Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 93

Tawai: A Voice from the Forest

2017

Tawai: A Voice from the Forest

2017
6.2
Explorer Bruce Parry visits nomadic tribes in Borneo and the Amazon in hope to better understand humanity's changing relationship with the world around us.
Cat Nation

2017

Cat Nation

2017
6.7
A journey into the unique, often bizarre, world of Japanese cat culture. Cat themed cafes, bars, temples, cat islands, cats with human jobs, cat friendly businesses, and the origins of the iconic beckoning cat statue.
Emma Wants to Live

2016

Emma Wants to Live

2016
8.7
This is a Dutch documentary about the last weeks of life in a Portuguese clinic for Emma Caris, a 18 year old girl who had been suffering anorexia nervosa since she was 16 years old.
Lady, You Shot Me: The Life and Death of Sam Cooke

2014

Lady, You Shot Me: The Life and Death of Sam Cooke

2014
5.5
Sam Cooke died at the age of 33 on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel, at 9137 South Figueroa Street, in Los Angeles, California. Answering separate reports of a shooting and of a kidnapping at the motel, police found Cooke's body, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes but no shirt, pants or underwear. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, which was later determined to have pierced his heart. The motel's manager, Bertha Franklin, said she had shot Cooke in self-defense after he broke into her office residence and attacked her. Her account was immediately questioned and disputed by acquaintances.
All For One

2017

All For One

2017
7.5
United by their renegade spirit and a determination to win against substantial odds, these riders take on the international circuit. The film offers unique insights into the first five years of their journey, bearing witness to the ethos of the team as embodied by all – from the strongest to most embattled members. Out of a culture that embraces a deeply human approach to sport, unlikely champions are born, and seemingly improbable team and personal goals are achieved.
Skid Row Marathon

2018

Skid Row Marathon

2018
7.2
On LA’s Skid Row, a criminal court judge organizes a running club comprised of homeless, recovering and paroled men and women who seek to rediscover their sense of self-worth and dignity.
Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival

2016

Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival

2016
6.2
In Fabrizio Terranova’s film, Donna Haraway – an original thinker and activist, one of the founders of cyberfeminism and the author of A Cyborg Manifesto, which proposed a number of innovative theories about the existence of scientific knowledge – calls for the abandonment of the idea of human exceptionalism and for a conception of the world as complex web of interconnections between people, animals and machines. Jellyfish can be seen flying around her home while she discusses the stories that are necessary for Earth’s preservation and reads her fantastic tale of the art of survival on a broken planet, and of fusion and care between the species.
The Sensitives

2017

The Sensitives

2017
5.5
In Drew Xanthopoulos’ intimate and cinematic documentary, we meet Joe, a patriarch whose affliction is so all-encompassing that he’s indifferent to his long-suffering wife; and twin brothers Sam and Nathan, musicians who are no longer able to breathe outside of their real-life sterile “plastic bubble,” and whose mother, Karen, developed her illness when she was only 17. These characters all suffer from debilitating sensitivities to their environment. Whether from ambient chemicals, genetics, electricity, or even psychogenic reasons, the cause is not clear, but the reality of the effects on these individuals is undeniable. Fortunately, Susie Molloy, a quiet firebrand who is chemically sensitive herself, seeks to help. In her, those afflicted by this modern malady have found an advocate whose mission is to de-stigmatize this community, and in telling their stories, Xanthopoulos has crafted a film itself as deeply sensitive as its title suggests. Cara Cusumano
Supermassive Black Holes

2000

Supermassive Black Holes

2000
8
"Horizon" examines the recent discovery of supermassive black holes, which spawn galaxies even as they threaten to destroy everything in their path.
Deus ex Machina: The Philosophy of 'Donnie Darko'

2016

Deus ex Machina: The Philosophy of 'Donnie Darko'

2016
6.2
The feature-length documentary about the making of the cult film favourite, "Donnie Darko".
For Ahkeem

