Documentary
Years

Popular Documentary Movies

Stanislavski: Lust for Life
Stanislavski: Lust for Life
A story about Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski, a twentieth-century theatre genius. Owing to his powerful extraordinary talent he managed to stay a true artist and a free spirit within the harsh Soviet system. In the film contemporary theater and film directors (Kirill Serebrennikov, Katie Mitchell, Lev Dodin and others) show how Stanislavski's method affects their everyday work. Each of the directors finds his or her own reflection in the mirror of his genius. In search of an answer to the question whether modern theatre really needs Stanislavski they discover that art lacks its most essential part – the human being.
Stanislavski: Lust for Life 2021
Rebel Dread
Rebel Dread
Documentary about Don Letts who played a leading role in pop history. Letts injected Afro-Caribbean music into the early punk scene and shot over 300 music videos including for Public Image Ltd. and Bob Marley, but also for teen sensations Musical Youth's reggae smash 'Pass The Dutchie'. Besides his enduring relationship with The Clash, the constant factor in Letts' eventful career as a DJ, manager, film director, musician and radio maker is that, from the 1970s on, he continued to draw attention to cultural issues, as he does today with his radio programme for BBC 6, Culture Clash Radio.
Rebel Dread 2022
Further Beyond
Further Beyond
In their debut documentary Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor take as their point of departure the compelling 18th Century figure, Ambrose O'Higgins, and attempt to retrace his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile.
Further Beyond 2016
Arcadia
Arcadia
A provocative and poetic exploration of how the British people have seen their own land through more than a century of cinema. A hallucinated journey of immense beauty and brutality. A kaleidoscopic essay on how magic and madness have linked human beings to nature since the beginning of time.
Arcadia 2017
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes
A newly discovered treasure trove of tapes from Studio 17, or Randy's located in downtown Kingston Jamaica, is the starting point for this remarkable story about a Chinese Jamaican family who helped create the music we now know as reggae.
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes 2019
I Am Samuel
I Am Samuel
Documentary about a Kenyan man balancing family duties, and his own hopes and dreams.
I Am Samuel 2020
Gallivant
Gallivant
Part home movie, part road movie, Kötting's riveting and eccentric film stars his 85-year-old grandmother Gladys - opinionated, bursting with anecdotes and contradictory reminiscences – and Eden, his eight-year-old daughter with Joubert syndrome, as they take a zig-zagging 6,000 mile trip in their campervan around Britain's coastline.
Gallivant 1997
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project 2019
Colors of Tobi
Colors of Tobi
Tobi is a typical 16-year-old, desperate for the end of school and wondering what path in life to take. The hard-working people in Tobi’s tiny village struggle to make ends meet, while the kids can’t wait to escape to Budapest as soon as they turn 18. Against the challenges of an increasingly conservative Hungary, where trans rights are currently being stripped back, this insightful documentary generously shines a light on the journey of Tobi’s mother as much as Tobi themselves. Having come out once as male in his mid-teens, Tobi later shifts towards a non-binary identity. It’s a steep learning curve for the family to re-evaluate the deeply ingrained gender binary in this rural corner of Central Europe, but for this caring and communicative group, love wins the day.
Colors of Tobi 2021
Looking for Love
Looking for Love
Despite modern advances in communication technology, many people face loneliness and depression. This immersive documentary explores online dating in the UK's black community.
Looking for Love 2015
Back to Berlin
Back to Berlin
Back to Berlin is the first biker flick-meets-holocaust feature documentary. Eleven motor bikers have a mission to take the Maccabiah torch from Israel to the site of the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, for the first Jewish Olympic Games on German soil. They will retrace the heroic journeys of the original 1930s' Maccabiah riders and discover how they or their families survived the Holocaust.
Back to Berlin 2018
I Am Weekender
I Am Weekender
Wiz's Weekender (1992) was a film ahead of its time, both in form and content. It engaged with contemporary issues that mainstream media were eager to sensationalise. Consequently, it was branded with an 18 certificate and banned by both the BBC and ITV, never reaching a wider audience. For the past three decades, Weekender has bubbled just below the surface, gaining genuine cult status and influencing a vast network of creators. In the run-up to its thirtieth anniversary filmmakers Tabitha Denholm and Adam Dunlop interviewed people involved in the project. I Am Weekender is built around those conversations.
I Am Weekender 2023
A Deal With The Universe
A Deal With The Universe
In his debut film, assembled entirely from home video footage which he and his partner Tracey shot over the course of a decade, Barker tells the fascinating story behind their journey to conceive.
A Deal With The Universe 2019
23 Seconds to Eternity
23 Seconds to Eternity
Journey through the music videos and short films from Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond in their various guises as The JAMs, The KLF and The Timelords, one of the most successful and subversively creative electronic bands of the early 90s.
23 Seconds to Eternity 2023
The Street
The Street
The baker, the pie-maker and the diminished long-term community of Hoxton Street face gentrification in this compelling portrait of a rapidly changing London.
