Thought-Provoking Documentaries
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To Be and To Have
Movie
Directed by Nicolas Philibert • Documentary • 2002• France • French with English subtitles
Featuring Georges LopezThe one-room schoolhouse, where one teacher instructs several grades at once, is generally regarded as a quaint thing of the past. However, Nicolas Philibert offers an in-depth look...
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The Competition
Movie
Directed by Claire Simon • Documentary • 2016 • France • French with English subtitles
Featuring Alain Bergala, Emilie Deleuze, Xanae BoveClaire Simon, one of France’s leading documentarians, gives an enlightening all-access tour behind the scenes at France’s premiere film school, La Femis, dur...
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The Challenge
Movie
Directed by Yuri Ancarani • Documentary • 2017 • France, Italy • Arabic with English subtitles
Featuring Khaled Al-Hammadi, Nasser Al-KaabiThis exquisite documentary enters the surreal world of Qatari sheikhs with a passion for falconry. The opulence of this Middle Eastern gas state is on displ...
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Bugs
Movie
Directed by Andreas Johnsen • Documentary • 2016 • Denmark • English, Danish with English subtitles
Featuring Josh Evans, Roberto Flore, Ben Reade"Bugs" is an artful and thoughtful new documentary that provides a perfect entry point to insect cuisine. Watch as filmmaker Andreas Johnsen and his ...
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Bix: "Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet"
Movie
Directed by Brigitte Berman • Documentary • 1981 • US • English
Featuring Bix Beiderbecke, Richard Basehart, Doc CheathamCornetist / pianist / composer Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903-1931) was jazz’s man who got away. Beiderbecke became a legend even in his short lifetime, bringing an amazing new...
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The Reason I Jump
Movie
Directed by Jerry Rothwell • Documentary • 2021 • US, UK • English
Featuring Jordan O'Donegan, Jeremy Dear, David MitchellBased on the best-selling book by Naoki Higashida and winner of the Audience Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, "The Reason I Jump" is an immersive cinematic explorat...
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What Is Democracy?
Movie
Directed by Astra Taylor • Documentary • 2018 • Canada • English
Featuring Astra Taylor Angela Davis, Cornel WestComing at a moment of profound political and social crisis and featuring a diverse cast—including celebrated theorists, trauma surgeons, activists, factory workers, asylum seekers, a...
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Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts
Movie
Directed by Jeffrey Wolf • Documentary • 2018 • US • English
Featuring Russell G. Jones, Sharon Washington, Jason Samuels SmithThis illuminating documentary tells the incredible story of Bill Traylor, a former slave who turned to drawing at age 85, creating colorful, strikingly modernist work ...
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Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
Movie
Directed by Pamela B. Green • Documentary • 2018 • US • English
Featuring Agnes Varda, Ava DuVernay, Geena DavisNarrated by Jodie Foster, this full feature documentary rewrites film history, revealing for the first time the full scope of the life and work of cinema’s first female director, scre...
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The Land of Azaba
Movie
Directed by Greta Schiller • Documentary • 2020 • US, Spain • English, Spanish with English subtitles
Featuring Carlos Sanchez Martinez, Jon Teixeira Casado, Francisco Jose IglesiasEcological restoration is a worldwide movement intended to turn back the tide of mass extinction and restore plane...
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American Yogi
Movie
Directed by Steven Newmark • Documentary • 2018 • U.S. • English
Featuring Ram Dass, Neem Karoli Baba aka Maharaj-ji"American Yogi" is a delightful autobiographical documentary about a nice Jewish boy from Miami who travels to San Francisco for the “Summer of Love” and returns a hippie. Later, ...
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Against the Current
Movie
Directed by Óskar Páll Sveinsson • Documentary • 2021 • Iceland • Icelandic with English subtitles
Featuring Veiga GrétarsdóttirVeiga Grétarsdóttir is the first person in the world to attempt to kayak over 2,000 kilometers around Iceland, counter-clockwise and “against the current.” Veiga’s per...
