Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 272

Shut Up Sona

2019

Shut Up Sona

2019
Shut up, Sona is a tongue-in-cheek take at a feisty female singer's unrelenting fight for an equal space in modern day India, a country deeply uncomfortable with her emancipation.
Hopelessly in Love: Faith Evans and Notorious B.I.G.

2020

Hopelessly in Love: Faith Evans and Notorious B.I.G.

2020
This is about the intense and tragic marriage between Faith Evans and the Notorious B.I.G. But at its core, it’s a story about infidelity –the roots of it and the consequences of it –for the couple and the culture at large. Twenty years after the iconic rapper’s murder, Faith Evans is ready to confront her pain and revisit the most intimate moments of their relationship…from their whirlwind engagement, to Biggie’s ongoing affairs with Lil’ Kim and Charli Baltimore, to the East coast/West coast rivalry that led to Tupac and Big’s deaths.
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.
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.
Afterimages

2018

Afterimages

2018
"Afterimages" is a short story about one plate from the archive of Ryszard Kisiel, the creator of "Filo" - one of the first gay zines in Central and Eastern Europe. The evoked negative from the end of the ‘80s is the starting point for both Kisiel's personal history and the portrait of the gay scene of the late PRL.
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.
Dark Matter

2019

Dark Matter

2019
World-renowned snowboarders Travis Rice and Elias Elhardt team up with legendary director Curt Morgan for a celebration of space and time filmed in the deep backcountry of Alaska, exclusively on location at Tordrillo Mountain Lodge.
Vojta Lavička: Ups and Downs

2013

Vojta Lavička: Ups and Downs

2013
Longitudinal documentary film was shot for past 16 years and the main protagonist is Roman musician and activist Vojta Lavička. Vojta is a master in violin play, who focuses not only on music but also deals with problems of his origin Roman nationality. Vojta is very active in media - he worked in the national radio and television, he worked in the NGO that organize street work for Roman ghettos around the Czech republic, Vojta worked also as a social worker. All together we can watch him struggling with the main topic of his life - his national minority and problems that are caused by living next to Czech majority. Aside this topic films discovers Vojta's private life and his fight for being a good musician and a good man.
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.
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.
Unorthodox

2013

Unorthodox

2013
At sixteen, Anna Wexler had broken away from her Orthodox Jewish community in New Jersey, rejecting its religious doctrine and social restrictions, and severing ties to her family. This led to her running away from home, sleeping on the streets, and experimenting with sex and drugs with friends who had also left the Orthodox world. However, after studying in Israel, her friends had a change of heart and returned to the fold. Feeling betrayed, Anna launches a quest to understand their transformation by following three rebellious Jewish teenagers in their yearlong rite-of-passage journey from high school to Israel. Along the way, Anna is forced back to the roots of her own struggle to understand the meaning of faith and the essence of religion and identity.
The Longest Wave

2019

The Longest Wave

2019
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger travels the globe with legendary windsurfer and pioneering waterman Robby Naish, a 24-time world champion whose quest to master the world's longest waves unexpectedly reveals his vulnerabilities as a competitor, mentor and father. THE LONGEST WAVE transcends the action sports genre by capturing obstacles outside of the legendary athlete's professional life in an intimate, cinéma-vérité style, revealing Naish balancing the pursuit of excellence at sea with the demands of life's complications on land.
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.
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.
The Art of Francis Bacon

2007

The Art of Francis Bacon

2007
This film explores many of his key canvases which have been newly filmed in HDTV. The works are complemented solely with Bacon’s own words, recorded by Derek Jacobi. The artist’s biography is outlined, but the focus is on his ideas: his thoughts about his work, his reflections about how and why he paints. The result is a rigorous and revealing portrait of one of the few artists who has truly changed the way we see and understand ourselves.