The Street 2019
The Last Shelter
The Last Shelter
Deep in Mali, on the edge of the Sahel Desert, lies the peaceful city of Gao—a quiet way station for passersby with their eyes set on Europe in hopes of opportunity, safety and a better future.
The Last Shelter 2021
Divorce Iranian Style
Divorce Iranian Style
DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE unfolds inside an Iranian divorce court, providing a subtle and intimate look at the lives of women in a country stereotypically associated with fanaticism and oppression. Astute and beautifully observed, the film reveals the ingenuity and humour with which Iranian women negotiate the restrictions of their society.
Divorce Iranian Style 1998
A Syrian Love Story
A Syrian Love Story
Filmed over 5 years, A Syrian Love Story charts an incredible odyssey to political freedom. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.
A Syrian Love Story 2015
No Simple Way Home
No Simple Way Home
Akuol de Mabior is the daughter of a martyr of the revolution in South Sudan. As her mother is sworn in as vice president, the young woman tries to find out if this country torn by civil war can ever become her home.
No Simple Way Home 2022
Celluloid Man
Celluloid Man
Indian documentary about Indian film history and P. K. Nair, the founder of the National Film Archive of India and guardian of Indian cinema. He built the archive can by can in a country where the archiving of cinema was considered unimportant.
Celluloid Man 2012
Dressed as a Girl
Dressed as a Girl
The story of East London’s exciting drag scene with touching personal stories at its’ heart. Individuals questioning their friendships, family and personal ambitions whilst dressing up to shock the world.
Dressed as a Girl 2014
David Bowie Is Dead
David Bowie Is Dead
Started in 1993, finished in 2018. "David Bowie Is Dead" is a road movie in and out of london.
David Bowie Is Dead 2018
In the Billowing Night
In the Billowing Night
Jean-René is a retired workman who has lived in Mâcon, France, since emigrating from Reunion Island at the age of 17. Today, for the first time ever, the quiet man recounts his story to his daughter. His journey is interspersed with enigmatic dreams and pains that are rooted in the wounds of the French colonial past.
In the Billowing Night 2021
Are You Proud?
Are You Proud?
ARE YOU PROUD? meets key campaigners and investigates the organisations and events that have contributed to substantial progress within the western LGBTQ+ liberation movement, focusing on the history of Pride in the UK. It celebrates that progress, whilst exploring the controversial questions over the continuing relevance of the Pride march, and highlights the international battles still to be fought.
Are You Proud? 2019
70/30
70/30
In 2019, thousands of Danish children and youths took to the streets. They stayed away from school to demonstrate for the climate, mobilise their parents and grandparents, and demand action – now! When elections were called later the same year, it was clear that green climate policies attracted voters, and suddenly the climate was at the top of the political agenda. ‘70⁄30’ portrays the creation of one of the world’s most ambitious climate laws, with the goal of reducing Denmark’s CO2 emissions by 70% by 2030. But will the politicians, citizens and industry be able to come together to make Denmark a green pioneer? Or will the election promises and green ambitions crumble when the new climate law is faced with reality?
70/30 2021
Finisterre
Finisterre
London has always been a source of influence, inspiration and curiosity - Finisterre tries to identify the dreams that London holds for so many. Presented and scored by Saint Etienne, the film enraptures with a journey through the ultimate city of possibilities - from John Nash and Berthold Lubetkin to Hendon FC and Hampstead Heath via the New Piccadilly cafe. A genuinely moving meditation on the capital in all its tawdry glory, with extra features and deluxe booklet
Finisterre 2003
I've Been Trying to Tell You
I've Been Trying to Tell You
Do you look back on the optimism of the 1997-2001 era as a lost golden age, or do you see it as a period of naïvety, delusion and folly? There’s a lot of nostalgia for the nineties at the moment, especially from people too young to remember it who see the decade as a simpler, pre-internet time. Modern nostalgia often draws on corporate American-90s mall culture, but what about British culture? With I’ve Been Trying To Tell You – made to accompany the Saint Etienne album of the same name – director Alasdair McLellan evokes the era through the fog of memory. The resulting film, shot in locations from Grangemouth to Portmeirion to Southampton, is both beautiful and enveloping.
I've Been Trying to Tell You 2021
Wayfinder
Wayfinder
Set during a pandemic, the film tracks the movements of its central protagonist – The Wanderer, a young girl, on an intrepid journey across England. Presented across six chapters, including ‘The North’, ‘The Land of Smoke’ and ‘The Kingdom of the East’, this epic film builds a dialogue around the themes of class and economic exclusion, belonging and displacement, cultural heritage and the meaning of home.
Wayfinder 2022
As Above So Below
As Above So Below
This hushed, pared-down essay weaves together different facts and myths surrounding the moon: images, texts, and sounds are spun into a dense, delicate tissue of ideas, with humans both at the centre and infinitely small in this celestial context.
As Above So Below 2020