Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 165

FDR: Years of Crisis

1994

FDR: Years of Crisis

1994
4.5
Franklin D. Roosevelt's life and political career are examined in this biography. Using rare historical footage and images, it delves into his early days as he entered politics, his battle with polio, his presidency, up to his death in 1945.
Prince Among Slaves

2008

Prince Among Slaves

2008
6
Abdul Rahman, an African prince who was sold into slavery, spent four decades in servitude before an amazing coincidence took him to the White House to meet President John Quincy Adams, where he was granted his freedom. Mos Def narrates this PBS documentary that includes reenactments of scenes from Rahman's life and interviews with historians who discuss the conditions faced by slaves in early America.
Algren

2021

Algren

2021
6
Algren will spotlight the hard-knock life and authentic creative legacy of one of the most underrated writers of the twentieth century, Nelson Algren. Algren's brutally honest portrayal of the American underclass and his hard-nosed lifestyle became his pathway to compassion. Through interviews with Algren contemporaries, experts, and "literary soulmates," as well as through the photography of Algren's friends, Art Shay and Stephen Deutch, the film will tell his story. It will celebrate his tremendous contribution to and influence on American letters, and push Algren, champion of the marginalized, out from the margins.
Alfred Hitchcock: More Than Just a Profile

2005

Alfred Hitchcock: More Than Just a Profile

2005
6
No one comes close to the undisputed master of the macabre and suspense as Alfred Hitchcock. The rotund figure of the smiling, unassuming Englishman is as recognizable as his work, thanks in part to his wonderful cameo appearances and to having crafted such classics like Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window, and Dial M For Murder. Hitchcock is a name that no one will soon forget. There is, however, another incredible story to be told here - that of the great director Alfred Hitchcock himself.
Wagonmasters

2014

Wagonmasters

2014
7
Station wagons were America's "workhorses on wheels." Today, they conjure images of outdated family photos, over-sized hairdos and unfashionable wooden siding. In 2011, Volvo - the leading premium wagon manufacturer - will discontinue the sale of its last wagon model in the United States. There are some, however, who still cling to these vehicles and what they stand for in American culture. Wagonmasters, a full-length documentary film, offers glimpses into the lives of such wagon enthusiasts, and tells the story of the station wagon as it represents a changing America over the last one hundred years.
Corrie ten Boom: A Faith Undefeated

2013

Corrie ten Boom: A Faith Undefeated

2013
5
When Nazi forces invaded Holland in 1940 and began rounding up Jews, Corrie ten Boom, her sister Betsie, and their elderly father risked their lives to save as many as possible. Corrie ten Boom: a Faith Undefeated recounts this unforgettable story for a new generation.
Louis Sullivan: the Struggle for American Architecture

2010

Louis Sullivan: the Struggle for American Architecture

2010
1
The award-winning feature-length documentary about the revolutionary and brilliant Chicago architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924). Known by historians as the 'father of the skyscraper' and creator of the iconic phrase 'form follows function,' Sullivan was on top of his profession in 1890. Then a series of setbacks plunged him into destitute obscurity from which he never recovered. Yet his persistent belief in the power of his ideas created some of America's most beautiful buildings ever created, and inspired Sullivan's protégé, Frank Lloyd Wright, to fulfill his own dream of a truly American style of architecture.
The Edge of the Possible

1998

The Edge of the Possible

1998
8
Jørn Utzon, acclaimed architect of the Sydney Opera House, tells the story of the design and construction of his masterpiece.
Cafeteria Man

2011

Cafeteria Man

2011
8
Cafeteria Man is the true story of rebel chef Tony Geraci and his mission to radically reform Baltimore's public school food system with a recipe for change.
Terra Antarctica, Re-Discovering the Seventh Continent

2009

Terra Antarctica, Re-Discovering the Seventh Continent

2009
6
For six weeks we explored the Antarctic Peninsula by sea kayak, sailboat, foot and small plane, observing the fast changing evolution of this most remote place. Impacted by climate change - temperatures have warmed along the Peninsula faster than anywhere on the planet during the past 50 years - this part of Antarctica is also experiencing a boom in tourism and nations fighting over who owns what as its ice slowly disappears. This National Geographic-sponsored exploration is a one-of-a-kind look at Antarctica from a unique perspective - sea level.
Beyonce: Beyond the Glam

