Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 286

The Legacy of Jedwabne

2005

The Legacy of Jedwabne

2005
This film tells a shocking and brutal story that has been kept a secret in Poland for over 60 years. It tells the story of a pogrom in 1941 in Jedwabne, Poland and explores the implications of the past for present constructions and negotiations of personal, national and religious identity.
Broken Vows: Stories of Separation

2020

Broken Vows: Stories of Separation

2020
Broken Vows: Stories of Separation is an award winning documentary that was produced over a four year period. Initially starting as a team of one Sunnie McFadden-Curtis built a small but dedicated team of creatives around her.This documentary takes you into the lives of several women, to learn from their personal stories, hear tales from those caught in the crossfire of marriage breakdown and separation, and find solace in the notion that those affected can walk through the darkness and into the light.
An African Brass Band: Traditional Music of Cote d'Ivoire

2006

An African Brass Band: Traditional Music of Cote d'Ivoire

2006
At the beginning of the 20th century in Jacqueville, near Abidjan in the Côte d'Ivoire, traditional music was forbidden by the missionaries. But the inhabitants' enjoyment of their local festivals proved stronger, and the little town developed its own brass band. This is the story of that brass band, a brass band that isn't at all like a military band. It's a dancing brass band, an African brass band, that accompanies all the big and little moments of life: national festivals, religious ceremonies, funerals, fetes and celebrations, a musical game involving a football, tunes from the famous Mapuka dance, or the experimental use of sacred drums together with the brass band. A lively debate between the musicians, in which a sense of humor is clearly present, as they examine fundamental questions about their tradition and its transformations in the context of the life of people today.
Stewards of the Land

2022

Stewards of the Land

2022
The daily experiences of three land cultivators in Puerto Rico.
Ghurbal

2005

Ghurbal

2005
This film examines the Egyptian rural craft of making a sieve called ghurbal (from the Arabic ghurbal meaning “to winnow” which is used to both “winnow” babies on their seventh day of life and to winnow grains for making ceremonial dishes, particularly kouskousi. Embedded in this material culture artifact are layered meanings of creative regeneration of the cosmic and human worlds. We visually follow the material process from tree log cutting to making the tara (ghurbal frame), to ghurbal crafting, through the voice and image of two key persons: Na’ima, the craftswoman and owner of the frame shop, and Hoksha, the rural ghurbal craftsman. The ethnographer/filmmaker engages them to speak and we are drawn into their lives by their stories as we view self-confident mastery of their craft. While Hoksha relates how he has kept this child from his father, we see his son next to him making a modern flour sieve, having never learned the family tradition.
Cowboys Without Borders

2020

Cowboys Without Borders

2020
5
The story of a 6th generation Texan as he explores ranches from Montana to Argentina working alongside American Cowboys. The story's focus is on cattle operations and how the heart of the American Cowboy has not changed.
As Prescribed

2022

As Prescribed

2022
Detailing multiple cases of the damage wreaked by benzodiazepines, Holly Hardman’s film offers poignant insight into a devastating social crisis.
K'Sai Chivit: Threads of Life

1994

K'Sai Chivit: Threads of Life

1994
K'Sai Chivit: Threads of Life documents the ancient art form of Khmer silk weaving and its place in Cambodian society today. For over a thousand years, Cambodian weavers have been producing a variety of elegant silks, however current societal hardships Cambodians face have dramatically hindered this production. Organizations like UNESCO have began to take part in the revitalization of Khmer weaving, and have established training programs across the region to increase job opportunities and economic independence.
This is [Not] Who We Are

2022

This is [Not] Who We Are

2022
Explores the gap between Boulder, Colorado’s progressive self-image and the lived experiences of its small but resilient Black community by featuring Zayd Atkinson, a university student performing his work study job cleaning up the grounds of his dorm when he was threatened by a police officer and, soon, by eight officers with guns drawn. He lived to tell the story many Black men don't survive to tell. While it has a unique history, Boulder is emblematic of liberal, white, university-based communities that profess an inclusive ethic but live a segregated reality. The film explores the interconnected issues of land use, affordability, racial and class-based segregation, educational equity, and policing.
Walking Dancing Belonging

2006

Walking Dancing Belonging

2006
Produced in association with Waringarri Aboriginal Arts at Kununurra in Western Australia, this moving documentary features three women who talk about their paintings as an expression of their relationship to their country. The women share a sense of belonging to their place and express this belonging through dance and song and all of their artistic expressions. On a trip into the bush around Cockatoo Lagoon near Kununurra, they explain the stories of their Dreaming and of their land, and talk of their own experiences growing up as workers on stations in the area. Each artist talks about why they paint - to teach and to share stories about their country with others in the community and wider afield. The film also observes them working on paintings, each giving her personal interpretation of a loved environment and a living culture. The paintings are all very different in style but all express a life-affirming sense of identity intimately linked to their own country.
Moresby Modern

