Top Rated Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 93

Paper Dolls

2006

Paper Dolls

2006
6.2
Paper Dolls follows the lives of transgender migrant workers from the Philippines who work as health care providers for elderly Orthodox Jewish men and perform as drag queens during their spare time. It also delves into the lives of societal outcasts who search for freedom and acceptance.
We Are the Giant

2014

We Are the Giant

2014
5.8
We Are the Giant tells the stories of ordinary individuals who are transformed by the moral and personal challenges they encounter when standing up for what they believe is right. Powerful and tragic, yet inspirational, their struggles for freedom echo across history and offer hope against seemingly impossible odds.
Freedom Summer

2014

Freedom Summer

2014
7.2
In the summer of 1964, more than 700 students descended on violent, segregated Mississippi. Defying authorities, they registered voters, created freedom schools, and established the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Fifty years later, eyewitness accounts and never-before-seen archival material tell their story. Not all of them would make it through.
American Courtesans

2013

American Courtesans

2013
4.2
American Courtesans is a feature documentary that takes you into the lives of American Sex Workers. These women candidly discuss what brought them to the doors of the sex trade, what they found when they got there and why they stayed. Follow eleven Sex Workers through the streets, massage parlors, brothels and strip clubs to New York high rises and the bell captains in Vegas. This is a story, a different kind of American Story, that will leave you speechless.
Growing Up Female

1971

Growing Up Female

1971
5.7
Focuses on the socialization of American females. It tells the story of six women and girls. The first film to emerge from the modern women's movement in the early 1970s.
Argentinian Lesson

2013

Argentinian Lesson

2013
6.5
Polish director, his wife and children are leaving Siberia for Argentina. For their little son, this trip will not only be an encounter with an unknown language. Influenced by their Argentinian friend, Janek enters the fascinating world of imagination, and is introduced to the bitterness of childhood prematurely contaminated by the problems of grown-ups.
Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square

1998

Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square

1998
6.5
This film illustrates the life of the film director, Shui-Bo Wang in The People's Republic of China. We learn of the life of the director in his own words and images from a child steeped in the values of Chinese communism exemplified by Chairman Mao, to a young man striving to live up to those ideals both as an artist and a soldier.
The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein

1992

The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein

1992
6.5
The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein is a 1992 short animated documentary directed by Joyce Borenstein about her father, the Canadian painter Sam Borenstein. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. In Canada, it was named best short documentary at the 12th Genie Awards.
Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo

1991

Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo

1991
7.7
The story of Estelle Ishigo, one of the few Caucasians interned with Japanese Americans during World War II. The wife of a Japanese American, Ishigo refused to be separated from her husband and was interned along with him. Based on the personal papers of Estelle Ishigo and her novel Lone Heart Mountain.
The Ax Fight

1975

The Ax Fight

1975
5.7
This ethnographic film records a conflict that took place on February 28, 1971, in the Yanomami village of Mishimishimabowei-teri during the fieldwork of Timothy Asch and Napoleon Chagnon. Constructed in four parts, the film first presents the complete unedited footage of the fight as it was witnessed by the filmmakers, followed by slow-motion analysis, kinship diagrams, and a final edited version. Through this structure, the film documents both the social dynamics of the conflict and the process by which ethnographic knowledge is produced from filmed events.
City of Photographers

2006

City of Photographers

2006
7.8
A film about the fearless photographers and photojournalists who documented strikes, demonstrations, protests etc during the Chilean military regime of Augusto Pinochet, sometimes risking their very lives.
Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America

2013

Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America

2013
6.7
Almost fifty years ago, Mercedes Sosa drafted together with other young artists, the so-called "Manifesto del Nuevo Cancionero" (The New songbook Manifesto). Apart from the millions of records she sold, the thousands of concerts she made all over the world, her countless fans and detractors, Mercedes Sosa left behind an indelible legacy. This film is a deep intimate journey into Mercedes Sosa's world, not only as an artist but as human being. An autobiography through her own voice, with never seen before archive and several international artists giving their testimony about Mercedes's.
Brakhage

1998

Brakhage

1998
7
BRAKHAGE explores the depth and breadth of the filmmaker’s genius, the exquisite splendor of his films, his magic personal charm, his aesthetic fellow travelers, and the influence his work has had on generations of other creators. While touching on significant moments in Brakhage’s biography, the film celebrates Brakhage’s visionary genius, and explores the extraordinary artistic possibilities of cinema, a medium mostly known only for its commercial applications in the form of narratives, cartoons, documentaries, and advertising. BRAKHAGE combines excerpts from Brakhage’s films and films of other avant-garde filmmakers (eg, George Kuchar, Jonas Mekas, Willie Varela, Bruce Elder, and others); interviews with Brakhage, his friends, family, colleagues, and critics; archival footage of Brakhage spanning the past thirty-five years; and location shooting in Boulder, Colorado and New York.
Carmel

2009

Carmel

2009
7
Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitaï offers a look impressionist long history of armed conflict in their nation.
Out Late

2011

Out Late

2011
2.9
This feature film looks at five individuals who made a decisive change later in life-to come out as lesbian, gay, or trans gender, after the age of 55. Why did they wait until their 50's, 60's, or 70's to come out? And what was the turning point that caused each of these people finally to openly declare their sexuality? From Canada to Florida, to Kansas, we find out what ultimately led these dynamic individuals to make the liberating choice to pursue fully integrated lives.
Free the Mind

2013

Free the Mind

2013
6.4
Brain scientist Professor Richard Davidson sets up his mind to conduct an unusual experiment: He will teach American war veterans and children meditation and yoga. Can veterans through meditation and yoga ease their pain and nervous system, find happiness and be more peaceful and get back to a life more like the one they had before the war?
These Birds Walk

2012

These Birds Walk

2012
8
The Edhi children’s shelter is a rare safe haven for Karachi’s runaways. Over three years, its cranky founder, a spirited child, and a gold-hearted ambulance driver are filmed, creating a tender portrait of where a city’s most vulnerable and dedicated souls meet.
Freedom's Fury

2006

Freedom's Fury

2006
6.5
A documentary on the 1956 Olympic semifinal water polo match between Hungary and Russia. Held in Australia, the match occurred as Russian forces were in Budapest, stomping out a popular revolt.
Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton

2013

Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton

2013
4.8
A chronicle of the iconoclastic life of gay poet, filmmaker, and spiritual visionary James Broughton, one of the defining voices of the sexual revolution, whose groundbreaking artistic celebrations of sexuality and the body influenced generations of the 1960s and '70s to profoundly embrace life and ‘follow your own weird’.
Be Like Others

2008

Be Like Others

2008
3.7
An intimate and unflinching look at life in Iran, seen through the lens of those living at its fringes, 'Be Like Others' is a provocative look at a generation of young Iranians choosing to undergo gender reassignment surgery.