Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 220

Hidden Heroes

1999

Hidden Heroes

1999
Two Canadian women return to the Netherlands to recount the terrifying ordeal they experienced as children at the hands of the Nazis, and to connect with the individuals and families who risked their lives to save them.
Same Difference

2011

Same Difference

2011
Following the debate over California's Proposition 8, this short film is an exploration of how modern American families are constructed, not only those within the LGBTQ community.
Prisoners in Freedom City

2007

Prisoners in Freedom City

2007
Civil rights activist Hu Jia was held under house arrest from 2004 to 2008 in the upscale eastern suburbs of Beijing. One day Hu picked up a video camera and began to document things outside the window: his watchers, shepherds tending their flocks, spiders in the rain, and his fellow activist and wife, Zeng Jinyan, going to and from work under the unnervingly close watch of plainclothes police.
Dare to Be

2018

Dare to Be

2018
Dare to Be is a documentary film not only on the sport of rowing, but also the human spirit. It follows a series of rowers ranging from novice girls to women training for the Olympics, as they overcome obstacles and seek greatness. We learn along their journey that greatness can come in many forms and should not always be measured by traditional concepts of success, but rather by individual triumphs. It essentially suggests that athletes can define what success looks like to them – not coming in last place, beating a rival, medaling for the first time, qualifying for nationals, or winning an Olympic gold medal.
The Lighthouses - 11.3 PROJECT

2011

The Lighthouses - 11.3 PROJECT

2011
Documentation video of an action carried out after the Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, 2011.
Easy Like Water

2014

Easy Like Water

2014
As flood waters threaten, a visionary architect is building solar floating schools -- and creating a blueprint for his country's survival. But can 'Bangladesh's Noah' keep his imperiled nation from drowning? By turns witty and heart-wrenching, 'Easy Like Water' takes you on an off-the-grid journey that offers a refreshing new perspective on the resilience of the Global South.
Michael Kirby: Don't Forget the Justice Bit

2010

Michael Kirby: Don't Forget the Justice Bit

2010
Filmed during and after his time on the High Court of Australia, this documentary about Justice Michael Kirby explores the personal, moral and spiritual convictions of one of our most compassionate and incisive legal minds. Michael Kirby reveals himself in this film through a long-form interview in a way he has never done before. It was only at the age of 61 he publicly revealed for the first time that he had been in a homosexual relationship since 1969 with partner Johan van Vloten. This film represents the first time Johan has spoken publicly about their life together.
H Is for Hawk: A New Chapter

2017

H Is for Hawk: A New Chapter

2017
Helen Macdonald's bestseller H Is for Hawk told the story of a grieving daughter who found healing in training a goshawk. The goshawk is one of Mother Nature's own fighter jets, capable of finding and killing its prey with the speed of a lightning bolt. Now Macdonald digs deeper into the world of these raptors by following a family in the wild while raising and training a new goshawk of her own.
Undiscovered Haiti with José Andrés

2015

Undiscovered Haiti with José Andrés

2015
Undiscovered Haiti follows José Andrés into the heart of this mysterious country; through its unique cuisine we discover the history and culture - and see into the future - of a proud and rarely understood people.
Blue Orchids

2017

Blue Orchids

2017
In Blue Orchids, Johan Grimonprez creates a double portrait of two experts situated on opposite ends of the same issue—the global arms trade. The stories of Chris Hedges, a former New York Times war correspondent, and Riccardo Privitera, arms and equipment dealer for the now-defunct Talisman Europe Ltd, provide an unusual and disturbing context for shocking revelations about the industry of war. While interviewing Privitera and Hedges for Grimonprez’s recently released feature Shadow World (2016), it became clear that the two men were describing the same anguish and trauma, but from paradoxical perspectives. One has dedicated his life to unmasking lies, while the other has built his life on them. Both their personal and political histories gradually reveal the depths of suffering and duplicity, showing that the arms trade is a symptom of a profound illness: greed.
All That Perishes at the Edge of Land

2019

All That Perishes at the Edge of Land

2019
A ship berthed at Gadani and the ship-breakers coming from all over Pakistan to break it discover that they might have more in common than otherwise imagined, when they enter into a conversation.
Dammed to Extinction

