Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 284

Standing Up

2018

Standing Up

2018
An ultra-Orthodox Jew, a couch surfing custodian, and a personal injury lawyer - risk everything to find their voices on the cutthroat New York comedy scene.
Snowbirds

2018

Snowbirds

2018
Every year, thousands of Quebecers flock south to escape the harsh winters. Using a quirky Wes Anderson–inspired aesthetic, Snowbirds examines their hibernation destination: the French-speaking community of Hallandale Beach in Florida. There we meet characters like Agathe, affectionately nicknamed "Aunty" by the other seniors, an 88-year-old Quebecoise who eats chocolate bars and drinks Pepsi for lunch. Her secret to a pill-free old age? A fanatical worship of the sun. Many others come for the same reason, and together their days at this campground community are dictated by English conversation classes, jaunts to the beach and afternoon lawn bowling. With lots of tenderness and good humour, the film considers the joys and woes of aging, the importance of community and American-Canadian cultural differences.
The United States of Detroit

2017

The United States of Detroit

2017
This is a film about the power and necessity of community action in Detroit, and the street level solutions that residents there are finding to make a way in the biggest city in our nation to ever go bust.
Snack Bar Special

1990

Snack Bar Special

1990
The lower level of Lichtenberg Station in Belin in early October 1989: the beginning of the end for the GDR. In the snack bar, the staff are catering for travellers of every kind while in the background the authorities maintain a flow of triumphal statements, but those months between August and October come to feel like sitting out the death throes. Careful observation of people and their work as the current of history suddenly becomes perceptible.
Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground

2018

Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground

2018
The 29-minute experimental film Christmas on Earth caused a sensation when it first screened in New York City in 1964. Its orgy scenes, double projections and overlapping images shattered artistic conventions and announced a powerful new voice in the city's underground film scene. All the more remarkable, that vision belonged to a teenager, 18-year-old Barbara Rubin. A Zelig of the '60s, she introduced Andy Warhol to the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan to Kabbalah and bewitched Allen Ginsberg. The same unbridled creativity that inspired her to make films when women simply didn't, saw her breach yet another male domain, Orthodox Judaism, before her mysterious death at 35. Lifelong friend Jonas Mekas saved all her letters, creating a rich archive that filmmaker Chuck Smith carefully sculpts into this fascinating portrait of a nearly forgotten artist. An avante-garde maverick, a rebel in a man's world, Barbara Rubin regains her rightful place in film history.
Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank!

2008

Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank!

2008
An obsessively-made documentary, filmed over 16 years, exploring the creative life and adventures of the eccentric artist and entrepreneur Harrod Blank. From his youth growing up in the woods with chickens and working as a camera assistant for his father- the venerable film-maker Les Blank- to the creation of his first attention-getting artcar, to his current multi-faceted career as creator and head of a nationwide art car movement, all the while pursuing his visions of non-conformity. Featuring interviews with his girl-friends, his mom, his brother, his raconteur lifelong pal, Kevin, as well as Blank’s own painful yet hilarious self-examinations. With special appearances by Les Blank and many fine art car artists. “The pressure to conform is incredible, ” says Blank, “but I don’t care what other people think. The reason I’m alive is to create.”
The Land Beneath Our Feet

2016

The Land Beneath Our Feet

2016
The Land Beneath Our Feet follows a young Liberian man, uprooted by war, who returns from the USA with never-before-seen footage of Liberia’s past. The uncovered footage is embraced as a national treasure. Depicting a 1926 corporate land grab, it is also an explosive reminder of eroding land rights.
Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice

1989

Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice

1989
Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice documents the dramatic life and turbulent times of the pioneering African American journalist, activist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader of the post-Reconstruction period. Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison reads selections from Wells' memoirs and other writings in this winner of more than 20 film festival awards.
Critical Mass

2013

Critical Mass

2013
Things aren't looking good for the world's population; as we multiply at an alarming rate there is not enough food, space... or sense. This intelligent film interweaves a fascinating 1960s rat experiment by Dr. John B. Calhoun with a slick snapshot of today's urban jungle.
Bipolarized: Rethinking Mental Illness

