Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 85

Family Fundamentals

2002

Family Fundamentals

2002
3.7
With a rare gift for unflinching impartiality, director Arthur Dong delves into the lives and attitudes of fundamentalist families who actively oppose homosexuality, despite having gay offspring themselves.
My Name Is Salt

2013

My Name Is Salt

2013
6.9
Year after year, just after the monsoon season has finished, thousands of families travel to a bleak desert in Gujerat, India, where they will stay for an endless eight months and extract salt from the earth, using the same painstaking, manual techniques as generations before them. Director Farida Pacha spent a season with one of these families, observing the very particular rhythms of their lives.
The Address

2014

The Address

2014
5.8
The Gettysburg Address is the subject of a new documentary by Ken Burns. The documentary tells the story of students at the Greenwood School whose study of the Gettysburg Address brings new understanding to the speech.
Butch Jamie

2008

Butch Jamie

2008
3.4
The film follows the story of Jamie, a struggling butch lesbian actress who gets cast as a man in a film. The main plot is a romantic comedy between Jamie's male alter-ego, "Male Jamie," and Jill, a heterosexual woman on set. The film's subplots include Jamie's bisexual roommate Lola and her cat actor Howard, Lola's abrasive butch German girlfriend Andi, and Jamie's gay Asian friend David.
Approaching the Elephant

2015

Approaching the Elephant

2015
7
APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT is a feature-length documentary about The Teddy McArdle Free School, where classes are optional and rules are made by democratic vote. Summerhill, founded 90 years ago by A. S. Neill, was the first free school - now there are more than 200 worldwide. Approaching the Elephant chronicles a free school in the making - spanning two years, from Teddy McArdle's first day when there were no rules or classes, through the changing of the school's director and the expulsion of a student by democratic vote, to the last day of the second year, APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT is an intimate portrait of a small group of people from a range of educational backgrounds, come together to forge a place where children are treated as equals, at liberty to spend their days however they please.
Spies of Mississippi

2014

Spies of Mississippi

2014
7.3
Spies of Mississippi tells the story of a secret spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi to preserve segregation and maintain white supremacy. The anti-civil rights organization was hidden in plain sight in an unassuming office in the Mississippi State Capitol. Funded with taxpayer dollars and granted extraordinary latitude to carry out its mission, the Commission evolved from a propaganda machine into a full blown spy operation. How do we know this is true? The Commission itself tells us in more than 146,000 pages of files preserved by the State. This wealth of first person primary historical material guides us through one of the most fascinating and yet little known stories of America's quest for Civil Rights.
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq

2014

Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq

2014
6.4
Of all the great ballerinas, Tanaquil Le Clercq may have been the most transcendent. With a body unlike any before hers, she mesmerized viewers and choreographers alike. With her elongated, race-horse physique, she became the new prototype for the great George Balanchine. Because of her extraordinary movement and unique personality on stage, she became a muse to two of the greatest choreographers in dance, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She eventually married Balanchine, and Robbins created his famous version of Afternoon of a Faun for her. She had love, fame, adoration, and was the foremost dancer of her day until it suddenly all stopped. At the age of 27, she was struck down by polio and paralyzed. She never danced again. The ballet world has been haunted by her story ever since.
Watchers of the Sky

2014

Watchers of the Sky

2014
5.9
Five interwoven stories of remarkable courage from Nuremberg to Rwanda, from Darfur to Syria, and from apathy to action.
Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements

1985

Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements

1985
4.1
Oscar Winning documentary short about Charlie Clements, a Vietnam War pilot who was convinced by his experiences in the war that he should become a doctor working behind enemy lines.
A Bit Of Scarlet

1997

A Bit Of Scarlet

1997
4.1
A Bit of Scarlet excavates clips from Britain's cinema archives to create a moving and humorous testament to the closeted gay and lesbian images from filmmaking's earliest days.
Population Boom

2013

Population Boom

2013
6.1
A well-known nightmarish vision of the future: The Earth's population reaches seven billion. Dwindling resources, mountains of toxic waste, hunger and climate change-the results of overpopulation? Who says that the world's overpopulated? And who's one too many? After the box-office success of "Plastic Planet," in POPULATION BOOM curious documentary filmmaker Werner Boote travels the globe and examines a stubborn view of the world that has existed for decades. But he sees a completely different question: Who or what is driving this catastrophic vision?
Coming Out Under Fire

1994

Coming Out Under Fire

1994
3.9
A historical account of military policy regarding homosexuality during World War II. The documentary includes interviews with several homosexual WWII veterans.
Revenge of the Mekons

2013

Revenge of the Mekons

2013
6.6
Documentary about the Mekons.
Design Is One

2012

Design Is One

2012
6.1
As artists and visual architects, husband and wife Massimo and Lella Vignelli have been producing unique and groundbreaking work as brand designers. This up-close documentary reveals their major influence in reshaping our visual environment.
Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker

2013

Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker

2013
8
BET RAISE FOLD: The Story of Online Poker is a feature documentary that follows a new generation of Internet poker professionals during the meteoric rise and sudden crash of the multibillion dollar online poker industry of the 2000s.
Bukowski at Bellevue

1970

Bukowski at Bellevue

1970
7.7
In the spring of 1970 Charles Bukowski took his first plane trip for a poetry reading at Bellevue Community College in Washington state. That he was videotaped by two students apparently was later forgotten, but the tapes were recently rediscovered and have been released by Black Sparrow press. "Bukowski at Bellevue" gives us a fascinating glimpse of the man before he had to be concerned with how celebrity and financial security were affecting him. (It is said that this was only his fourth public reading.) This is Bukowski, then about 50, taken straight. No games, no irony, no self-consciousness--just an ordinary-looking guy, maybe hung over, sitting before a small group of students reading his work with gusto, humor and sensitivity. A man who clearly had lived the marginal life he wrote about with passion and at times a lyrical, even mystical beauty.
Caligula: 1400 Days of Terror

2012

Caligula: 1400 Days of Terror

2012
5.4
This two-hour History Channel special examines controversial new theories about the man who ruled the world's mightiest Empire with sadistic brutality. His reign of terror lasted just 1,400 days. Yet even today everyone knows his name. Most have said he was crazy. But was he? This is the story few know behind one of the most infamous figures of the Ancient World--Caligula.
The Battle of Amfar

2013

The Battle of Amfar

2013
4.4
When AIDS struck in the early 1980s, a scientist and a movie star did not have to respond - but they did. Dr. Mathilde Krim and Elizabeth Taylor joined forces to create amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. The fight against HIV has never been the same. The Perfect Host reveals how two powerful and very different women came together, and what their combined efforts achieved. With passion and wit, Taylor wielded celebrity as a weapon against government indifference while Krim's commitment to science ensured support for the most promising research areas. Today, the only man cured of AIDS can thank research championed by Mathilde Krim. Visually dazzling and emotionally compelling, this story offers a surprising perspective on the still ongoing fight against AIDS.
Best Kept Secret

2013

Best Kept Secret

2013
7.6
A Newark, New Jersey high school teacher struggles to prepare her students with autism to survive in the brutal world that awaits them once they graduate.
I Will Be Murdered

2013

I Will Be Murdered

2013
6.5
An extraordinary story of murder, love and political conspiracy triggered when a video of a murdered Guatemalan lawyer surfaced on Youtube in which he foretold his own death and named the culprits.