Documentary
Years

Popular Documentary Movies

Pulp: a Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets
Pulp: a Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets
Pulp found fame on the world stage in the 1990s with anthems including ‘Common People’ and ‘Disco 2000’. 25 years (and 10 million album sales) later, they return to Sheffield for their last UK concert. Giving a career-best performance exclusive to the film, the band members share their thoughts on fame, love, mortality — & car maintenance. Director Florian Habicht (Love Story) weaves together the band’s personal offerings with dream-like specially-staged tableaux featuring ordinary people recruited on the streets of Sheffield. Pulp is a music film like no other — by turns funny, moving, life-affirming & (occasionally) bewildering.
Pulp: a Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets 2014
Hidden
Hidden
Jafar Panahi sets out to find a Kurdish young woman with a golden voice that has been forbidden to sing by her family.
Hidden 2020
The Rape of Recy Taylor
The Rape of Recy Taylor
Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. The film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story.
The Rape of Recy Taylor 2019
Taming the Garden
Taming the Garden
Georgia’s former prime minister has found a unique hobby. He collects century-old trees, some as tall as 15-story buildings, from communities along the Georgian coast. At a great expense and inconvenience, these ancient giants are uprooted from their lands to be transplanted in his private garden.
Taming the Garden 2022
Brothers of the Night
Brothers of the Night
Soft boys by day, kings by night. The film follows a group of young Bulgarian Roma who come to Vienna looking for freedom and a quick buck. They sell their bodies as if that's all they had. What comforts them, so far from home, is the feeling of being together. But the nights are long and unpredictable.
Brothers of the Night 2016
Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.
Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience 2016
Seduced and Abandoned
Seduced and Abandoned
SEDUCED AND ABANDONED combines acting legend Alec Baldwin with director James Toback as they lead us on a troublesome and often hilarious journey of raising financing for their next feature film. Moving from director to financier to star actor, the two players provide us with a unique look behind the curtain at the world's biggest and most glamourous film festival, shining a light on the bitter-sweet relationship filmmakers have with Cannes and the film business. Featuring insights from directors Martin Scorsese, 'Bernando Bertolucci' and Roman Polanski; actors Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain and a host of film distribution luminaries.
Seduced and Abandoned 2013
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
In 1966, Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, captured, and, down to 85 pounds, escaped. Barefoot, surviving monsoons, leeches, and machete-wielding villagers, he was rescued. Now, near 60, living on Mt. Tamalpais, Dengler tells his story: a German lad surviving Allied bombings in World War II, postwar poverty, apprenticed to a smith, beaten regularly. At 18, he emigrates and peels potatoes in the U.S. Air Force. He leaves for California and college, then enlistment in the Navy to learn to fly. A quiet man of sorrows tells his story: war, capture, harrowing conditions, escape, and miraculous rescue. Where did he find the strength; how does he now live with his memories?
Little Dieter Needs to Fly 1997
Marx Can Wait
Marx Can Wait
"Marx can wait" was something Camillo Bellocchio said to his twin Marco the last time they met before the former died at a young age in the heated days of 1968. This documentary is dedicated to his memory.
Marx Can Wait 2021
The All-Around Reduced Personality: Redupers
The All-Around Reduced Personality: Redupers
Edda Chiemnyjewski, a freelance press photographer and single mother living in 1970s West Berlin, is confronted with the fact that "a cook has no time for affairs of state". She also fails to find a market for the project she has been working on with her women′s photography group that seeks to document the city. While from today′s perspective the city, which becomes one of the film′s protagonists, looks like post-war Berlin, little has actually changed as regards the precarious existence of free-lancers. With a heavy dose of self-irony Helke Sander, who also plays the leading role, tells of a divided life in a divided city.
The All-Around Reduced Personality: Redupers 1978
Lemebel
Lemebel
Pedro Lemebel, the writer and visual artist, defeated a marginal childhood to become one of the first to shake up Chile’s conservative society during Pinochet’s dictatorship. Dressed in feather boas, stilettos and a sharp tongue, he staged revolutionary performances that defied the era’s terror, he said what no one wanted to hear in a homophobic, repressed and militarized country.
Lemebel 2019
The Making of Priscilla
The Making of Priscilla
A making-of documentary about Sofia Coppola's 2023 biopic.
The Making of Priscilla 2023
Black Panthers
Black Panthers
A film shot during the summer of 1968 in Oakland, California around the meetings organised by the Black Panthers Party to free Huey Newton, one of their leaders, and to turn his trial into a political debate. They tried and succeeded in catching America’s attention.
