Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 30

Examined Life

2008

Examined Life

2008
6.5
Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms, and puts it back on the streets. Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy's power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it.
The Rape of Europa

2007

The Rape of Europa

2007
7.4
World War II was not just the most destructive conflict in humanity, it was also the greatest theft in history: lives, families, communities, property, culture and heritage were all stolen. The story of Nazi Germany's plundering of Europe's great works of art during World War II and Allied efforts to minimize the damage.
The Magic Pill

2017

The Magic Pill

2017
6.9
Doctors, scientists and chefs around the globe combat illness with dietary changes, believing fat should be embraced as a source of fuel.
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection

2018

John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection

2018
6.3
An immersive film essay on tennis legend John McEnroe at the height of his career as the world champion, documenting his strive for perfection, frustrations, and the hardest loss of his career at the 1984 Roland-Garros French Open.
The Russian Revolution

2017

The Russian Revolution

2017
6.3
Starting in 1881 this film shows the personal battle between Lenin's Ulyanov family and the royal Romanovs that eventually led to the Russian revolution.
Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness

2017

Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness

2017
6.8
The 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games were a grueling five-day, 15-event test to find the fittest man and woman on Earth. "Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness" follows the dramatic story of the top athletes who qualified and competed and offers an inside look at what it takes to be among the world's elite athletes, both in training and on the competition floor. The CrossFit Games challenge competitors to perform intense physical tasks, but the hardest part is sometimes mental. Athletes often learn the details of the events only minutes before they begin, and everyone handles the pressure differently. Which of these fierce competitors will rise to the top and earn the title of Fittest on Earth?
Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives

2015

Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives

2015
8
Exploring the social impact of what The Source Magazine in 1998 voted, "The Best Hip Hop Radio Show Of All-Time." The documentary film is the story of quirky friends who became unlikely legends by engaging their listeners and breaking the biggest rap artists ever.
Fresh Dressed

2015

Fresh Dressed

2015
6.4
The history of Hip-Hop / Urban fashion and its rise from southern cotton plantations to the gangs of 1970s in the South Bronx, to corporate America, and everywhere in-between. Supported by rich archival materials and in-depth interviews with individuals crucial to the evolution of a way of life--and the outsiders who studied and admired them – Fresh Dressed goes to the core of where style was born on the black and brown side of town.
At Berkeley

2013

At Berkeley

2013
6.7
Direct cinema pioneer Frederick Wiseman takes an in-depth look at the preeminent American university during a fall semester that saw a vigorous debate taking place over tuition hikes, budget cuts, and the future of higher education in the United States.
The Arrested Development Documentary Project

2013

The Arrested Development Documentary Project

2013
5.7
Featuring interviews from major cast and crew members, along with 200 fans from across the country, this documentary tells the whole story of this amazing and one of a kind tv show.
I Dream of Wires

2014

I Dream of Wires

2014
6.5
An independent documentary film about the phenomenal resurgence of the modular synthesizer — exploring the passions, obsessions and dreams of people who have dedicated part of their lives to this esoteric electronic music machine. Inventors, musicians, and enthusiasts are interviewed about their relationship with the modular synthesizer — for many, it's an all-consuming passion.
Approved for Adoption

2012

Approved for Adoption

2012
7.3
This remarkable animated documentary traces the unconventional upbringing of the filmmaker Jung Henin, one of thousands of Korean children adopted by Western families after the end of the Korean War. It is the story of a boy stranded between two cultures. Animated vignettes – some humorous and some poetic – track Jung from the day he first meet his new blond siblings, through elementary school, and into his teenage years, when his emerging sense of identity begins to create fissures at home and ignite the latent biases of his adoptive parents. The filmmaker tells his story using his own animation intercut with snippets of super-8 family footage and archival film. The result is an animated memoir like no other: clear-eyed and unflinching, humorous, and above all, inspiring in the capacity of the human heart.
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners

2012

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners

2012
7.1
The story of how, in 1970, the social activism of young UCLA philosophy professor Angela Davis led her to become involved in a failed kidnapping attempt that ended in a shootout, four deaths, and her name on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

1968

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

1968
7.4
Also known as Walden, Jonas Mekas’s first diary film is a six-reel chronicle of his life in 1960s New York, interweaving moments with family, friends, lovers, and artistic idols. Blending everyday encounters with portraits of the avant-garde art scene, it forms an epic, personal meditation on community, creativity, and the passage of time.
On the Bowery

1957

On the Bowery

1957
6.6
A mix of documentary and scripted footage on the Bowery, New York City's skid row. Against a backdrop of men (and a few women) drinking in bars, talking and arguing, and sleeping on sidewalks, we have the story of Ray.
Why We Fight: The Nazis Strike

1943

Why We Fight: The Nazis Strike

1943
6.3
The second film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series. It introduces Germany as a nation whose aggressive ambitions began in 1863 with Otto von Bismarck and the Nazis as its latest incarnation.
Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place

2011

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place

2011
6.9
A freewheeling portrait of Ken Kesey and the Merry Prankster’s fabled road trip across America in the legendary Magic Bus. In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair. He was joined by “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and the driver and painter of the psychedelic Magic Bus.
Sweetgrass

2009

Sweetgrass

2009
6.8
An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana's breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture, revealing a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.
Comic Book Confidential

1989

Comic Book Confidential

1989
6.6
A survey of the artistic history of the comic book medium and some of the major talents associated with it.
Beautiful Losers

2008

Beautiful Losers

2008
6.4
This documentary follows the lives and careers of a collective group of do-it-yourself artists and designers who inadvertently affected the art world.