Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 42

Shinjuku Boys

1995

Shinjuku Boys

1995
6.7
This documentary is set in the New Marilyn night club in Tokyo, Japan - where the hosts are transgender men. They can only make their living as hosts in a nightclub with other wannabes like them. The young women who come there often have relationships with them but the underlying fear is whether such a relationship can withstand the pressures on a girl to get married and have children. All three boys deal with this in different ways. These three hosts, the Shinjuku Boys, take us into their lives.
The Slanted Screen

2006

The Slanted Screen

2006
10
From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle, the Slanted Screen examines the portrayal Asian men in film and television, and how new filmmakers are now re-defining age-old stereotypes.
My Amityville Horror

2013

My Amityville Horror

2013
5.6
For the first time in 35 years, Daniel Lutz recounts his version of the infamous Amityville haunting that terrified his family in 1975. George and Kathleen Lutz's story went on to inspire a best-selling novel and the subsequent films have continued to fascinate audiences today. This documentary reveals the horror behind growing up as part of a world-famous haunting and while Daniel's facts may be others' fiction, the psychological scars he carries are indisputable. Documentary filmmaker Eric Walter has combined years of independent research into the Amityville case along with the perspectives of past investigative reporters and eyewitnesses, giving way to the most personal testimony of the subject to date.
Flint

2020

Flint

2020
6
In 2014, the authorities in Flint, Michigan chose to cut costs and change the city’s domestic water supply from the great Lakes to the Flint River. Soon tap water was running brown, people were falling ill and it was clear that something was seriously wrong. Anthony Baxter (You’ve Been Trumped) has followed the situation over six years of denial, evasion, betrayal and hypocrisy in which the city’s poorest residents have suffered the most. The result is shocking and sad as it illuminates the inequalities of the modern world and celebrates the solidarity of ordinary people.
Miss Sharon Jones!

2015

Miss Sharon Jones!

2015
7.1
Two-time Academy Award® winner Barbara Kopple shines a powerful, inspiring and entertaining spotlight on contemporary soul queen Sharon Jones. As she prepares to release her much-anticipated new album, Sharon comes face to-face with the greatest challenge of her life: a grave cancer diagnosis. Follow this tour de force over the course of an eventful and remarkable year as she struggles to hold her band The Dap-Kings together while battling her way back to the stage with the unstoppable determination of a true soul survivor
Fight the Power: The Movements That Changed America

2021

Fight the Power: The Movements That Changed America

2021
“Looks at the impact key movements throughout U.S. history have had in shaping our society, laws and culture. From the labor movement of the 1880s, women's suffrage and civil rights, to the LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter movements, protest is in the American DNA and this documentary gives an unfiltered look at the ways it has evolved the world in which we live.”
The Imposter

2012

The Imposter

2012
7.3
In 1994 a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later he is found alive thousands of miles away in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
Intelligent Trees

2017

Intelligent Trees

2017
7.6
Trees talk, know family ties and care for their young? Is this too fantastic to be true? German forester Peter Wohlleben and scientist Suzanne Simard have been observing and investigating the communication between trees over decades. And their findings are most astounding.
Sex in the Soviet Union

2025

Sex in the Soviet Union

2025
7
A gripping journey through seven decades of sexual ignorance, oppression, and suffering, brought to life through the words and experiences of the first Soviet sexologist. Ukrainian survivors of the regime courageously recount the harsh realities they endured, from the pervasive suppression of sexual expression to the rampant exploitation and abuse that plagued Soviet society.
20 Feet from Stardom

2013

20 Feet from Stardom

2013
7.2
Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead, until now.
Dark Suns

2019

Dark Suns

2019
6.6
An epic investigation into countless murders in Mexico. Presented in chapters, the film unfolds methodically through unsettling testimonials, sketching a portrait of an entire country transformed into a gigantic mass grave thanks to a climate of impunity established by both criminal gangs and state authorities.
Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi

2020

Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi

2020
6.4
The greatest cult horror and science fiction films of all-time are studied in vivid detail in the second volume of Time Warp. Includes groundbreaking classics like "Night of the Living Dead," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," and sci-fi gems such as "Blade Runner," and "A Clockwork Orange."
An Honest Liar

2014

An Honest Liar

2014
7.1
An Honest Liar tells the incredible story of the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James 'The Amazing' Randi. The film brings to life Randi's intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con-artists with quasi-religious fervor. A master deceiver who came out of the closet at the age of 81, Randi created fictional characters, fake psychics, and even turned his partner of 25 years, Jose Alvarez, into a sham guru named Carlos.
The Congress

1989

The Congress

1989
7.8
For 200 years, the United States Congress has been one of the country's most important and least understood institutions. In this elegant, thoughtful and often touching portrait, Ken Burns explores the history and promise of this unique American institution. Using historical photographs and newsreels, evocative live footage and interviews with David Broder, Alistair Cooke, Cokie Roberts, Charles McDowell and others, the award-winning film chronicles the personalities, events and issues that have animated the first 200 years of Congress and, in turn, our country.
David Macaulay: Roman City

1994

David Macaulay: Roman City

1994
9
The glories of Ancient Rome are explored in ROMAN CITY, based on David Macaulay's acclaimed book. This animated and live-action video recounts life in Verbonia, a fictional city in Gaul. A well-planned town with all modern conveniences, it is threatened by conflict between conquerors and conquered. Macaulay also visits Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, Nimes, Orange, and Rome, to view actual Roman architecture and engineering greatness.
Chocolate Road

2021

Chocolate Road

2021
7
Three renowned chocolatiers - Maribel Lieberman, Susumu Koyama and Mikkel Friis-Holm - take us through the process of craft chocolate-making all the way from the tree to the final chocolate piece. On their journey, each of them finds how important it is to know the roots of their primer material - the cacao bean, and how they can highly impact the lives of the people involved in the chocolate production chain
What Is Cinema?

2013

What Is Cinema?

2013
6.5
Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, David Lynch, and Jonas Mekas, Oscar-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman shows what these filmmakers and others do that can't be expressed in words - but only in cinema.
The Movie Man

2024

The Movie Man

2024
7.5
What does a man do who has dedicated over 70 years of his life to live in the world of movies when that whole world suddenly shuts down? When film productions stop and cinemas are closing. In this new restricted world of his, he spends his time going through his rich film archive and calls directors and actors around the whole world: Isabella Rossellini, John Sayles, Oliver Assayas and many more. A film about the film's ability to travel into other worlds and give us the strength to endure our own difficult existence.
George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus

2018

George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus

2018
7
In 1961 Lithuanian American artist and impresario George Maciunas established the avant-garde art movement Fluxus. George details the rise of Fluxus following a sensationalized tour of “concerts” in Europe in 1962, and continuing in New York for most of the 1960s and ’70s. During this time Maciunas was converting the dying industrial buildings of Soho into a network of artists’ lofts, creating one of the first official real estate co-ops of artist-owned buildings. Maciunas’s life and legacy—as recounted by artists of his generation, including Yoko Ono and Jonas Mekas—ignited debates that remain pivotal to artists working today.
Girl Gang

2022

Girl Gang

2022
6.3
A contemporary fairy tale about a 14-year-old influencer from Berlin and her biggest fan. But life as a social media star has a shadow side that the adrenaline, fame and free sneakers can’t make up for.