Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 127

The Dalai Lama: Scientist

2019

The Dalai Lama: Scientist

2019
6
In "The Dalai Lama -- Scientist", the Dalai Lama tells the unknown story, in his own words, of his lifelong journey into the world of science and technology, and how the world has changed as a result. With extensive, rare, and never before seen footage, this film tells the very human story of the Dalai Lama that no one knows.
Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons

2019

Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons

2019
9
A nurse journeys to discover the truth behind a disease so bizarre, patients who suffer from it are regularly written off as delusional by doctors and loved ones.
East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story

2020

East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story

2020
7.5
The history of the East Lake Meadows public housing project in Atlanta and the people who lived there from 1970 to its demolition in 2000, with special emphasis on the activism of Eva Davis asserting the rights of the tenants.
Beyond the Bolex

2018

Beyond the Bolex

2018
7
Filmmaker Alyssa Bolsey stumbles on a treasure trove of vintage cameras, old film reels, fading photos, technical drawings and boxes of documents that belonged to her great-grandfather Jacques Bolsey. Among the many boxes, she spots an old movie camera with the word "Bolex" embossed on its side and a dangling tag with the date, "1927." Entranced, she embarks on a journey to reveal how Jacques aimed to disrupt the early film industry with a motion picture camera for the masses.
Tierra de Patagones: Six Months in Patagonia

2015

Tierra de Patagones: Six Months in Patagonia

2015
6
The 'Gauchos del Mar' brothers pursue their goal of surfing at the Isla de los Estados. They wander the Patagonia for six months, sharing their experiences with the locals, getting to know their ways. They face hard weather conditions before getting to Ushuaia and later they sail through the Beagle Channel and the Strait of Le Maire on their way to the uninhabited island.
Something in the Air

2019

Something in the Air

2019
7
Something in the Air is a one hour documentary that shows new risks in the most essential element for survival – air – that affect our brains, our DNA, and how new technology is changing the equation for the better.
Koshien: Japan's Field of Dreams

2019

Koshien: Japan's Field of Dreams

2019
7
Baseball is life for the die-hard competitors in Koshien, Japan’s national high school baseball championship, whose alumni include US baseball stars Shohei Ohtani and former Yankee Hideki Matsui. As popular as America’s World Series, the stakes are beyond high in this single-elimination tournament. For Coach Mizutani, cleaning the grounds and greeting guests are equally important as honing baseball skills, however, demonstrating discipline, sacrifice and unwavering dedication. Director Ema Ryan Yamazaki follows Mizutani and his team on their quest to win the 100th annual Koshien, and, in the process, goes beyond baseball to reveal the heart of the Japanese national character.
Polar Extremes

2020

Polar Extremes

2020
5
Renowned paleontologist Kirk Johnson takes us on an epic adventure through time at the polar extremes of our planet. Following a trail of strange fossils found in all the wrong places—beech trees in Antarctica, hippo-like mammals in the Arctic—Johnson uncovers the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-high ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life. What caused such dramatic changes at the ends of the Earth? And what can the past reveal about our planet’s climate today—and in the future?
Sovereign Soil

2019

Sovereign Soil

2019
7
Built on a layer of frozen earth, Dawson City, Yukon, Canada has subarctic winters where temperatures routinely drop below −40°C. Meet the four season food producers who engage in small-scale agriculture, and those who support their back-to-the-land movement. These resilient unassuming farmers have carved out small patches of fertile soil, in an otherwise unforgiving expanse of isolated wilderness, to make a living and a life.
Phases of Matter

2020

Phases of Matter

2020
5
Phases of Matter follows living and inanimate residents of a teaching hospital in Istanbul, moving from the operating room to the morgue, between life and other states, the real and the virtual.
The Man Who Invented The Vespa

2015

The Man Who Invented The Vespa

2015
7
Corradino D'Ascanio gave us three inventions that influenced the 20th century: the helicopter, the variable pitch propelled and the famous Vespa.
Breaking Bread

