Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 292

Butoh: Piercing the Mask

1991

Butoh: Piercing the Mask

1991
This documentary pierces the mystery and mystique of a dance movement adored by the West and largely ignored by the Japanese. It uses archival and modern footage of leading Butoh performers and interviews Butoh specialists to throw light on the essential Butoh themes of darkness, violence and eroticism to get to the core of the nature of Butoh.
COINTELPRO 101

2010

COINTELPRO 101

2010
COINTELPRO 101 exposes illegal surveillance, disruption, and outright murder committed by the US government in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. “COINTELPRO” refers to the official FBI COunter INTELigence PROgram carried out to surveil, imprison, and eliminate leaders of social justice movements and to disrupt, divide, and destroy the movements as well. Many of the government's crimes are still unknown. Through interviews with activists who experienced these abuses first-hand, with rare historical footage, the film provides an educational introduction to a period of intense repression and draws relevant lessons for the present and future.
The Other Side of the Moon

1990

The Other Side of the Moon

1990
The Other Side of the Moon features eight Apollo astronauts who intimately share their experience of going to the moon, describing what happened to them while they were there, and how their lives have been shaped by the experience in the 20 years after.
Remember Pearl Harbor

2016

Remember Pearl Harbor

2016
Narrated by veteran Hollywood actor Tom Selleck, REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR chronicles the personal stories of veterans and citizens who witnessed the surprise attack by the Japanese on the American Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941, launching the United States into World War II. Using archival footage and photos and graphics, the documentary shows in detail the bombings on Oahu, along with the fiery explosion of the USS Arizona, the sinking of the USS Oklahoma, and the attacks on Hickam Field, as well as on other parts of the island. REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR documents the 75th anniversary, the tragic events and the courageous acts of those who were in or near Pearl Harbor on that day.
Dare to Drum

2015

Dare to Drum

2015
This film speaks to the uniquely inherent traits that drummers and percussionists possess as natural explorers of music and sound, and how this particular story explores the challenge of translating foreign voices of percussive expression into the dialect of a Western classical orchestra setting. Five accomplished percussionists, Drum, and a rock star composer, Stewart Copeland, come together with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to create a groundbreaking work.
Unbreathable

2015

Unbreathable

2015
From Paris to Beijing, atmospheric pollution is already killing millions every year. A major documentary, which charts its greatest harmful effects across the world.
Tania Libre

2017

Tania Libre

2017
In 2015 reknown Cuban artist Tania Bruguera was imprisoned in Havana after advocating for freedom of expression. Shortly after her release she returned to the United States and located Dr. Frank M. Ochberg, the founding father of trauma therapy, particularly PTSD and Stockholm Syndrome. The filmed therapy sessions between them exposes an intimate yet profound analysis of Cuba, surveillance and the politics in of repression embedded in government and family structures.
19 Days

2016

19 Days

2016
This short documentary follows several refugee families during their first 19 days in Canada, as they navigate an unfamiliar terrain that has suddenly become their home. Located in the quiet Calgary neighbourhood of Bridgeland, the Margaret Chisholm Resettlement Centre is the starting point for government-assisted refugees who arrive in the city. During the 19-day timeline established by the federal government, an initial assessment is done and refugees are assisted with everything from airport reception and orientation to referrals, documents, and counselling. 19 Days reveals the human side of the refugee resettlement process. A unique look at the global migration crisis and one particular stage of asylum, it lays plain the realities faced on the difficult road towards integration.
Vince Giordano: There's a Future in the Past

2017

Vince Giordano: There's a Future in the Past

2017
Bandleader Vince Giordano keeps the Jazz Age alive with his 11-member band The Nighthawks, vintage musical instruments, and a collection of more than 60,000 original arrangements from the 1920s and '30s.
How to Prepare for Prison

2016

How to Prepare for Prison

2016
Through stories fuelled by fear, regret, defiance and redemption, How To Prepare For Prison takes a unique and intimate look at people caught in the legal system and facing prison for the first time.
Bogalusa Charm

2017

Bogalusa Charm

2017
A contemporary portrait of a small Louisiana town created at the site of the world’s largest lumber mill. Captured here in its last days after thirty years, Miss Dixie Gallaspy conducts a charm school for girls in order to teach the young women of Bogalusa the social graces and skills that would guide them into “Ladyhood”. Dixie’s week long school, in a town confronted with many challenges (including a legacy of racial conflict and financial dissipation) preserves fragments of a world that may already be lost.
From Business to Being

2017

From Business to Being

2017
These days, employees find themselves under enormous pressure. Disorders such as burn-out and depression are not uncommon. A manager, a mediation coach and a quantum physicist offer their approaches to counteract this trend.
Sanctuary

2017

Sanctuary

2017
Donkeys inhabit and communicate with each other - and the filmmakers - in a Sanctuary.
Horst

1988

Horst

1988
We enter the life of Horst, and see the world of fashion photography evolve from the 1930s to the 1980s through his work and stories.
With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right in America

2004

With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right in America

2004
With God on Our Side… is an excessive title about Christian church fundamentalism and how, like the Taliban, religious groups feel a God given right to institute a society of specific religious beliefs that not everyone shares.
Gray Matters

2016

Gray Matters

2016
Gray Matters explores the long, fascinating life and complicated career of architect and designer Eileen Gray, whose uncompromising vision defined and defied the practice of modernism in decoration, design and architecture. Making a reputation with her traditional lacquer work in the first decade of the 20th century, she became a critically acclaimed and sought after designer and decorator in the next before reinventing herself as an architect, a field in which she laboured largely in obscurity. Apart from the accolades that greeted her first building –persistently and perversely credited to her mentor–her pioneering work was done quietly, privately and to her own specifications. But she lived long enough (98) to be re-discovered and acclaimed. Today, with her work commanding extraordinary prices and attention, her legacy, like its creator, remains elusive, contested and compelling.
Jean Genet: An Interview with Antoine Bourseiller

1981

Jean Genet: An Interview with Antoine Bourseiller

1981
An interview with artist, playwright, and political activist Jean Genet.
The First Silent Night: The Christmas Carol That United the World

2014

The First Silent Night: The Christmas Carol That United the World

2014
Renowned actor Simon Callow traces the 200-year history of Silent Night, traveling to Oberndorf and Salzburg to uncover the carol’s humble beginnings. The film follows the lives of Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber, two impoverished Austrian children whose paths converged in a small church, where Gruber’s melody joined Mohr’s lyrics to create the world’s most beloved carol. Born from hardship and hope after the Napoleonic wars, Silent Night transformed a quiet night’s story into a universal message of peace.
What Was Ours

2016

What Was Ours

2016
Like millions of indigenous people, many Native American tribes do not control their own material history and culture. For the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes living on the isolated Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, new contact with lost artifacts risks opening old wounds but also offers the possibility for healing. What Was Ours is the story of how a young journalist and a teenage powwow princess, both of the Arapaho tribe, travelled together with a Shoshone elder in search of missing artifacts in the vast archives of Chicago’s Field Museum. There they discover a treasure trove of ancestral objects, setting them on a journey to recover what has been lost and build hope for the future.
Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird

2011

Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird

2011
In this full-length documentary, Mary Murphy explores the enduring power, popularity & mystery that is Harper Lee. She interviews Oprah Winfrey, Wally Lamb Anna Quindlen, James McBride and others, and with rare cooperation from Harper Lee’s family and friends tells the story of a novel that became an American classic. In the newest edition of the film, Harper Lee from Mockingbird to Watchman, Murphy examines the rediscovered novel and its place alongside To Kill A Mockingbird.