Peaceful Anarchy's Favourite Documentaries
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- DirectorSandhya SuriStarsYash Pal SuriThe myth of return. In 1966, Yash and Sheel Suri leave India for a temporary stay in England while he burnishes his resume as a doctor. He buys projectors, tape recorders, and movie cameras, and sends one set to India beginning a 40-year exchange of tapes and Super 8 movies between his family in India and his household near Manchester. We watch their three daughters grow and we hear increasingly plaintive calls from Yash's parents and sister to return home. In 1982, it's back to India where Yash sets up a practice. A return to England, one daughter's marriage, another's move to Australia, and the third's film project complete the 40-year story. Yash still loves his homeland.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.
- DirectorSantiago ÁlvarezStarsLena HorneA documentary short about racism in the United States.
- DirectorJorge FurtadoStarsPaulo JoséCiça ReckziegelDouglas TraininiThe ironic, heartbreaking and acid "saga" of a spoiled tomato: from the plantation of a "Nisei" (Brazilian with Japanese origins); to a supermarket; to a consumer's kitchen to become sauce of a pork meat; to the garbage can since it is spoiled for the consumption; to a garbage truck to be dumped in a garbage dump in "Ilha das Flores"; to the selection of nutriment for pigs by the employees of a pigs breeder; to become food for poor Brazilian people.
- DirectorStan BrakhageStarsStan BrakhageMyrrena SchwegmannJane WodeningStan Brakhage films the birth of his first child, Myrrena.
- DirectorJoel DeMottJeff KreinesIn 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 also learning a great deal about life, both in and out of school, and not what school officials think they are teaching.
- DirectorEllen HovdeAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesStarsEdith Bouvier BealeEdith 'Little Edie' Bouvier BealeBrooks HyersMeet a mother and daughter, high-society dropouts, reclusive cousins of Jackie O., managing to thrive together amid the decay and disorder of their East Hampton, NY, mansion, making for an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot.
- DirectorCharles EamesRay EamesStarsPhilip MorrisonBeginning with a shot of a couple enjoying a picnic, then zooming out incrementally by powers of ten, the film offers a glimpse of everything from the edge of the known universe to the molecules on a person's hand.
- DirectorBert SternAram AvakianStarsLouis ArmstrongMahalia JacksonChuck BerryThe highlights of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsDavid AlbrittonArvo AskolaJack BeresfordThe document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorRithy PanhStarsKhieu 'Poev' ChesYeay CheuNhem EnA unique documentary on the notorious S-21 prison, today the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with testimony by the only surviving prisoners and former Khmer Rouge guards.
- StarsSigourney WeaverDavid AttenboroughNikolay DrozdovA documentary series on the wildlife found on Earth. Each episode covers a different habitat: deserts, mountains, deep oceans, shallow seas, forests, caves, polar regions, fresh water, plains and jungles. Narrated by David Attenborough.
- DirectorCornell CapaStarsHenri Cartier-Bresson
- DirectorMarc SingerStarsMarc SingerA cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.
- DirectorAllan KingStarsPhyllis BobbittJoyce BoneNorman CollinsDirector Allan King documents the final months of five terminally ill cancer patients at the Toronto Grace Health Centre.
- DirectorJuliano Ribeiro SalgadoWim WendersStarsSebastião SalgadoWim WendersLélia Wanick SalgadoThe life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRobert McNamaraJohn F. KennedyFidel CastroThe story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara.
- DirectorMarie Clémence Andriamonta-PaesCesar PaesStarsAmbarazafyAvimareArthur BesyVenerable storytellers recount for the camera and their listeners the founding myths of Malagasy culture.
- 1995–19983h 45m8.5 (5.1K)TV EpisodeDirectorMartin ScorseseMichael Henry WilsonStarsMartin ScorseseAllison AndersKathryn BigelowMartin Scorsese describes his initial and growing obsession with films from the 1940s and 50s as the art form developed and grew with clips from classics and cult classics.
