Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 235

News Matters

2020

News Matters

2020
News Matters follows Chuck Plunkett and a band of journalists through their paces as they fight to keep their The Post alive in an era of fake news and biased media.
Maestras Voluntarias

2022

Maestras Voluntarias

2022
Ana Deborah Mola and Belkis Lescaille were among the first young teachers who started pilot programs around the island of Cuba in 1960, laying foundation for the massive National Literacy Campaign that would take place the following year.
Cy Dear

2019

Cy Dear

2019
Cy Twombly was a truly amazing artist: painter, illustrator, sculptor, and photographer. This documentary is a tribute to the prolific American creator, a contemporary of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns who inspired Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente, and Julian Schnabel.
The 5th Man

2022

The 5th Man

2022
For 50 years, Paul Limmer was a world class track coach at Long Island's Mepham High School. He holds NY State's record for wins with 737 and was inducted into the 2016 New Balance Coaches Hall of Fame. Limmer's true legacy, however, just has nothing to do with awards. Thousands of former athletes, many of whom never broke a single record or won a solitary trophy, credit him for changing their lives. This is the story of all the other kids - the ones who never felt "seen" - until Paul Limmer came into their lives.
The Youth Governor

2022

The Youth Governor

2022
4,000 teenagers of a YMCA run a mock government complete with elections, legislators, lobbyists, and political party bosses.
How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?

2021

How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?

2021
A documentary look at the phenomenon of othering in America: how marginalized groups of people are mistreated in a nation that allegedly cares about justice and equality.
Defining US

2022

Defining US

2022
A look inside the nations largest schools, showing the struggles, hopes and dreams of marginalized students and educators fighting to rise above a divisive culture war over race and identity playing out in classrooms across the US today.
Free Puppies!

2022

Free Puppies!

2022
Tens of thousands of dogs are transported every year from areas with high euthanasia rates to parts of the country with fewer unwanted dogs and a surplus of adopters. Knowing the happy ending for these lucky dogs is only the beginning of the story, FREE PUPPIES. takes a closer look at where they come from. By following dog rescuers throughout rural counties in the Georgia-Alabama-Tennessee tristate area, we see the challenges that lead to dog overpopulation in the first place and the work being done in these communities to overcome them.
Le Jour et l'Heure

2021

Le Jour et l'Heure

2021
Duty of Care: The Climate Trials

2022

Duty of Care: The Climate Trials

2022
A documentary following Dutch lawyer Roger Cox as he attempts to make global legal history by establishing that governments and Big Oil have a duty of care to prevent catastrophic climate change.
An African Brass Band: Traditional Music of Cote d'Ivoire

2006

An African Brass Band: Traditional Music of Cote d'Ivoire

2006
At the beginning of the 20th century in Jacqueville, near Abidjan in the Côte d'Ivoire, traditional music was forbidden by the missionaries. But the inhabitants' enjoyment of their local festivals proved stronger, and the little town developed its own brass band. This is the story of that brass band, a brass band that isn't at all like a military band. It's a dancing brass band, an African brass band, that accompanies all the big and little moments of life: national festivals, religious ceremonies, funerals, fetes and celebrations, a musical game involving a football, tunes from the famous Mapuka dance, or the experimental use of sacred drums together with the brass band. A lively debate between the musicians, in which a sense of humor is clearly present, as they examine fundamental questions about their tradition and its transformations in the context of the life of people today.
Stewards of the Land

2022

Stewards of the Land

2022
The daily experiences of three land cultivators in Puerto Rico.
Baniyala

1996

Baniyala

1996
An archival record film of life at the small Madarrpa clan settlement of Bäniyala on Blue Mud Bay, some 200 kilometres south of Yirrkala.
Ghurbal

