Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 3

Swan Song

2023

Swan Song

2023
9.2
An immersive, behind-the-scenes look at one of the world’s leading ballet companies as it mounts a new production of Swan Lake. Ballet icon Karen Kain, on the eve of her retirement, directs the National Ballet of Canada. The film weaves together intimate scenes of the creative process and the dancers’ personal lives. Executive Produced by Neve Campbell.
Altman

2014

Altman

2014
6.6
Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.
Union

2024

Union

2024
7.5
Up against one of the most powerful companies on the planet, a group of Amazon workers embark on an unprecedented campaign to unionize their warehouse in Staten Island, New York.
Sunset Strip

2012

Sunset Strip

2012
7.3
A documentary on the famous Los Angeles street.
Womanhouse

1974

Womanhouse

1974
7
Held in 1972 at 533 N. Mariposa Street, Los Angeles was one of the most important cultural events in the United States: "Womanhouse," a feminist art installation and performance space organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro.
Banned Together

2025

Banned Together

2025
A diverse cast of visionary teenagers, stirring public protests, private threats, criminal charges, and drama-filled school board meetings: this is the explosive world of BANNED TOGETHER. The film pulls back the curtain on two of the most controversial issues in America today: book bans and curriculum censorship in public schools.
Sunshine Superman

2015

Sunshine Superman

2015
6.5
Documentary portrait of Carl Boenish, the father of the BASE jumping movement, whose early passion for skydiving led him to ever more spectacular -and dangerous- feats of foot-launched human flight.
Las Marthas

2014

Las Marthas

2014
7
Marthas is a PBS documentary about an extraordinary rite of passage in Laredo, Texas where teenage Mexican-American girls debut in a grand Colonial Ball dressed as American revolutionaries - a tradition that goes back 114 years.
Mosul

2017

Mosul

2017
Described by some military commanders as the deadliest urban combat since World War II, the battle to drive ISIS out of Mosul as the terror group held civilians captive there was brutal and grueling. Shot over the course of the entire nine-month fight, this vivid documentary follows the experiences of four young soldiers in a team of Iraqi Special Forces tasked with leading the battle.
Riefenstahl

2024

Riefenstahl

2024
7.3
Explores Leni Riefenstahl's artistic legacy and her complex ties to the Nazi regime, juxtaposing her self-portrayal with evidence suggesting awareness of the regime's atrocities.
Dolores

2017

Dolores

2017
6
Dolores Huerta bucks 1950s gender conventions by starting the country's first farm worker's union with fellow organizer Cesar Chavez. What starts out as a struggle for racial and labor justice, soon becomes a fight for gender equality within the same union she is eventually forced to leave. As she wrestles with raising 11 children, three marriages, and is nearly beaten to death by a San Francisco tactical police squad, Dolores emerges with a vision that connects her new found feminism with racial and class justice.
Angry Inuk

2016

Angry Inuk

2016
7.4
With "sealfies" and social media, a new tech-savvy generation of Inuit is wading into the world of activism, using humour and reason to confront aggressive animal rights vitriol and defend their traditional hunting practices. Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril joins her fellow Inuit activists as they challenge outdated perceptions of Inuit and present themselves to the world as a modern people in dire need of a sustainable economy.
Vegucated

2011

Vegucated

2011
6.7
Explores the challenges of converting to a vegan diet. It "follows three meat-and-cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks.
Watson

2019

Watson

2019
7.3
Co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of Sea Shepherd, Captain Watson is part pirate, part philosopher in this provocative documentary about a man who will stop at nothing to protect what lies beneath.
Desert One

2019

Desert One

2019
6.2
The true story behind one the of most daring rescues in modern US history: a secret mission to free hostages captured during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Brilliant Moon: Glimpses of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

2010

Brilliant Moon: Glimpses of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

2010
7
Brilliant Moon chronicles the life of the writer, poet, and meditation master Khyentse Rinpoche, one of Tibet's most revered 20th-century Buddhist teachers. Spiritual guide to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Royal Family of Bhutan, his life and teachings were an inspiration to all who encountered him. Richard Gere and Lou Reed provide the narration for his dangerous journey out of China, the subsequent spread of his influence and the search for his reincarnation after his death.
Elstree 1976

2015

Elstree 1976

2015
6.2
A documentary about ten very different lives connected by having appeared onscreen wearing masks or helmets in Star Wars.
Anita

2013

Anita

2013
7
The story of young, brilliant African-American Anita Hill who accuses the Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of unwanted sexual advances during explosive Senate Hearings in 1991 and ignites a political firestorm about sexual harassment, race, power and politics that resonates today.
Gettysburg

2011

Gettysburg

2011
5.8
An examination of the Battle of Gettysberg on both the personal and strategic level.
Go Further

2003

Go Further

2003
6.4
"Go Further" explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change. The film follows actor Woody Harrelson as he takes a small group of friends on a bio-fueled bus-ride down the Pacific Coast Highway. Their goal? To show the people they encounter that there are viable alternatives.