Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 258

Adjustment & Work

1986

Adjustment & Work

1986
6.5
Wiseman enumerates the sights and sounds of Talladega, Alabama – the railroad tracks, quiet streets and homes, a few shops downtown – almost as if to list those things most of us might take for granted. Of the four films in this series, Adjustment & Work is the only one that focuses entirely on adults—specifically adults who have recently lost their sight (and hence are adjusting to this change) and those without sight or hearing who are learning skills in order to enter the workforce.
Lads & Jockeys

2011

Lads & Jockeys

2011
In a small village near Paris, 14-year-old boys and girls enter the training center for future lads and jockeys. For these young pupils, the transition between the family environment and this new world is brutal. Though sharing the world of teenagers -- flirting, cell phones and PlayStation -- they enter a world where the comfort of the horses comes before that of the human.
Africa, I Will Fleece You

1992

Africa, I Will Fleece You

1992
5.8
This documentary of repressive political realities in Cameroon begins with the 1990 publication of an open letter to President Biya calling for a national conference - and the immediate arrest of the letter's author and publisher. The narration then examines the nation's colonial history, beginning with the first German missionary in 1901, the establishment of schools, French occupation following World War I, the paucity of books written by and published by Cameroonians, and the repression of the CPU, a leftist organization of the 1950s and 1960s. Cameroon and its people are the lark, its feathers plucked first by colonialism and then by native strongmen: 'Alouette, je te plumerai.'
Mr Neal Is Entitled to Be an Agitator

1991

Mr Neal Is Entitled to Be an Agitator

1991
In the last four years of his life, Lionel Murphy was at the centre of an historic battle to retain his position on the High Court in Australia. While the film concentrates on this period and the events leading up to it, in a wider sense, it uses the dramatic story of Murphy as a vehicle to consider some more fundamental issues about law. The film tackles the problem of police and security surveillance of the individual in Australian society and in particular, of prominent political and legal figures.
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.
Miracle on 19th Street

2021

Miracle on 19th Street

2021
Nothing captures the magic of Christmas like a visit to Santa Claus. This beloved NYC store Santa, after nearly 30 years, is heading to the North Pole, leaving behind an indelible mark on generations of children and families. To them, he is the real deal.
By Blood

2014

By Blood

2014
5
American Indians of African descent, or Freedmen, battle their own tribes and the federal government to regain their tribal citizenship. Witness how indigenous American Indian tribes, their minority members, and surrounding communities are confronting racism and intolerance.
Horst

1988

Horst

1988
We enter the life of Horst, and see the world of fashion photography evolve from the 1930s to the 1980s through his work and stories.
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.
The 78 Project Movie

2014

The 78 Project Movie

2014
6.5
The 78 Project is a journey to connect today's musicians with the recordings of the past. Using a 1930's Presto recorder, artists get one take to cut a 78rpm record anywhere, finding in that adventure a new connection to our shared cultural legacy.
Let the Fire Burn

2013

Let the Fire Burn

2013
7.6
Jason Osder delivers an account of the incidents leading up to and during the 1985 standoff between the extremist African-American organization MOVE and Philadelphia authorities. The dramatic clash would claim eleven lives and devastate an entire community.
Yorky Billy

1980

Yorky Billy

1980
YORKY BILLY is set in Ngurgdu (Spring Peak) in the Northern Territory, an area irrevocably disturbed by uranium mining. There, 80-year-old William Alderson (known as "Yorky Billy") reflects on his life in the outback. Yorky's mother was an Aboriginal woman who died when he was three, and his father was an Englishman who spent 45 years in Australia and "tried everything" as a prospector, railwayman, drover and buffalo hunter, often with his young son working with him. After the WWII, Yorky married an Aboriginal woman and worked in various jobs. He and his wife had a large family, and in 1977, Yorky Billy recorded his story and died soon thereafter, and was buried near his father at Ngurgdu. Filmed simply with minimal editing, this is a poignant, elegiac reflection on a disappearing way of life, capturing Yorky's slow and quiet rhythm of speech, his wry humour, and with his weather-beaten face only just emerging from the deep shadows inside his corrugated iron shack.
Means of Grace

1996

Means of Grace

1996
Ann Clements Conger was an ambitious journalist in the 1940's. In the 1950's she became a mother, and torn between her domestic roles and her career, she began a frightening journey into the world of hallucinations, tranquilizers and institutionalization. Diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia, she, like thousands of other American women, was committed against her will, and given electric shock therapy. Through the use of home movie footage, archival footage and dramatizations, Means of Grace raises questions about social control, definitions of madness, the nuclear family, women's roles and the Cold War. We meet her daughter, the filmmaker, as she wrestles with questions of doubt, shame, understanding and resoultion.
Dancing in A-Yard

2023

Dancing in A-Yard

2023
8
In prisons ruled by toxic masculinity, dancing is an absolute taboo. But at Lancaster’s A-Yard, near Los Angeles, a group of young men, willing to take a chance to be mocked in the yard, start a dance class led by French choreographer Dimitri Chamblas. This class quickly becomes an intoxicating escape from their grim reality so they decide to create a dance show. In this exceptional context, the inmates engage with overwhelming sincerity, evoking their childhood, ganglife, the crimes, the prison, and their desire for transformation. Beyond damaged lives and a prison system on the edge of the abyss, DANCING IN A-YARD explores redemption and the capacity of human beings to reinvent themselves, when given a chance. And more importantly, how art and introspection can help see the light.
El Facilitador

2024

El Facilitador

2024
This documentary addresses two political scandals that marked Luis Lacalle Pou's administration: Alejandro Astesiano and Sebastián Marset, two names that were previously unknown to most citizens.
Welcome to the Waks Family

2003

Welcome to the Waks Family

2003
6
Everyday life in the Waks household is a logistical challenge of monumental proportions. There are two minibuses to move the family around and the kitchen in its suburban Melbourne home has five ovens for kosher cooking. The family follows an orthodox form of Judaism. School, work, synagogue and socialising all take place within a tight-knit Jewish community.
Wolfgang Mattheuer

1991

Wolfgang Mattheuer

1991
Wolfgang Mattheuer, together with Bernhard Heisig and Werner Tübke, is one of the main protagonists of the Leipzig School. With works such as Behind the Seven Mountains (1973) the graphic artist, painter and sculptor is one of the most controversial and yet most celebrated artists of the former GDR. With the use of mythology, literary references, and ambiguous details, he subverted the ideological edicts of the system. This film presents the great works of this reserved, yet perceptive ‘picture maker’. An insightful interview with Mattheuer introduces us to his eclectic visual world and his metaphorical response to contemporary events and the GDR regime.
Bernhard Heisig

1991

Bernhard Heisig

1991
In the mists of war and violence, the Harlequin, trumpet in hand, drifts through ravaged landscape passing a cripple and a marionette: Bernhard Heisig's pictorial worlds shock the viewer by depicting the great dramas of German history. Both a victim and a perpetrator in World War II and in the GDR dictatorship, the artist's search for sense and truth led him to his moving image formulas. Director Reiner E. Moritz converses with the renowned ex-principal of the Leipzig Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (Academy of Visual Arts) about his work, which influenced the development of art for many decades in the rigid GDR system.
My Bolivia: Remembering What I Never Knew

2016

My Bolivia: Remembering What I Never Knew

2016
A documentary filmmaker travels to Bolivia to learn more about his father and his family's history.
Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm

1994

Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm

1994
A documentary chronicling the lives of various freshman inhabitants of Trancos Hall, a co-ed dorm on the campus of Stanford University.