Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 279

Maurice Pialat, l'amour existe

2007

Maurice Pialat, l'amour existe

2007
A documentary about the life and career of Maurice Pialat produced by his widow, the accomplished film producer Sylvie Pialat. The film interweaves clips from his films with interview footage of Pialat, who speaks of growing up as an only child, his interest in painting, his early influences in cinema from Yasujiro Ozu to John Ford, his disaffection with the French New Wave, and the theme of abandonment in his films. Pialat’s remarks offer insights into his aesthetic strategies and hint at his reputation as a challenging, irascible director, known for having pushed his actors to deliver raw and powerful performances.
Dog by Dog

2015

Dog by Dog

2015
7.7
An examination of efforts in the United States to tighten regulations on commercial dog kennels, known as 'puppy mills,' where animals are kept without adequate regard for their welfare.
Fully Awake: Black Mountain College

2008

Fully Awake: Black Mountain College

2008
Documentary about the history and ideas of Black Mountain College.
Precious Knowledge

2012

Precious Knowledge

2012
Disenfranchised high school seniors become academic warriors and community leaders in Tucson, Arizona's embattled Ethnic Studies classes while state lawmakers attempt to eliminate the program.
Mabo: Life of an Island Man

1997

Mabo: Life of an Island Man

1997
On June 3rd 1992, six months after Eddie "Koiki" Mabo's tragic death, the High Court upheld his claim that Murray Islanders held native title to land in the Torres Strait. The legal fiction that Australia was empty when first occupied by white people had been laid to rest. Mabo-Life of an Island Man tells the private and public stories of a man so passionate about family and home that he fought an entire nation and its legal system. Though his greatest victory was won only after his death, it has forever ensured his place - on Murray Island and in Australian history.
California High

2015

California High

2015
8
California has been arguing over whether or not marijuana should be legal for over 100 years. Now there's a new judge in this trial - you.
Keepers of the Game

2016

Keepers of the Game

2016
6.5
Lacrosse was born in Akwesasne Mohawk Territory as a sacred game, traditionally reserved for men. Just off the reservation at Salmon River High in Fort Covington, NY an all-Native girls lacrosse team comes together, seeking to be the first Native women’s team to bring home a Section Championship. But first, they will have to overcome their crosstown rivals, Massena High. As the season comes to a head, the team is faced with increasing ambivalence in their own community and the girls must prove that the game of lacrosse is their rightful inheritance. With more than just the championship on the line, the girls fight to blaze a new path for the next generation of Native women, while still honoring their people’s tradition in a changing world.
The Pearl

2016

The Pearl

2016
5
"The Pearl" explores the raw emotional and physical experience of being a middle aged to senior transgender woman against the backdrop of post-industrial logging towns in the Pacific Northwest. The film leans into the struggle of those who were reared and successful as men and have reached middle age or later with a burdensome secret that they can no longer keep.
Protected: The Truth About Palm Island

1975

Protected: The Truth About Palm Island

1975
Exposé of the ill-treatment of Aboriginal workers by white men. A dramatised documentary about the June 1957 Aboriginal strike on Palm Island reserve, off the north Queensland coast.
30 Seconds Away: Breaking the Cycle

2015

30 Seconds Away: Breaking the Cycle

2015
A former federal agent takes you from Milwaukee's streets into its justice system, following Harold Sloan and six other homeless men over five years as they struggle to survive.
The Founders

2016

The Founders

2016
6
The remarkable story of how 13 amateur female golfers fought to form the LPGA in 1950. With the odds stacked against them, they made history.
Stink!

2015

Stink!

2015
5.7
"Stink!" opens with a foul smell and a pair of kids pajamas. And a single father trying to find out what that smell could possibly be. But instead of getting a straight answer, director Jon Whelan stumbles on an even bigger issue in America, which is that some products on our store shelves are not safe -- by design. Entertaining, enlightening, and at times almost absurd, "Stink!" takes you on a madcap journey from the retailer to the laboratory, through corporate boardrooms, down back alleys, and into the halls of Congress. Follow Whelan as he clashes with political and corporate operatives all trying to protect the darkest secrets of the chemical industry. You won't like what you smell.
Invisible Girlfriend

2009

Invisible Girlfriend

2009
Charles is in love with his invisible girlfriend, Joan of Arc, so he decides to ride his big red bicycle 400 miles from Monroe through rural Louisiana to find her in a New Orleans bar. Along the way, he encounters a farmer, a witch, a tin man, and a man who honors the dead. Working within the tradition of creative non-fiction, Invisible Girlfriend is a Southern tale that transcends literal interpretations of images in order to open up rich, loamy textures of humor and drama. The cinematography is startling in its intensity and violent beauty, representing an optical trope that offsets the desperate love that Charles sets off on his journey to find.
Chau, Beyond the Lines

2015

Chau, Beyond the Lines

2015
6.1
A man disabled by Agent Orange dares to dream.
Don't Tell Anyone (No Le Digas A Nadie)

2015

Don't Tell Anyone (No Le Digas A Nadie)

2015
7
In a community where silence is seen as necessary for survival, undocumented immigrant activist Angy Rivera joins a generation of Dreamers in a quest to come out of the shadows and claim her place in the only home she's ever known.
When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose

1983

When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose

1983
In the early 1980s, documentary filmmaker Stephen Schaller was instrumental in the rediscovery and restoration of The Lumberjack (1914), the oldest surviving film made in Wisconsin, and produced by a group of itinerant filmmakers who traveled from town to town making "local talent" pictures. Schaller's lovely and sometimes deeply emotional, 63-minute journal/essay film offers a look at the making of the Wausau, Wisconsin classic, including interviews with the one surviving cast member and the relatives of others who appeared in the movie.
Sons of Namatjira

1975

Sons of Namatjira

1975
9
One of Curtis Levy’s finest documentaries, Sons of Namatjira, follows Keith and his wife, Isabel, and other relatives, in their interactions with the wider world including art galleries in town and bus-loads of middle-aged tourists from the big cities. The film highlights communication difficulties between black and white, and in Levy’s terms, becomes “a parable of black-white relations in Australia”.
Big Dream

2014

Big Dream

2014
Big Dream follows the intimate stories of seven young women who are breaking barriers and overcoming personal challenges to follow their passion in science, math, computing & engineering.
Horse Tribe

2014

Horse Tribe

2014
Legendary as one of America's greatest horse tribes, the 21st century Nez Perce decided to bring horses back to their land and lives with the unlikely help of a charismatic Navajo horseman, Rudy Shebala. His mentorship guides at-risk teenagers toward the strong medicine of horses, and his equine skills bring historic Nez Perce horse culture to modern renown. But his personal demons imperil both accomplishments.
The Year We Thought About Love

2015

The Year We Thought About Love

2015
With passion, wit, intelligence and attitude, an LGBTQ youth theater group creates a play about love in all its forms, while bonding together to make change in their own lives. With candor, they tell their stories through intimate interviews, entertaining and powerful clips of their self-written plays, and glimpse into their everyday lives. Members range from a transgender woman being kicked out of her home, to a runway model who likes men’s clothing, to an out gay man accepted unconditionally by his mother. The plays they write and perform are close to their experiences and not only provide catharsis but insight into what it means to be gay, lesbian, transgender, or just queer. It’s an inspirational work of art about the hardships one faces in realizing that they are different and the courage it takes to find the pride within that. – Nina Zheng