Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 105

Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima

1986

Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima

1986
5.5
Japanese husband and wife muralists Iri and Toshi Maruki are known for their depictions of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their collaborative relationship is unique: one paints a painfully detailed vision of the victims of the atomic blast; the other conceals the carefully delineated brush strokes with a grey-black ink “wash.” The first artist restates the specifics of the image; the second re-conceals. Through the repetition of this process, the work emerges.
In Our Water

1982

In Our Water

1982
7
A New Jersey family discovers their drinking water is contaminated with deadly poisons from a nearby landfill.
Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis

2004

Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis

2004
3
Andy Warhol described Jackie Curtis as “A pioneer without a frontier.” In this biographical documentary, Curtis’s co-workers and friends speak of her work and her influence, along with clips from Curtis’s Warhol films as well as never-before-seen footage from her stage shows.
Shakespeare Behind Bars

2005

Shakespeare Behind Bars

2005
5.8
Twenty male inmates in a Kentucky prison form an unlikely Shakespearean acting troupe.
Becoming Traviata

2012

Becoming Traviata

2012
6.5
How can emotion come to light on the opera set? Does it come from singing, acting or music? How can someone become the incarnation of Verdi's masterpiece? Following world famous French soprano Natalie Dessay from the first repetitions until the premiere under the direction of Jean-François Sivadier, we meet a very special woman, a piece of art, a myth: LA TRAVIATA.
Rising from Ashes

2013

Rising from Ashes

2013
6.5
“Rising from Ashes” is a feature length documentary about the ﬁrst Rwandan National Cycling Team and their six year journey to the Olympic games in London. It's not about the bike. It's about second chances, how our past doesn't have to deﬁne our future, and the impossible triumph of the human spirit over one of the world's most devastating genocides.
Tripping With Caveh

2004

Tripping With Caveh

2004
4.8
With longtime collaborators Greg Watkins (A Little Stiff) and Thomas Logoreci, the charismatic, experimental filmmaker Caveh Zahedi approaches legendary songwriter Will Oldham (Palace Brothers, Bonnie "Prince" Billy) in an unconventional interview. Caveh offers up a serving of psychedelic mushrooms and a view on the relationship between the musician and his fan.
Blood in the Face

1991

Blood in the Face

1991
6
An expose of the beliefs, history, and personalities of American White Supremacist groups, including neo-Nazis, fascists, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Aryan Nation. Footage includes interviews, as well as the supremacist's own promotional material. Subject discussed include the loss of America to the "colored" races, the imminent racial bloodbath, interracial breeding, prejudice, the Holocaust, Jesus, Christianity, Jews, the Bible, and illegal immigrants who enter the country with nuclear bombs strapped to their backs.
Arna's Children

2004

Arna's Children

2004
6.8
Juliano Mer Khamis' documentary on his mother, Arna, an activist against the Israeli occupation who founded an alternative education system for Palestinian children.
First Contact

1982

First Contact

1982
6.5
First Contact is a 1983 documentary by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson which recounts the discovery of a flourishing native population in the interior highlands of New Guinea in 1930 in what had been thought to be an uninhabited area. It is based on the book of the same name by the same authors. Inhabitants of the region and surviving members of the Leahy brothers' gold prospecting party recount their astonishment at this unforeseen meeting. The film includes still photographs taken by a member of the expedition and contemporary footage of the island's terrain. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Building Bombs

1989

Building Bombs

1989
6
This Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles everyday life in Aiken, S.C. -- ground zero for America's hydrogen bomb-making facility, the Savannah River Plant. Through interviews with residents, politicians, activists and factory workers, the incisive film looks at the consequences of living in the shadow of nuclear weapons and the illegal dumping of radioactive waste. Actress Jane Alexander narrates.
Union Maids

1976

Union Maids

1976
6.5
Three women labor activists in America tell their stories of organizing in the 1930s.
America and Lewis Hine

1984

America and Lewis Hine

1984
6
Documentary about early 20th-century photographer Lewis Hine, who helped to expose grim working conditions in American factories and mines, especially the abuse and exploitation of children by their employers. Later, he became the official photographer for the construction of the Empire State Building.
The Discoverers

1993

The Discoverers

1993
4.8
The advance of civilization has always depended on the few courageous individuals who are willing to risk reputation and life to seek out the new. This program chronicles the story of some of the world's pathfinders and innovators in a variety of fields, from Madame Curie and Sir Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein. Archival photographs, film clips, interviews, re-enactments, and scholarly commentary are used to tell the story of the discoverers.
Men at Lunch

2013

Men at Lunch

2013
6.5
This remarkable new documentary explores the story behind one of the most iconic images of the twentieth century: the 1932 photograph of workmen taking their lunch while perched on a girder high above New York City.
Intimate Stranger

1991

Intimate Stranger

1991
6.2
A documentary about the director's maternal grandfather.
Hey! Is Dee Dee Home?

2003

Hey! Is Dee Dee Home?

2003
5.6
Punk rock devotees will welcome director Lech Kowalski's reflective video portrait of late bassist Dee Dee Ramone and his life as a music industry icon -- including his self-destructive bouts with heroin. The centerpiece of the hourlong documentary -- which is peppered with vintage performance clips -- is a 1991 interview with a clean Dee Dee, who talks at length about his storied career and penchant for living on the edge.
Moving Midway

2007

Moving Midway

2007
5.8
When New York film critic Godfrey Cheshire returns home to North Carolina in early 2004 and hears that his cousin Charlie Silver plans to uproot and move the buildings of Midway Plantation, their family’s ancestral home, an extraordinary, emotional journey begins.
Nuclear Nation

2012

Nuclear Nation

2012
6.5
After the 11 March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, residents of Futaba, a town in Fukushima Prefecture, are relocated to an abandoned high school in a suburb of Tokyo, 150 miles south. With a clear and compassionate eye, filmmaker Atsushi Funahashi follows the displaced people as they struggle to adapt to their new environment. Among the vivid personalities who emerge are the town mayor, a Moses without a Promised Land; and a farmer who would rather defy the government than abandon his cows to certain starvation.
Meat

1976

Meat

1976
7.3
MEAT traces the process through which cattle and sheep become consumer goods. It depicts the processing and transportation of meat products by a highly automated packing plant, illustrating important points and problems in the area of production, transportation, logistics, equipment design, time-motion study, and labor management.