Top Rated Documentary Movies on Pantaflix - Page 316

Lenny Cooke

2013

Lenny Cooke

2013
6.8
In 2001, Lenny Cooke was the most hyped high school basketball player in the country, ranked above future greats LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Carmelo Anthony. A decade later, Lenny has never played a minute in the NBA. In this quintessentially American documentary, filmmaking brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie track the unfulfilled destiny of a man for whom superstardom was only just out of reach.
100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience

2012

100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience

2012
6.2
Imagine a world where video games reign supreme. Five story buildings filled with arcade cabinets, old and new, inundate the streets. Welcome to downtown Tokyo, Japan. A place where the arcades of the 80s and 90s not only still exist, but thrive and have evolved into an elaborate, unmatchable gaming experience. 100 Yen is a historical documentary about the evolution of arcades and the culture surrounding it - from the birth of arcades to the game centers that still thrive today. With a predominant focus on the three major arcade genres, Shooting games, Fighting games and Rhythm games, 100 Yen explores the culture and evolution of arcades through the past and present. Featuring interviews with industry professionals, game programmers and designers, casual gamers and gaming icons from Japan, Canada, and the USA.
Quick Billy

1971

Quick Billy

1971
7.1
A psychedelic montage of home movie footage gives way to a silent western story.
The Blood of Yingzhou District

2006

The Blood of Yingzhou District

2006
6.4
A year in the life of children in the Province of Anhui in China, who have lost their parents to AIDS. Traditional obligations to family and village collide with terror of the disease.
Fifi Howls from Happiness

2013

Fifi Howls from Happiness

2013
6.8
Bahman Mohassess was a celebrated artist at the time of the Shah. Trained in Italy, he created sculptures and paintings in his homeland. But audiences often took offence at the pronounced phalli on his mostly naked bronze figures and his work was regularly censored. All traces of him were lost after the revolution. It was said he destroyed his remaining paintings and disappeared.
Por primera vez

1969

Por primera vez

1969
7.3
In 1967, Cuban documentary filmmaker Octavio Cortazar followed a travelling projectionist troupe whose mission was to show moving pictures to rural communities for the first time. Cortazar’s short film documents one audience’s response to its first film: Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.
The Shutka Book of Records

2005

The Shutka Book of Records

2005
7.4
A documentary about bizarre residents of Shutka, a Macedonian village built on the former city dump area. Shutka, where everyone is the champion of something. This film is a celebration of the culture, humor, spirit, oddities and idiosyncrasies of the Roma, one of the world's poorest and most persecuted peoples. Ultimately we are instructed in the celebration of life despite any and all circumstances - everyone is of value here.
Rockshow

2013

Rockshow

2013
8
During their 1976 world tour, Paul McCartney and Wings gave a magnificent performance to 67,000 fans at the Kingdome, in Seattle, Washington. The concert features 30 songs of the Beatles and Wings.
Sea Ballerinas

1956

Sea Ballerinas

1956
6.3
Two kinds of starfish, the brittle and the feather. The brittle star moves its arms alone, without the aid of suckers. Underneath is a single opening. Stalks move food close to the mouth and move waste away. We see vents, used in reproduction and breathing. We watch the hatched young expelled into the water. The camera shows us brittle stars' intricate patters. We observe feather stars in clusters, like ferns. One turns over slowly; arms have branches with stalks for breathing and gathering microscopic food. Reproductive organs are inside branches. We see eggs develop at 1,400 nature's speed. Larvae emerge, 0.1 mm long. They grow. A feather star takes a walk.
The City

1939

The City

1939
5.8
A prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
In Spring

1929

In Spring

1929
6.5
Kyiv, 1929. Shots of the city as it wakes up... its awakening echoes with the lyrical pictures of the rebirth of nature. Kaufman’s attentive camera pauses for a long time on the smiling faces of children, painting a lyrical picture, a confession of love for Kyiv.
Blue Eyed

1996

Blue Eyed

1996
7.1
In only 15 minutes with some 30 people Jane Elliott manages to build up a realistic microcosmos of society today with all its phenomena and feelings. As already known from the ill reputed Milgram experiment, even participants who knew the "rules" are unable to remain uninvolved. What starts as a game turns into cruel reality which causes some participants' emotions to erupt with unforeseen intensity
Portrait: Werner Herzog

1986

Portrait: Werner Herzog

1986
7.1
An autobiographical short film by Werner Herzog made in 1986. Herzog tells stories about his life and career. The film contains excerpts and commentary on several Herzog films, including Signs of Life, Heart of Glass, Fata Morgana, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, Fitzcarraldo, and the Les Blank documentary Burden of Dreams. Notable is footage of a conversation between Herzog and his mentor Lotte Eisner, a photographer. In another section, he talks with mountaineer Reinhold Messner, in which they discuss a potential film project in the Himalayas to star Klaus Kinski.
Sex in a Cold Climate

1998

Sex in a Cold Climate

1998
6.9
Interlocking interviews of 4 women interred in various Magdalene asylums and/or orphanages because of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, being sexually assaulted, or just being "too pretty".
The Human Family Tree

2009

The Human Family Tree

2009
7.2
Dr Spencer Wells retraces the footsteps of 200 random New Yorkers and proves they are all cousins. On the most diverse street in the most diverse city in the most diverse country in the world, a team of National Geographic scientists swab the cheeks of some 200 random New Yorkers. The goal: to retrace our ancestral footprints and prove we are all cousins in the “family of man.” Cutting edge science, coupled with a cast of New Yorkers – each with their own unique genetic history - will help paint a picture of these amazing journeys. Ultimately, Man’s First Migrations answers some of humanity’s most burning questions, such as who we are and where we come from, and forces us to change how we think not only about our relationships with our neighbours, but ourselves.
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still

1974

Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still

1974
7
The film's subject is a photograph of Jane Fonda visiting Hanoi during the Vietnam War. It asks what the position of the intellectual should be in the class struggle and points out the irony of Jane Fonda's participation in the photo shoot, which was staged.
The Eastwood Factor

2010

The Eastwood Factor

2010
6
For 35 years Clint Eastwood has called Warner Bros. home. In The Eastwood Factor, film historian Richard Schickel ventures beyond Eastwood’s tough, iconic screen personas to reveal the easygoing and thoughtful man behind the magic. Morgan Freeman narrates this insightful profile that features memorable film clips and visits to movie locations, the Warner Bros. lot and Eastwood’s hometown Carmel where, with humor, candor and intelligence, Eastwood illuminates the craft behind his legendary work on both sides of the camera to create a rare experience that is pure, unadulterated Clint.
Jazz Dance

1954

Jazz Dance

1954
5.5
Few films wield the awesome spiritual power of Jazz Dance, on which Leacock was one of two cameramen charting the slow, smoldering build of a Manhattan dance club from idle space to explosive, carnal bacchanal. Employing handheld cameras, limited light and sheer proximity, the film achieved an intimacy never before witnessed in a documentary.
Belarmino

1964

Belarmino

1964
7.4
A portrait of Belarmino Fragoso, a veteran boxer in Lisbon nearing the end of his career. In a blend of reportage and re-enactment, the many vices of the once national featherweight champion are revealed against a background of the grim economics of boxing in 1960s Portugal.
Hanoi, Tuesday 13th

1969

Hanoi, Tuesday 13th

1969
6.3
In December 1967, a Cuban film crew led by Santiago Alvarez, the veteran polemicist, travelled to Hanoi. They shot the footage which constitutes this short documentary all in one day - Tuesday 13. The film is the story of that day and what happened to the North Vietnamese people in the course of it.