Black Panthers 1968
Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana
Shot under extreme conditions and inspired by Mayan creation theory, the film contemplates the illusion of reality and the possibility of capturing for the camera something which is not there. It is about the mirages of nature—and the nature of mirage.
Fata Morgana 1971
The Arbor
The Arbor
The lives of the late Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar and Lorraine, one of her daughters, and the community of Bradford, in the 30 years since the 18-year-old Andrea penned a play about growing up in the community titled "The Arbor".
The Arbor 2010
It Is Night in America
It Is Night in America
In Brasília, the modern capital of Brazil, an anteater is found dead by the side of a road, a boa constrictor wanders across the suburbs, and foxes prowl vacant streets. Meanwhile, in the city zoo—home to hundreds of displaced and rescued wild species—the animals look back at us humans.
It Is Night in America 2024
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 2011
Notturno
Notturno
A portrait of those trying to survive in the war-torn Middle East.
Notturno 2020
Smash His Camera
Smash His Camera
A film centering on the life and work of Ron Galella that examines the nature and effect of paparazzi.
Smash His Camera 2010
Sacro GRA
Sacro GRA
After the India of Varanasi’s boatmen, the American desert of the dropouts, and the Mexico of the killers of drugtrade, Gianfranco Rosi has decided to tell the tale of a part of his own country, roaming and filming for over two years in a minivan on Rome’s giant ring road—the Grande Raccordo Anulare, or GRA—to discover the invisible worlds and possible futures harbored in this area of constant turmoil. Elusive characters and fleeting apparitions emerge from the background of the winding zone: a nobleman from the Piemonte region and his college student daughter sharing a one-room efficiency in a modern apartment building along the GRA.
Sacro GRA 2013
The Last Year of Darkness
The Last Year of Darkness
Bass-heavy and neon-coloured portrait of the alternative Chinese youth in a country in constant state of change that now threatens the underground club Funky Town.
The Last Year of Darkness 2023
Tripping with Nils Frahm
Tripping with Nils Frahm
An illustration of Nils Frahm’s lauded ability as a composer and passionate live artist as well as the enchanting atmosphere of his already legendary Funkhaus shows.
Tripping with Nils Frahm 2020
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections
This intimate portrait of Andy Warhol pulls together a unique library of material shot by New York film legend Jonas Mekas. Spanning from 1963 to 1990, the film features a cast of counterculture icons including Allen Ginsberg, George Maciunas, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono, as well as John and Caroline Kennedy, and Lee Radziwill (Jackie Kennedy Onassis's sister and Warhol muse)—to whom Mekas dedicates the film. The film features footage from the Velvet Underground's first public performance. A portrait of the remarkable life of arguable the twentieth century's most famous artist and leading iconographer.
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections 1990
National Gallery
National Gallery
A portrait of the day-to-day operations of the National Gallery of London, that reveals the role of the employees and the experiences of the Gallery's visitors. The film portrays the role of the curators and conservators; the education, scientific, and conservation departments; and the audience of all kinds of people who come to experience it.
National Gallery 2014
To the Sea
To the Sea
Before leaving for Rome with his mother, five year old Natan is taken by his father, Jorge, on an epic journey to the pristine Chinchorro reef off the coast of Mexico. As they fish, swim, and sail the turquoise waters of the open sea, Natan discovers the beauty of his Mayan heritage and learns to live in harmony with life above and below the surface, as the bond between father and son grows stronger before their inevitable farewell.
To the Sea 2010
State Funeral
State Funeral
The enigma of the personality cult is revealed in the grand spectacle of Stalin’s funeral. The film is based on unique archive footage, shot in the USSR on March 5 - 9, 1953, when the country mourned and buried Joseph Stalin.
State Funeral 2019
A Night of Knowing Nothing
A Night of Knowing Nothing
L, a university student in India, writes letters to her estranged lover, while he is away. Through these letters, we get a glimpse into the drastic changes taking place around her. Merging reality with fiction, dreams, memories, fantasies and anxieties, an amorphous narrative unfolds.
A Night of Knowing Nothing 2022
Eames: The Architect and the Painter
Eames: The Architect and the Painter
The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames were America's most influential and important industrial designers. Admired for their creations and fascinating as individuals, they have risen to iconic status in American culture. Eames: The Architect and the Painter draws from a treasure trove of archival material, as well as new interviews with friends, colleague, and experts to capture the personal story of Charles and Ray while placing them firmly in the context of their fascinating times.
