Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 234

Home is a Hotel

2023

Home is a Hotel

2023
10
“You gotta build your whole life in a room,” says one of the protagonists of this memorable documentary focused on residents of San Francisco SROs or single room occupancy housing. Available to people with lower incomes or those trying to get off the streets, the buildings are frequently cramped, often noisy, and sometimes riddled with vermin. The film tellingly reveals inhabitants who are diverse and complicated and have a wide variety of needs that these residences and their staffs are often unable to meet. From a single mother trying to find her missing daughter to an elderly woman who is going blind and facing eviction, to the two ex-addicts co-parenting their son, the film gives voice to the broad range of people struggling to keep a roof over their heads in one of the wealthiest cities in the country.
How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?

2021

How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?

2021
A documentary look at the phenomenon of othering in America: how marginalized groups of people are mistreated in a nation that allegedly cares about justice and equality.
J.W. Marriott: Host to the World

1998

J.W. Marriott: Host to the World

1998
J.W. Marriott features informative interviews with his sons J.W. Marriott, Jr. and Richard Marriott, granddaughter Debbie Harrison, friends the Reverend Billy Graham and Sterling Colton, a former employee and others.
El misterio Eva Perón

1987

El misterio Eva Perón

1987
2
This is a montage documentary that includes the one made in color about Eva Perón's funeral by Edward Cromgraje at the request of the Perón government, entitled And Argentina Stopped Its Heart.
Syria After Assad

2025

Syria After Assad

2025
10
Frontline examines Syria’s uncertain future under jihadist-turned-statesman Ahmad al-Sharaa. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad, correspondent Martin Smith travels the country tracing al-Sharaa’s rise to power and the emerging threats to the country’s stability.
Songs of Pasta'ay

1989

Songs of Pasta'ay

1989
The Pasta’ay, which means "the festival of the legendary little people," is a significant ritual held every other year in the Saisiat aborigine group in Taiwan. Every ten years, they hold the Great Ritual. This film focuses on the Great Ritual in 1986. It tries to convey the Saisiat people’s affection for and belief in the legendary little people. At the same time, the film brings into light Saisiat people’s ambivalence towards tourist invasion, and their dilemma of being caught between tradition and modernization. Structured by the Pasta’ay songs’ movements, the film breaks down to 15 chapters. It carefully juxtaposes the visual with the aural elements, which are conveyed in the conceptual dichotomy between “the real” and “the artificial.”
Code of the Freaks

2020

Code of the Freaks

2020
8
Taking its title from Tod Browning’s classic film, this radical reframing of how characters with disabilities are represented looks at a century of Hollywood favorites with a fresh perspective. Disability activists imagine a cinematic landscape that takes people with disabilities seriously.
Hopelessly in Love: Faith Evans and Notorious B.I.G.

2020

Hopelessly in Love: Faith Evans and Notorious B.I.G.

2020
This is about the intense and tragic marriage between Faith Evans and the Notorious B.I.G. But at its core, it’s a story about infidelity –the roots of it and the consequences of it –for the couple and the culture at large. Twenty years after the iconic rapper’s murder, Faith Evans is ready to confront her pain and revisit the most intimate moments of their relationship…from their whirlwind engagement, to Biggie’s ongoing affairs with Lil’ Kim and Charli Baltimore, to the East coast/West coast rivalry that led to Tupac and Big’s deaths.
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.
Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

2023

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

2023
A secretive hedge fund is plundering America's newspapers, and the journalists are fighting back. Backed by the NewsGuild union, they go toe-to-toe with the faceless Alden Global Capital in a battle to save and rebuild local journalism across America.
The Dope Years: The Story of Latasha Harlins

2020

The Dope Years: The Story of Latasha Harlins

2020
A personal retelling of the life and death of Latasha Harlins, the forgotten spark igniting the Los Angeles uprising of 1992, popularly known as the LA riots.
Growing Native Oklahoma: Red People

2018

Growing Native Oklahoma: Red People

2018
Oklahoma is home to thirty-nine federally recognized tribes. Nowhere in North America will you find such diversity among Native Peoples, and nowhere will you find a more tragic history. Host Moses Brings Plenty (Oglala Lakota) guides this episode of Growing Native on a journey through Oklahoma’s past and present.
The 5 Browns: Digging Through The Darkness

2018

The 5 Browns: Digging Through The Darkness

2018
6
From worldwide acclaim to a nationwide political battle for survivor's of sexual abuse, "The 5 Browns" captures the emotional journey of the Juilliard trained, sibling piano prodigies - and their remarkable story of determination, healing and bravery as they come to terms with the sexual abuse the three girls suffered from their manager and father.
El Maíz en Tiempos de Guerra

2017

El Maíz en Tiempos de Guerra

2017
8.4
Maize in times of war traces the yearly cycle of four Indigenous maize plots in different regions of Mexico. This film illustrates the exceptional process of maize, the delicacy of selecting seeds, preparing the soil, the tenacity and the nuances involved in the whole process, then when the harvest arrives after months of work the families enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Songs From the North

2015

Songs From the North

2015
7
Interweaving footage from the director’s three visits to North Korea with songs, spectacle, popular cinema and archival footage, Songs from the North takes a different look at this enigmatic country typically seen through the distorted lens of jingoistic propaganda and derisive satire. Challenging the meaning of freedom, love, patriotism and ultimately the human condition, it tries to understand, on their own terms, the psychology and popular imaginary of the North Korean people and the political ideology of absolute love which continues to drive the nation towards its uncertain future.
Ce Qui Nous Lie

2023

Ce Qui Nous Lie

2023
The Devil Never Sleeps

1994

The Devil Never Sleeps

1994
5
The Devil Never Sleeps is a “whodunit” documentary about family secrets. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo received a phone call informing her of the mysterious death of her wealthy Mexican uncle Oscar. Officially ruled a suicide, Portillo’s relatives claimed murder, offering several possible suspects including a business partner, a ranch hand, and Oscar’s young widow who stood to inherit everything. Traveling to Mexico, Portillo attempts to learn the truth about her powerful uncle. Using interviews, old snapshots and home movies, she finds a complicated web of family secrets, intrigue, rumor and betrayal that makes her enigmatic uncle’s murder seem ever more likely, yet ever more obscure. As the Mexican saying goes, “When evil is lurking, the devil never sleeps.”
The American Scream

2012

The American Scream

2012
6.7
An original documentary which follows three families in a small seaside town in Massachusetts as they prepare for their annual home made haunted houses. This story highlights their long journey from planning to opening day and cleanup until next year and the obstacles which face them during the process.
Children of Las Brisas

2022

Children of Las Brisas

2022
5.5
In Venezuela, amidst a backdrop of poverty, murder, and corruption, the El Sistema youth orchestra offers children hope and the opportunity to pursue a life of art in spite of the harshness of the society around them. Yet the country’s spiraling collapse and political repression threatens the musicians’ dreams of a better life.
18th & Grand: The Olympic Auditorium Story

2021

18th & Grand: The Olympic Auditorium Story

2021
A raucous, visceral Los Angeles tale—seen through the story of a 20th Century fight palace and the remarkable woman who ran it-—reveals battles over race, gender and identity that still roil America.