Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 76

This Way of Life

2010

This Way of Life

2010
4.2
Peter Karena, his wife Colleen, their six children and many horses live almost wild in the stunning beauty of New Zealand's rugged Ruahine Mountains. Until, that is, Peter's escalating battle with his own father has profound consequences for the whole clan.
Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power

2002

Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power

2002
7.6
Mickey Mouse Monopoly takes a close and critical look at the world these films create and the stories they tell about race, gender and class and reaches disturbing conclusions about the values propagated under the guise of innocence and fun. This daring new video insightfully analyzes Disney's cultural pedagogy, examines its corporate power, and explores its vast influence on our global culture. Including interviews with cultural critics, media scholars, child psychologists, kindergarten teachers, multicultural educators, college students and children, Mickey Mouse Monopoly will provoke audiences to confront comfortable assumptions about an American institution that is virtually synonymous with childhood pleasure.
Robinson in Space

1997

Robinson in Space

1997
6.9
Robinson is commissioned to investigate the unspecified "problem of England." The narrator describes his seven excursions, with the unseen Robinson, around the country. They mainly concentrate on ports, power stations, prisons, and manufacturing plants, but they also bring in various literary connections, as well as a few conventional landscapes.
Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted

2009

Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted

2009
5.4
This conservative documentary from John Ziegler poses a conspiratorial theory that President Obama was elected through mischievous actions by the media. As part of his theory, Ziegler posits that the press had to put forth a partisan agenda in order to portray vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as inept and pandering.
The Cool School

2008

The Cool School

2008
5.9
How LA Learned to Love Modern Art. A lesson in how a few renegade artists built an art scene from scratch.
Nollywood Babylon

2009

Nollywood Babylon

2009
6.1
Nigeria's film industry, Nollywood, is the third-largest in the world--an unstoppable economic and cultural force that has taken the continent by storm and is now bursting beyond the borders of Africa. "Nollywood Babylon" is a feature documentary detailing the industry's phenomenal success. Propelled by a booming 1970s soundtrack of African underground music, the movie presents an electric vision of a modern African metropolis and a revealing look at the powerhouse that is Nigerian cinema.
Billy the Kid

2007

Billy the Kid

2007
6.3
"I'm not black, I'm not white, not foreign, just different in the mind. Different brains, that's all," explains 15-year-old Billy in Jennifer Venditti's provocative coming of age film. Following Billy as he bicycles through the quiet streets of small town Maine, we watch him traverse the frustrating gap between imagination and reality, grappling with isolation and first-time young love. By turns exhilarating and disturbing, we see the world from the intimate view of an expressive and seemingly fearless outsider.
Africa, I Will Fleece You

1992

Africa, I Will Fleece You

1992
5.8
This documentary of repressive political realities in Cameroon begins with the 1990 publication of an open letter to President Biya calling for a national conference - and the immediate arrest of the letter's author and publisher. The narration then examines the nation's colonial history, beginning with the first German missionary in 1901, the establishment of schools, French occupation following World War I, the paucity of books written by and published by Cameroonians, and the repression of the CPU, a leftist organization of the 1950s and 1960s. Cameroon and its people are the lark, its feathers plucked first by colonialism and then by native strongmen: 'Alouette, je te plumerai.'
Blood and Oil

2008

Blood and Oil

2008
6
The notion that oil motivates America's military engagements in the Middle East is often disregarded as nonsense or mere conspiracy theory. In Blood and Oil, bestselling author and Nation magazine defense correspondent Michael T. Klare challenges this conventional wisdom and corrects the historical record. The film unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines to show how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years -- rendering our contemporary energy and military policies virtually indistinguishable. In the end, Blood and Oil calls for a radical re-thinking of US energy policy, warning that unless we change direction, we stand to be drawn into one oil war after another as the global hunt for diminishing world petroleum supplies accelerates.
Tales of the Rat Fink

2006

Tales of the Rat Fink

2006
5.3
This is an interesting look at the Life and Times of car customizer/cartoonist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Through the use of many graphically enhanced photographs and "talking" cars, it is a loving look at the car culture in Southern California from the Early 50's to Ed's Passing in 2001.
America The Beautiful

2008

America The Beautiful

2008
6.2
In a society where "celebutantes" like Paris Hilton dominate newsstands and models who weigh less than 90 pounds die from malnutrition, female body image is one of the more dire problems facing today's society. "America the Beautiful" illuminates the issue by covering every base. Child models, plastic surgery, celebrity worship, airbrushed advertising, dangerous cosmetics - no rock is left unturned.
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

2005

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

2005
6.4
Never-before-seen testimony is included in this documentary on Emmett Louis Till, who, in 1955, was brutally murdered after he whistled at a white woman.
Horns and Halos

2002

Horns and Halos

2002
6.2
"What if someone wrote your biography? Would there be horns and halos involved?"
Radiant City

2007

Radiant City

2007
6.3
Since the end of World War II, one of kind of urban residential development has dominate how cities in North America have grown, the suburbs. In these artificial neighborhoods, there is a sense of careless sprawl in an car dominated culture that ineffectually tries to create the more organically grown older communities. Interspersed with the comments of various experts about the nature of suburbia
Inside Belarus: Putin's Puppet Regime

2022

Inside Belarus: Putin's Puppet Regime

2022
5.7
They share a common ideology and vision of totalitarian power yet reportedly, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko hate each other. As popular opposition in Belarus and the war in Ukraine force them closer and closer together, we examine the relationship between these two men. We also look back at Lukashenko’s rise to power and hear from some of the protestors brave enough to oppose him. Filmed undercover in Belarus in the weeks up to and just after the invasion of Ukraine.
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

2019

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

2019
5.5
A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
Theaters of War

2022

Theaters of War

2022
7
If you’ve seen Top Gun or Transformers, you may have wondered: Does all of that military machinery on screen come with strings attached? Does the military actually get a crack at the script? With the release of a vast new trove of internal government documents, the answers have come into sharp focus: the US military has exercised editorial control over thousands of films and television programs. As these activities gain new public scrutiny, new questions arise: How have they managed to fly under the radar for so long? And where do we go from here?
Battle of Dunkirk: From Disaster to Triumph

2018

Battle of Dunkirk: From Disaster to Triumph

2018
7.4
Relive the bravery of the Dunkirk veterans in defenseless boats crossing the English Channel to rescue the stranded soldiers from the inferno through their uplifting stories of heroism in a battle that changed the course of WWII.
Three Minutes: A Lengthening

2022

Three Minutes: A Lengthening

2022
7.2
The story of the only three minutes of footage —a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938— showing images of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk (Poland) before the beginning of the Shoah.
Blind Ambition

2022

Blind Ambition

2022
7
The inspiring story of four Zimbabwean men who form their country’s first Wine Tasting Olympics team and the mission that drives them to compete.