2019

Dammed to Extinction

2019
For eons, a one-of-a-kind population of killer whales has hunted chinook salmon along the Pacific Coast of the United States. For the last 40 years, renowned whale scientist Ken Balcomb has closely observed them. He’s familiar with a deadly pattern, as salmon numbers plummet orcas starve. The orcas need roughly a million salmon a year, where to find a million fish? The solution, says Balcomb, is getting rid of four fish-killing dams 500 miles away on the largest tributary to what once was the largest chinook producing river on earth.
The Deal

2015

The Deal

2015
Stop-motion animation on the arranging of marriages in 1950/60s set in the Eastern-Polish borderland. The script is based on a part of Mikołaj Smyk's diary, the director's grandfather. The biographical objects used in the animation, such as an authentic headscarf, Polish and Russian books, the copy of Mikołaj Smyk's diary and photographs help situate the story in its original environment.
Miguelito - Canto a Borinquen

2019

Miguelito - Canto a Borinquen

2019
In 1973, eleven year old Miguelito was discovered singing in the San Juan airport by the legendary New York record producer Harvey Averne. Within the year, he went from the slums of Manuel A Perez, to recording an album with some of the finest salsa musicians of the time to finally performing with Eddie Palmieri at Madison Square Garden in front of 20,000 people. Throughout Latin America his songs ‘Payaso’ and ‘Canto a Borinquen’ had become cult hits. And then he simply disappeared...
Nightingale, Not the Only Voice

2000

Nightingale, Not the Only Voice

2000
Nightingale, Not the Only Voice follows the lives of three artists, including the film’s director, on their shared journey through real and psychological oppression to self-discovery. Tang Danhong examines her past—particularly her relationship with her parents—and looks at the painful, formative moments that inform her current psychological state, her life, and her art.
Driving the Dream

1997

Driving the Dream

1997
Harrod Blank, who took us into the world of art cars with his epic first film, Wild Wheels, now focuses more in-depth on a few select art vehicles, the Grass Bus, the Hamburger Harley, and the Camera Van. As with his previous film, and the following one (Automorphosis) Blank takes a dauntless look at American car culture.
Amir: An Afghan Refugee Musician's Life in Peshawar, Pakistan

1985

Amir: An Afghan Refugee Musician's Life in Peshawar, Pakistan

1985
Amir, shot during the height of the Afghan civil war in the 1980s, investigates and portrays the life of Afghan refugees living in and around the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan through the experiences of the musician Amir. The aspirations of Afghan refugees are expressed through their political songs dealing with the civil war in Afghanistan, with exile, with Afghan nationalism and with the Islamic revolution. In highly charged and tragic circumstances, music can be used in very direct ways, both to promote solidarity and as an agent of catharsis.
Samira

2014

Samira

2014
An ethnographic account of the life history of Karim, an Algerian migrant man selling sex as a travesti at night in Marseille.
Seven Second Love Affair

1965

Seven Second Love Affair

1965
Les Blank's first documentary cinematography job shooting Drag Racers in Long Beach, CA, driving everything from hopped up "Mercs" to Supercharged "Rail Dragsters". These cars could accelerate to over 220 miles/hour in a mile. The film follows the life of Rick "The Iceman" Stewart as he attempts to grab the world's record. Original score by Canned Heat Blues Band.
The Poetry of Exactitude

2009

The Poetry of Exactitude

2009
Since 1946, Lucien Mouchet has been making small-scale reproductions of carousels and fairground scenes that existed in the past or are still in operation today. A machinist by trade, Mouchet retired nearly two decades ago, but his obsession with precision and detail has continued. To date, he has created 48 carousels; each is a functioning masterpiece that is constructed to be exactly 1/20 scale of the original. Mouchet works from photographs and measurements he has taken over the years of carousels that have toured France and across Europe. Mouchet tediously prepares shop drawings and hand-tooled parts, analyzing the different modes of assembly and the varying principles of movement. He combines an expertise in engineering with whimsical recreations of the carnival atmosphere, replete with electrical motors, lights, signage, transport trucks and miniature people, made by him and hand-painted by his wife, Georgette.