Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 249

Something Like a War

1991

Something Like a War

1991
An examination of India’s family planning program from the point of view of the women who are its primary targets. It traces the history of the family planning program and exposes the cynicism, corruption and brutality which characterizes its implementation. As the women themselves discuss their status, sexuality, fertility control and health, it is clear that their perceptions are in conflict with those of the program.
A Place to Stand

2015

A Place to Stand

2015
Jimmy Santiago Baca was a petty thief and a drug dealer when he was sentenced to five years in Arizona State Prison, one of the deadliest prisons in America. Baca began his incarceration violent, angry and illiterate, yet taught himself how to read and write, discovering a passion for poetry that ultimately saved his life.
On the Spring Ice

1975

On the Spring Ice

1975
Walrus as well as whales are hunted by the Eskimos of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. As the film opens, an old man tells of the dangers of moving ice, how people used to drift on such ice and never return. A cluster of men stand on a snowy rooftop, scanning the sea ice for walrus, when one spots a skin boat in distress far out on the ice. The crew had not come home the night before, and now were drifting toward Siberia. Long ago, there was nothing that could have been done to save them. Today, the men call the Coast Guard. The next day, preparations for another walrus hunt are made. The hunters load the boat and travel fifty miles out to sea, where they spot two walrus sunning themselves on an ice floe. "Don't move," one hunter tells the camera. The walrus are shot, admired, butchered on the ice, and loaded onto the boat. Back in the village, the meat is cut again and hung to dry.
The Empty Classroom

2015

The Empty Classroom

2015
Eleven award winning directors explore why nearly one out of every two students in Latin America never graduates high school.
Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House

2002

Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House

2002
They're Jewish, they're grandmothers, and they're lesbians. But they're also so much more, as you'll find out in Deborah Dickson's powerful and intimate documentary. Ruth Berman and Connie Kurtz first met in Brooklyn in 1959, both young married women raising their young children. Becoming fast friends, they soon both moved with their families near Coney Island, where they became active community leaders. Then, in 1974, something incredible happened - they fell in love.
Russia's Open Book: Writing in the Age of Putin

2013

Russia's Open Book: Writing in the Age of Putin

2013
Who is the new Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, or Gogol waiting to be discovered by the English-speaking world? Hosted by actor, author, and activist Stephen Fry, focuses on six authors whose vibrant, idiosyncratic work continues to gain traction with a global audience: Dmitry Bykov, Mariam Petrosyan, Zakhar Prilepin, Anna Starobinets, Vladimir Sorokin, and Lyudmila Ultiskaya. With contributions from their literary critics, publishers, and peers, the film features extensive interviews with each author.
Cerro rico, tierra rica

2012

Cerro rico, tierra rica

2012
Towering above the city of Potosí, Cerro Rico is an enormous conical mountain and the richest silver field in mining history. It provided the Spanish Empire half of the world's silver during colonial times. Bolivia has recently discovered it also contains half of the world's lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni, located also in the Potosí region. The parallel stories of these two unique sites help create a compelling observational mosaic of mining life in Latin America: an elegy to the high plateaus of the Andes mountains and a stunning record of manual labor in southwestern Bolivia.
Still Dreaming

2015

Still Dreaming

2015
Once a star on Broadway, always a star – at least that is what a group of feisty, humorous, and inspirational actors think as they embark on a journey to perform Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at their retirement home. With the help of two enthusiastic New York City theater directors who are not quite sure what awaits them, the troupe is formed among thespians whose skills and minds are not what they once were. As performance day nears, the tension mounts, with the actors battling to overcome crises, as well as themselves. But the show must go on and go on it does, with the troupe clinging to the hope of experiencing the magic and exuberance of performing on stage just one last time. - Sandy Wolf
Healing a Soldier's Heart

2015

Healing a Soldier's Heart

2015
Healing a Soldier’s Heart transports us into the troubled hearts and minds of four Vietnam veterans as they begin the courageous healing process to alleviate their severe PTSD. Still traumatized 40 years later, the veterans bravely journey back to the sites where they witnessed and committed atrocities of war. In the process, they come face to face with victims and experience Vietnamese culture through a new lens that fosters the compassion and the mutual forgiveness necessary for healing.
Stages

