Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 50

Fifi Howls from Happiness

2013

Fifi Howls from Happiness

2013
6.8
Bahman Mohassess was a celebrated artist at the time of the Shah. Trained in Italy, he created sculptures and paintings in his homeland. But audiences often took offence at the pronounced phalli on his mostly naked bronze figures and his work was regularly censored. All traces of him were lost after the revolution. It was said he destroyed his remaining paintings and disappeared.
Blue Eyed

1996

Blue Eyed

1996
7.1
In only 15 minutes with some 30 people Jane Elliott manages to build up a realistic microcosmos of society today with all its phenomena and feelings. As already known from the ill reputed Milgram experiment, even participants who knew the "rules" are unable to remain uninvolved. What starts as a game turns into cruel reality which causes some participants' emotions to erupt with unforeseen intensity
Commune

2005

Commune

2005
5.9
In 1968, Elsa and Richard Marley founded an alternative-living community, named Black Bear, in the remote Northern California wilderness with the motto "Free Land for Free People." This film tells the story of that intended utopia. Through archival footage and interviews with former residents, director Jonathan Berman explores the problems and realities of communal living and the evolution of a community that endured FBI harassment, cult leadership and more.
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender

1997

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender

1997
5.2
A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift those veils, one by one, to find how images, at one time seeming innocent, have revealed, after decades, to have homosexual overtones.
Fame High

2012

Fame High

2012
6.6
Everyone dreams of fame. From the nail-biting freshman auditions to the spectacular year-end performances, Fame High captures the in-class and at-home drama, competition, heartbreak, and triumph during one school year at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, also known as Fame High.
Bear Nation

2010

Bear Nation

2010
5.5
Filmmaker Malcolm Ingram takes you on a fascinating journey inside a fast growing segment of the gay community where what was once a perceived negative is now redefining the definition of what it looks like to be gay.
Vito

2011

Vito

2011
7.4
In the aftermath of Stonewall, a newly politicized Vito Russo found his voice as a gay activist and critic of LGBTQ+ representation in the media. He went on to write "The Celluloid Closet", the first book to critique Hollywood's portrayals of gays on screen. During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Vito became a passionate advocate for justice via the newly formed ACT UP, before his death in 1990.
Jobriath A.D.

2012

Jobriath A.D.

2012
7.1
Called "The American Bowie," "The True Fairy of Rock & Roll" and "Hype of the Year," Jobriath's reign as the first openly gay rock star was brief and over by 1975. Now, 35 years later, "Jobriath A.D." spotlights his life, music, groundbreaking influence and the new generations of fans slowly re-discovering him.
Informant

2013

Informant

2013
5.1
Vilified by some and venerated by others as the FBI informant largely responsible for the imprisonment of two youths following the 2008 Republican National Convention, Darby was once a charismatic activist mythologized by the American Left for his daredevil aid work in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Informant meticulously constructs a portrait of his life—before and after the death threats—through intimate interviews with Darby and tense reenactments starring the man himself.
Derek

2008

Derek

2008
5.7
Derek, in chronological order, records the work and life that stands at the foot of Derek Jarman's humour and spirit of being an artist. The filmmaker and actress, Isaac Julien and Tilda Swinton respectively, have produced and narrated a film on his life whereby the use of language is perpetuated to give some type of palpable meaning to British audiences alone, and to their own personal relationship with him.
Target for Tonight

1941

Target for Tonight

1941
5.8
This is the authentic story of a bombing raid on Germany... how it is planned and how it is executed. Every person seen in the picture is a member of the Royal Air Force from Commander-in-Chief to aircraft hand, re-enacting his own daily life on the job. They are the men and women who actually direct, plan and execute the raids.
This Is Cinerama

1952

This Is Cinerama

1952
5.7
Designed to introduce the then-new widescreen process Cinerama, audiences experience the roller coaster at Rockaways' Playland, the temple dance from Aida, Niagara Falls, a Viennese choir, the canals of Venice, a military tattoo in Edinburgh, a bullfight, and more. The film concludes with a view from the nose of a low-flying B-25 while America the Beautiful plays.
All Boys

2009

All Boys

2009
4.1
A look behind the scenes of the Czech gay porn boom.
Sushi: The Global Catch

2012

Sushi: The Global Catch

2012
5.9
A look at the global sushi phenomenon and how the hunger for Blue Fin Tuna is impacting the ocean's stock.
Sons of Perdition

2010

Sons of Perdition

2010
6.8
An inside look at polygamist teens who have become religious refugees in mainstream America.
Khodorkovsky

2011

Khodorkovsky

2011
4.6
Khodorkovsky, the richest Russian, challenges President Putin. A fight of the titans begins. Putin warns him. But Khodorkovsky comes back to Russia knowing that he will be imprisoned, once he returns. When I heard about it, I asked myself: why didn't he stay in exile with a couple of billions? Why did he do that? A personal journey to Khodorkovsky.
The Net

2003

The Net

2003
6
More of a film essay - of the type pioneered by Orson Welles and Chris Marker - than a standard documentary, German filmmaker Lutz Dammbeck's The Net: The Unabomber, the LSD and the Internet begins with the typical format and structure of a nonfiction film, and a single subject (the life and times of mail bomber Ted Kaczynski). From that thematic springboard, Dammbeck branches out omnidirectionally, segueing into a series of thematic riffs and variants on such marginally-related subjects as: the history of cyberspace, terrorism, utopian ideals, LSD, the Central Intelligence Agency, and Cuckoo's Nest author Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters.
The Thorn in the Heart

2009

The Thorn in the Heart

2009
5.9
Michel Gondry chronicles the life of Gondry family matriarch, his aunt Suzette Gondry, and her relationship with her son, Jean-Yves.
Morning Sun

2003

Morning Sun

2003
7.4
The film Morning Sun attempts in the space of a two-hour documentary film to create an inner history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). It provides a multi-perspective view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes—and reflected in the hearts and minds—of members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating in the film’s conversation about the period and the psycho-emotional topography of high-Maoist China, as well as the enduring legacy of that period.
Blank City

2011

Blank City

2011
7
In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.