Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 287

Les enfants de la liberté

2022

Les enfants de la liberté

2022
A simple nurse's aide and mother of three children, Sonia is committed to fundamental rights. She is convinced that the crisis that France has been experiencing since the beginning of the pandemic is more political than sanitary. Sonia founded the Blouses Blanches, a collective working for fundamental freedoms, and is opposed to the mandatory and systematic vaccination of caregivers and children. From her point of view, both have been sacrificed on the altar of the pandemic. For several months, Maga and Ariakina Ettori met with scientists, doctors and politicians in order to understand what this health crisis reveals about our health system, our society, our collective values and our democracy. A balanced and nuanced journalistic investigation.
Walking Two Worlds

2022

Walking Two Worlds

2022
19 year-old Quannah Chasinghorse, and her mother, Jody Potts-Joseph, take a stand to defend their sacred homelands and way of life while breaking barriers in Indigenous representation.
Stambali

1999

Stambali

1999
In Tunisia, the history of stambali goes back to the arrival of the first enslaved Africans from Mali, Timbuktu specifically. Practicing their music and worship in the house of their masters, the enslaved and their musical traditions survive to this day. Stambali is a religious ritual in Tunisia, a journey with the rhythm of the "gombri" and "chkackek," traces an individual and collective hypnosis, an annual tribute that the disciples of Sidi Saad pay to their master during an initiatory journey and rite of purification that lasts three days. In "Stambali," the camera, video and film follow the rhythm of the possession, dances, and goes into a trance, in the cemetery, in an open space of grass, trees, dust and sand, in the eroticism that is released by this physical and spiritual representation.
Gringo Favelado

2016

Gringo Favelado

2016
An Artist, a Musician and a Dreamer, all of them British, have moved to Rio's notorious favela communities where they build their lives in perilously-shifting political sands.
Fishers of Dar

2001

Fishers of Dar

2001
Samaki wa Dar es Salaam/Fishers of Dar is an ethnographic film about the fishermen and women of downtown Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It explores the continuity and integrity of traditional fishing practices in new, contemporary settings
Pony Boys

2022

Pony Boys

2022
Summer 1967. Two little boys, 9 and 11, drive a pony cart from Needham, Mass. to Montreal on their own—325 miles—to visit the Expo ’67—the World’s Fair.
Asmara, Eritrea

2008

Asmara, Eritrea

2008
10
Asmara - capitol of the East African nation of Eritrea - is recognized as an architectural gem. In this film Asmarinos from different walks of life guide us through the streets of their city and bring us to places of their choice. In doing so, and by talking about 'their own' Asmara, each person locates personal memories in public spaces investing the urban environment with individual meanings. Through their narrations - a chorus of different experiences embodying the nation - the country's history from colonialism to independence comes to life.
In Pursuit of the Siberian Shaman

2006

In Pursuit of the Siberian Shaman

2006
Long suppressed by missionaries and then by Soviet anti-religious campaigns, Siberian shamanism has experienced an unprecedented revival following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the number of shamans continues to rise. But who are these new shamans? Are they tricksters, magicians, businessmen, or cultural activists? This film takes a behind-the-scenes look at a Buryat shaman living on an island in the Lake Baikal as he moves between intimate shamanic rituals performed for local clientele and shows performed at various resorts for Western tourists in search of "primitive" cultures.
Spear and Sword - A Payment of Bridewealth on the Island of Roti, Eastern Indonesia

1988

Spear and Sword - A Payment of Bridewealth on the Island of Roti, Eastern Indonesia

1988
This traditionally ethnographic sequence film focuses on the negotiations betwen representatives of two families during a payment of bridewealth. In the past the husband's group would carry a spear and a sword to hang in the wife's house. Now, a payment is made as a substitute for the spear and sword. The payment of bridewealth is a long and complex ceremony in which representatives from the husband and wife's family engage in a heated negotiation process. The bride and groom are completely excluded from the negotiations and never appear in the film.
Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali

1991

Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali

1991
Cremation rites are the most elaborate rites of passage performed by Balinese householders. Poor families may wait years before accumulating enough resources to cremate their dead, who are buried in the meantime. In 1978 many more cremations than usual were carried out because of the great purification cermony, Eka Dasa Rudra, held at Bali's main temple, Besakih, in 1979. Religious officials recommended that all Balinese cleanse the island by cremating their dead, as part of the preparations for the great Besakih ceremony. Villagers of limited means pooled their resources to perform group cremations which greatly reduced the cost for each family. This film is about a group of villagers in Central Bali who cooperated to carry out a group cremation.
Dani Sweet Potatoes

