Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 175

Meteor Strike: Fireball from Space

2013

Meteor Strike: Fireball from Space

2013
In early 2013, meteorite bigger than a double decker bus, travelling at 40,000 miles an hour, crashed into planet Earth. This film shows previously unseen footage of what happened. Astrophysicists explain exactly what it was and reveal how likely it is to happen again.
The Nature Makers

2020

The Nature Makers

2020
In a world increasingly dominated by humans, three teams of wildlife conservationists go to unnatural lengths to try to save threatened species and habitat in the American heartland.
Two American Families: 1991-2024

2024

Two American Families: 1991-2024

2024
It’s a central premise of the American dream: If you’re willing to work hard, you’ll be able to make a living and build a better life for your children. But what if working hard isn’t enough to get ahead — or even to ensure your family’s basic financial stability? Two American Families: 1991-2024, a special, two-hour documentary filmed over more than 30 years, is a portrait of perseverance from FRONTLINE, Bill Moyers, and filmmakers Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes that raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the American economy and the impact on people struggling to make a living. This is the saga of two families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — one Black, the Stanleys, and one white, the Neumanns — who have spent the past 34 years battling to keep from sliding into poverty, and who refuse to give up despite the economic challenges that their stories reveal.
Clothes to Die For

2014

Clothes to Die For

2014
'Clothes to Die For' is a documentary about the worst industrial disaster of the 21st century - the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, in which more than 1100 people died and 2400 were injured. The building housed factories that were making clothes for many western companies. Through a series of compelling interviews and unseen footage, the film gives a voice to those directly affected, and highlights the greed and high level corruption that led to the tragedy. It also provides an insight into how the incredible growth in the garment industry has transformed Bangladesh, in particular the lives of women.
Rommel: The Soldier, the Son, and Hitler

2021

Rommel: The Soldier, the Son, and Hitler

2021
A rare insight into the military career and personal life of Germany's most famous Second World War commander, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Told from the perspective of his son Manfred, it tells what happens when a career soldier runs afoul of a dictator. Highly decorated and one of Hitler's favourite commanders in the early years of World War II, the 'Desert Fox' was something of an enigma. Never a member of the Nazi party, Rommel detested the blending of politics and war. He would quickly discover that both were always in play in Hitler's Germany. Greg Kinnear narrates.
A Matter of Respect

1980

A Matter of Respect

1980
Teen pregnancy short drama, mixed with a real Planned Parenthood group session of women, and excerpts from a lecture by Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Carved from the Heart

1997

Carved from the Heart

1997
One man loses his son to a cocaine overdose. Grieving, Stan Marsden, a Tsimpsean wood carver decides to create a totem pole in his son's memory and invites the town of Craig, Alaska to help. Before he is done, the pole becomes a communal project, bringing people of diverse backgrounds and ages together.
Our Fires Still Burn: The Native American Experience

2013

Our Fires Still Burn: The Native American Experience

2013
This documentary contrasts the issues faced by today's Native American people and covers the injustices that their people had faced in the past.
The Pillars of Heaven

2017

The Pillars of Heaven

2017
A young and disillusioned British diplomat abandons his diplomatic career, spends his own money, and risks his very life on a journey of faith and war in Ukraine. A country riven in pieces by indescribable events, sometimes called: an EU inspired and US -organised revolution, a Russian invasion, a civil war, a war of lies and misinformation, a war where thousands of people have died, and which created over a million refugees, and a war at the heart of Christendom which rips the very geopolitical foundations of Europe to shreds.
Jasper Johns: Decoy

1973

Jasper Johns: Decoy

1973
Jasper Johns’s Decoy is rooted inside the notions of reproduction, transformation and memory. Believing that an image gains new meaning each time it is presented, Johns boldly confronts his own past work, most notably Ale Cans (1964), and uses Decoy as a method of metamorphosis. The repetition of certain motifs allows both Johns and his spectators to confront the change an image goes through when approached from a different angle or placed in a new artistic context. As noted in the film, “each time a motif is used and reused additional memories accrue, new layers of meaning, and the image itself begins to acquire its own history.” (Jasper Johns) It is through Johns’s reimagining that the items he features in his work take on new life and grow from object to art, thus redirecting society’s interpretation.
Man's Peril: The Making of Good Times Wonderful Times

