Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 72

Maison du Bonheur

2018

Maison du Bonheur

2018
6.1
When asked to make a documentary about her friend’s mother—a Parisian astrologer named Juliane—the filmmaker sets off for Montmartre with a Bolex to craft a portrait of an infectiously exuberant personality and the pre-war apartment she’s called home for 50 years.
Supergirl

2016

Supergirl

2016
6.6
Naomi seems like a typical nine-year-old girl, until her passion for powerlifting transforms her life with world record-breaking championships and national news headlines. Supergirl explores Naomi’s coming-of-age journey as she and her Orthodox Jewish family are changed forever by her inner strength and extraordinary talent.
Boatman

1994

Boatman

1994
6.7
In a series of small portraits, Gianfranco Rosi depicts life on and along the banks of the Ganges River. The director’s first film documents the boat trip he took along India’s sacred river with his helmsman, Gopal. They pass tourists and locals, witnessing them bathe, work, or meditate. The film captures the imagination of the endless circle of life and death, which is rooted in the lives of the Indian people, and is convincingly manifested in the way they bid farewell to the dead.
I'm Not From Here

2016

I'm Not From Here

2016
7.4
Day after day, an elderly woman recalls the Spanish Basque country of her youth — while forgetting she is consigned to a retirement home in Chile.
The Pretty Ones

2016

The Pretty Ones

2016
7.5
From her own personal experience and from talking with her lifelong friends, Melisa (24) wonders about the mandates and prohibitions that mold the cultural construction of the female gender, especially in relation to the image. With humor and candidness, the film portraits a feminine world seen from the inside, from conversations, personal photos and home movies.
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes

2016

The Prison in Twelve Landscapes

2016
6.6
More people are imprisoned in the United States at this moment than in any other time or place in history, yet the prison itself has never felt further away or more out of sight. This is a film about the prison in which we never see an actual penitentiary. The film unfolds a cinematic journey through a series of landscapes across the USA where prisons do work and affect lives, from an anti-sex-offender pocket park in Los Angeles, to a congregation of ex-incarcerated chess players shut out of the formal labor market, to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of prison jobs.
The Banksy Job

2016

The Banksy Job

2016
5.7
Documentary about a man who steals a Banksy piece.
Ovarian Psycos

2016

Ovarian Psycos

2016
6.9
In East Los Angeles, three young misfit women find solace in an unapologetic, feminist bicycle crew. They call themselves the Ovarian Psycos Bicycle Brigade.
The Settlers

2016

The Settlers

2016
5.9
In the nearly 50 years since Israel's decisive victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens have established expanding communities in the occupied territories of the West Bank. Frequently coming into direct conflict with the region's Palestinian inhabitants, and facing the condemnation of the international community, the settlers have been viewed by some as the righteous vanguard of modern Zionism and by others as overzealous squatters who are the greatest impediment to the possibility of peace in the region.
Stink!

2015

Stink!

2015
5.7
"Stink!" opens with a foul smell and a pair of kids pajamas. And a single father trying to find out what that smell could possibly be. But instead of getting a straight answer, director Jon Whelan stumbles on an even bigger issue in America, which is that some products on our store shelves are not safe -- by design. Entertaining, enlightening, and at times almost absurd, "Stink!" takes you on a madcap journey from the retailer to the laboratory, through corporate boardrooms, down back alleys, and into the halls of Congress. Follow Whelan as he clashes with political and corporate operatives all trying to protect the darkest secrets of the chemical industry. You won't like what you smell.
The Queen of Ireland

2015

The Queen of Ireland

2015
5.3
Panti Bliss is many things: part glamorous aunt, part Jessica Rabbit, she's a wittily incisive performer with charisma to burn who is regarded as one of the best drag queens in the business. Created by Rory O'Neill, Panti is also an accidental activist and in her own words 'a court jester, whose duty is to say the un-sayable'. Over the last few years Rory has become a figurehead for LGBT rights in Ireland and since the recent scandal around Pantigate, his fight for equality and against homophobia has been recognised all around the world.
Remembering the Man

