transformation and memory. Believing that an image gains new meaning each time it is presented, Johns boldly confronts his own past work, most notably Ale Cans (1964), and uses Decoy as a method of metamorphosis. The repetition of certain motifs allows both Johns and his spectators to confront the change an image goes through when approached from a different angle or placed in a new artistic context. As noted in the film, “each time a motif is used and reused additional memories accrue, new layers of meaning, and the image itself begins to acquire its own history.” (Jasper Johns) It is through Johns’s reimagining that the items he features in his work take on new life and grow from object to art, thus redirecting society’s interpretation.
Third Ward TX

2007

Third Ward TX

2007
Third Ward TX is the story of how Project Row Houses used the tools of design, art and architecture to transform two blocks of "shotgun" houses reminiscent of New Orleans and other Black communities across the South into exhibition space, classrooms, gardens, and residential space. But their success in reducing crime, and making their "campus" a magnet for art enthusiasts, families, and local residents, also attracts deep-pocket real estate developers. Their bold response is to include community planning and new housing as a part of their art practice. If they can shape an area in Third Ward for the residents, there's a chance they can keep the neighborhood intact.
Getting Over

2018

Getting Over

2018
6.8
A man discovers a box of interviews with his father, a lifelong heroin addict who died of AIDS in 1997. What he finds will uncover generations of family secrets, forcing him to redefine his own past, doubt his present, and question his future.
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King

2015

Orion: The Man Who Would Be King

2015
7
August 16, 1977. All of America was stunned by the news of Elvis Presley's untimely passing. Some went so far as to believe that it couldn't be true. Somehow he had faked his death. For the executives at Sun Records that fantasy became an opportunity in the form of Orion, a mysterious masked performer with the voice of The King. First appearing in 1979, Orion recorded 11 albums and performed live to packed houses and rapturous fans around the nation. But who was the man behind the mask? In this stranger-than-fiction true story, Jeanie Finlay exposes the incredible life of an unknown singer plucked from obscurity and thrust into the spotlight with the complicity of a manipulative music industry and a public fan base unwilling to let The King go. Resonant in its themes of identity, fate, and the double-edged nature of fame, Orion is a stylish mystery story that finally gives a name and a face to a gifted artist who had been unjustly deprived of both.
Wagonmasters

2014

Wagonmasters

2014
7
Station wagons were America's "workhorses on wheels." Today, they conjure images of outdated family photos, over-sized hairdos and unfashionable wooden siding. In 2011, Volvo - the leading premium wagon manufacturer - will discontinue the sale of its last wagon model in the United States. There are some, however, who still cling to these vehicles and what they stand for in American culture. Wagonmasters, a full-length documentary film, offers glimpses into the lives of such wagon enthusiasts, and tells the story of the station wagon as it represents a changing America over the last one hundred years.
Autism in America

2015

Autism in America

2015
Autism in America: Putting the puzzle together, one beautiful piece at a time, is a genuine and straightforward look into the Autism Spectrum Disorder as told by the families and individuals living with Autism daily. Many parents are interviewed including Ruth Sullivan, Ph.D., the mother of a man named Joe who was the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman’s autistic character in the movie “Rain Man.” We also hear from a young woman named Alexis, the first autistic person to run for the title of Miss America.
Boazu

2019

Boazu

2019
Up in the Arctic Circle at Tromsø Arctic Reindeer, Johan Isak invites guests from all of the world to interact with the reindeer and experience the Sámi culture and traditions!
Killing Them Safely

2015

Killing Them Safely

2015
5.9
In the early 2000s, two brothers found tremendous success when their company began selling a device that has been called 'the biggest revolution in law enforcement since the radio.' But as their company grew, they made decisions that would have lasting impact on both the public and their increasingly skeptical customer base.
Jews of the Wild West

