Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 264

Streit's: Matzo and the American Dream

2015

Streit's: Matzo and the American Dream

2015
On New York's rapidly gentrifying Lower East Side sits the Streit's Matzo factory. When its doors opened in 1925, it sat at the heart of the nation's largest Jewish immigrant community.
Pick It Up!: Ska in the '90s

2019

Pick It Up!: Ska in the '90s

2019
8
Pick It Up! is an independent documentary film about the rise in popularity of ska music in the 1990s and the subsequent return to the underground. The film features members of Reel Big Fish, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, Sublime, Save Ferris, Goldfinger, The Specials, Less Than Jake, Hepcat and many more.
Dog Valley

2020

Dog Valley

2020
2.6
In 1988, two ex-convicts kidnapped, beat, raped, tortured and murdered Gordon Church, a gay college student from a rural Mormon community in southern Utah. Dog Valley explores the horrific events of his death, the lives and minds of his killers, and how it has helped shape modern hate crimes legislation in Utah.
Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You.

2019

Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You.

2019
5.5
The wastelands and crowded streets of an African country are traversed by a woman bearing a wooden cross on her back. She is followed by sellers, beggars and passersby, outraged voices, pity and curious glances. Parallel to her, among a herd of sheep, a lamb toddles its way from the far away mountains into the heart of the city, only to find itself dangling, skinned and headless, on a butcher’s shoulder. In the meantime, under the scorching sun, in a roofless house, a woman is persistently knitting a garment, unwinding a thread coiled over her son’s face. ‘Mother, I Am Suffocating. This is My Last Film About You’ is a symbolic social-political voyage of a society, spiralling between religion, identity and collective memory. “I saw in you what they saw, mother. You deserve your war”.
Chau, Beyond the Lines

2015

Chau, Beyond the Lines

2015
6.1
A man disabled by Agent Orange dares to dream.
Dear Sirs

2022

Dear Sirs

2022
10
Filmmaker Mark Pedri had never heard his grandfather Silvio's story. Ten years after his grandfather's death, Mark found an archive of photos and letters that changed the rest of his life. The discovery inspired Mark to journey across Europe on a bike to examine his grandfather's experience as a Prisoner of War in WWII in an effort to understand the man who helped raise him.
What Killed Michael Brown?

2020

What Killed Michael Brown?

2020
6.5
Acclaimed writer, Shelby Steele, has long argued that systemic racism is more a strategy than a truth, and that the universal oppression of black Americans is largely over with. But the 2014 shooting of a black teen, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri by a white policeman shook the nation to its core. During Steele’s investigation of Ferguson, America was once again rocked by the brutal killing of George Floyd. Didn’t these killings, and the long list of others like them, put the lie to Steele’s argument?
Threatened

2014

Threatened

2014
Deep in Brazil, where law and justice require first and last name, the struggle for a piece of land becomes a matter of life or death. "Threatened" shows peasants in the South and Southeast of Pará, who have to fight for a piece of land for farming and living.
States of UnBelonging

2006

States of UnBelonging

2006
The core of this haunting meditation on war, land, the Bible, and filmmaking is a portrait of Revital Ohayon, an Israeli filmmaker and mother killed near the West Bank. Director Lynne Sachs creates a film on the violence of the Middle East by exchanging letters with an Israeli friend. Together, they reveal Revital's story through her films, news reports, and interviews, culminating in heartbreaking footage of children discussing the violence they've witnessed. Without taking sides or casting blame, the film becomes a cine-essay on fear and filmmaking, tragedy and transformation, violence and the land of Israel/Palestine.
Code of the West

2013

Code of the West

2013
At a time when the country is rethinking its drug policies large and small, one state raises to the forefront of national attention. Once a pioneer in legalizing medical marijuana, the state of Montana is poised to become the first in the nation to repeal its medical marijuana law. Set against the sweeping vistas of the Rockies, the steamy lamplight of marijuana grow houses, and the bustling halls of the State Capitol, CODE OF THE WEST follows the 2011 Montana State Legislature as it debates the fate of medical marijuana. This is the story of the many lives and fraught emotions tied to one of the most heated policy questions facing the country today
Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love

