Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 281

Witness to Revolution: The Story of Anna Louise Strong

1984

Witness to Revolution: The Story of Anna Louise Strong

1984
The daughter of a Nebraska minister, Anna Louise Strong earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Chicago. But it was in the Pacific Northwest, where she witnessed the 1916 Everett massacre and chronicled the 1919 Seattle General Strike, that her political vision took shape. In Moscow she helped found the first English language newspaper, in Spain her many visits resulted in her book, Spain in Arms; and in China she interviewed Mao in a Yan'an cave in 1946. She is buried in Beijing in a special cemetery for martyrs of the revolution.
Talent Has Hunger

2016

Talent Has Hunger

2016
Documentary about the influence that master cello player Paul Katz has on four gifted cello players over the space of several years. It explores how music can influence and enhance the lives of both the teacher and his students.
Living At Risk

1985

Living At Risk

1985
Originally broadcast on PBS, the film features the Barrios, a middle-class family both activated and fractured by the conflict. Instead of fleeing their country, the siblings are guided by a religious and socialist desire to help those most vulnerable and destitute, mostly peasants in the rural areas.
The Uncomfortable Truth

2018

The Uncomfortable Truth

2018
When the award-winning filmmaker of "An Ordinary Hero", Loki Mulholland, dives into the 400 year history of institutional racism in America he is confronted with the shocking reality that his family helped start it all from the very beginning.
Nelson Algren: The End Is Nothing, the Road Is All...

2015

Nelson Algren: The End Is Nothing, the Road Is All...

2015
An in-depth feature length documentary of one of America's greatest and least understood authors, Nelson Algren. This never before told compelling life story reveals a unique literary voice through rare interviews, archival footage and the gritty noirish voice of Algren on Algren. Kurt Vonnegut and Studs Terkel, literary giants in their own right, sing songs of praise along with many of his old friends, which makes this film seem like a hymn from the grave. This stylishly produced film embeds us in the 1950's cold war world when Algren worked. Algren's touching love affair with Simone de Beauvoir weaves it's way through the film along with the damaging impact of FBI and CIA surveillance.
Jandamarra's War

2011

Jandamarra's War

2011
In Jandamarra's War, we learn how in the 1890's the European colonialists arrive in the Kimberley with vast herds of sheep and cattle, determined to make their fortune by feeding a rapidly growing population in the South. But the settlers soon discover they are in land populated with indigenous tribes, ready to fight the red-faced invaders.
Resilience

2018

Resilience

2018
People born in Russia in 1917 tell about their fate. Deep personal memories of long-livers add up to the history of the country of the last century.
Bei Bei

2018

Bei Bei

2018
A legal and political drama with two extraordinary women at its center: one, a Chinese immigrant charged with first degree murder and the other, a successful white collar lawyer who unwittingly finds herself defending a woman against legally unprecedented charges.
South Korea: Success at all Costs

2016

South Korea: Success at all Costs

2016
With their long working hours, cultural obsession with productivity, and high-stakes schooling system, South Koreans live life in the fast lane. Everyone has the same aim: to be successful and to beat the competition. Thanks in part to this hard...
You Have Struck a Rock!

1981

You Have Struck a Rock!

1981
You Have Struck A Rock! commemorates the special contribution of South African women to the success of the anti-apartheid struggle. It recovers the remarkable "women's campaigns" of the 1950s against the hated pass system. This massive, non-violent civil disobedience movement was only finally crushed by the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and the banning of anti-apartheid organizations. Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Dora Tamana and other leaders recall this struggle and their imprisonment and banning. Yet they remain undaunted, demonstrating the South African proverb: "When you have touched a woman, you have struck a rock."
Welcome to Shelbyville

2011

Welcome to Shelbyville

2011
Set in America's rural south, on the eve of the recent election a town deals with issues of immigrant integration and reckons with its segregated past.
Behold the Earth

2017

Behold the Earth

2017
The 1960s environmental movement inspired young scientists like E.O. Wilson, Cal DeWitt, and Theo Colborn, some of whom were raised within America’s largest religious group: evangelicals. Today, a new generation of scientist/evangelicals includes Katharine Hayhoe, Ben Lowe, and Corina Newsome. Can this new generation revive the reach and relevance of America's evangelical and environmental movements?
Zulay, Facing the 21st Century

