Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 253

Shaping Bamboo

1979

Shaping Bamboo

1979
For the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands, the most valued music is that of the four types of panpipe ensembles. With the exception of slit drums, all musical instruments are made of bamboo; therefore the general word for instruments and the music performed with them is "bamboo" ('au). This film shows the making of panpipes, from the cutting the bamboo in the forest to the making of the final bindings. The most important part of the work consists in shaping each tube to its necessary length. Most 'Are'are panpipe makers measure the length of old instruments before they shape new tubes. Master musician 'Irisipau, surprisingly, takes the measure using his body, and adjusts the final tuning by ear. For the first time we can see here how the instruments and their artificial equiheptatonic scale-seven equidistant degrees in an octave-are practically tuned.
Mike and Stefani

1955

Mike and Stefani

1955
A Ukrainian couple become refugees during and after World War Two, and they end up as Displaced Persons (DPs) in a camp in Germany, before they are eventually accepted for resettlement in Australia.
Sourlands

2012

Sourlands

2012
One green spot on a map, in an age of high land prices, high temperatures, and hungry deer.
Children Must Laugh

1936

Children Must Laugh

1936
One of the few surviving documentaries about Jewish life in Poland before World War II, this film was produced to raise funds for the Vladimir Medem Sanitarium, an institution that stood as the embodiment of health and enlightenment, in striking contrast to the grim images of urban Polish-Jewish poverty.
Handmaidens and Battleaxes

1990

Handmaidens and Battleaxes

1990
Throughout history, the perception of nurses has ranged from wise women to witches, sots to ministering angels, handmaidens to battleaxes. The professional role of the nurse has changed dramatically. Originally the nurse held an independent, curative position in healing the sick. Most of this responsibility has since been lost. In its place, a profession has developed which, while demanding altruism and dedication, is locked into a supportive and secondary role to that of the medical profession.
Cowboy and Maria in Town

1991

Cowboy and Maria in Town

1991
Exploring individual responses to rapid social change, Cowboy and Maria in town follows the parallel lives of its two central characters. Cowboy and Maria have independently landed in Port Moresby, negotiating ways to survive urban life in a city ranked as one of the most dangerous in the world. Cowboy is an ex-raskol (urban bandit) and Maria an inhabitant of a squatter settlement. Unemployed and with a jail record, Cowboy has constructed an electric guitar out of scrap materials and plays on street corners. Maria lives an equally precarious existence, cultivating a seasonal garden in an urban settlement inflamed by frustration and intertribal conflicts. Far from being third world victims, they go about their daily lives with humour and imagination, rising to the challenge of enormous cultural upheaval.
The Red Tail

2009

The Red Tail

2009
On August 19, 2005 Roy Koch, along with 4,400 airline mechanics, custodians, and cleaners, went on strike against Northwest Airlines, the fourth largest airline in the world. Northwest, otherwise known as “The Red Tail” by its employees, wanted to lay off 53% of their union and outsource their jobs. What followed was a 444-day strike that would end with 4,000 union members out of work, including Roy.
History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige

1991

History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige

1991
This film is a poetic composition of recorded history and non-recorded memory. Filmmaker Rea Tajiri’s family was among the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. And like so many who were in the camps, Tajiri’s family wrapped their memories of that experience in a shroud of silence and forgetting. This film raises questions about collective history – questions that prompt Tajiri to daringly re-imagine and re-create what has been stolen and what has been lost.
Fight Back, Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP

2002

Fight Back, Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP

2002
A look at the ACT UP movement from its inception to the present day.
A Decent Factory

2005

A Decent Factory

2005
This documentary follows an Ethical and Environmental expert from Nokia as she travels to China to inspect the facilities under contract to her company.
Uranium Drive-In

2013

Uranium Drive-In

2013
A new uranium mill -- the first in the U.S. in 30 years -- would re-connect the economically devastated rural mining community of Naturita, Colorado, to its proud history supplying the material for the first atomic bomb. Some view it as a greener energy source freeing America from its dependence on foreign oil, while others worry about the severe health and environmental consequences of the last uranium boom.
Empire of the Nude: The Victorian Nude

2001

Empire of the Nude: The Victorian Nude

2001
The Victorian era is often cited for its lack of sexuality, but as this documentary reveals, the period's artists created a strong tradition surrounding the classical nude figure, which spread from the fine arts to more common forms of expression. The film explains how 19th-century artists were inspired by ancient Greek and Roman works to highlight the naked form, and how that was reflected in the evolving cultural attitudes toward sex.
Deep Hearts

1980

Deep Hearts

1980
Deep Hearts is a film about the Bororo Fulani, a nomadic society located in central Niger Republic and the title is a reference to an important aspect of these people’s thought and demeanor.
A Hole in a Fence

2008

A Hole in a Fence

2008
The changing face of Red Hook -- a one-of-a-kind neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. -- is the subject of this rich examination of city living by filmmaker D.W. Young. The documentary peeks in on an urban farm run by local kids; an uphill struggle to save a portion of the waterfront; the infamous arrival of an IKEA store; and more. The film was an official selection at the 2008 San Francisco International Documentary Film Festival.
Maria's Story

1990

Maria's Story

1990
It is El Salvador, 1989, three years before the end of a brutal civil war that took 75,000 lives. Maria Serrano, wife, mother, and guerrilla leader is on the front lines of the battle for her people and her country. With unprecedented access to FMLN guerrilla camps, the filmmakers dramatically chronicle Maria's daily life in the war.
Himalayan Herders

1997

Himalayan Herders

1997
John Bishop and Naomi Bishop present a portrait a peculiar life style of the Himalayan indigenous Sherpa people in their documentary , the Himalayan Herders. The 76 minutes long film is about the diverse culture and life style of herders community near Mt. Everest region of Nepal.The film was made in 1997 as a part of Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology Series.
Turner at Tate

2006

Turner at Tate

2006
The artist J.M.W. Turner is widely recognised as England’s greatest painter. Tate has the world’s finest and most extensive collection of his work. Turner at Tate explores Turner’s art through many of his best-known canvases and exquisite sketches and watercolours, all newly and exceptionally filmed in HDTV from the original artworks. Incorporating the landscapes and places that inspired the works, the film provides an overview of Turner’s life and - in an accessible and engrossing way - of critical approaches to his art. The film’s focus is Turner and England, and his work is considered against the radical social and political changes of the early nineteenth century. Turner at Tate is a film about ideas and history and landscape, a film about colour and light. Contributors include Tate curators Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, and art historians Sam Smiles and Barry Venning. Also featured on the DVD are ten additional short films, each of which considers in detail a major work.
Amílcar Cabral

2000

Amílcar Cabral

2000
Documentary about African freedom fighter Amílcar Cabral, whose story is told by his relatives and friends. Amílcar, besides being a humanist and nationalist, was also a brilliant poet.
So Help Me God

2007

So Help Me God

2007
Advertising guru Simon Cole embarks on an entertaining personal trip across the country in search of the almighty.
WWII: Saving the Reality

2013

WWII: Saving the Reality

2013
See Kenneth W. Rendell's collection of over 6,000 artifacts that range from the end of World War I and the rise of Nazism to the start of World War II and the fight in Europe and the Pacific.