2009

Stages

2009
The film follows the Danish band Duné for two years, chronicling their rise from average high school students to stars on stages in Germany, Russia and Japan.
Savage Memory

2011

Savage Memory

2011
Founding father of Anthropology, Bronislaw Malinowski's work raises powerful and disturbing questions today. This is a look at his legacy and the imprints it has made on the generations that followed.
We Like It Like That

2015

We Like It Like That

2015
Latin boogaloo is New York City. It is a product of the melting pot, a colorful expression of 1960s Latino soul, straight from the streets of El Barrio, the South Bronx and Brooklyn. Starring Latin boogaloo legends like Joe Bataan, Johnny Colon and Pete Rodriguez, We Like It Like That explores this lesser-known, but pivotal moment in Latin music history, through original interviews, music recordings, live performances, dancing and rare archival footage and images. From its origins to its recent resurgence in popularity, We Like It Like That tells the story of a sound that redefined a generation and was too funky to keep down.
Welcome To Unity

2018

Welcome To Unity

2018
In a sleepy mountain town nestled in rural America, seven foreign exchange students set out to tackle the 'American Dream'.
One Woman, One Vote

1995

One Woman, One Vote

1995
Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon narrates this educational installment of the popular "American Experience" series as it examines the 72-year struggle for a woman's right to vote. Segments focus on influential figures in the women's suffrage movement, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul; the country's widespread fear of social revolution; and the U.S. Senate's passage of the 19th Amendment by a single vote.
Edible City

2016

Edible City

2016
Edible City is a feature-length documentary film that tells the stories of extraordinary people who are digging their hands into the dirt, working to transform their communities and doing something truly revolutionary: growing local Good Food systems that are socially just, environmentally sound, and economically resilient.
Raising Shrimp

2013

Raising Shrimp

2013
Documentary - America's most popular and iconic seafood is really a cheap foreign import. Raising Shrimp paints the economic and medical perils of an outsourced food supply,and follows Ted, an engineer, and Andy, an ecologist, on a quest for a better shrimp. In Texas, they find fishermen pushed from riches to rags by imports. In Belize, they find shrimp farmers striving for a natural balance with jungles and lagoons, but again globalization takes its toll, and the best farm collapses. Back home in the U.S. pioneering farmers harness the power of bacteria to grow shrimp inside a darkened warehouse without any waste. Encouraged, Andy and Ted see that raising shrimp this way offers hope for all. - Andy Danylchuk, Ted Caplow
Ivan and Ivana

2011

Ivan and Ivana

2011
After the Kosovo war devastates a young couple's homeland and their dreams for a normal life, they set out unexpectedly from the Balkans, along a wild journey to rebuild their lives anew in America. Arriving in California amidst the peak of a housing boom that would soon burst, the film reveals their trials and tribulations over five years of turbulent economic, political and personal tides, revealing a provocative and unorthodox depiction of the American immigrant experience.
The Backward Class

2015

The Backward Class

2015
Teens from the 'untouchable' caste study to take India's national exams.
Altar of Fire

1976

Altar of Fire

1976
This film records a 12 day ritual performed by Mambudiri Brahmins in Kerala, southwest India, in April 1975. This event was possibly the last performance of the Agnicayana, a Vedic ritual of sacrifice dating back 3,000 years and probably the oldest surviving human ritual. Long considered extinct and never witnessed by outsiders, the ceremonies require the participation of seventeen priests, involve libations of Soma juice and oblations of other substances, all preceded by several months of preparation and rehearsals. They include the construction, from a thousand bricks, of a fire altar in the shape of a bird.
A Steam Train Passes

1974

A Steam Train Passes

1974
Generally regarded as Australia's finest railway film and winner of many awards the world over, A Steam Train Passes is a nostalgic, imaginative essay on one of the majestic C38 class steam locomotives, 3801. The locomotive has recently returned to service and is currently operating out of the NSW Rail Museum at Thirlmere, south of Sydney.