1. Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwaii
Filmmaker Kevin McMahon accompanies the Haida delegation on a repatriation trip to Chicago in 2003. His film reveals the whole repatriation process through the stories and experiences of the people who participated, both Museum staff and the Haida people.
2. Montreal and India
The Taj Mahal and shots of Jalandhar nestle between footage from Canada and Africa.
3. The Waterfowl People (Veelinnurahvas)
A documentary about the histoy and linguistic ties of the Finno-Ugric, and Samoyedic peoples. Speakers of the Kamassian, Nenets, Khanty, Komi, Mari, and Karelian languages were filmed in their everyday settings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The footage was shot in Altai Krai, the Nenets Okrug, Khantia-Mansia, Uzbekistan, the Komi Republic, Mari el, Karelia, and Estonia. The first documentary in Lennart Meri's "Encyclopaedia Cinematographica Gentium Fenno - Ugricarum " series.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
4. When you go back, tell them. Voices of Melanesian women (Raconte-leur. Paroles de femmes papoues)
An anthropological documentary that gives voice to the Orokavia women in Papua New Guinea and shows their daily lives.
5. Mi Barrios Altos querido (Mi Barrios Altos querido)
Five stories about dignity in the capital of Peru. A local leader looking for someone to leave the post of her complex work, a tourist guide who is a patron of the architectural heritage and Creole music, an ex-delinquent rescued by the Evangelical Church, a teenage dancer of Afro-Peruvian music forced to emigrate and a muralist of Bellas Artes son of Andean migrants, they try to get ahead in Barrios Altos, the most feared – but also most beloved – historic neighborhood of Lima.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
6. Adwa (አድዋ)
In 1896, Ethiopia, an African nation, largely armed with spears and knives, defeats a well-equipped and organized Italian military bent on colonization.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
7. Far from the Trees (Lejos de los árboles)
An unprejudiced portrait of Spanish folklore and a crude analysis in black and white of its intimate relationship with atavism and superstition, with violence and pain, with blood and death; a story of terror, a journey to the most sinister and ancestral Spain; the one that lived far from the most visited tourist destinations, from the economic miracle and unstoppable progress, relentlessly promoted by the Franco regime during the sixties.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
8. Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
The film discusses the traits and originators of some of metal's many subgenres, including the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, power metal, Nu metal, glam metal, thrash metal, black metal, and death metal. Dunn uses a family-tree-type flowchart to document some of the most popular metal subgenres. The film also explores various aspects of heavy metal culture.
It has an average vote of 7.582 on TMDB.
9. Cracks in the Mask
A century ago the Torres Strait Island were the subjects of the famous Cambridge Anthropological Expedition - the resulting depletion of their cultural artifacts left them with nothing but a history of remembered loss. The only people in the Pacific to make elaborate turtleshell masks have none left - they are all in foreign museums. In a quest to reclaim the past, Ephraim Bani, a wise and knowledgeable Torres Strait Islander, travels with his wife to the great museums of Europe where his heritage lies. The film, an SBS Independent production, shows that the thickest of masks cracks when a descendant of the original owners enters a museum.
10. Sons of Haji Omar
Haji Omar and his three sons belong to the Lakankhel, a Pashtoon tribal group in northeastern Afghanistan. The film focuses on his family: Haji Omar, the patriarch; Anwar, the eldest, his father's favorite, a pastoralist and expert horseman; Jannat Gul, cultivator and ambitious rebel; and Ismail, the youngest, attending school with a view to a job as a government official.
11. The Winds of the Milky Way (Linnutee tuuled)
Sequel to the "The Waterfowl People". The author interprets the kinship, linguistic and cultural relationships of the Finno-Ugric peoples. Finns, Vepsians, Votes, Setos, Erzya-Mordvinians, Mansi, Hungarians, Sami, Nganasans, and Estonians appear in the film. The film was shot in 1977 on location in northern Finland, Sapmi, Vepsia, Votia, Mordovia, Khantia-Mansia, Hungary, the Taymyr Peninsula, the Setomaa region in Estonia, and on the Estonian islands of Saaremaa and Muhu. Footage was also shot in 1970 in the Nenets Okrug. The second documentary in Lennart Meri's "Encyclopaedia Cinematographica Gentium Fenno - Ugricarum" series.
