Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 258

The Phans of Jersey City

1980

The Phans of Jersey City

1980
A South Vietnamese refugee family learns to live in the USA
The Blooms of Banjeli

1986

The Blooms of Banjeli

1986
The Blooms of Banjeli documents research in Banjeli, Togo on iron-smelting technology, its rituals, and the sexual prohibitions surrounding it. Including rare historical footage from the same village in 1914, it provides a unique technological record of the traditional method of preparing a furnace to smelt iron. This documentary offers an interesting approach to our understanding of the relationship between conceptions of gender and technology in traditional African society. The people of Banjeli liken the furnace to a woman's body, which is 'impregnated' by the smelter. The process of smelting is compared to that of giving birth, the furnace being the womb and the iron bloom, the newborn.
Pram Factory

1994

Pram Factory

1994
In the early 1970s, a theatre collective - the Australian Performing Group - based itself in a building called the Pram Factory, now synonymous with the people and events that laid the groundwork for a renaissance in Australian culture. The Pram was a ‘scene’, a 24-hour happening, a radical alternative to the mainstream. Those who lived and worked at the Pram expected the world to come to them - and for a while it did. (The building was eventually demolished to make way for a supermarket.)
Who Killed Malcolm Smith?

1992

Who Killed Malcolm Smith?

1992
This is the true story of Malcolm Charles Smith who, like many Aboriginal people, was taken from his family as a child and died a shocking and early death after a life of institutionalisation and deprivation. In this documentary Richard Frankland, who helped investigate his death for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, revisits Smith's friends and family who tell the story of Malcolm's life and death.
Conversations with Philip Guston

2003

Conversations with Philip Guston

2003
Art historians and critics talk with Philip Guston about his ideas and new work of the 1970's. Filmed during the making of "Philip Guston: A Life Lived."
Brave New York

2004

Brave New York

2004
BRAVE NEW YORK is a free-form documentary that loosely chronicles the last twelve years of intense change in the East Village "hood." From the reopening of a newly curfewed Tompkins Square Park and Wigstock in '92 to the destruction of the cherished Loisaida Community Gardens, beyond the yuppie invasions of the "dot com" years to the present era, indelibly stamped with post 9/11 grief, this durable, lusty neighborhood survives in spite of a real estate gold rush that has excluded all but the well-to-do. The movie's main voices are those of the artists and street people whose wisdom and commentaries upon the dominant culture give us pause amidst the speedy approach of a "Brave New World." This Overview was taken from Fandor, where this film is available. 2004.
The Red Orchestra

2003

The Red Orchestra

2003
The Red Orchestra was a Berlin-based resistance group that fought against the Third Reich within Germany. The Gestapo labeled them Communists and traitors, and so did the Allies. Only recently have historians recognized them as one of the most important resistance groups. This movie, made by the son of one of the survivors, tells their story for the first time to an American audience.
Imagining Indians

1992

Imagining Indians

1992
With an all Indian crew, Victor Masayesva visited tribal communities in Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Washington and the Amazon to produce this film.
The Days of the Dead

1988

The Days of the Dead

1988
A documentary exploring the varying cultural practices of the Day of the Dead in both Mexico and Chicano/a communities in the United States.
Nude Portraits – Gundula Schulze

1984

Nude Portraits – Gundula Schulze

1984
Photographer Gundula Schulze wrote her graduate thesis on "nude photography of women in East Germany". It's a subject she continues to pursue in her photography. She considers the stereotype of superficial nude photography anachronistic, and talks vividly about being at pains to develop a relationship of trust with the women she photographs. Schulze wants to show what makes up the "whole woman", living up to her position in East Germany. Scenes of women in the professional world have been edited into the film.
Sermons and Sacred Pictures

1989

Sermons and Sacred Pictures

1989
"An experimental documentary on Reverend L.O. Taylor, a black Baptist minister from Memphis, Tennessee who was also an inspired filmmaker with an overwhelming interest in preserving the social and cultural fabric of his own community in the 1930′s and 40s. I combine his films and music recordings with my own images of Memphis neighborhoods and religious gatherings" -Sachs
Butoh: Piercing the Mask

1991

Butoh: Piercing the Mask

1991
This documentary pierces the mystery and mystique of a dance movement adored by the West and largely ignored by the Japanese. It uses archival and modern footage of leading Butoh performers and interviews Butoh specialists to throw light on the essential Butoh themes of darkness, violence and eroticism to get to the core of the nature of Butoh.
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.
With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right in America

2004

With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right in America

2004
With God on Our Side… is an excessive title about Christian church fundamentalism and how, like the Taliban, religious groups feel a God given right to institute a society of specific religious beliefs that not everyone shares.
Jean Genet: An Interview with Antoine Bourseiller

1981

Jean Genet: An Interview with Antoine Bourseiller

1981
An interview with artist, playwright, and political activist Jean Genet.
Roots In The Sand

1998

Roots In The Sand

1998
A multi-generational portrait of pioneering Punjabi-Mexican families who settled, a century ago, in Southern California's Imperial Valley. Through the use of found footage, archival and family photographs, personal and public documents, Jayasri Majumdar Hart tells the touching and inspirational story of a community that grew out of a struggle for economic survival in the face of prejudice.
A Man Called "Bee"

1974

A Man Called "Bee"

1974
One of the few ethnographic films in which the anthropologist appears as one of the subjects - a lively introduction to the nature of fieldwork. Napoleon Chagnon, who lived among the Yanomamo for 36 months over a period of eight years, is shown in various roles as "fieldworker": entering a village armed with arrows and adorned with feathers; sharing coffee with the shaman Dedeheiwa who recounts the myth of fire; dispensing eyedrops to a baby and accepting in turn a shaman's cure for his own illness; collecting voluminous genealogies; making tapes, maps, Polaroid photos; and attempting to analyze such patterns as Yąnomamö village fission, migration, and aggression.
Silent Shakespeare

2000

Silent Shakespeare

2000
A BFI collection of 7 short films from the USA, England and Italy scored for Piano, Guitar and String Quartet.
Summer in the City

1970

Summer in the City

1970
German writer Uwe Johnson lived for several years in the 1960s on Manhattan’s Upper Westside where he got to know his neighborhood very well, observing the goings-on in the streets, cafeterias, and parks. In 1968 German Television agreed to co-produce a film for broadcast featuring interviews with various neighborhood characters.
A Balinese Trance Seance

1981

A Balinese Trance Seance

1981
Bringing offerings of rice, flowers, and woven coconut leaves, clients visit Jero in her household shrine to determine the cause of their son's death. Jero lights an incense brazier, sprinkles holy water, and recites mantras as preliminaries to trance. Several ancestors and finally the young son speak through her voice, revealing the nature of his premature death (witchcraft) and his wishes for cremation. In contrast to other films about Balinese trance which focus on spectacular, community performances, this film provides an intimate view of a fascinating process of communication between Jero, the spirits, and her clients who are at one point moved to tears. (der.org)