Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 64

Queen Mimi

2016

Queen Mimi

2016
7.3
Forced onto the streets in her 50s, Marie found "home" at a Santa Monica laundromat. Taking shelter there for 20 years, Mimi's passion for pink, and living without looking back, has taken her from homelessness to Hollywood's red carpets.
Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise

2015

Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise

2015
6.6
Using only archive film and a new musical score by the band Mogwai, Mark Cousins presents an impressionistic kaleidoscope of our nuclear times – protest marches, Cold War sabre-rattling, Chernobyl and Fukishima – but also the sublime beauty of the atomic world, and how x-rays and MRI scans have improved human lives. The nuclear age has been a nightmare, but dreamlike too.
Packed In A Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson

2015

Packed In A Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson

2015
7.6
The story of artist Edith Lake Wilkinson, a painter who was committed to an asylum in 1924 and never heard from again. All her worldly possessions were packed into trunks and shipped to a relative in West Virginia where they sat in an attic for 40 years. Edith's great-niece, Emmy Award winning writer and director Jane Anderson, grew up surrounded by Edith's paintings, thanks to her mother who had gone poking through that dusty attic and rescued Edith's work. The film follows Jane in her decades-long journey to find the answers to the mystery of Edith's buried life, return the work to Provincetown and have Edith's contributions recognized by the larger art world.
10 Billion: What's On Your Plate

2015

10 Billion: What's On Your Plate

2015
6.7
How can we best meet every earth citizens need for healthy food facing our limited resources? Regarding the almost 10 billion humans living on earth by 2050, we have to decide now how we want to shape the future of agriculture.
A Sinner in Mecca

2015

A Sinner in Mecca

2015
5.8
For a gay filmmaker, filming in Saudi Arabia presents two serious challenges: filming is forbidden in the country and homosexuality is punishable by death. For filmmaker Parvez Sharma, however, these were risks he had to assume as he embarked on his Hajj pilgrimage, a journey considered the greatest accomplishment and aspiration within Islam, his religion. On his journey Parvez aims to look beyond 21st-century Islam’s crises of religious extremism, commercialism and sectarian battles. He brings back the story of the religion like it has never been told before, having endured the biggest jihad there is: the struggle with the self.
PlantPure Nation

2015

PlantPure Nation

2015
7.9
Three people try to start a pilot program to document the health benefits of a plant-based diet.
Breaking a Monster

2015

Breaking a Monster

2015
3.2
As seventh-graders, band members of Unlocking The Truth spend their weekends playing metal music in Times Square—often to substantial crowds. After signing with a 70-year-old manager, they are soon on their way to a $1.8 million record deal.
Return to the Wild: The Chris McCandless Story

2014

Return to the Wild: The Chris McCandless Story

2014
6.2
Twenty years ago, a young American hiker named Chris McCandless, the accomplished son of successful middle class parents, was found dead in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness and became the subject of the best-selling book and movie “Into the Wild.” Now, PBS retraces Chris McCandless’ steps to try to piece together why he severed all ties with his past, burnt or gave away all his money, changed his name and headed into the Denali Wilderness. McCandless' own letters, released for the first time, as well as new and surprising interviews, probe the mystery that still lies at the heart of a story that has become part of the American literary canon and compels so many to this day.
Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll

2014

Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll

2014
7.7
Through the eyes, words and songs of its popular music stars of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll examines and unravels Cambodia's tragic past, culminating in the genocidal Khmer Rouge's dismantling of the society and murder of 2,000,000 of its citizens.
Monk with a Camera

2014

Monk with a Camera

2014
7.2
Nicholas Vreeland walked away from a worldly life of privilege to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Grandson of legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland and apprentice of photographer Irving Penn, Nicholas' life changed drastically upon meeting one of the Dalai Lama's teachers. Soon thereafter, he gave up his glamorous life to live in a monastery in India, ultimately returning to his roots in photography to help his fellow monks rebuild their monastery.
Whose Is This Song?

2003

Whose Is This Song?

2003
6.1
Adela Peeva explores the national origin of a song common amongst a set of countries, and finds that the answer is not as simple as one might think.
The Past Is a Grotesque Animal

2014

The Past Is a Grotesque Animal

2014
5.5
A personal, accessible look at an artist - Kevin Barnes, frontman of the endlessly versatile indie pop band of Montreal - whose pursuit to make transcendent music at all costs drives him to value art over human relationships. As he struggles with all of those around him, family and bandmates alike, he's forced to reconsider the future of the band, begging the question - is this really worth it?
The Fall of '55

2006

The Fall of '55

2006
5.2
In late 1955 and early 1956, the citizens of Boise, Idaho believed there was a menace in their midst. On Halloween, investigators arrested three men on charges of having sex with teenage boys. The investigators claimed the arrests were just the tip of the iceberg-they said hundreds of boys were being abused as part of a child sex ring. There was no such ring, but the result was a widespread investigation which some people consider a witch hunt. By the time the investigation ended, 16 men were charged. Countless other lives were also touched.In some cases, men implicated fled the area. At least one actually left the country. The investigation attracted attention in newspapers across the nation, including Time Magazine. The "Morals Drive" left scars which remain to this day.
Black Roots

1970

Black Roots

1970
7.3
Black Roots is the fourth feature-length film produced and directed by American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. The film gathers a number of African American folk and blues musicians in a room, where they share stories and songs about the black experience in America.
Private Violence

2014

Private Violence

2014
6.5
One in four women experience violence in their homes. Have you ever asked, “Why doesn't she just leave?” Private Violence shatters the brutality of our logic and intimately reveals the stories of two women: Deanna Walters, who transforms from victim to survivor, and Kit Gruelle, who advocates for justice.
The Bolero

1973

The Bolero

1973
6.2
The first part of this Academy Award-winning short consists of a behind-the-scenes look at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as it prepares to perform Ravel's "Bolero." Individual musicians offer their thoughts as workers set up chairs and music stands; there are also comments by conductor Zubin Mehta and scenes of Mehta and the orchestra rehearsing. The rest of the film features a complete performance of "Bolero" with striking images of the orchestra as the music relentlessly approaches its climax.
Pursuit of Happiness

1940

Pursuit of Happiness

1940
6.1
Photographer Rudy Burckhardt shows us the ebb and flow of people rushing about Manhattan. Equally exhilarating in his novel approach to snap images quickly on the run, a method he inaugurated and that continues to the present day. In film, he added slow and fast motion, split-screens and superimpositions to his repertory.
Lipsett Diaries

2010

Lipsett Diaries

2010
6
A descent into the maelstrom of anguish that tormented Arthur Lipsett, a famed Canadian experimental filmmaker who died at 49. A diary transmuted into a clash of images and sounds charting a prodigious frenzy of creation, a tableau depicting an artist’s dizzying descent into depression and madness: with LIPSETT DIARIES, Theodore Ushev renews his filmmaking aesthetic and explores what happens when genius is on a first-name basis with madness.
Chasing Beauty

2013

Chasing Beauty

2013
6.1
Provides a rare glimpse into the intriguing and complex world of modeling. Behind the glossy covers of Vogue and Glamour lie the rarely talked about, uncensored stories of what models endure and sacrifice to become a top model. It examines body image and the psychological effects of the beauty business on young women and men.
InRealLife

2013

InRealLife

2013
4.8
InRealLife takes us on a journey from the bedrooms of British teenagers to the world of Silicon Valley, to find out what exactly the internet is doing to our children.