- StarsGilles KepelWilliam KristolMelvin GoodmanA series of three documentaries about the use of fear for political gain.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHossain SabzianMohsen MakhmalbafAbolfazl AhankhahThe true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
- DirectorFred W. FriendlyStarsEdward R. MurrowHarriet BeemanMichael CassidyIn this CBS News production broadcast on Thanksgiving 1960, Edward R. Murrow points out the plight of migrant farm workers in America. Topics range from the harsh living conditions, endless travel, low wages, and poor opportunities for their children.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanStarsEugene FriedmanStanley FriedmanRobert SchwartzAn intimate look at the daily activities of medical staff and patients in New York's Metropolitan Hospital.
- DirectorDavid DawkinsChris HegedusD.A. PennebakerStarsOtis ReddingBooker T. & the M.G.sSteve CropperDocumentary on Otis Redding's performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
- DirectorEduardo CoutinhoStarsEduardo CoutinhoElizabeth TeixeiraFerreira GullarA filmmaker returns to Northeast Brazil after twenty years to resume his film (a profile of assassinated peasant leader João Pedro Teixeira) which was shut down by a right-wing military coup in 1964.
- DirectorRobert DrewStarsJames LipscombJohn F. KennedyGeorge WallaceGovernor George Wallace will not let two black students into an Alabama school, against the wishes of President Kennedy. Loud shouts come from both sides of the issue as JFK stands by his decisions.
- DirectorMarcel OphülsStarsHelmut TausendMarcel VerdierAlexis GraveAn in-depth exploration of the various reactions by the French people to the Vichy government's acceptance of the German invasion.
- DirectorStan BrakhageAt a morgue, forensic pathologists conduct autopsies of the corpses assigned.
- DirectorMichael GlawoggerA look at the people who live precariously, but with an unusual level of resourcefulness and imagination, in four gigantic urban agglomerations: Mumbai, New York City, Moscow and Mexico City.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRandall AdamsDavid HarrisGus RoseA film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.
- DirectorCarol MorleyStarsZawe AshtonAlix Luka-CainAlistair AbrahamsA filmmaker sets out to discover the life of Joyce Vincent, who died in her bedsit in North London in 2003. Her body wasn't discovered for three years, and newspaper reports offered few details of her life - not even a photograph.
- DirectorKamran ShirdelA documentary which explores what did or did not happen on a rainy night a young boy allegedly saved a train from crashing.
- DirectorSteve JamesStarsWilliam GatesArthur AgeeEmma GatesA film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.
- DirectorMichael GlawoggerA documentary on the extremes to which workers will go to earn a living.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
- DirectorAlexander HammidMaya DerenTwo cats have a litter of 5 kittens and then nurse, teach and play with them.
- DirectorBanksyStarsBanksyMr. BrainwashSpace InvaderFollowing the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.
- DirectorIgnacio AgüeroStarsAlicia Vega"Tells the story of a group of Chilean children who discover a larger reality and a different world through the cinema. Each Saturday, Alicia Vega transforms the chapel of Lo Hermida into a film screening room as she conducts a workshop for children under the auspices of the Catholic church. The hundred or so children involved had never seen a movie, and in the workshop they see and learn about the cinema: photograms and moving images, projection, camera angles and movement, film genres, and much more. And they watch movies: Chaplin, Disney, Lamorisse's 'The Red Balloon,' the Lumieres' 'The Arrival of the Train to the Station.' Finally, each child designs his own film with drawings. And then, for the first time in most of their lives, the children got to the movies in downtown Santiago." [from the video container]
- DirectorLuc MoulletStarsFrançoise BurauxRichard CopansAntonin DalmassoA Man tries different ways to open a Coca Cola bottle.
- DirectorNoriaki TsuchimotoA documentary about the plight of the victims of Minamata disease, which was caused by the ingestion of fish containing abnormal amounts of mercury released into the sea by a fertilizer factory owned by the Chisso company.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsFrançois WertheimerAgnès VardaJean La PlancheVarda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris.