1974

Dani Sweet Potatoes

1974
A study of the sophisticated process of sweet potato horticulture developed by the Dani. The film follows the Dani sweet potato cycle from clearing off the old brush and weeds from a fallow field to planting, harvesting, cooking, and eating. At that time the Dani had the simplest of tools - long pointed wooden poles used as digging sticks that are hardened in the fire and soaked in water - and they still used their stone-bladed adzes. (By now, most Dani use steel shovels, axes, and bush knives and make stone adzes only for the tourist trade.)
Musher

2021

Musher

2021
Musher peels back the veil behind the bond that four women have between their dogs and the world of sled-dog racing. As each woman prepares for the Copperdog annual race, we reveal the intimate insight into the mushing community, devotion to that lifestyle, and how women influence the sport.
Benjamin and His Brother

2002

Benjamin and His Brother

2002
Years of war and ethnic conflict in the Sudan have created a generation of young men, known as the "Lost Boys," who have spent more years in refugee camps than in their home communities. This intimate film recounts the story of Benjamin and William Deng, brothers joined in the struggle of a seemingly never-ending exile, who are then separated when one is accepted into a United States resettlement program while the other remains in a Kenyan refugee camp. It is not only a film about the two brother's dreams and reality, it is also a film about war and suffering in their beloved South Sudan, lost childhood and innocence, the trials of life as a refugee in foreign lands and the existing realities of survival. Real life in the so called "Land of dreams" – America, is not an easy adjustment.
Buffalo Soldiers Fighting On Two Fronts

2022

Buffalo Soldiers Fighting On Two Fronts

2022
6
Interviews, reenactments, animations, and more tell the story of the Black army regiments, formed after the Civil War, who played vital roles (from railroad builders to park rangers) in the American settling of the West.
Bunong's Birth Practices

2010

Bunong's Birth Practices

2010
On the basis of a social anthropological case study, this film documents the birth practices of the Bunong in Mondulkiri province, located in the northeast of Cambodia. Social, economic, and political changes are transforming the province tremendously and are affecting villagers' beliefs, perceptions and habits regarding pregnancy, delivery and early motherhood. Traditional midwives, pregnant women, mothers and their families give a personal insight into their present decision-making strategies, which are at the crossroads between tradition and modernity.
Jan Karsky. Righteous Man of the World

2015

Jan Karsky. Righteous Man of the World

2015
Jan Karski is a hero of World War II, a member of the Polish Resistance and the author of the first official account of the Holocaust. The film was created jointly by filmmakers from Russia and Poland in the year of the centenary of Jan Karski, on the seventieth anniversary of the victory over fascism.
Silent River

2014

Silent River

2014
Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement 20 years ago, international companies have used the Santiago River as their own “waste canal.” This documentary follows a young woman and her family as they try to save one of the most polluted rivers in Mexico.
Goin' to Chicago

2000

Goin' to Chicago

2000
A group of longtime Chicago residents born in the Mississippi Delta returns to Greenville, Mississippi, for a reunion with family and friends. Participants talk about their lives and reasons for migrating north as part of "The Great Migration." Archival footage of Mississippi and Chicago is included.
Exhumed: A History of Zombies

2020

Exhumed: A History of Zombies

2020
There are few monsters more recognizable or popular than the zombie. The reanimated corpse has been a staple of folklore, film, literature and popular culture for nearly 200 years. Join Dr. Emily Zarka, who studies literature and film through the lens of monsters, as she deconstructs some of the most significant moments in zombie popular culture over the last two centuries to reveal what these creatures say about us. In New Orleans, Dr. Zarka explores how zombie folklore arose before it became mainstream and discovers more about the spiritual and historical roots of zombie lore.
Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction

2010

Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction

2010
The Nakagin Capsule Tower, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and completed in 1972, is an exemplary work of post-war Japanese architectural movement Metabolism. Today, however, this historic building is in danger of demolition. Why do we need to preserve a building? What are the difficulties of preservation? Is demolition a tragedy or a natural phenomenon for modern architecture? Tracing the history of postwar Japanese architecture and reviewing the characteristics of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, this documentary examines the meaning of preservation and demolition from various points of view. The documentary includes interviews with residents of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, an architectural historian, a former Kurokawa office architect who was in charge of the Nakagin Capsule Tower project, Kurokawa’s son, and leading architects Arata Isozaki and Toyo Ito.