2022

Breaking Bread

2022
10
In Breaking Bread, exotic cuisine and a side of politics are on the menu. Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel - the first Muslim Arab to win Israel's MasterChef - is on a quest to make a social change through food. And so, she founded the A-sham Arabic Food Festival in Haifa. There, pairs of Arab and Jewish chefs collaborate on mouthwatering dishes like kishek (a Syrian yogurt soup), and qatayef (a dessert typically served during Ramadan), as we savor the taste of hope and discover the food of their region free from political and religious boundaries.
Naughty Books

2020

Naughty Books

2020
2.5
As sexy as it is smart, Naughty Books examines the steamy world of erotic romance, following three self-published authors who go from living at the margins to making millions by transforming their fantasies into best-selling fiction—and wrestling with the stark realities of what comes after sudden success.
Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything

2019

Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything

2019
7
Woodstock started as a music festival but became something more. Its mix of music & ideals resonate now more than ever.
Ay Mariposa

2019

Ay Mariposa

2019
9
Ay Mariposa tells a story of three characters in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas whose lives are upended by plans to build a US-Mexico border wall. As the director of the National Butterfly Center, Marianna Trevino Wright has become a leader of wall resistance in the Valley, a position that has resulted in violent threats from pro-wall factions and an emotional odyssey as she tries to navigate the ever-shifting sands of border policy. Zulema Hernandez, a life-long migrant worker, immigrant and great grandmother, has been a dedicated advocate for all migrants, both wild and human-kind. Meanwhile the butterfly, la mariposa, fights its own daily battle for survival in a landscape where more than 95 percent of its habitat is long gone and much of what remains lies directly in the path of the wall. Ay Mariposa documents each characters' fierce commitment to home, justice, wild beauty and the future of the US-Mexico borderlands.
Becoming Black

2019

Becoming Black

2019
6
In the 1960s, a white couple living in East Germany tells their dark-skinned child that her skin color is merely a coincidence. As a teenager, she accidentally discovers the truth. Years before, a group of African men came to study in a village nearby. Sigrid, an East German woman, fell in love with Lucien from Togo and became pregnant. But she was already married to Armin. The child is Togolese-East German filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain. In interviews with Armin and others from her childhood years, she tracks the astonishing strategies of denial her parents, striving for normality, developed following her birth. What sounds like fieldwork about social dislocation becomes an autobiographical essay film and a reflection on themes such as identity, social norms and family ties, viewed from a very personal perspective.
Most Likely to Succeed

2019

Most Likely to Succeed

2019
8
In 2007, four teenagers from disparate backgrounds are voted "Most Likely To Succeed" during their senior year of high school. Over a ten-year period, they each chart their own version of success and navigate the unpredictability of American life in the 21st Century.
Anthony Quinn: An Original

1990

Anthony Quinn: An Original

1990
6.5
Born in Mexico, Anthony Quinn became the family's main provider when his father died in an accident. Thus began the story of a man who had a thousand jobs before acting in a Cecil B. DeMille film…
O Happy Day: The Early Days of Black Gay Liberation

1996

O Happy Day: The Early Days of Black Gay Liberation

1996
5.5
The seminal short film O Happy Day imagines the early days of gay liberation for black gay men. Lofton juxtaposes images of black men from late 60s and early 70s films with images of Black Panther Party demonstrations, as a way of intentionally revising history. The soundtrack is punctuated by a 1970 quotation from Black Panther leader Huey Newton: "There's nothing to say that a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. Quite on the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most revolutionary..." O Happy Day blurs the difference between the Black Power movement and the Gay Power movement, and instead focuses on the similarities between the two.
Narrowsburg

2019

Narrowsburg

2019
6
The stranger-than-fiction story of a French film producer and her mafioso-turned-actor husband who attempt to turn a tiny town into the “Sundance of the East.”