- DirectorEdgar MorinJean RouchStarsAngeloNadine BallotCatherineA documentary about the everyday lives of ordinary Parisians, done in the style of cinéma vérité.
- DirectorKazuo HaraStarsKenzo OkuzakiRiichi AikawaMasaichi HamaguchiA documentary following Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, as he tries to expose the needless executions of two Japanese soldiers during the war.
- DirectorPeter DavisStarsTin ChanChau DiemNgo Dinh DiemA startling and courageous landmark documentary that unflinchingly confronted the United States' involvement in Vietnam at the height of the controversy that surrounded it.
- DirectorDick ProennekeStarsDick ProennekeBob Swerer Jr.Wendy IshiiIn 1968, one man films his attempt to build a cabin and live in the Alaskan wilderness. He goes weeks or months at a time without human contact.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsEileen ThompsonJulian Tudor HartDai WaltersA documentary on how the spirit of unity, which buoyed Britain during the war years, carried through to create a vision of a fairer, united society.
- DirectorVíctor EriceStarsAntonio LópezMaría MorenoEnrique GranThe artist Antonio López tries to capture the sunlight hitting his quince tree all autumn, but the struggle seems futile.
- DirectorDavid AchkarStarsDavid AchkarMarof AchkarFilmmaker David Achkar searches for his father, Marof Achkar, who was sent to the notorious Camp Boiro prison in 1969 for treason.
- DirectorTrinh T. Minh-haA short film which documents the lives of women in a rural Senegal.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanWELFARE shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.
- DirectorMikhail RommStarsMikhail RommMartin BormannWilly BrandtA documentary about the rise and fall of fascism and the effects of Nazism on German society.
- DirectorNikolaus GeyrhalterHomo Sapiens shows stunning images of forgotten places, buildings we constructed and then left.
- DirectorBarbara ConnellBill JerseyStarsErnie ChambersRay CristensenBill YoungdahlDuring the civil rights movement, a Lutheran minister in Nebraska sets out to integrate his church.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBabak AhmadpoorFarhang AkhavanMohammad Reza NematzadehIn this documentary, Kiarostami asks a number of students about their school homework. The answers of some children shows the darker side of this method of education.
- DirectorOctavio GetinoFernando E. SolanasStarsMaría de la PazFernando E. SolanasEdgardo SuárezDivided into three segments, namely 1 Neocolonialism, 2 Act for liberation, 3 Violence and liberation, the documentary lasts more than 4 hours this deals with the defense of the revolution and the revolution of the third world such as the revolt of the students in the United States and Western Europe, Czech citizens protest against the Soviet Union's State bureaucracy and also the revolution that (probably) is unprecedented in Argentina.
- DirectorJosé PadilhaFelipe LacerdaStarsSandro do NascimentoRodrigo PimentelLuiz Eduardo SoaresOn June 12, 2000, a young man with a gun took the passengers aboard Bus 174 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil hostage. This documentary examines the event itself, the resulting media frenzy, the police response, and the perpetrator's background.
- DirectorJerzy BossakJaroslaw BrzozowskiStarsAndrzej LapickiOver a decade after the almost total wartime destruction, Warsaw still looks bruised and battered. Ruined houses are nevertheless inhabited which can be dangerous for the local population.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsAgnès VardaAndré LubranoBlaise FournierAgnès Varda explores her memories, mostly chronologically, with photographs, film clips, interviews, reenactments, and droll, playful contemporary scenes of her narrating her story.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted interviews the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
- DirectorKon IchikawaStarsAntonio AmbuGary AndersonGerry AshworthKon Ichikawa examines the beauty and rich drama on display at the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo, creating a record of observations that range from the expansive to the intimate.