2009

Moresby Modern

2009
For many people, the mention of Papua New Guinea will evoke images such as remote highlands cultures and tribal warriors; or perhaps tropical islands and palm fringed beaches, or it may bring to mind darker images of poverty, corruption and raskol violence. But in PNG's capital, Port Moresby, things are starting to look a little different. PNG is slowly joining the globalised world, and if you look closely at this society in transition you can see signs of a modest middle class on the rise, and a new generation coming of age. In Moresby you can find a small band of business people, professionals, managers, and creatives, all working hard to build a better life for themselves and their families. Moresby Modern, is the stories of 7 such people, as they work in the challenging environment of a developing country, learning to balance the traditional expectations of their culture with the demands of modern society.
Mourning For Mangatopi

1974

Mourning For Mangatopi

1974
Because of work commitments and the influence of Christian Missions, traditional mourning ceremonies among the Tiwi people of Melville Island were becoming rare at the time of making this film (1974). The full, elaborate ceremony, called the Pukumani ceremony, lasted several days and involved large numbers of people in ritual roles. It was performed here with full awareness that this may be one of the last times such a ceremony would be staged in the traditional way. The ceremony was prepared by the Mangatopi family of Snake Bay after the death of a 35-year old family member killed by his wife. The dead man’s father, Geoffrey Mangatopi, and his family requested this film to be made as a public record of a disappearing tradition. Unique to the Tiwi people of Melville and Bathurst islands, the Pukumani ceremony was not only performed to safe-guard the passage of the dead person into the spirit world, but to re-affirm kinship relationships and traditional Tiwi culture.
To Hold Our Ground: A Field Report

1991

To Hold Our Ground: A Field Report

1991
For thousands of years Ju/'hoansi have lived in the Nyae Nyae region in northeastern Namibia. In the 1950s, most Ju/'hoansi had been exterminated or were dispossessed by white colonists and black farmers, but in Nyae Nyae Ju/'hoansi were still the only permanent inhabitants. Waterless approaches isolated their ancient communal land and protected them from enslavement.
The Reindeer Thief

1988

The Reindeer Thief

1988
Like many St. Lawrence Island legends, this story is set in Siberia where Chukchi, the Reindeer People, live. Pelaasi, an elder from Gambell, speaks Siberian Yupik. His mythical story, about a man who goes out in search of a reindeer thief is an ungipaghaq, a tale that has been passed down unchanged through generations and believed to be based in truth.
Inagina: The Last House of Iron

1997

Inagina: The Last House of Iron

1997
Swiss archaeologist Eric Huysecom and cameraman Bernard Augustoni work with 13 master smelters to recreate the building of a traditional furnace for smelting iron in Mali. There has not been any traditional iron smelting in Africa since the 1960's, in part due to the importing of cheaper substitutes. The building of the furnaces and the work involved in the actual production is deeply entwined with ritual, symbolism and gender. This film describes in great detail every aspect of the event, from the selection of the site of the reconstruction - which is the oldest remaining furnace site in the region, last active in 1961 - to the final result.
Ngaben: Emotion And Restraint In A Balinese Heart

2012

Ngaben: Emotion And Restraint In A Balinese Heart

2012
Ngaben: Emotion and Restraint in a Balinese Heart takes an impressionistic look at the ngaben from the perspective of a mourning son, Nyoman Asub, and reveals the intimacy, sadness, and tenderness at the core of this funerary ritual and the feeling and force that underlie an exquisite cultural tradition. Amidst ample cultural and interpretive understandings of the cremation ceremony, the film purposefully provides a personalistic, impressionistic, and poetic glimpse of the process and the complex emotions involved.
Rising Against Asian Hate: One Day in March

2022

Rising Against Asian Hate: One Day in March

2022
Explore the fight against Asian American hate following the March 2021 mass shootings at three spas in Atlanta. Examine how this critical moment of racial reckoning sheds light on the struggles, triumphs and achievements of AAPI communities.
Chasing

2022

Chasing

2022
An American athlete is fed up with silver medals, a pro baseball career foiled by injury, and narrowly missing out on the Olympic rowing team. Restless and looking for a win, he discovers a 3,000- mile rowing race. Jason aims to win the race and smash the record for the fastest crossing. Ten days in, two of the four men jump ship mid-Atlantic. Jason limps to the finish line, battered and humbled. One year later, he’s back with a new team. When seasickness and weather threaten his dream again, Jason faces an impossible task: 400 miles in just 5 days to beat the record.
Bury Me at Taylor Hollow

2020

Bury Me at Taylor Hollow

2020
After spending 15 years working in the conventional funeral industry, John Christian Phifer is paving uncharted territory to help create Larkspur Conservation-the first natural burial ground of its kind in Tennessee.
Local 1196: A Steelworkers Strike

2022

Local 1196: A Steelworkers Strike

2022
In March of 2021, the steelworkers of USW 1196 in Brackenridge struck, citing unfair labor practices. Over the next four months, “Local 1196” follows the steelworkers from late night conversations on the picket lines, to fiery debates at the union hall, to their living rooms as bills come due.