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Concerning Violence
Movie
Directed by Göran Hugo Olsson • Documentary • 2014 • Sweden, US, Denmark, Finland • English, Swedish, French, Portuguese with English subtitles
Featuring Lauryn Hill, Robert Mugabe, Tonderai MakoniNarrated by Lauryn Hill, this profound essay from the director of "The Black Power Mixtape" is a b...
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Come Back, Africa
Movie
Directed by Lionel Rogosin • Arthouse • 1959 • US • English, Afrikaans with English subtitles
Starring Zacharia Mgabi, Vinah Bendile, Miriam MakebaIn making this powerful mix of documentary and drama, director Lionel Rogosin aimed to reveal the harsh injustice of apartheid in Sophiatown, a Sout...
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Lust for Gold: A Race Against Time
Movie
Directed by Robert May • Documentary • 2021 • US • English
Featuring William Blackwell, Sal Delgadillo, Robert Kesselring"Lust for Gold: A Race Against Time" is a true story about obsession, greed, and the hunt for gold. When a retired missile scientist makes a monumental discovery, he hatches ...
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The Man Who Drove with Mandela
Movie
Directed by Greta Schiller • Documentary • 1998 • UK, US, South Africa • English
Featuring Corin Redgrave, Joseph Bale, Adriaan BassierIn 1962, at the height of oppression in apartheid South Africa, a gay white theater director was arrested with Nelson Mandela. His name was Cecil Williams. This...
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Loving Highsmith
Movie
Directed by Eva Vitija • Documentary • 2022 • Switzerland, Germany • English, German, French with English subtitles
Featuring Gwendoline Christie, Annina ButterworthThis unique look at celebrated author Patricia Highsmith is based on her diaries, notebooks, and reflections of her lovers, friend...
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Goya, Carrière & the Ghost of Buñuel
Movie
Directed by José Luis López-Linares • Documentary • 2022 • France, Spain, Portugal • French, English, Spanish with English subtitles
Featuring Jean-Claude Carrière, Nahal Tajadod-Carrière, Julian SchnabelIn his last journey, prolific screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière returns to Spain and talks ...
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Epicentro
Movie
Directed by Hubert Sauper • Documentary • 2020 • Austria, France • English, Spanish with English subtitles
Featuring Oona Chaplin, Fena LeChuck, Juan PedronWinner of the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, "Epicentro" is an immersive and metaphorical portrai...
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Beuys
Movie
Directed by Andres Veiel • Documentary • 2018 • Germany • English, German with English subtitles
Featuring Joseph BeuysA chronicle of the life and work of the iconoclastic, 20th-century German sculptor and performance artist Joseph Beuys. This documentary is not a portrait in the traditional se...
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Portrait of Jason
Movie
Directed by Shirley Clarke • Documentary • 1967 • US • English
Featuring Jason Holliday, Shirley ClarkeIn 1966, director Shirley Clarke spent twelve hours with the one-and-only Jason Holliday where she confronted the iconic performer about his good times and bad behavior as a gay hustler, on-an...
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Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight
Movie
Directed by Wendy Keys • Documentary • 2008 • US • English
Featuring Milton GlaserFor many, Milton Glaser is the personification of American graphic design. Best known for co-founding "New York Magazine" and creating the enduring "I Love NY" campaign, the full breadth of Glaser's remarkable art...
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Kamikaze Hearts
Movie
Directed by Juliet Bashore • LGBTQ+ • 1986 • US • English • Mature Content
Featuring Tigr, Sharon Mitchell, Jon MartinAlternately distressing, instructive, contestable, and fascinating, Juliet Bashore’s quasi-documentary plunges into the 1980s porn industry and takes an unsparing look at issues...
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George: The Story of George Maciunas & Fluxus
Movie
Directed by Jeffrey Perkins • Documentary • 2019 • US, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Italy, France, Netherlands • English
Featuring Yoko Ono, Jonas Mekas, Nam June PaikThis feature documentary is as mercurial as its subject, George Maciunas, impresario of the international...