Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 233

Dwarves Kingdom

2015

Dwarves Kingdom

2015
Dwarves Kingdom is a documentary film about a theme park featuring performances by little people with dwarfism who live in a fantasy recreation of a magical empire. Built by a wealthy Chinese businessman, this other-worldly kingdom, officially called World Ecological Garden of Butterfly and Little People Kingdom, is located in the mountains surrounding the city of Kunming in Western China.
Prism

2021

Prism

2021
For Prism, Belgian filmmaker An van. Dienderen invited Brussels-based Rosine Mbakam from Cameroon and Paris-based Eléonore Yameogo from Burkina Faso to work together on a film in which the differences in their skin color serves as a departure to explore their experiences with the biased limitations of the medium. Photographic media are technologically and ideologically biased, favoring Caucasian skin. Such white-centricity means that the photographic media assume, privilege and construct whiteness.
Kestrel's Eye

1998

Kestrel's Eye

1998
6
Swedish filmmaker Mikael Kristersson directs this austere yet beautiful experimental documentary about two European falcons. Shot over the course of two years, Kristersson manages to fashion a narrative without the use of voice-overs or music, showing the falcons as they forage for food and tend to their eggs. Much of this film, though, is spent viewing the world from the falcons' vantage point -- high up on a 13th century church steeple, watching the groundskeeper tending to the village cemetery and the choir boys growing tired of a long religious procession. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
Women's March

2017

Women's March

2017
A story about democracy, human rights, and what it means to stand up for your values in America today. On January 21, 2017, hundreds of thousands of women marched on Washington, DC. That same day, hundreds of sister marches took place across the country and around the world.
Agave: The Spirit of a Nation

2018

Agave: The Spirit of a Nation

2018
6.6
In Mexico, families have passed down the tradition of distilling agave for generations and now, this once obscure Mexican drink is everywhere. Discover, how one delicate plant has carried the weight of a nation and the people trying to protect it.
A Place to Stand

2015

A Place to Stand

2015
Jimmy Santiago Baca was a petty thief and a drug dealer when he was sentenced to five years in Arizona State Prison, one of the deadliest prisons in America. Baca began his incarceration violent, angry and illiterate, yet taught himself how to read and write, discovering a passion for poetry that ultimately saved his life.
Refuge

2023

Refuge

2023
In Clarkston, a small town in Georgia, a successful Kurdish doctor and a Muslim-hating white supremacist form an unlikely friendship. Against the backdrop of an exceptionally racially- diverse community, themes of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and forgiveness play out in an intimate and accessible way. Directors Din Blankenship and Erin Bernhard put the focus on understanding, resulting in a moving film with a lot of heart that moves the conversation on racial divisions towards healing.
The Bomb

2017

The Bomb

2017
7
Filmmakers use archival footage and animation to explore the culture surrounding nuclear weapons, the fascination they inspire and the perverse appeal they still exert.
Picture of Light

1994

Picture of Light

1994
6.7
A documentary of an expedition to Churchill, Manitoba to film the Northern Lights.
Sentenced Home

2006

Sentenced Home

2006
This film is a gripping documentary exploration that humanizes the United States' tragically flawed immigration policy. The film follows the story of 3 Cambodian-American immigrants living in Seattle (who came as children in the early 80s, when a multitude of Cambodian refugees were given housing in the city's projects) whose teenage rebellions catch up with them in a horrific way.
Roots of Fire

2023

Roots of Fire

2023
The battle to revive dying tradition comes to life through the young musicians of Southwest Louisiana in this powerful musical documentary. Amidst shuttered rural dance clubs and encroaching globalization, five Grammy award-winning artists lend their voices, examine the discrimination that almost erased their customs, and share the unique sounds created when the forces of fresh talent and deep history collide to fight for cultural survival.
Literary Ink: A Wizard’s Journey

2020

Literary Ink: A Wizard’s Journey

2020
In March 2018, elite tattoo artists from across the globe came together in Chattanooga, Tennessee to celebrate the intersection of literary fantasy and artistic magic at the inaugural Literary Ink convention. “Literary Ink: A Wizard’s Journey” explores the lives, dreams, techniques and artistic inspiration of four of these Tattoo Wizards.
Symphonies in Stone: St. Paul's Cathedral

1942

Symphonies in Stone: St. Paul's Cathedral

1942
A short guide around St Pauls Cathedral.
The Right Girls

2020

The Right Girls

2020
1
In this documentary about friendship and perseverance, three young transgender women from El Salvador and Honduras go on a 2,400-mile journey with the high-profile migrant caravan. These women, strangers at the outset and fleeing extortion, discrimination, and abusive relationships, endure hardship as they slowly make their way to the US, teaming up with other trans girls along the route and integrating with the caravan’s LGBTQ community.
What Haunts Us

2017

What Haunts Us

2017
7.2
The 1979 class of Porter Gaud School in Charleston, South Carolina graduated 49 boys. Within the last 35 years, six of them have committed suicide. When Paige Goldberg Tolmach gets word that another former student from her beloved high school has killed himself, she decides to take a deep dive into her past in order to uncover the surprising truth and finally release the ghosts that haunt her hometown to this day.
How to Lose Your Virginity

2013

How to Lose Your Virginity

2013
4.5
It has launched both purity balls and porn franchises, defines a young woman's morality-but has no medical definition. Enter the magical world of virginity, where a white wedding dress can restore a woman's innocence and replacement hymens can be purchased online. Filmmaker Therese Shechter uses her own path out of virginity to explore why our sex-crazed society cherishes this so-called precious gift. Along the way, we meet sex educators, virginity auctioneers, abstinence advocates, and young men and women who bare their tales of doing it-or not doing it. "How To Lose Your Virginity" uncovers the myths and misogyny surrounding a rite of passage that many obsesses about but few truly understand.
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me

2013

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me

2013
7.1
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me is a feature-length documentary film about the dismal commercial failure, subsequent massive critical acclaim, and enduring legacy of pop music's greatest cult phenomenon, Big Star.
How to Make a Book with Steidl

2010

How to Make a Book with Steidl

2010
5.5
For 40 years, Gerhard Steidl has combined the roles of printer and publisher, resolved to personally check each sheet leaving his printing shop in Göttingen. This perfectionism, combined with an unconditional love for books, for the traditional printing craft, and a commitment to the quality standards of manufacturing (in the original sense of the word, made by hand), has gained worldwide attention. The most internationally renowned photographic artists vie for the opportunity to collaborate with Gerhard Steidl, to conceive and produce the perfect publication with him.
Choosing Children

1984

Choosing Children

1984
1
CHOOSING CHILDREN is a pioneering film about parenting in non-traditional families and helped to open dialogue about the meaning and reality of the "modern family." This film takes an intimate look at the issues faced by lesbians and gay men who decide to become parents after coming out.
Cecil Balmond: Visionary Engineer and Architect

2009

Cecil Balmond: Visionary Engineer and Architect

2009
"Cecil Balmond: Visionary Engineer and Architect" is a compelling documentation of a unique thinker and practitioner at the height of his architectural career. Through his conversation with architecture theorist and critic, Sanford Kwinter, Balmond reveals his vision and talent while the two tour his retrospective exhibition at the Graham Foundation in Chicago. Since the early 1980s Balmond has collaborated with many of today's important contemporary architects such as Toyo Ito, Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Libeskind. With his astounding aesthetic algorithms, Balmond has introduced innovative structural concepts that have resulted in some of the most challenging buildings in the canon of contemporary architecture.