Documentary Movies

Carefully picked scenes of nature and civilization are viewed at high speed using time-lapse cinematography in an effort to demonstrate the history of various regions.

PUMPING IRON II: THE WOMEN, a film that is changing the way the world views the female physique-creating “a new definition of the female form.” Join four women as they…

German director Wim Wenders tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu and finds a very different city.

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses…

The third installment of the infamous “is it real or fake?” mondo series sets its sights primarily on serial killers, with lengthy reenactments of police investigations of bodies being found…

Biography of the legendary filmmaker directed by his son.

Documentary on horror/mystery filmmaker Dario Argento. Features an in-depth interview with Argento and covers his work from 1969 to 1985.

Finnish TV documentary featuring archival interview footage of Jarva and clips from his films

This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty…

Eduardo Coutinho was filming a movie with the same name in the Northeast of Brazil, in 1964, when there came the military coup. He had to interrupt the project, and…

Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted’s documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they’ve found their place in the world.

A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album “Speaking in Tongues.” The band takes the stage one by one and…

A group of Miskito Indians use Nicaraguan child soldiers in their resistance against the Sandinistas.

They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, but because of their ecstatic dancing, the world called them Shakers. Ken Burns creates a moving portrait of…

A non-stop roller coaster ride through the scariest moments of the greatest terror films of all time.

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to…

The Making of Fanny and Alexander is a fascinating look at the creation of a masterpiece. Directed by Ingmar Bergman himself, this feature-length documentary chronicles the methods of one of…

Memoirs of the Italian Opera by the singers and musicians of the Casa Verdi, Milan, the world’s first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi in…

Alchemy is a double live album originally released in 1984 with an accompanying VHS, now released on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time. Recorded on 23rd July 1983 at…

Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926) designed some of the world’s most astonishing buildings, interiors, and parks; Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara constructed some of the most aesthetically audacious films ever made….

A Dutch documentary about legendary French filmmaker Robert Bresson.

From an early age Yossi Klein received a special education. He was prepared for another Holocaust. So were other children in Boro Park, the largest Orthodox survivor community in America,…

An exploration of Burroughs’ life story, as told by Burroughs himself along with many of his contemporaries, including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, Terry Southern,…

Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant’s PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

This is an intimate portrait of life in the Mississippi Delta, where Chinese, African Americans and Whites live in a complex world of cotton, work, and racial conflict. The history…

The Official Golden Harvest tribute to the Master of the Martial Arts Film, Bruce Lee.

Incident at Restigouche is a 1984 documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin, chronicling a series of two raids on the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation (Restigouche) by the Sûreté du Québec in…

Commissioned by French television, this is a short documentary on the neo-classical statues found throughout Paris, predominantly on the walls of buildings, holding up windows, roofs etc.

A documentary made by Italian television with behind-the-scenes footage of the making of Federico Fellini’s AND THE SHIP SAILS ON and extensive interview footage of Fellini.

By the time director Katja Raganelli arrived in California to make a film about Dorothy Arzner in 1980, Arzner had passed away in a car accident. Nonetheless, Raganelli visited Arzner’s…

Through the experiences of two women in Paris and London, Ghost Dance offers an analysis of the complexity of our conceptions of ghosts, memory and the past. The film focuses…

One of comedian Richard Pryor’s later stand-up performances. As foul-mouthed as ever, Pryor touches on most of the same topics as in his previous live shows.

Time is the most precious and valuable thing we own, so hopefully, you’ll invest yours in Ski Time. From the Alps to Oregon, Montana, Idaho, down to New Zealand, and…

A superb, moving and thrilling interview with American actor Sterling Hayden (1916-86), held in Besançon, France, on board a dilapidated barge, when he was 65 years old. An unparalleled portrait,…

What starts off as a squadron of American daredevil bombers in World War II, branded by society as renegades, turns into a revealing ride into the world of honor, violence,…

The true story of German-Czech businessman Oskar Schindler (1908-74) as told by some of the Jews — more than a thousand people — whose lives he saved from extermination during…

A complex visual study of the women of rural Senegal. Through a complicity of interaction between film and spectator, Reassemblage reflects on documentary filmmaking and the ethnographic representation of cultures.

Emotions and feelings should not be confused with sentimentality. Emotion is ancient and more powerful than any artistic expression. The film observes young couples facing difficulties while trying to move…

In their final year at Muncie’s Southside High School, a group of seniors hurtles toward maturity with a combination of joy, despair, and an aggravated sense of urgency. They are…

A documentary about the lives of six transgender women in post-Franco Spain.