2008

Man's Peril: The Making of Good Times Wonderful Times

2008
A documentary about the making of Good Times Wonderful Times.
ARENZ: The Final Quarter

2024

ARENZ: The Final Quarter

2024
A short documentary
Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospective

1979

Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospective

1979
This film includes important examples of the Robert Rauschenberg's diverse and extraordinary accomplishments, tracing his development from his student years and his earliest experiments to a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It features Rauschenberg, John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and was released in 1979.
Secrets in Your Data

2024

Secrets in Your Data

2024
Whether you’re on social media or surfing the web, you’re probably sharing more personal data than you realize. That can pose a risk to your privacy – even your safety. But at the same time, big datasets could lead to huge advances in fields like medicine. Host Alok Patel leads a quest to understand what happens to all the data we’re shedding and explores the latest efforts to maximize benefits – without compromising personal privacy.
Kumbh Mela: Songs of the River

2004

Kumbh Mela: Songs of the River

2004
The Kumbh Mela is a great roving Hindu spiritual festival that has moved around India for more than four thousand years, erecting temporary cities along the Ganges River.
Rain of Ruin: The Bombing of Nagasaki

1995

Rain of Ruin: The Bombing of Nagasaki

1995
Scholars and eyewitnesses provide a picture of the 75 hours between the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and document the contradictions, interrelationships, and ambiguities of politics and military strategy in time of war.
Hogarth's Progress

1997

Hogarth's Progress

1997
Satirical, critical, talented – William Hogarth was one of the most original British artists of the 18th Century. The son of a poor schoolmaster made a name for himself as a portraitist and became best known for his satirical etchings. In strange and graphic tales, such as A Harlot's Progress, he denounced the social and political injustices of his time. Often pirated, Hogarth fought for the first image copyright law. Together with illustrators and writers from today, Andrew Graham-Dixon explores Hogarth's birth city London and recounts the life and work of a man who is regarded as the forerunner of modern caricature.
Wolfgang Mattheuer

1991

Wolfgang Mattheuer

1991
Wolfgang Mattheuer, together with Bernhard Heisig and Werner Tübke, is one of the main protagonists of the Leipzig School. With works such as Behind the Seven Mountains (1973) the graphic artist, painter and sculptor is one of the most controversial and yet most celebrated artists of the former GDR. With the use of mythology, literary references, and ambiguous details, he subverted the ideological edicts of the system. This film presents the great works of this reserved, yet perceptive ‘picture maker’. An insightful interview with Mattheuer introduces us to his eclectic visual world and his metaphorical response to contemporary events and the GDR regime.
Frans Hals of Antwerp

1992

Frans Hals of Antwerp

1992
Frans Hals (1582-1666) was a portrait painter with a unique style, admired for its originality and vivacity not only by the Impressionists but also by artists like van Gogh or Picasso. Very little documentation of his life exists today, so this film uses the thorough contemplation of his canvases as the key to his story. Works by the landscape artists and still-life painters of his time help to illustrate the age in which he lived. The film furthermore exemplifies the elaborate conventions of portraiture at the time.
Willi Sitte

1991

Willi Sitte

1991
Painter and government official – the two sides of Willi Sitte which made him the most important yet most controversial East German artist. Portraying the working class, defying imperialism or revealing intimate togetherness, he became the leading figure of Socialist Realism. His career in the Association of Fine Artists (VBK) and the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED elevated his status to that of ‘Prince of East German Painting’. Reiner Moritz met the controversial, first-rate draughtsman in his studio after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Through his life and work, he traces the story of Sitte’s artistic development in the service of socialist ideology.