Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 119

Breath of Life

2015

Breath of Life

2015
6.5
Dr. Richard Dawkins and Dr. Robert Trivers talk about the potential for an environmental catastrophe and why humans are destroying the world.
Havana Motor Club

2015

Havana Motor Club

2015
6
Follows several of Cuba's top drag racers as they struggle to prepare their classic American cars for the first official car race since the Cuban Revolution. It tells a personal, character-driven story that tackles how Cuba's recent reforms have affected the lives of these racers and their vibrant community.
Sailing a Sinking Sea

2015

Sailing a Sinking Sea

2015
6.5
Sailing a Sinking Sea is a feature-length experimental documentary exploring the culture of the Moken people of Burma and Thailand. The Moken are seafaring people and one of the smallest ethnic minority groups in Asia. Wholly reliant upon the sea, their entire belief system, education, and economic and physical development revolve around water. Sailing a Sinking Sea illuminates the Moken lifestyle through recorded traditional music, folklore and conversations with the Moken people. Through intimate and dynamic cinematography and audio recordings, Sailing a Sinking Sea weaves a visual and aural tapestry of Moken mythologies and present-day practices.
Barge

2015

Barge

2015
5
A towboat drifts down the Mississippi River, due for the port of New Orleans. The water, the banks, the bright lights of a port ahead; the lure of a coming paycheck and a home-cooked meal. This is the world of BARGE. A green deckhand following his father into the family business. A former convict working his way upward job by job, in the hopes of being First Mate. A thirty-eight year veteran engineer in no hurry to retire. An ancient waterway pulling a double shift as the backbone of a national economy; a tangle of thick steel cables, tied together just right. As long as the boat’s moving, they’re making money. An intimate portrait of the machinery of American ambitions.
Boy I Am

2006

Boy I Am

2006
3
While female-to-male transgender visibility has recently exploded in this country, conversations about trans issues in the lesbian community often run into resistance from the many queer women who view transitioning as a "trend" or as an anti-feminist act that taps into male privilege. Boy I Am is a feature-length documentary that begins to break down that barrier and promote dialogue about trans issues through a look at the experiences of three young transitioning FTMs in New York City--Nicco, Norie and Keegan--as they go through major junctures in their transitions, as well as through the voices of lesbians, activists and theorists who raise and address the questions that many people have but few openly discuss.
Henry Ford

2013

Henry Ford

2013
8.4
HENRY FORD paints a fascinating portrait of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century.
Sergio Herman, Fucking Perfect

2015

Sergio Herman, Fucking Perfect

2015
7.9
Master chef Sergio Herman feels he needs to let go of his 3-star restaurant Oud Sluis in order to fulfill his dreams. A revealing story about perfection, ambition and sacrifices.
e-motion

2014

e-motion

2014
6.9
Imagine a world where the trapped emotions, fears, anxieties and unprocessed life experiences we hold in our bodies are the source for everything that ails us. That’s the world we live in. Now imagine a world where everyone is manifesting from their heart the perfect creation that’s inside each of us. Imagine a world where abundance, inner peace, longevity and loving relationships abound. Imagine emotion experts from around the world sharing their wisdom and negative-emotion clearing techniques to light a new pathway for humanity. Imagine we are sacred, spiritual beings here for a much larger reason, serving a much higher purpose, a divine purpose. That’s where we’re going.
Seven Wonders of the World

1956

Seven Wonders of the World

1956
5.2
Seven Wonders of the World is a 1956 film in Cinerama. Lowell Thomas searches the world for natural and man made wonders and invites the audience to try to update the ancient Greek list of "Seven Wonders of the World."
Cut Poison Burn

2010

Cut Poison Burn

2010
7.9
The Film tells the grim tale of the half century War on Cancer and focuses on the character of Thomas Navarro. In 1999, the four year old boy was diagnosed with brain cancer and thrust into the system of Surgery, Chemo and Radiation and not allowed to be treated with a proven method by Texas Doctor Stanislaw Burzynski. The war between the Navarro Family and the FDA is perhaps this country's greatest evidence as to why there should be medical freedom and how since the War on Cancer began in 1971, the war is still failing in 2009.
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