2013

Beyonce: Beyond the Glam

2013
6
Beyoncé is a true global mega star and is synonymous with talent and success. She is a pop sensation, winning over 16 Grammy Awards, a Hollywood actress and a breakout fashion designer. She is a role model to millions of fans around the world. This program gives a real insight into the fascinating story of Beyoncé Giselle Knowles- Carter's rise to fame as one of the biggest starts of the 21st century. We are taken on a journey from her humble beginnings in her home town Houston, Texas, and how she rose to fame as the lead singer in Destiny's Child, one of the best selling girl groups of all time right through to her global success as a solo artist.
James Brown - The Man, The Music & The Message

2014

James Brown - The Man, The Music & The Message

2014
8
The Godfather of Soul tells his life story and features his greatest live performances.
Growing Cities

2013

Growing Cities

2013
7
From rooftop farmers to backyard beekeepers, Americans are growing food like never before. Growing Cities goes coast to coast to tell the inspiring stories of intrepid urban farmers who are challenging the way this country feeds itself.
Clockwork Orange County

2012

Clockwork Orange County

2012
6
Many objected to leather-jacket, spike-hair kids with tattoos. But, that did not dissuade a generation... No one realized that a little club in Costa Mesa, CA would end up spawning a multi-billion dollar youth culture that still endures today! It was the Cuckoos Nest of the late 70s and early 80s. With archival, unseen and new footage, the filmmakers compiled an intimate story about the beginning of a movement, a place of refuge for a youth culture, a fearful establishment and a police force that didnt understand what was happening.
Coney Island

1991

Coney Island

1991
6
Before there was Disneyland, there was Coney Island. By the turn of the century, this tiny piece of New York real estate was internationally famous. On summer Sundays, three great pleasure domes--Steeplechase, Luna Park and Dreamland--competed for the patronage of a half-million people. By day it was the world's most amazing amusement park, by night, an electric "Eden".
Andy Warhol

1972

Andy Warhol

1972
7
With a rambling, unstructured style that echoes Andy Warhol’s own approach to filmmaking, this documentary profiles his career, showing him to be a brilliant manipulator, dedicated voyeur and person of astute commercial judgment.
Urban Roots

2011

Urban Roots

2011
6
URBAN ROOTS is a documentary that tells the story of the spontaneous emergence of urban farming in the city of Detroit. Detroit, once an industrial powerhouse of a lost American era, is a city devastated by the loss of half its population due to the collapse of manufacturing. By the looks of it, the city has died. But now, against all odds, in the empty lots, in the old factory yards, and in-between the sad, sagging blocks of company housing, seeds of change are taking root.
Sacred Sperm

2014

Sacred Sperm

2014
7
The film creates a daring first exposure on the way parents, rabbis, teachers, pedagogues and therapists within the Orthodox Hasidic Jewish Community educating their male children from infancy to adolescence, to avoid spilling their sperm. They target them to keep their seed only after marriage with a female for the purpose of fertilization. "Sacred Sperm" penetrates into one of the most suppressed hidden issues in the Orthodox Hasidic Jewish Community - a Taboo. Throughout the film we follow the emotional and theological struggle of the director who is trying to find a proper way as a father to explain his teenager son logically why he should keep this major Mitzvah (commandment) which perceived by many as unreasonable and seems impossible to fulfill.
The Outrageous Sophie Tucker

2014

The Outrageous Sophie Tucker

2014
6
The rags to riches story of Sophie Tucker, an iconic superstar who ruled the worlds of vaudeville, Broadway, radio, television, and Hollywood throughout the 20th century. Before Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Bette Midler, Marilyn Monroe, and Mae West, Sophie Tucker was the first woman to infatuate her audiences with a bold, bawdy and brassy style unlike any other. Using all of "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas" 400-plus recently rediscovered personal scrapbooks, authors Susan and Lloyd Ecker take you on their seven-year journey retracing Tucker's sixty-year career in show business.`
Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story

2014

Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story

2014
8
In 1943, Noor Inayat Khan was recruited as a covert operative into Winston Churchill's Special Operations Executive. With an American mother and Indian Muslim father, she was an extremely unusual British agent. After her network collapsed, Khan became the only surviving radio operator linking the British to the French Resistance in Paris, coordinating the airdrop of weapons and agents, and the rescue of downed Allied fliers.