- DirectorMartin RikliA short black and white film which documents the discovery of X-Rays and how they can be used for medical purposes.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsWoody AllenJean-Luc GodardAnnette InsdorfRevolutionary French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard conducts a twenty-five minute interview with influential and acclaimed American director Woody Allen on the cultural radiation, the ubiquity and significance of Television, and how Television compares with cinema as a medium and form of expression.
- DirectorClaude LanzmannStarsSimon SrebnikMichael PodchlebnikMotke ZaïdlClaude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
- DirectorJosé Luis GuerínStarsJuana Rodríguez MolinaIván Guzmán JiménezJuan López LópezAn author spent a year and a half filming what happened as a new apartment building was built in the El Chino neighborhood of Barcelona. En Construccion focuses less on the practicalities of raising a building than the impact the project has on those who live in the neighborhood, including a teenage couple squatting in a nearby building, an illegal alien looking for work for himself and his son, and a neighborhood girl who becomes infatuated with one of the construction workers. The death of a stray cat and the discovery of a mass grave during construction also points to the tragic losses that are sometimes part and parcel of progress.
- DirectorPatricio GuzmánStarsGaspar GalazLautaro NúñezLuís HenríquezA documentary about two different searches conducted in the Chilean Atacama Desert: one by astronomers looking for answers about the history of the cosmos, and one by women looking for the remains of loved ones killed by Pinochet's regime.
- DirectorJohn GriersonA silent documentary film by John Grierson telling the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery.
- DirectorEmad BurnatGuy DavidiStarsEmad BurnatSoraya BurnatMohammed BurnatA documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
- DirectorChris SmithStarsMark BorchardtMike SchankTom SchimmelsDocumentary about an aspiring filmmaker's attempts to finance his dream project by finally completing the low-budget horror film he abandoned years before.
- DirectorMarcel LozinskiStarsTomasz LozinskiAn energetic six-year-old boy talks to elderly strangers relaxing in the park. He confronts his childish knowledge of the world with their life-long experience.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldThis eye-opening episode uncovers human nature and the desire to survive and succeed in all its heart-breaking glory.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiPeople of different age, profession and social status answer two simple questions: who they are and what they want from life.
- DirectorNikolaus GeyrhalterStarsClaus Hansen PetzArkadiusz RydellekBarbara HinzOUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn't always easy to digest - and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.
- DirectorPatricio GuzmánStarsSalvador AllendeCarlos AltamiranoFernando CastilloFilmmaker Patricio Guzmán tracks the deterioration of Salvador Allende's position following the attempted coup d'état of 29 June 1973, and analyzes the 10 weeks before Augusto Pinochet's CIA-backed seizure of power.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardAnne-Marie MiévilleStarsJean-Luc GodardThe movie incorporates footage of fedayeens taken for an aborted pro-Palestinian film which had been abandoned when subjects were killed. Here and Elsewhere takes its name from the footage it shows of the fedayeens and of a French family.
- DirectorCharles FergusonStarsCampbell ScottGerald BurkeAli FadhilA comprehensive look at the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq war and its occupation of the country.
- DirectorSara GómezStarsMario BalmasedaYolanda CuéllarMario LimontaIn Miraflores, Cuba, the growing romance between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a schoolteacher, throws into relief the differences in their perspectives and values in Revolutionary Cuba.
- StarsJames MasonColleen MooreByron HaskinThe history of the American film industry in Hollywood during the Silent era.
- DirectorJeff MalmbergStarsMark HogancampEmmanuel NnejiEdda HogancampDocumentary about Mark Hogancamp. After a vicious attack leaves him brain-damaged and broke, Mark seeks recovery in "Marwencol", a 1/6th scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard. Inspired the movie Welcome to Marwen (2018)
- DirectorMichael MooreStarsMichael MooreRoger B. SmithRhonda BrittonAfter General Motors closes its factory in Flint, Michigan, eliminating 35,000 jobs, filmmaker Michael Moore undertakes a quixotic quest to interview General Motors' chairman, Roger B. Smith.