Eames: The Architect and the Painter 2011
De Humani Corporis Fabrica
De Humani Corporis Fabrica
An extraordinary adventure through the interior of the human body; or the discovery of an alien landscape of unprecedented beauty.
De Humani Corporis Fabrica 2023
Edith Walks
Edith Walks
Edith Walks is a 60 minute 66 second feature film inspired by a walk from Waltham Abbey in Essex via Battle Abbey to St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex. The film documents a pilgrimage in memory of Edith Swan Neck. The 108 mile journey, as the crow flies, allows the audience to reflect upon all things Edith. A conversation in Northampton between Alan Moore, Iain Sinclair and Edith Swan Neck is also a key element to the unfolding 'story'. With images shot using digital super 8 iPhone's and sound recorded using a specially constructed music box with a boom microphone the film unfolds chronologically but in a completely unpredictable way. The numerous encounters and impromptu performances en route are proof, as if needed, that the angels of happenstance were to looking down upon the troop, with EDITH as their hallucination
Edith Walks 2017
Level Five
Level Five
The French computer programmer Laura inherits the task of making a computer game of the Battle of Okinawa in Japan during World War 2. She searches the Internet for information on the battle, and interviews Japanese experts and witnesses. The extraordinary circumstances of the Battle of Okinawa lead Laura to reflect deeply on her own life and humanity in general, particularly the influence of history and memories.
Level Five 2014
Rude Boy
Rude Boy
Rude Boy is a semi-documentary, part character study, part 'rockumentary', featuring a British punk band, The Clash. The script includes the story of a fictional fan juxtposed with actual public events of the day, including political demonstrations and Clash concerts.
Rude Boy 1980
The Metamorphosis of Birds
The Metamorphosis of Birds
Filmmaker Catarina Vasconcelos sifts through the memories of her ancestors. Her naval officer grandfather, Henrique, who married her grandmother, Beatriz, on her 21st birthday, spent extended periods at sea, leaving her with six children. This is the beginning of a generational saga.
The Metamorphosis of Birds 2021
Three Sisters
Three Sisters
The masterful new documentary from Wang Bing is an intimate, observational portrait of a peasant family who eke out a humble existence in a small village set against the stunning mountain landscapes of China's Yunnan province.
Three Sisters 2012
Invisible Demons
Invisible Demons
A prismatic meditation on pollution in the capital of the World’s biggest free-market democracy and the most polluted and populated city, Delhi – a film about the pollution inside of the human mind.
Invisible Demons 2022
Freedom Fields
Freedom Fields
In post-revolution Libya, a group of women are brought together by one dream: to play football for their nation. But as the country descends into civil war and the utopian hopes of the “Arab Spring” begin to fade, can they realise their dream? And is there even a country left to play for? Freedom Fields is a film about hope and sacrifice in a land where dreams seem a luxury. Through the eyes of these accidental activists we see the reality of a country in transition, where the personal stories of love, struggle and aspirations collide with History.
Freedom Fields 2018
Sonita
Sonita
If 18-year-old Sonita had a say, Michael Jackson and Rihanna would be her parents and she'd be a rapper who tells the story of Afghan women and their fate as child brides. She finds out that her family plans to sell her to an unknown husband for $9,000.
Sonita 2015
This Filthy World
This Filthy World
In this filmed version of cult film director John Waters' popular one-man show, the Pink Flamingos and A Dirty Shame director takes the stage to discuss everything from his early influences, fondest career memories, and notorious struggles against the MPAA rating system. Part endearing memoir and part hilarious lecture, This Filthy World touches on everything from the insanity of contemporary pop culture to the director's unforgettable early collaborations with inimitable Pink Flamingos star Divine.
This Filthy World 2006
Just Don't Think I'll Scream
Just Don't Think I'll Scream
January 2016. The love story that brought me to this village in Alsace where I live ended six months ago. At 45, I am now alone, without a car, a job or any real prospects, surrounded by luxuriant nature, the proximity of which is not enough to calm the deep distress into which I am plunged. I am lost and I watch four to five films a day. I decide to record this stagnation, not by picking up a camera but by editing shots from the stream of films I watch.
Just Don't Think I'll Scream 2019
Rat Film
Rat Film
Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. "Rat Film" is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat—as well as the humans that love them, live with them, and kill them--to explore the history of Baltimore.
Rat Film 2016