Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 195

I Was a Winner

2016

I Was a Winner

2016
5
Two men and one woman addicted to videogames are interviewed to tell their stories. In this documentary, they are animated characters resembling the ones on computer games.
Breathin': The Eddy Zheng Story

2016

Breathin': The Eddy Zheng Story

2016
8
Arrested at 16 and tried as an adult for kidnapping and robbery, Eddy Zheng served over 20 years in California prisons and jails. Ben Wang’s BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY paints an intimate portrait of Eddy—the prisoner, the immigrant, the son, the activist—on his journey to freedom, rehabilitation and redemption. BREATHIN’ moves with a deep, critical love, unafraid in confronting the hard truths of Eddy’s crime, the harsh realities of mass incarceration and the intertwined emotional hardships experienced by all involved. The film finds Eddy at many crossroads — in and out of parole hearings, organizing in the community, othered and at risk of deportation — his resilience and astounding compassion resounding throughout. In chronicling Eddy’s decades-long struggle for freedom, the film interrogates the complexities and hypocrisies of crime and punishment in the United States, raising the greater question: For whom are prisons for?
Marc and Ann

1991

Marc and Ann

1991
4
Legendary filmmaker Les Blank's toe-tapping film treats us to a portrait of a musical Louisiana couple committed to celebrating and preserving Cajun culture.
Un vrai faussaire

2016

Un vrai faussaire

2016
6
Ancient Egypt

1939

Ancient Egypt

1939
6
This entry in the TravelTalks series visits the ancient Egypt. starting Valley of the Kings in a remote and desolate part of Egypt, the entrance to tomb of King Tut is shown, though the ts priceless treasure is now in the Cairo museum. A visit to Luxor and the ancient city of Thebes, which date to 1500 BC, follow with subsequent visits to Karnak. The film closes by noting that past and present are in harmony with the water wheel and village well still in wide use in the modern age.
Link-Up Diary

1987

Link-Up Diary

1987
2.5
An extraordinary personal journey into the experience of being black in a powerful white society. "Link-up Diary" is a film about the consequences of New South Wales long term practice of taking Aboriginal children away from their parents and raising them in "white" environments. In following the reunification, after many years, of several families in Sydney, during one week of 1986, the filmmaker adopts a diary format which does not attempt to disguise awareness of the camera's presence. This awareness becomes part of the film's subject.
Ningla A-Na

1972

Ningla A-Na

1972
7
Ningla A-Na documents the activism of the Black movement in south-east Australia in the 1970s and shows how the activists changed the direction of the movement both nationally and internationally.
The Circle Closes

2015

The Circle Closes

2015
6
An examination of four different films which to varying degrees center on a prop or an object or an item that crosses various characters' lives and passes from hand to hand. The story in each film is, to a certain extent, told from the point of view of the object which can neither speak nor evaluate the actions of the characters whose lives it touches and influences. The films? MME DE..., WINCHESTER '73, VIRDIANA and AU HASARD BALTHAZAR.
Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse

2016

Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse

2016
7.5
Claude Monet was an avid horticulturist and arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, but he was not alone. Great artists like Van Gogh, Bonnard, Sorolla, Sargent, Pissarro and Matisse all saw the garden as a powerful subject for their art. These great artists, along with many other famous names, feature in an innovative and extensive exhibition from The Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Sadness

1999

Sadness

1999
9
Based on photographer William Yang's one man stage show, "Sadness" chronicles two diverging narratives through the use of slide photography, oral history and stylised recreation. One story follows Yang's pilgrimage into the heart of the North Queensland sugar cane fields as he investigates the murder of his uncle Fang Yuen. The other is a series of moving portraits of the many friends and lovers Yang has lost to AIDS. Director Tony Ayres skillfully weaves these two separate stories together creating a powerful testament to family, friends, love and loss. Cinematography by Tristan Milani. Narrated by William Yang.
Inside the Mind of Favela Funk

2016

Inside the Mind of Favela Funk

2016
8
Set in Rio de Janeiro's most notorious favelas, the underprivileged youth share their perspective on the extremely popular, pornographic favela funk music with respect to their personal (love) lives, situated in a lawless subculture of drug gangs, machismo, violence and sex.
Hear Me Now

2015

Hear Me Now

2015
10
A documentary that candidly examines school bullying and how it can be dealt with, told by those who experienced it first hand.
In Between

2015

In Between

2015
7
Once there was an age of ice but it is disappearing. This is a lyrical and thought-provoking film about the death of an era and a moment in time. A time when stoic creatures are caught in between what once was and what will inevitably come.
Fire and Ice: The Rocket Richard Riot

2000

Fire and Ice: The Rocket Richard Riot

2000
1
In 1955, as a hotly contested hockey season was coming to an end, the star of the Montreal Canadiens, Maurice "the Rocket" Richard, was suspended for attacking an opponent with a stick and hitting a referee by then president of the NHL Clarence Campbell. This set off a huge riot in the streets of Montreal. The documentary claims, unconvincingly, that this event added to the sparks of the political revolution in Quebec that led to the rise of the separatist movement.
Frames of Reference

1960

Frames of Reference

1960
9.5
An educational physics film utilizing a fascinating set consisting of a rotating table and furniture occupying surprisingly unpredictable spots within the viewing area, Leacock’s Frames of Reference (1960), features fine cinematography by Abraham Morochnik, and funny narration by University of Toronto professors Donald Ivey and Patterson Hume, in a wonderful example of the fun a creative team of filmmakers can have with a subject other, less imaginative types might find pedestrian.
The Man Who Drove with Mandela

1998

The Man Who Drove with Mandela

1998
10
During the time of apartheid Nelson Mandela drove around South Africa in a limousine disguised as a chauffeur while organizing the armed struggle against the apartheid regime. But who was the distinguished looking white man sitting in the back seat? Meet Cecil Williams, an acclaimed gay white theatre director and communist.
A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers

2015

A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers

2015
1
Follows three women in an all female, predominantly Muslim unit of police officers sent to post-earthquake Haiti as UN Peacekeepers for one year. The mission challenges these women while shattering commonly held stereotypes.
Message From Hiroshima

2015

Message From Hiroshima

2015
8
This documentary provides an inside look at the devastating effects of the first atomic bomb dropped, as depicted in testimonials from survivors, and computer-generated recreations of the city and way of life that were lost.
Las Marthas

2014

Las Marthas

2014
7
Marthas is a PBS documentary about an extraordinary rite of passage in Laredo, Texas where teenage Mexican-American girls debut in a grand Colonial Ball dressed as American revolutionaries - a tradition that goes back 114 years.
Don't Tell Anyone (No Le Digas A Nadie)

2015

Don't Tell Anyone (No Le Digas A Nadie)

2015
7
In a community where silence is seen as necessary for survival, undocumented immigrant activist Angy Rivera joins a generation of Dreamers in a quest to come out of the shadows and claim her place in the only home she's ever known.