Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 45

The Fidel Castro Tapes

2014

The Fidel Castro Tapes

2014
6.7
In 1959, Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba. He has been one of the most controversial figures in the world ever since. This is the story of the Cuban dictator's turbulent career, told in part through media reports, rare images and recordings.
Sex and Broadcasting

2014

Sex and Broadcasting

2014
6.4
SEX AND BROADCASTING is a feature length documentary about New Jersey's WFMU, the world's strangest and most unique radio station, and one man's attempt to keep it alive in the face of recession, the persistent threat of commercial media, and the challenges that come with keeping a rebellious group of outsiders together.
A Year in Champagne

2014

A Year in Champagne

2014
6.2
The exploding cork. Endless tiny bubbles floating up and up in the glass. An indulgence. A celebration. A seduction. A triumph. This is the essence of Champagne, isn’t it? But it’s not just bubbles in a glass that makes the wine, or the mystique. Only sparkling wine produced within the boundaries of the Champagne region is truly “Champagne.” At first glance, the region is not an obvious source of romance. Champagne’s history is grim and bloody, swept by war and destruction from Attila the Hun to the filthy trenches of WWI and the Nazi depredations of WWII. The environment for winemaking is desperately hard — northerly latitude, chalky soil, copious rain, frost, rot. Yet it’s these difficulties that help make the wine unique.
Europe in 8 Bits

2013

Europe in 8 Bits

2013
6.1
The stars of Europe's ascendant chip music movement demonstrate the repurposing of old videogame and home computer hardware like Nintendo's GameBoy and NES, Atari's ST, and Commodore's Amiga and C64 into tools by which they have created a new sound, a modern tempo and an innovative musical style.
The End of Time

2012

The End of Time

2012
7.5
Working at the limits of what can easily be expressed, filmmaker Peter Mettler takes on the elusive subject of time, and once again turns his camera to filming the unfilmable. From the particle accelerator in Switzerland, where scientists seek to probe regions of time we cannot see, to lava flows in Hawaii which have overwhelmed all but one home on the south side of Big Island; from the disintegration of inner-city Detroit, to a Hindu funeral rite near the place of Buddha's enlightenment, Mettler explores our perception of time. He dares to dream the movie of the future while also immersing us in the wonder of the everyday. THE END OF TIME, at once personal, rigorous and visionary, Peter Mettler has crafted a film as compelling and magnificent as its subject.
Fengming: A Chinese Memoir

2007

Fengming: A Chinese Memoir

2007
7.7
The film consists almost entirely of an interview with the elderly He Fengming, recounting her experiences in post-1949 China.
Stonewall Uprising

2010

Stonewall Uprising

2010
5.8
Stonewall Uprising is a 2010 American documentary film examining the events surrounding the Stonewall riots that began during the early hours of June 28, 1969. Stonewall Uprising made its theatrical debut on June 16, 2010 at the Film Forum in New York City.The movie features interviews with eyewitnesses to the incident, including NYPD deputy inspector Seymour Pine. The film was produced and directed by documentarians Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, and is based on the book by historian David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. The title theme is by Gary Lionelli.
ReGeneration

2010

ReGeneration

2010
7.1
ReGeneration is a 2010 U.S. documentary film written and directed by Phillip Montgomery that looks at the issues facing today's youth and young adults, and the influences that contribute to the U.S.'s current culture of apathy toward political and social causes.
Zombie Girl: The Movie

2009

Zombie Girl: The Movie

2009
6.4
Emily Hagins is making a zombie movie. It's feature-length, it's bloody, and the zombies don't run. Just like it should be. But there's just one difference between her film and every other zombie movie you've ever seen. Emily is twelve.
Das Summen der Insekten

2009

Das Summen der Insekten

2009
7
The incredible story of how the mummified corpse of a 40-year-old man was discovered by a hunter in one of the most remote parts of the country. The dead man's detailed notes reveal that he actually committed suicide through self-imposed starvation only the summer before. Liechti's film is a stunning rapprochement of a fictional text, which itself is based upon a true event: a cinematic manifesto for life, challenged by the main character's radical renunciation of life itself.
Orgasm Inc.

2009

Orgasm Inc.

2009
5.9
Extraordinary behind-the-scenes access reveals a drug company's fevered race to develop the first FDA-approved Viagra for women - and offers a humorous but sobering look inside the cash-fueled pharmaceutical industry.
Bananas!*

2009

Bananas!*

2009
6.6
Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers he is tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it?
In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts

2007

In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts

2007
6.1
Emmy-winning journalist Danny Schechter investigates America's mounting debt crisis in this latest hard-hitting expose. The film reveals the unknown cabal of credit card companies, lobbyists, media conglomerates and the Bush administration itself who have colluded to deregulate the lending industry, ensuring that a culture of credit dependency can flourish. Schechter exposes the hidden financial and political complex that allows the lowest wage earners to indebt themselves so heavily that even house repossessions are commonplace.
South

1999

South

1999
6.2
Chantal Akerman investigates the American Deep South through the story of a lynching and grisly murder of an African-American man that took place in Texas in 1998.
Stride, Soviet!

1926

Stride, Soviet!

1926
6.2
Commissioned by the Moscow Soviet as a documentary and information film for the citizens of Moscow prior to municipal elections, film is a tableau of Soviet life and achievements in the period of reconstruction following the Civil War of 1917-1921.
Human Remains

1998

Human Remains

1998
7.3
Human Remains is a haunting documentary which illustrates the banality of evil by creating intimate portraits of five of the 20th century's most reviled dictators. The film unveils the personal lives of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Francisco Franco and Mao Tse Tung. We learn the private and mundane details of their everyday lives -- their favorite foods, films, habits and sexual preferences. There is no mention of their public lives or of their place in history. The intentional omission of the horrors for which these men were responsible hovers over the film.
Bright Leaves

2004

Bright Leaves

2004
6.9
Ross McElwee travels through the North Carolina tobacco belt in search of the ancient southern traditions associated with tobacco growing and use, while comparing his filmmaking to commercial cinema, represented by Bright Leaf, a melodrama directed by Michael Curtiz in 1950, starring Gary Cooper, apparently based on the life of his great-grandfather.
Dolphins

2000

Dolphins

2000
5.6
From the banks of the Bahamas to the seas of Argentina, we go underwater to meet dolphins. Two scientists who study dolphin communication and behaviour lead us on encounters in the wild. Featuring the music of Sting. Nominated for an Academy Award®, Best Documentary, Short Subject, 2000.
Ethnic Notions

1986

Ethnic Notions

1986
7.1
This documentary traces the deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice.
London

1994

London

1994
6.6
A psycho-geographic journey through London and its history, as undertaken by an unseen narrator and his companion, Robinson, at the time of the 1992 general election.