Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 149

Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide

2020

Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide

2020
7
When Kenny Scharf arrived in NYC in the early 1980’s, he quickly met and befriended Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat; There, amongst the fervent creative bustle of a depressed downtown scene the trio would soon change the way we think about art, the world, and ourselves. But unlike Haring and Basquiat, who both died tragically young, Kenny lived through cataclysmic shifts in the East Village as well as the ravages of AIDS and economic depression. 'When Worlds Collide' is about the art of fun, about living life out loud, despite setbacks, and about Kenny Scharf’s particular do-it- yourself, high-tone, technicolor artistic vision.
Dope Is Death

2020

Dope Is Death

2020
8
The story of how Dr. Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of Tupac Shakur, along with the Black Panthers and the Young Lords, combined community health with radical politics to create the first acupuncture detoxification program in America in 1973 — a visionary project eventually deemed too dangerous to exist in America.
More Than a Word

2017

More Than a Word

2017
8
An exploration of Native American-based mascots, especially the Washington R*dskins, and their impact on real-life attitudes, issues, and policies. Through interviews with scholars, tribal leaders, lawyers, policy experts, activists, and Washington R*dskins fans, the film explores the history of the slanderous term "r*dskin," and delves into cultural stereotypes of Native Americans and their relationship to history. Ultimately, the film argues for representations that honor and celebrate the humanity of Indigenous people.
Personhood

2019

Personhood

2019
6
Personhood tells a different reproductive rights story - one that ripples far beyond the right to choose and into the lives of every pregnant person in America. Tammy Loertscher’s fetus was given an attorney, while the courts denied Tammy her constitutional rights. In this timely documentary, we see her sent to jail, and then forced to challenge a Wisconsin law that eroded her privacy, her right to due process, and her body sovereignty. Through her story, Personhood reframes the abortion debate to encompass the growing system of laws that criminalize and police pregnant women. These little known laws, which now exist in 38 states, disproportionately target lower income women and women of color. At the intersection of the erosion of women’s rights, the war on drugs, and mass incarceration, Tammy’s experience reveals the dangerous consequences that these laws have on America’s mothers and families.
It Happens to Us

1972

It Happens to Us

1972
7
This documentary features women of different ages, races, and economic backgrounds who boldly speak about having had an abortion. This diverse collection of stories articulate and connect the viewer to powerful, sometimes graphic, recollections of the physical and emotional experience. The different types of procedures are also plainly described by doctors who counsel women and provide valuable information that was mostly unavailable at the time. Some stories are marked by pain and shame, others by relief and gratefulness that the option is available. As the film was made before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, most of the procedures described are illegal. The film documents a powerful argument for women’s right to choose that is still markedly relevant today. It offers significant reflection on abortion, a topic some have wished, and may perhaps still wish, not to address.
Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai'i

2009

Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai'i

2009
6
What if you are made to feel ashamed when you speak your "mother tongue" or ridiculed because of your accent? "Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai'i" addresses these questions through its lively examination of Pidgin - the language spoken by over half of Hawai'i's people.
Opeka

2020

Opeka

2020
7
Pedro Opeka declined an opportunity to play professional soccer in his native Buenos Aires and realize his childhood dream. He chose instead to become a missionary and live in one of the poorest countries in the world. The son of a bricklayer, he convinced destitute families living in Madagascar’s largest landfill that he could teach them how to build their own houses and, in the process, build their dignity. After 30 years of construction, fighting increasing poverty and political instability, Father Pedro has created a highly functional city within this dysfunctional island nation. His mission is to prepare the children he saves to one day save their own country.
Antisemitism

2020

Antisemitism

2020
8
Director Ilan Ziv traces the origins of antisemitism in France from the Middle Ages to the Dreyfus Affair. Combining personal and collective narratives, Ziv showcases how the depiction of "the Jew" in society established an ideology of hate that eventually led to the Holocaust. In the aftermath of the war, a devastated France continued this ideology of antisemitism that set the stage for a modern wave of anti-Jewish sentiment and attacks, including the murders of Ilan Halimi and Mireille Knoll.
Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See

1992

Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See

1992
8
The first biographical film on the famed Mexican artist, traces his life from childhood through his Cubist period, his leading role in the Mexican mural renaissance, his fame as a muralist in the USA, and his later years. The film explores Rivera's life and work, including his stormy relationship with Frida Kahlo and the destruction of his famous mural at Rockefeller Center. Shot on location in Mexico and the United States, the film includes a remarkable collection of archival film and photographs, much of which has not been seen before. The text is drawn from the writings of Rivera and Kahlo and from other historical texts. Using Rivera's own words, this richly detailed film brings to life the difficulty he faced in his transition from studio artist to public and political artist, and the conflicts that arose from that point onward.
Stop the Church

1991

Stop the Church

1991
5
Cinéma Vérité documentary of ACT UP New York's and WHAM!'s December 10, 1989 action at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City
Shattered Dreams: Sex Trafficking in America

2019

Shattered Dreams: Sex Trafficking in America

2019
8
This Emmy award-winning documentary explores the deeply rooted psychological issues that victims of sex trafficking face on a daily basis at the hands of pimps and buyers. Through firsthand testimony of abuse from three survivors of the illicit sex trade, the complex nature of this form of modern-day slavery is revealed. Investigative interviews with leading experts provide further insight on what drives the industry, exposing misconceptions many of us harbor that allow sex trafficking to thrive.
They Ain’t Ready For Me

2020

They Ain’t Ready For Me

2020
10
They Ain't Ready For Me is the story of Tamar Manasseh, the black rabbinical student who leads the fight against gun violence on the south side of Chicago. Tamar's identity and personality combine to make her a force to be reckoned with.
Colombia in My Arms

2022

Colombia in My Arms

2022
7
After 52 years of armed conflict the FARC guerrillas are about to hand over their arms in exchange for political participation and social inclusion of the poor. Ernesto is one of them. The much celebrated Colombian peace agreement throws Ernesto and the polarised society around him into chaos in which everyone is afraid of the future and their own survival.
maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore

2021

maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore

2021
5
An experimental look at the origin of the death myth of the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, following two people as they navigate their own relationships to the spirit world and a place in between life and death.
Aggie

2020

Aggie

2020
1
An exploration of the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund who sold Roy Lichtenstein’s painting “Masterpiece” in 2017 for $165 million to start the Art for Justice Fund to end mass incarceration.
Bias

2018

Bias

2018
6
"Bias" challenges us to confront our hidden biases and understand what we risk when we follow our gut. Through exposing her own biases, award-winning documentary filmmaker Robin Hauser highlights the nature of implicit bias, the grip it holds on our social and professional lives, and what it will take to induce change.
Becoming Black

2019

Becoming Black

2019
8
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.
Empire City

1985

Empire City

1985
9
A film essay contrasting the modern metropolis with its "golden age" from 1830-1930, with the participation of some of New York's leading political and cultural figures. Made at a time when the city was experiencing unprecedented real estate development on the one hand and unforeseen displacement of population and deterioration on the other. Empire City is the story of two New Yorks. The film explores the precarious coexistence of the service-based midtown Manhattan corporate headquarters with the peripheral New York of undereducated minorities living in increasing alienation.
Most Likely to Succeed

2019

Most Likely to Succeed

2019
6
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.
The Map to Paradise

2019

The Map to Paradise

2019
9
Travel to the underwater lands of ice and corals to discover the birth of a movement to protect the sea. Through the eyes of a prince, a president, a pirate and even an island chief, see how a bountiful underwater paradise can thrive once more; paradise it is more than just a dream.