2014

Bipolarized: Rethinking Mental Illness

2014
BIPOLARIZED is about one man's personal journey to heal. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Ross' psychiatrist told him he would live with the disorder for the rest of his life and that he would have to take lithium to control symptoms. To Ross, taking the drug daily felt like a chemical lobotomy, leaving him in a foggy, drug-induced haze. Ross ultimately decided to resolve his symptoms outside of conventional medicine. He progressively reduced his use of the psychotropic drug lithium, at an experimental clinic in Costa Rica. What ensued was a self-exploration into alternative treatments to treat his condition and a journey delving into the root cause of his mental breakdown. The film uses Ross' personal experiences to tell a larger story about medication. It will reveal how we are labelling more and more people with mental illnesses and how, in tandem, we are prescribing more and more toxic psychotropic drugs to treat these illnesses.
Skin Deep

1995

Skin Deep

1995
A multi-racial group of college students in a weekend racial sensitivity workshop discuss affirmative action, self-segregation, internalized racism and cultural identity. The film continues as they return to their campuses (University of Massachusetts, Texas A&M, Chico State, and U.C. Berkeley) and visit home.
The Registry

2020

The Registry

2020
Breaks open the hidden history of the U.S. Armyʼs Military Intelligence Service (MIS) during World War II – a story made possible because of a few aging veterans with a little Internet savvy and a lot of determination. Thereʼs little doubt the 7,000 soldiers of the Military Intelligence Service helped shorten World War II by as much as two years. They were fluent in Japanese. They were interrogators, interpreters and linguists. But who were they? With documents classified and buried in government vaults, historians struggled to tell the MIS story. “The Registry” profiles surviving MIS veterans Seiki Oshiro and Grant Ichikawa and other vets who help tell the unitʼs story.
Last Days of Chinatown

2017

Last Days of Chinatown

2017
Detroit's Cass Corridor, one of the roughest areas in the city for the past 100 years, is experiencing a complete overhaul, as long-awaited development finally sweeps the area. Long known as a center of drugs and prostitution, and also once home to a thriving Chinese enclave, it’s now peppered with boutique shops, new bars and restaurants and the just-debuted Little Caesars Arena. This feature from noted Detroit artist Nicole Macdonald mixes a personal, journalistic and historic approach as it looks at who and what remains in the Corridor. We hear how residents survived, and how they sometimes didn't, as gentrification redefines the space.
Water and the Dream of the Engineers

1983

Water and the Dream of the Engineers

1983
Documentary where rich social history frames a spirited debate on the development of water infrastructure throughout the USA.
Through Korean Cinema

2010

Through Korean Cinema

2010
Discover the roots of Korean cinema. A cinema who surprised by the success recorded in the major international festivals. Interviews to five famous Korean directors, to get to know closely the evolution of Korean cinema. Through their words, their pictures and their stories. The Korean cinema has tendency to describe both the society, the past and the modern. The world of west cinema knows these directors through the journey of some of their movies. What do we know about their thoughts, their life, their culture and their way of working? The documentary focus on it.
Paper Lanterns

2016

Paper Lanterns

2016
A Japanese man's quest to memorialize the 12 American POWs who were killed by the Hiroshima blast.
That Way Madness Lies...

2017

That Way Madness Lies...

2017
One woman and her family trek the broken mental health system in an effort to save her brother as he descends into madness. Beginning as a testimony of his sanity, his iPhone video diary ultimately becomes an unfiltered look at the mind of an untreated schizophrenic.
Intelligent Lives

2018

Intelligent Lives

2018
Three pioneering young adults with intellectual disabilities - Micah, Naieer, and Naomie - challenge perceptions of intelligence as they navigate high school, college, and the workforce.
In the Name of Love

2003

In the Name of Love

2003
Several young "Russian mail order brides" are followed over a three year period as they meet, date, and, in some cases, marry the American men who found them through some of the 80 to 100 "Russian Mail Order Bride" agencies now available in the US and the former Soviet Union.
Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian

2018

Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian

2018
Charles Alexander Eastman was a renowned physician, author, lecturer and Native American rights advocate. His life has been documented in various articles throughout history, but Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian makes for a truly unique effort—a project helmed by Eastman’s descendants. Kate Beane and her family bring Eastman’s story to screen, charting from his childhood growing to his education to his illustrious career.