2017

For Ahkeem

2017
6
After a school fight lands 17-year old Daje Shelton in a court-supervised alternative high school, she's determined to turn things around and make a better future for herself in her rough St. Louis neighborhood. But focusing on school is tough as she loses multiple friends to gun violence, falls in love for the first time, and becomes pregnant with a boy, Ahkeem, just as Ferguson erupts a few miles down the road. Through Daje's intimate coming-of-age story, For Ahkeem illuminates challenges that many Black teenagers face in America today, and witnesses the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive.
Swim Team

2016

Swim Team

2016
7.5
SWIM TEAM chronicles the overwhelming struggles and extraordinary triumphs of 3 young athletes with autism and shows how a swim team can bring hope to a community.
Dolores

2017

Dolores

2017
6
Dolores Huerta bucks 1950s gender conventions by starting the country's first farm worker's union with fellow organizer Cesar Chavez. What starts out as a struggle for racial and labor justice, soon becomes a fight for gender equality within the same union she is eventually forced to leave. As she wrestles with raising 11 children, three marriages, and is nearly beaten to death by a San Francisco tactical police squad, Dolores emerges with a vision that connects her new found feminism with racial and class justice.
Delicate Balance

2016

Delicate Balance

2016
8.8
A Japanese salaryman in Tokyo, a sub-Saharan community trying to cross the borders into Europe, a family evicted from their own home in Spain. Three stories intertwined on three different continents. This film is a reflection on the path that the human race is taking, on its habits and its relationship with the world. It is a proposal for change, from the particular to the general. We will take this journey with the words of José Mujica, former President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.
Revolution: New Art for a New World

2017

Revolution: New Art for a New World

2017
7.5
Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich - pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin's Socialist Realism.
The Skyjacker's Tale

2017

The Skyjacker's Tale

2017
6.5
Canadian documentarian Jamie Kastner (The Secret Disco Revolution) looks back at a notorious 1970s murder trial in the Virgin Islands — where five politicized young islanders were convicted of a massacre at a ritzy country club — and its dramatic aftermath a decade later, when the culprits’ ostensible leader staged a skyjacking and found refuge in Cuba.
Bernadette Lafont: And God Created the Free Woman

2016

Bernadette Lafont: And God Created the Free Woman

2016
6.9
A journey in the company of Bernadette Lafont, French Cinema’s most atypical actress. Tracing her career from pin-up girl, to New Wave model of sexual freedom, to drug-dealing granny in the film Paulette, by way of La Fiancée du Pirate and Les Stances à Sophie, this film pays tribute to her extraordinary life and artistic odyssey. Her grand-daughters, Anna, Juliette and Solène, revisit the dreams of Bernadette, in the family home in the Cevennes region where they, like her, grew up. Her close friends, Bulle Ogier and Jean-Pierre Kalfon, reminisce on their artistic and human complicity. Throughout the film, Bernadette Lafont in person, with her inimitable character actress voice, re-evokes a life in cinema marked with insolence, courage and freedom.
Ghostland: The View of the Ju'Hoansi

2017

Ghostland: The View of the Ju'Hoansi

2017
8.3
Remember the culture clash in THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY? This time it's real. One of the most ancient cultures on our planet is undergoing a major change. The Ju/Hoansi Bushmen in Namibia are not allowed to hunt anymore and need to converge with our so called “civilized” lifestyle. For the first time the Ju/Hoansi Bushmen travel through the Kalahari and then right into the heart of Europe. What starts as a look at their fascinating culture becomes an even more fascinating look at our Western lifestyle. A warm and humorous reflection of our habits through the eyes of people who are about to give up their million year old traditions.
Reach for the SKY

2015

Reach for the SKY

2015
7
Can one day shape the rest of your life? A feature documentary on the South-Korean education system.
Surire

2015

Surire

2015
7.5
The Surire Salt Flat is located at an altitude of 4300 m in the Chilean High Plateau and is one of the most remote places in the world, keeping the treasure of untouched nature with all its beauty but also holding an allurement: a huge amount of borax, promising the mining industry profits at unknown levels. Surire, metaphorically tells us in an outstanding visual way the story of our planet - about the very important subjects of the disappearance of traditional indigenous culture, untouched nature, the environment, and the clash of new and old.