2005

Ghurbal

2005
This film examines the Egyptian rural craft of making a sieve called ghurbal (from the Arabic ghurbal meaning “to winnow” which is used to both “winnow” babies on their seventh day of life and to winnow grains for making ceremonial dishes, particularly kouskousi. Embedded in this material culture artifact are layered meanings of creative regeneration of the cosmic and human worlds. We visually follow the material process from tree log cutting to making the tara (ghurbal frame), to ghurbal crafting, through the voice and image of two key persons: Na’ima, the craftswoman and owner of the frame shop, and Hoksha, the rural ghurbal craftsman. The ethnographer/filmmaker engages them to speak and we are drawn into their lives by their stories as we view self-confident mastery of their craft. While Hoksha relates how he has kept this child from his father, we see his son next to him making a modern flour sieve, having never learned the family tradition.
A Peasant Chronicle in Gruyère

1990

A Peasant Chronicle in Gruyère

1990
The shooting of this peasant chronicle in the Gruyère region of Switzerland lasted a whole year, from July 1989 to July 1990. A year of work and festivities in the family of Conrad and Louise Bapst, their children and grandchildren who live in La Roche (canton of Fribourg). In summer, part of the family goes with the herd to the upper pastures, and will move six times in the next three months, as the grass for the cows grows in higher and higher places. At the farm below, the rest of the family mows the hay and the after crop, and tends the vegetable garden. Fall and winter bring new chores, along with feast-days, and the sale of cheeses to pay for rented pastures. We see the family participate in a vote for or against the Swiss Army, and at a meeting where mountain farmers discuss whether or not to join the European Union. The film displays the patient and human approach of an almost silent minority of Switzerland.
When We Fight

2023

When We Fight

2023
In the second largest school district in the United States, 98% of teachers vote to authorize a strike. Watch as one of the largest educator strikes in modern U.S. history unfolds in real-time, highlighting the stories and leadership of some of the women who led it, from union leaders to classroom teachers. From strike vote to contract vote, When We Fight goes behind the picket lines, documenting how and why teachers strike. "This powerful and beautifully crafted film is a must watch for anyone interested in the state of labor in America today." - Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
Madarrpa Funeral at Gurka’wuy

1979

Madarrpa Funeral at Gurka’wuy

1979
In 1976, Ian Dunlop was invited by Dundiwuy Wanambi, a leader of the Marrakulu clan, to Gurka’wuy on Trial Bay in the Gulf of Carpentaria. He wanted Film Australia to record the first major Marrakulu ceremony to be held at Gurka’wuy since its recent establishment as a clan settlement. While they were there, a baby boy died. The Madarrpa men, including the child’s father and Dundiwuy, asked for the funeral to be filmed.Mortuary rites of the Yolngu are extremely complex. Despite some practical modifications to traditional ceremonies as a result of life on mission stations, ritual remains extremely strong.
Twenty Pearls: The Story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority

2021

Twenty Pearls: The Story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority

2021
"Twenty Pearls" tells a powerful story of sisterhood. In 1908, nine Black women enrolled at Howard University made one decision that would change the course of history. These college students created Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Geoff Dixon: Portraits of Us

2022

Geoff Dixon: Portraits of Us

2022
Environmental issues and pop-culture collide in vibrant textural colours and forms in this intimate portrait of the life, loves and friendships of Aotearoa New Zealand artist Geoff Dixon.
They Turned Our Desert Into Fire

2007

They Turned Our Desert Into Fire

2007
Reporting the devastation, forced displacement, and genocide in Darfur should be a story with daily coverage. Mere mention of the word "Darfur" should set off a passionate exchange, or at least the question, "What can be done?". Unfortunately, the people of Darfur struggle with a problem common to so many victimized by geo-political realities: how to overcome the willful indifference of powerful government and media interests who find their story unimportant or merely inconvenient. With images and first-hand accounts, filmmaker Mark Brecke shares his experience of the Darfur crisis with Amtrak train passengers journeying eastward on a three day trip to Washington D.C. Their reactions, interwoven with hard facts and expert opinion, raise the central question in They Turned Our Desert Into Fire - Why does the public not understand the severity of this crisis and how can the world continue to do nothing?