Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 243

Namekas: Music in Lake Chambri

1979

Namekas: Music in Lake Chambri

1979
On the southern shores of Lake Chambri (Middle Sepik River) live 1500 Pondo-speaking villagers. The Chambris trade fish, mosquito nets and baskets for sago, pottery, and other goods. All elements of the natural world are associated with spirits which have individual personalities and powers, characterized in legend, art, and music. A constant dialog between man and spirits is carried on through various communicative media, including invocations, dreams, and music. As this film beautifully reveals, there is a wealth of musical tradition in Lake Chambri: carved wooden drums whose lively vibrations are said to shake loose ripened fruits for harvest; pairs of sacred bamboo flutes used in boys' initiations and concealed from women; orchestras of flutes identified with dogs or turkeys; flutes captured in warfare used with dance masks to invoke fish; and the panpipe with its melodies of mourning.
Benjamin and His Brother

2002

Benjamin and His Brother

2002
Years of war and ethnic conflict in the Sudan have created a generation of young men, known as the "Lost Boys," who have spent more years in refugee camps than in their home communities. This intimate film recounts the story of Benjamin and William Deng, brothers joined in the struggle of a seemingly never-ending exile, who are then separated when one is accepted into a United States resettlement program while the other remains in a Kenyan refugee camp. It is not only a film about the two brother's dreams and reality, it is also a film about war and suffering in their beloved South Sudan, lost childhood and innocence, the trials of life as a refugee in foreign lands and the existing realities of survival. Real life in the so called "Land of dreams" – America, is not an easy adjustment.
Remembering Port Chicago

2017

Remembering Port Chicago

2017
In California's Bay Area, a painful memory lingers of the Port Chicago disaster of WWII, when hundreds of the Navy's first Black Sailors perished, and the White officers in charge were protected by the chain of command.
The Akha Way

1999

The Akha Way

1999
For over a thousand years, the Akha people have inhabited the hills of Asia — mainly Southern China, Burma and Northern Thailand. The Akha Way or Akhazaunh, is the code by which they live. This documentary describes their origins and their culture. It contains extraordinary footage of a shaman healing ceremony; a funeral, with the ritual sacrifice of a water buffalo; the reading of a pig's liver after a new house is built, and more. Today the Akha Way is fast disappearing. Forced migration, Christianity, money and drugs are eroding the cultural heritage of the Akha tribe.
Ein Versprechen

2012

Ein Versprechen

2012
What happens to the feelings of two people when they are poured into the official form of a marriage? Love can suffocate under the pressure of this contract or blossom into an unexpected, deep bond when confronted with eternity. Why do two people promise each other? Levin Peter and Elsa Kremser, not only two filmmakers but also a young couple, search for answers to these questions. Driven by a very personal story, the film interweaves very different couples and concepts of marriage.
The Silent Monologue

2008

The Silent Monologue

2008
We hear the thoughts of Amy, a girl from a rural area of Senegal who works as a domestic for a well-to-do family in Dakar. She complains about her employer, who continuously criticizes her and gets on her case, and she talks about her dream of one day opening her own eatery. In Dakar, some 150,000 young women work as housekeepers for rich families to survive and help their families instead of going to school.
Plot to Overturn the Election

2022

Plot to Overturn the Election

2022
An examination of the hidden origins of disinformation about the 2020 election and those responsible for some of the core narratives of election fraud.
Hunting in Packs

2022

Hunting in Packs

2022
Who runs the world? With the recent surge of women in politics, director Chloe Sosa-Sims's timely feature debut focuses on three political stars in three countries. For Jess Phillips of the UK, Pramila Jayapal of the US and Canada's Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, politics is a deep and committed passion. Positioned on different points along the political spectrum, they take on their jobs in government with bold determination, advocating for their individual agendas. Phillips is focused on combating domestic violence, while Jayapal has set her sights on a new bill to expand American health care and Rempel Garner is looking for ways to create jobs for oil workers in her home province of Alberta. With elections looming in all three countries, the women are working hard on reforming patriarchal political institutions from the inside, and despite their differences they each fight to rise to the occasion.
Scrap

