Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 238

New York Dance States of Performance

2010

New York Dance States of Performance

2010
Seven choreographers work tirelessly to both question and embrace their chosen form, producing work that celebrates the strange, startling and poetic beauty of dance and performance. Curated by Gia Kourlas. Narrated by the choreographers.
Permanent Change: Plastics in Architecture and Engineering

2011

Permanent Change: Plastics in Architecture and Engineering

2011
"Permanent Change" looks at the history and development of plastic within the architectural world. Capturing both a series of lectures and a panel with prominent names such as Steven Holl, Beatriz Colomina and Werner Sobek, this documentation observes detailed examples and lively debates regarding the popularization of plastic as a construction material. Addressing a number of contributing factors including design, engineering and form, the participants of the conference present a wide range of theories, analyses and predictions pertaining to plastics as an architectural material.
Jarlmadangah: Our Dream

2007

Jarlmadangah: Our Dream

2007
Situated south of Derby in the West Kimberleys, Jarlmadangah is a unique community often hailed as 'a model community' for its many social and cultural achievements. At the centre of the story are two brothers, John and Harry Watson, Elders in the Nyikina and Mangala nations. The community was first formed in 1987 when John and Harry Watson set out to establish Jarlmadangah as a focus for strong family ties, traditional language, law and culture, with the main aim of passing these onto the next generations of young people in the two nations.
African Carving: A Dogon Kanaga Mask

1974

African Carving: A Dogon Kanaga Mask

1974
The Kanaga mask is used in deeply sacred rituals by the Dogon people of Mali. Carving this mask is as important a ritual as the ceremonies in which the mask is used. The carver, a blacksmith, finds the proper tree and, in a secret cave outside the village, he shapes the mask with gestures which repeat the movement of the dancers who will wear it. When a dancer wears the Kanaga mask he becomes the Creator symbolically. He touches the ground with his mask and directs a soul to Heaven. Although these dances are now frequently performed for the public, the meaning of Kanaga is retained by the Dogon who fear, respect and depend on the power of the mask.
Unity Through Culture

2011

Unity Through Culture

2011
Soanin Kilangit is determined to unite the people and attract international tourism through the revival of culture on Baluan Island in the South Pacific. He organizes the largest cultural festival ever held on the island, but some traditional leaders argue that Baluan never had culture and that culture comes from the white man and is now destroying their old tradition. Others, however, take the festival as a welcome opportunity to revolt against '70 years of cultural oppression' by Christianity. A struggle to define the past, present and future of Baluan culture erupts to the sound of thundering log drum rhythms.
Fate of the Lhapa

2007

Fate of the Lhapa

2007
Fate of the Lhapa is a feature-length documentary about the last three Tibetan shamans living in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal. Each lhapa requested that their story be filmed. Their fear was that the next heir might not appear until after their own deaths. Subsequently, with no lhapa alive to mentor the children, the documentary would be used to transmit the knowledge to the next generation. Their tales of nomadic childhoods, shamanic callings and apprenticeships, cosmologies of disease and treatments, and of their flight from Tibet during the Chinese occupation in the late 1950s is be juxtaposed with images of present-day life in the camp, current healing practices and shared concerns of the future and the fate of their tradition.
Asmara, Eritrea

2008

Asmara, Eritrea

2008
Asmara - capitol of the East African nation of Eritrea - is recognized as an architectural gem. In this film Asmarinos from different walks of life guide us through the streets of their city and bring us to places of their choice. In doing so, and by talking about 'their own' Asmara, each person locates personal memories in public spaces investing the urban environment with individual meanings. Through their narrations - a chorus of different experiences embodying the nation - the country's history from colonialism to independence comes to life.
Bunong's Birth Practices

2010

Bunong's Birth Practices

2010
On the basis of a social anthropological case study, this film documents the birth practices of the Bunong in Mondulkiri province, located in the northeast of Cambodia. Social, economic, and political changes are transforming the province tremendously and are affecting villagers' beliefs, perceptions and habits regarding pregnancy, delivery and early motherhood. Traditional midwives, pregnant women, mothers and their families give a personal insight into their present decision-making strategies, which are at the crossroads between tradition and modernity.
Where Birds Never Sang