2016

Remembering the Man

2016
7.6
At an exclusive Catholic boys school in Melbourne 1976, Tim Conigrave and John Caleo fell madly in love. Their passionate, tempestuous, operatic romance lasted for 16 years, facing disapproval, temptation, separation, and the looming shadow of the Grim Reaper. Their relationship has been immortalised in Conigrave's posthumous autobiography Holding the Man (now a major Australian film directed by Neil Armfield). This is the true story of how Romeo met Romeo and how first love can not only last but endure.
Imminent Threat

2015

Imminent Threat

2015
6.7
A look at the War on Terror and the threat it's causing to our civil liberties and political discourse. Academy Award nominee James Cromwell presents Janek Ambros' directorial debut. The feature doc tackles the War on Terror's impact on civil liberties and the strange coalition it's creating between the progressive left and libertarian right. The doc examines the NSA, drones, the war on journalism and other encroachments on civil liberties started by the Bush era and expanded by the Democratic establishment.
The Show of Shows: 100 Years of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals

2015

The Show of Shows: 100 Years of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals

2015
7
This film tells the story of itinerant circus performers, cabaret acts and fairground attractions, showing rarities and never-before seen footage of fairgrounds, circus entertainment, freak shows, variety performances, music hall and seaside entertainment, chronicled from the 19th and 20th century. We will see early shows that wowed the world and home movies of some of the greatest circus families. Director Benedikt Erlingsson takes us back to the days when the most outlandish, skillful and breathtaking acts traveled the world. This rich visual archive has been created with exclusive access to The University of Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive and is accompanied by an epic new score by Georg Holm and Orri Páll Dýrason of Sigur Rós, in collaboration with Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and Kjartan Dagur Holm.
unReal

2015

unReal

2015
7.7
unReal is for those of us who escape. A film that celebrates breaking free from the confines of reality and venturing into a boundless world. This place isn’t remote or hard to find, and yet many never see it. Here, glacial walls transform into mountain bike trails, rain and snow aren't the only elements to fall from the sky and thousand pound mammals become riding partners. Breathtaking visuals conjure feelings of awe and pure joy; feelings that only those of us who venture outside can truly understand. This film is dedicated to you — the dreamers, the rule-breakers, the ones who never grow up, the ones who know the secret — the ones who know the way into the unReal world.
I, Dalio

2015

I, Dalio

2015
6.4
The great French actor, Marcel Dalio, who has the lead role in Jean Renoir's THE RULES OF THE GAME, also appears in Renoir's GRAND ILLUSION. In both films he plays a character who is Jewish, as Dalio was in real life. In fact, in most of the French films he's in the 1930s, he almost always plays shady characters, informers, blackmailers and gangsters. In other words, he is always "the Jew." When the Nazis invaded France in 1940, he fled to America and appeared in CASABLANCA and TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. In America, he was no longer the Jew but The Frenchman. He became, in dozens of films, America's idea of a typical Frenchman. His film career has these two strands in which he has two different identities. Are you defined by other people and their perceptions of who you are? Are you always a creation of the way people want to see you? Or can you exist outside of the arbitrary boundaries which are placed on you?
Shadowman

2017

Shadowman

2017
4.5
Richard Hambleton was a founder of the street art movement before succumbing to drugs and homelessness. Rediscovered 20 years later, he gets a second chance. But will he take it?
A Perfect 14

2018

A Perfect 14

2018
6.4
A Perfect 14 explores the fascinating world of plus-size models fighting to reshape the fashion industry and the beauty standards of society.
League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis

2013

League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis

2013
7.6
Drawing on the book of the same name, League of Denial crafts a searing two-hour indictment of the National Football League’s decades-long concealment of the link between football related head injuries and brain disorders.
Abolition

1988

Abolition

1988
6.7
In 1988, the centenary of abolition of slavery in Brazil, Zózimo Bulbul made this powerful historical analysis of racial issues in his country. This documentary provides an in-depth look through extensive archival researching and interviews of key figures who were involved in preserving black culture. Aside from historical testimony, this epic documentary also points to the current relevance of facing the racism that still confronts the black population in Brazil.