2022

Scrap

2022
The Industrial Age left us with refuse too vast to bury and impossible to ignore. Earth's resources are finite, yet after serving their short-lived purpose, our cars, appliances and electronics takes centuries to decay. These rusting skeletal remains, especially machines that shaped the landscape and our ability to move within it, are valued objects for those willing to reclaim them. A South Dakota farmer transforms oxidized agricultural machinery into beautiful sculptures that reflect the natural world, while across the ocean, British phone booths are painstakingly restored to their former glory. Whether it be living in abandoned aircraft husks on Bangkok's outskirts or transforming freighter ships into architectural wonders, the human capacity to revitalize obsolete artifacts is inspiring.
Pandemic Perspectives

2022

Pandemic Perspectives

2022
Kuo Hina E Hiapo: The Mulberry is White and Ready for Harvest

2001

Kuo Hina E Hiapo: The Mulberry is White and Ready for Harvest

2001
Tapa cloth, or ngatu as it is called in Tonga, is cloth made from the bark of the mulberry tree. The inner bark is beaten into fine sheets and painted using traditional designs. After centuries of use, ngatu has literally become the fabric of Tongan society. In Tonga and throughout much of Polynesia, bark cloth has deep symbolic and ceremonial use. At birth, babies are swaddled in it. At marriage, newlyweds line their wedding bed, and at death, the departed are buried wrapped in it. This documentary investigates the highly collaborative process of making ngatu and the organizations of women who carry on with the tradition. While the process continues to be passed on from generation to generation, there are signs of change as a cash economy begins to infiltrate Tongan life. Young people show less interest in such labor intensive endeavor in the face of the older generation's belief that this tradition will never die.
Just Like You: Anxiety + Depression

2022

Just Like You: Anxiety + Depression

2022
10 brave kids, 2 Emmy award winning journalists, 1 clinical psychologist at Columbia University and 1 determined mother take on the fear and stigma plaguing the mental health community, leaving us enlightened, empowered and equipped to either live life or lift up life with these challenging and even life threatening conditions.
Freedom Hill

2022

Freedom Hill

2022
Princeville, NC is the first town incorporated by freed, formerly enslaved Africans in America. This historical significance sits on a precipice: It is gradually being washed away.
Bunong's Birth Practices

2010

Bunong's Birth Practices

2010
On the basis of a social anthropological case study, this film documents the birth practices of the Bunong in Mondulkiri province, located in the northeast of Cambodia. Social, economic, and political changes are transforming the province tremendously and are affecting villagers' beliefs, perceptions and habits regarding pregnancy, delivery and early motherhood. Traditional midwives, pregnant women, mothers and their families give a personal insight into their present decision-making strategies, which are at the crossroads between tradition and modernity.
Jan Karsky. Righteous Man of the World

2015

Jan Karsky. Righteous Man of the World

2015
Jan Karski is a hero of World War II, a member of the Polish Resistance and the author of the first official account of the Holocaust. The film was created jointly by filmmakers from Russia and Poland in the year of the centenary of Jan Karski, on the seventieth anniversary of the victory over fascism.
Where Birds Never Sang

2011

Where Birds Never Sang

2011
Short film about Ravensbruck concentration camp.
Sprayed

2017

Sprayed

2017
This documentary explores what happens when different communities get sprayed from above. Whether it is Naled sprayed on Miami residents for the War on Zika, or the neurotoxin Agent Orange sprayed over the Vietcong in the War on Vietnam, or the release of GMO mosquitoes over Brazilians with pyriproxyfen added to their drinking water in the War on Dengue, what are the results for nature and humanity? Sprayed brings the viewer to the Vietnamese detoxification and rehabilitation centers to meet Agent Orange survivors, parents of babies born with microcephaly that triggered the global response to Zika, and to sprayed Florida residents. Perspectives of doctors, scientists, and politicians are balanced with voices of ordinary citizens and victims to explore their concerns about the potential impact on future generations.
Into the Dark

2020

Into the Dark

2020
Battling subzero temperatures and 40-foot seas, a team of scientists embark on a perilous winter expedition into the darkest regions of the Arctic. Their mission: to understand how trace amounts of light may be radically altering the mysterious world of the polar night. What they discover has implications for the global climate and the future of the Arctic.
Silent River

2014

Silent River

2014
Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement 20 years ago, international companies have used the Santiago River as their own “waste canal.” This documentary follows a young woman and her family as they try to save one of the most polluted rivers in Mexico.
Full Circle

2021

Full Circle

2021
Full Circle is a film that celebrates one woman’s triumph in conservation: the Great Gull Island Project, Helen Hays’ 50-year quest to save two species of threatened seabirds. During her long term study, she vastly increased the numbers of nesting Roseate and Common Terns on a small, uninhabited island in Long Island Sound.