Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 157

Mark Rappaport: The TV Spin-Off

1980

Mark Rappaport: The TV Spin-Off

1980
4
In Mark Rappaport: The TV Spin-off, the filmmaker conducts a guided tour of his work that explains everything... and nothing. Rappaport shows himself to be the cinematic equivalent of Penn and Teller.
Rabbit in the Moon

1999

Rabbit in the Moon

1999
2
Like many Japanese Americans released from WWII internment camps, the young Omori sisters did their best to erase the memories and scars of life under confinement. Fifty years later acclaimed filmmaker Emiko Omori asks her older sister and other detainees to reflect on the personal and political consequences of internment. From the exuberant recollections of a typical teenager, to the simmering rage of citizens forced to sign loyalty oaths, Omori renders a poetic and illuminating picture of a deeply troubling chapter in American history.
Driving with Selvi

2015

Driving with Selvi

2015
8
Former child bride Selvi escapes her child marriage to become South India's first female taxi driver.
Making Rounds

2015

Making Rounds

2015
6.5
Life and death in a cardiac critical care unit. We follow two amazing doctors for a month as they make their rounds. Their approach to treating patients shows a path toward solving the healthcare crisis in the US.
The Lonely Italian

2017

The Lonely Italian

2017
5.5
The journey of a young Italian man looking for love online in America.
Mon père, la révolution et moi

2013

Mon père, la révolution et moi

2013
6.8
A documentary tragicomedy of a father-daughter relationship, told by the subjective perspective of the young director. She tries to understand how a revolutionary could have become a criminal and an alcoholic, and why he abandoned his family. Freely juggling between documentary, fiction and animation, the director takes us on a journey around the world. The daughter of a former communists visits the ports of the revolt, where communities are trying to realize the concrete utopia.
Joan Crawford: Always the Star

1996

Joan Crawford: Always the Star

1996
7.5
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work. During her 50-year career, she made over 80 films. But her obsessive perfectionism led to the later caricature of coat-hanger-wielding harridan that even the adoration of fans could not counter. Still, she has endured as one of the most popular icons of the movies, an early role model to a million young women who aspired to her image of stylish magnetic power and unquestioned independence.
The Nuer

1970

The Nuer

1970
5.5
Portrays the Nuer, Nilotic herdsmen of the Nile basin. Shows how their daily lives revolve about their cattle, and depicts the psychological bonds between them. Includes extensive use of Nuer music and poetry.
A Midwife's Tale

1998

A Midwife's Tale

1998
7.8
To understand eighteenth-century America through a woman's eyes, historian and author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich spent eight years working through Martha Ballard's massive but cryptic diary. "A Midwife's Tale" chronicles the interwoven stories of two remarkable women: an eighteenth-century midwife and healer and the twentieth-century historian who brought her words to light.
The Black Kung Fu Experience

2012

The Black Kung Fu Experience

2012
4.8
This film focuses on how a group of African American pioneers became respected masters in a subculture dominated by Chinese and white men.
Drawing a Line

2014

Drawing a Line

2014
6
Former East Germany, punk music, the wall, betrayal, jail, exit for the West: a film confronting these things on the offensive – and seeing its view of them as a balancing act.
Lousy Little Sixpence

1983

Lousy Little Sixpence

1983
6
Tells of Aborigines' removal from their families to be sent to work as servants for white people and the rise of the first Aboriginal organisations in the 1930's, in particular the Aborigines Progressive Association.
Mimi and Dona

2014

Mimi and Dona

2014
6.5
What happens when love runs out of time? For a 92-year-old mother, Mimi, who has cared 64 years for her daughter, Dona, who has an intellectual disability, it means facing the inevitable -- she will not outlive her daughter -- and finding her daughter a home. This poignant, heartbreaking and, at times, humorous documentary traces this process through the story of a wonderfully quirky and deeply connected mother-daughter duo. The film spotlights the challenges of aging caregivers of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities -- some 4.6 million Americans, 75 percent of whom live at home with family -- and details the ripple effects of Dona's disability on three generations of a Texas family.
Laramie Inside Out

2004

Laramie Inside Out

2004
1
A Laramie local travels back home to document how the Matthew Shepard tragedy has changed her home town.
Every Face Has a Name

2015

Every Face Has a Name

2015
7.8
Recalls the day when Holocaust survivors took their first steps into freedom, unaware of their future. Every Face Has a Name puts a name on those nameless faces and lets them recount their feelings of that day, the 28th of April, 1945.
Songs of War: Music as a Weapon

2010

Songs of War: Music as a Weapon

2010
6.3
Music elates, touches the soul and bypasses reason. Music is magic. But precisely this magic can turn it into an insidious weapon for music and violence belong together. The brutal power of African war dances, the ferocity of Maori Hakas, the earth-shattering roar of US sound guns blasting Metallica at Taliban hideouts the principle is always the same: Aggressive sounds demoralise the enemy and whip the allies into a frenzy. In Songs of War, director Tristan Chytroschek explores the extraordinary harmony between music and violence. Sesame Street composer, Christopher Cerf, always wanted his music to be fun and entertaining. But then he learned that his songs had been used to torture prisoners in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. He is stunned by this abuse of his work and wants to find out how this could happen.
A Photographer's Journey

2015

A Photographer's Journey

2015
7
Though his story is largely unknown, Pedro E. Guerrero led a remarkable life photographing the work of some of the greatest artists in the world and as an integral part of the 1950s “Mad Men” advertising world. Guerrero grew up poor and the victim of segregation as a Mexican-American. But, when Guerrero was just 22, Frank Lloyd Wright took a look at his portfolio and made the spur-of-the-moment decision to hire him to photograph Taliesin West, Wright’s desert home. Guerrero rapidly became one of the most sought-after architectural photographers and, consequently, the era’s major interpreter of modernist architecture and sculpture. A Photographer’s Journey is as much a portrait of Guerrero as it is a panorama of the culture and art of his time.
Banished

2007

Banished

2007
7.5
A look at three U.S. cities, which were part of many communities that violently forced African American families to flee in post-reconstruction America.
Disaster Playground

2015

Disaster Playground

2015
5.5
Disaster Playground investigates future outer space catastrophes and the procedures to manage and assess the risks. The film follows the scientists planning the monitoring and deflection of hazardous Near Earth Objects and the real-life procedures in place in the event of an asteroid collision with the earth. Follow the chain of command that runs from the SETI Institute and NASA to the White House and United Nations and meet the people who are responsible from protecting us from a potentially devastating asteroid impact.
Sweaty Betty

2015

Sweaty Betty

2015
6
On the border of Washington DC, two stories of big dreams take place – a family is determined to turn their 1000 pound pig into the Redskins’ football team mascot, and two teenage fathers scheme a better life for themselves and their children.