1990

Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love

1990
A lyrical film portrait of the once famous, and now, largely forgotten jazz vocalist Maxine Sullivan.
The Search - Manufacturing Belief

2019

The Search - Manufacturing Belief

2019
7
Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Dacher Keltner and other prominent secularist thinkers ponder questions of awe, spirituality, consciousness and science against the dramatic backdrop of a Christian youth retreat. Cursillo retreats have, for decades, been a training and indoctrination tool for Christian leaders. Awe is the product. The Search - Manufacturing Belief is a personal reflection on this worldwide movement, featuring commentary by prominent secularist thinkers.
Birth Wars

2019

Birth Wars

2019
The film follows midwives and doctors in Guerrero and Chiapas, two of Mexico’s most marginalized and violent states, as they fight against huge odds to transform the current medical system towards one centered on respect for a woman’s health, needs and choices. The two main protagonists, find themselves at the crossroads of a clash of cultures.
Our Brother James

2001

Our Brother James

2001
10
Australia has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. The suicide rate in men under 25 has tripled in the last 30 years, and young men in rural and remote communities are particularly vulnerable. This reality has disturbing implications for society. When it affects you directly, it's shattering. In this very personal film, director Jessica Douglas-Henry and her sister Alix explore the impact of their brother’s suicide. In 1996 James Dalmann killed himself. He was found dead in the bathroom of his housing commission unit in Geraldton, Western Australia. James was only twenty. Although this film is about James, it's really Alix's story. It's about the people left behind, whose lives have been changed forever by the suicide of someone they loved. Although Our Brother James focuses on a personal tragedy, it is ultimately a film about survival and growth, about love, strength and hope for the future.
Breaking Trail

2021

Breaking Trail

2021
Emily Ford, 28, Black, LGBTQ, sets out with Diggins a borrowed female Alaskan Husky sled dog to become the first woman and person of color to thru-hike the 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail in winter. As the 69-day journey through subzero temperatures tests her physical and mental endurance, Emily and her canine protector develop an unbreakable bond as they embrace the unexpected kindness of strangers and discover they've become figureheads in the movement to make the outdoors more accessible for everyone. What begins as an extraordinary physical journey also becomes a spiritual adventure.
Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai'i

2009

Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai'i

2009
6
What if you are made to feel ashamed when you speak your "mother tongue" or ridiculed because of your accent? "Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai'i" addresses these questions through its lively examination of Pidgin - the language spoken by over half of Hawai'i's people.
Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide

2020

Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide

2020
7
When Kenny Scharf arrived in NYC in the early 1980’s, he quickly met and befriended Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat; There, amongst the fervent creative bustle of a depressed downtown scene the trio would soon change the way we think about art, the world, and ourselves. But unlike Haring and Basquiat, who both died tragically young, Kenny lived through cataclysmic shifts in the East Village as well as the ravages of AIDS and economic depression. 'When Worlds Collide' is about the art of fun, about living life out loud, despite setbacks, and about Kenny Scharf’s particular do-it- yourself, high-tone, technicolor artistic vision.
Surname Viêt Given Name Nam

1989

Surname Viêt Given Name Nam

1989
5.2
The film evolves around questions of identity, popular memory and culture. While focusing on aspects of Vietnamese reality as seen through the lives and history of women resistance in Vietnam and in the U.S, it raises questions on the politics of interviewing and documenting.
America and the Taliban

2023

America and the Taliban

2023
How did the U.S. lose the war in Afghanistan? Who bears responsibility? And what has been the human cost? Drawing on decades of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with Taliban and U.S. officials, this epic three-part investigation traces how America’s 20-year investment in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory and examines the missteps and consequences.
Beyond. Above the Water

2024

Beyond. Above the Water

2024
More recently, in the middle of the last century, a group of enthusiasts began to develop a sport unique to Russia: water skiing. Very quickly, riding on the water behind the boat became popular: tricks became more complicated, new champions appeared. And a few decades later, water skiing was replaced by modern wakeboarding — with its own unique path and bright characters.