It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.
12. The Sounds of Kaleva (Kaleva hääled)
A three-act film-essay about memory and the historical-cultural ties of the Finno- Ugric peoples. The first chapter is dedicated to ancient Bearese of memory, such as Karelian cliff drawings, Kalevala runo song and Khanty bear feast rituals. the second act portrays the visit of Elias Lonnrot, compiler of the Finnish national epic Kalevala, to Estonia and his meetings with local intellectuals. Part three re-enacts an ancient smelting and blacksmith ritual set to Veljo Tormis' cantata 'curse upon iron'. Filmed in 1985 in Uhtuo, Karelia; in Khantia-Mansia at the Agan river, a tributary of the Ob; and in Estonia . The third documentary in Lennart Meri's "Encyclopaedia Cinematographica Gentium Fenno - Ugricarum" series.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
13. Son of Torum (Toorumi Pojad)
In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.
14. The Shaman (Šamaan)
"Shaman" was filmed on July the 16th, 1977 in the northernmost corner of Eurasia, on the Taymyr Peninsula, at the Avam river, concurrently with the shooting of the documentary "The Winds of the Milky Way". The Nganasan Shaman Demnime was 64 years old at the time. The documentary about Demnime's incarnation ritual was completed 20 years later. The fifth and final documentary in Lennart Meri's "Encyclopaedia Cinematographica Gentium Fenno - Uricarum" series.
15. I Come From Away: An Immigrant in Maine
An intimate look inside the immigrant community in Portland, Maine, as told by Nyamuon Nguany Machar who arrived as refugee in 1995 and David Zwalita Mota who came as an asylum seeker in 2019.
16. Human Apes from the Orient
The subject is two grotesque-looking human beings who are sitting on the deck of a ship. The two weird individuals sit cross-legged and do the bidding of a man in oriental costume. The point of the film seems to be directed at the fact that the bone structure of the two subjects makes them look like monkeys or apes, and the spectators seem to be trying to get them to behave like monkeys, that is, scratch themselves, etc.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
17. Running Movie
Running Movie is a documentary film that focuses on Israeli long-distance runner Ayele Seteng , the oldest marathon runner to compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and his efforts to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Satayin has been a long-distance runner since he was a young boy in Ethiopia, but he only became a marathon runner after immigrating to Israel in the early 1990s. Now, at the age of 55, he keeps on running. We follow him as he practices in Ethiopia, far from his wife and eight children, and witness his moments of victory and defeat, as he competes in marathons around the world—from Berlin, Germany, to Tiberias, Israel.
18. Global Metal
In GLOBAL METAL, directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn set out to discover how the West's most maligned musical genre - heavy metal - has impacted the world's cultures beyond Europe and North America. The film follows metal fan and anthropologist Sam Dunn on a whirlwind journey through Asia, South America and the Middle East as he explores the underbelly of the world's emerging extreme music scenes; from Indonesian death metal to Chinese black metal to Iranian thrash metal. GLOBAL METAL reveals a worldwide community of metalheads who aren't just absorbing metal from the West - they're transforming it - creating a new form of cultural expression in societies dominated by conflict, corruption and mass-consumerism.
It has an average vote of 7.321 on TMDB.
19. American Hardcore
Inspired by Steven Blush's book "American Hardcore: A tribal history" Paul Rachman's feature documentary debut is a chronicle of the underground hardcore punk years from 1979 to 1986. Interviews and rare live footage from artists such as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, SS Decontrol and the Dead Kennedys.
It has an average vote of 6.775 on TMDB.
20. The Tea Trail with Simon Reeve
Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Kenya and Uganda to uncover the stories behind Britain's favourite drink, meeting the people who pick, pack and transport tea.