2011

Where Birds Never Sang

2011
Short film about Ravensbruck concentration camp.
Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction

2010

Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction

2010
The Nakagin Capsule Tower, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and completed in 1972, is an exemplary work of post-war Japanese architectural movement Metabolism. Today, however, this historic building is in danger of demolition. Why do we need to preserve a building? What are the difficulties of preservation? Is demolition a tragedy or a natural phenomenon for modern architecture? Tracing the history of postwar Japanese architecture and reviewing the characteristics of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, this documentary examines the meaning of preservation and demolition from various points of view. The documentary includes interviews with residents of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, an architectural historian, a former Kurokawa office architect who was in charge of the Nakagin Capsule Tower project, Kurokawa’s son, and leading architects Arata Isozaki and Toyo Ito.
Our Disappeared

2008

Our Disappeared

2008
After learning that Patricia, a long-lost girlfriend, is among the desaparecidos, a filmmaker returns to his native Argentina to find out what happened to her and others he knew who mysteriously vanished during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
35 Photos

1985

35 Photos

1985
A woman born in 1949, the year the GDR was founded, talks about her life based on 35 images in her family album that each represent one year. This short was to premiere on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of East Germany. Officials rejected it, however, as an ostensibly negative portrait of GDR family life presented by an atypical woman. It was released under a different title a year later.
Ngat is Dead: Studying Mortuary Traditions

2007

Ngat is Dead: Studying Mortuary Traditions

2007
What do anthropologists mean when they claim to study the cultural traditions of others by participating in them? This film follows the Dutch anthropologist Ton Otto, who has been adopted by a family on Baluan Island in Papua New Guinea. Due to the death of his adoptive father, he has to take part in mortuary ceremonies, whose form and content are passionately contested by different groups of relatives. Through prolonged negotiations, Ton learns how Baluan people perform and transform their traditions and not least what role he plays himself. The film is part of long-term field research, in which filmmaking has become integrated in the ongoing dialogue and exchange between the islanders and the anthropologist.
When the Snake Bites the Sun

1985

When the Snake Bites the Sun

1985
A compelling account of the return by a group of dispossessed Aboriginal people to their ancient tribal grounds in the Northern outreaches of this continent.
REALFilm

2008

REALFilm

2008
"This multimedia collage, which includes performances by pantomime artist and dancer Fine Kwiatkowski, painter and filmmaker Lutz Dammbeck and musician Robert Linke, is a reflection on the medium of film and its elements: sound, light and movement. Dammbeck’s goal is to cleanse these elements of ideology and commerce and compose a new film out of them. The process is played out in the space in real time." - DEFA Film Library
The Mean World Syndrome

2010

The Mean World Syndrome

2010
For years, debates have raged among scholars, politicians, and concerned parents about the effects of media violence on viewers. Too often these debates have fallen into simplistic battles between those who claim that media images directly cause violence and those who argue that activists exaggerate the impact of media exposure. Based on interviews conducted with George Gerbner before his death in 2005, the film urges us to think about media effects in more nuanced ways. In contrast to behaviorist models that see media violence as causing real-world violence, and limited effects models that question the impact of media altogether, Gerbner encourages us to move outside the frame of this debate to consider how the repetitive stories media tell constitute a pervasive cultural environment - a landscape of ritualized, often violent images that have the power to cultivate how we see and understand the world.
(un)veiled

2007

(un)veiled

2007
(UN)VEILED introduces the audience to ten Muslim women from various backgrounds who now live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Sleep Tight (Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite)

2009

Sleep Tight (Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite)

2009
A video diary of the things a Vancouver household had to do dealing with bed bugs.
Beauty Mark

2008

Beauty Mark

2008
Diane Israel, a former world-class triathlete, becomes a psychotherapist after battling anorexia. She shares her story while interviewing champion athletes, body builders and models about self-image.
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.