- DirectorNicolas PhilibertStarsGeorges LopezAlizéAxel ThouveninA documentary portrait of a one-room school in rural France, where the students (ranging in age from 4 to 11) are educated by a single dedicated teacher.
- DirectorConnie FieldStarsLola WeixelMargaret WrightLyn ChildsDocumentary about women working in factories during WWII and resultant loss of jobs after the war. Five women tell their stories. Fascinating clips of racist, sexist propaganda of the era.
- DirectorEduardo CoutinhoStarsMarília PêraAndrea BeltrãoFernanda TorresFollowing a newspaper ad, ordinary women tell part of their life stories to director Eduardo Coutinho, which are then re-enacted by actresses, blurring the barriers between truth, fiction and interpretation.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWalter SteinerWerner HerzogA study of the psychology of a champion ski-jumper, whose full-time occupation is carpentry.
- DirectorMartin BellStarsAnnieEddieAntoineGritty documentary that looks at the lives of teenagers living on the streets of Seattle.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students.
- DirectorGuy MaddinStarsDarcy FehrAnn SavageLouis NeginFact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this portrait of film-maker Guy Maddin's home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
- DirectorMichelle CitronStarsVictor PenelopeAnne WilfordA documentary of a daughter's problematic relationship with her mother.
- DirectorBert HaanstraWho is watching who in the zoo?
- CreatorAnn DruyanCarl SaganSteven SoterStarsCarl SaganJaromír HanzlíkJonathan FahnAstronomer Carl Sagan leads us on an engaging guided tour of the various elements and cosmological theories of the universe.
- DirectorCameron CroweStarsEddie VedderStone GossardJeff AmentA documentary on the band Pearl Jam that marks their 20th anniversary in the year 2011.
- DirectorRoss McElweeStarsRoss McElweeDede McElweeRoss McElwee Jr.Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee sets out to make a movie about Union General Sherman's March to the Sea towards the end of the American Civil War, but keeps getting sidetracked by his own love life.
- DirectorJørgen LethLars von TrierStarsClaus NissenMajken Algren NielsenDaniel Hernandez RodriguezFilmmaker Lars Von Trier challenges Jørgen Leth, the filmmaker behind The Perfect Human (1967), to remake his classic short under circumstances of increasing constraint.
- DirectorRob EpsteinJeffrey FriedmanStarsLily TomlinTony CurtisSusie BrightA documentary surveying the various Hollywood screen depictions of homosexuals and the attitudes behind them throughout the history of North American film.
- DirectorDavid MacDougallJudith MacDougallAn account of a marriage among the Turkana, an isolated pastoral tribe of the dry thorn-country of northwestern Kenya.
- DirectorJean-Marie TénoStarsJean-Marie TénoNarcisse KouokamMarie Claire DatiA documentary examining political repression in Cameroon, Central Africa.
- DirectorTrinh T. Minh-haTrinh T. Minh-ha combines archival footage, text, and interviews to paint portraits of Vietnamese women past and present. She explores the fiction of documentary and the truth of subjective experience and all their inherent contradictions.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsSergey BondarchukGrigoriy AleksandrovEisenstein shows us Mexico in this movie, its history and its culture. He believes, that Mexico can become a modern state.
- DirectorFlorence AyisiKim LonginottoStarsVera NgassaBeatrice NtubaSet in Kumba in South West Cameroon Sisters in Law follows Adultery, Rape and Abuse cases led by a Female Judge.
- DirectorRobin AndersonBob ConnollyStarsJoe LeahyJoe Leahy is the half-caste son of one of the first explorers of the Papua New Guinean interior. His relations with the local Ganiga tribe who work his coffee plantation on their land are difficult at times. However he has successfully managed to get them to agree to open a second plantation in partnership with him. Things are looking up until the international coffee market hits rough times and conflict seems imminent between the Ganiga and their neighbouring traditional enemies.