1989

Zulay, Facing the 21st Century

1989
Made over a span of eight years, this documentary is structured as a conversation between anthropologist Mabel Prelorán and Zulay Saravino, who has left her Ecuadorian mountain village to explore opportunities in Los Angeles. Working the land and making textiles to sell, Zulay’s industrious family sent all of their daughters to school — at the time an unusual move in Quinchuqui — and raised an intelligent, independent daughter whose literacy, business sense and introduction to the Preloráns led her to try her luck in the States. Devoted to her village, she relates a mesmerizing account of Otavaleñan traditions and reflects on her experiences in the US.
Animals in Action

1955

Animals in Action

1955
The profession of capturing animals in action on celluloid is both an art and science. Some of the most exciting footage can be obtained in different ways. Examples are: a large herd, such as of reindeer, moving as one; slow motion footage of fast moving animals, such as racing greyhounds, especially when they do something unexpected; mothers and their newborn offspring doing what comes naturally; animals placed among special props; animals placed in human situations; combining the exciting and dangerous, such as the running of the bulls in Pamplona and the bullfights to follow; placing animals that are not natural companions together; and placing animals in the situation of a challenge, such as a bunch of bananas just out of reach of a hungry monkey. Many of these elements are combined into the final sequence of a steeplechase race.
Tiger Spirit

2008

Tiger Spirit

2008
Korea is a divided nation. Filmmaker Min Sook Lee sets out on a revelatory, emotion-charged journey into Korea’s broken heart, exploring the rhetoric and realism of reunification through the extraordinary stories of ordinary people.
Straws

2017

Straws

2017
STRAWS is a short documentary about plastic straw litter and how we can make a sea of change...one straw at a time.
Beauty

2018

Beauty

2018
In a world of fixed positions and prescribed roles, expanding the definition of gender requires the courage to dive deep into understanding and acceptance. Written and directed by Christina Willings, Beauty explores the lives of five gender-creative kids, each uniquely engaged in shaping their ideas of what it means to be fully human. Claiming your own sense of gender when everything around you insists that you comply and conform can be challenging, and sometimes scary—but family and friends are there to help. Free-flowing animated elements, ranging from images of octopuses to astronauts, draw together the kids’ shared experiences in beautifully rendered fantasias that celebrate the power of imagination and the flourishing force of self-determination. Playful, goofy, loving and brave, each of these remarkable young people—including Ladner, B.C.’s transgender advocate Tru Wilson—have found their own way to break free and show the world what it really means to be your true self.
Witches in Exile

2004

Witches in Exile

2004
In Ghana, women accused of witchcraft are torn from their families and banished to isolated "witch villages." This film follows accused witches through their daily struggle to survive in the Kukuo Witches Camp in Northern Ghana. As government agencies attempt to abolish this age-old tradition, these women find themselves caught between their society's deeply rooted beliefs and its drive toward modernization. Witches in Exile captures a country at a dramatic and emotional crossroads.
Controlling Interest

1978

Controlling Interest

1978
The first account on film of the growth of multinational corporations, their impact on people at home and abroad, and their influence on U.S. foreign policy. This is the film that helped kick-off the anti-globalization movement. Upon release, it quickly became a standard "audio-visual text" for those concerned about the growing impact of multinational corporations on global affairs. The film examines how the ever-increasing concentration and velocity of capital affect employment in the U.S., shape patterns of development in the Third World, and influence our nation's foreign policy.
Kamp Katrina

2007

Kamp Katrina

2007
Kamp Katrina, a cinéma vérité documentary, follows the in-depth lives of a small group of people who have taken refuge in a garden transformed into a tent city by an extraordinary New Orleans couple, Ms. Pearl and her husband, David. Carnivalesque Films latest documentary uses tragedy as a tool to clarify and illuminate the chaos and madness of life. This film has no political targets; instead, it focuses on the struggle of these individuals to pick up their lives and face responsibilities in the face of loss, grief, and hope.