2008

Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

2008
6.2
This documentary provides a window into the extraordinary life of activist and Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman who has worked to regain ownership of her country and its fate after years of colonialism. While gentle and thoughtful, Maathai carries a powerful message: the First World holds much of the responsibility for the environmental, economic and social struggles of the developing world.
How to Lose Your Virginity

2013

How to Lose Your Virginity

2013
4.5
It has launched both purity balls and porn franchises, defines a young woman's morality-but has no medical definition. Enter the magical world of virginity, where a white wedding dress can restore a woman's innocence and replacement hymens can be purchased online. Filmmaker Therese Shechter uses her own path out of virginity to explore why our sex-crazed society cherishes this so-called precious gift. Along the way, we meet sex educators, virginity auctioneers, abstinence advocates, and young men and women who bare their tales of doing it-or not doing it. "How To Lose Your Virginity" uncovers the myths and misogyny surrounding a rite of passage that many obsesses about but few truly understand.
One Million Dubliners

2014

One Million Dubliners

2014
7.2
Glasnevin Cemetery is the final resting place of 1.5 million souls; it is Ireland's national necropolis. ONE MILLION DUBLINERS reveals the often unspoken stories of ritual, loss, redemption, emotion, history - and the business of death.
The New Rijksmuseum

2014

The New Rijksmuseum

2014
7.8
A documentary about the fascinating and complicated process of the rebuilding of Holland's most famous museum, The Rijksmuseum. The film shows the people behind the scenes during the years of demolition, restoration, and political and financial debate. We witness their efforts, joys and struggles with one goal in common: the love of art.
Straight and Butch

2010

Straight and Butch

2010
4.8
Philadelphia TV host Butch Cordora is on a mission to publish a calendar that recreates iconic photos in pop culture, featuring himself alongside a cast of exclusively straight male models--all in the nude, all for a starkly revealing creative journey.
The Syndrome

2014

The Syndrome

2014
8.8
An explosive documentary focused on a team of doctors who expose the junk science behind an unprecedented criminal justice crisis.
Without a Home

2011

Without a Home

2011
6.5
Filmmaker Rachel Fleischer spent four years creating this extraordinary documentary that enters the lives of six homeless individuals in her hometown of Los Angeles. The film's subjects include families in temporary housing, a street performer who depends on banjo-playing for income, and a heroin-addicted man living in Skid Row - an area of the city that contains one of the largest homeless populations in the U.S. Intertwined with each tale is the story of Fleischer herself, as she attempts to walk the fine line between telling the stories of her subjects and helping those in need. As the film's intimate and powerful stories confront our preconceived notions regarding homelessness, Fleischer's journey unflinchingly reveals the challenges and triumphs that arise when we choose to help those without a home.
How To Smell A Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock at his Farm in Normandy

2014

How To Smell A Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock at his Farm in Normandy

2014
4.8
In the year 2000, Les Blank, along with co-filmmaker Gina Leibrecht, visited Richard Leacock (1921-2011) at his farm in Normandy, France and recorded conversations with him about his life, his work, and his other passion: cooking! With the flair of a seasoned raconteur, Leacock recounts key moments in his seventy years as a filmmaker and the innovations that he, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles and others invented that revolutionized documentary filmmaking, and explores the mystery of creativity. With the passing of both Blank and Leacock, the documentary is a moving insight into the lives of two seminal figures in the history of film.
Facing the Music

2001

Facing the Music

2001
6.8
Anne Boyd, one of Australia's leading contemporary composers, teaches music at the publicly funded University of Sydney. This documentary chronicles a year in the life of an academic department that's under the financial gun.
Signed: Lino Brocka

1987

Signed: Lino Brocka

1987
3.8
Documentary filmmaker Christian Blackwood profiles controversial Filipino director Lino Brocka, detailing his rags-to-riches rise in the mainstream film industry of the Philippines. Primarily using interviews with the effusive director himself, Blackwood allows Brocka to describe, in his own terms, the common thematic threads tying together his work, from his own homosexuality to the political repression suffered by Filipinos at the hands of Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorial government.