2022

Jews of the Wild West

2022
2
“Jews of the Wild West” is a feature-length documentary completed in December 2021. The independent not-for-profit project is produced by Electric Yolk Media and directed by award-winning filmmaker Amanda Kinsey. Through on-camera interviews, compelling footage, and historical photographs, the film tells the positive immigration story and highlights the dynamic contributions Jewish Americans made to shaping the Western United States.
New York Composers: Searching for a New Music

1996

New York Composers: Searching for a New Music

1996
A look at six young virtuoso composers at the forefront of contemporary music. Featuring: Tan Dun, Michael Gordon, Phil Kline, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Lois V Vierk, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich. With the participation of the Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can All Stars, Reigakusha, and others. Filmed in the composers’ studios and at rehearsals and performances.
Fortress Australia: The Secret Bid for the Atomic Bomb

2001

Fortress Australia: The Secret Bid for the Atomic Bomb

2001
This documentary explores one of the most extraordinary chapters in Australia's history - the attempts by successive Australian governments to fortress the nation with atomic weapons.
Poisoned Lives: Secrets of the Chemical Industry

2016

Poisoned Lives: Secrets of the Chemical Industry

2016
For decades, their factories secretly dumped toxic products into rivers, groundwater systems and soil. This pollution affected thousands, causing disabilities, cancers and death.
Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey

2001

Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey

2001
Few remember the name, much less the historical achievements, of Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche. Yet, this African American mediator and United Nations diplomat was the first person of color anywhere in the world to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Me, the People: A Populist Handbook

2020

Me, the People: A Populist Handbook

2020
5.8
How wedge politics on key divisive issues is giving rise to a new kind of populist leaders: disruptors with a new playbook who are loved by some and challenged by others, dividing the electorate. Are they also expressing the will of the people?
Daughter from Danang

2002

Daughter from Danang

2002
6.8
In 1975, as the Vietnam War was ending, thousands of orphans and Amerasian children were brought to the United States as part of "Operation Babylift." Daughter from Danang tells the dramatic story of one of these children, Heidi Bub (a.k.a. Mai Thi Hiep), and her Vietnamese mother, Mai Thi Kim, separated at the war's end and reunited 22 years later. Heidi, now living in Tennessee - a married woman with kids - had always dreamt of a joyful reunion. When she ventures to Vietnam to meet her mother, she unknowingly embarks on an emotional pilgrimage that spans decades and distance. Unlike most reunion stories that climax with a cliché happy ending, Daughter from Danang is a real-life drama. Journeying from the Vietnam War to Pulaski, Tennessee and back to Vietnam, Daughter from Danang tensely unfolds as cultural differences and the years of separation take their toll in a riveting film about longing and the personal legacy of war.
The Sensitives

2017

The Sensitives

2017
5.5
In Drew Xanthopoulos’ intimate and cinematic documentary, we meet Joe, a patriarch whose affliction is so all-encompassing that he’s indifferent to his long-suffering wife; and twin brothers Sam and Nathan, musicians who are no longer able to breathe outside of their real-life sterile “plastic bubble,” and whose mother, Karen, developed her illness when she was only 17. These characters all suffer from debilitating sensitivities to their environment. Whether from ambient chemicals, genetics, electricity, or even psychogenic reasons, the cause is not clear, but the reality of the effects on these individuals is undeniable. Fortunately, Susie Molloy, a quiet firebrand who is chemically sensitive herself, seeks to help. In her, those afflicted by this modern malady have found an advocate whose mission is to de-stigmatize this community, and in telling their stories, Xanthopoulos has crafted a film itself as deeply sensitive as its title suggests. Cara Cusumano
Lumpkin, GA

2019

Lumpkin, GA

2019
In a fading Georgia town, a community recalls its dark past and faces a grim present. An undocumented immigrant, caught in legal limbo and facing deportation, contemplates his future. In the midst of it all, a massive, private immigration prison generates millions in profits. Where these stories meet, the hidden epicenter of America's immigration crackdown is revealed-a place called Lumpkin, GA.