1. Polar Life
Polar Life’s novelty was its theatre, with the audience seated on a central rotating turntable in the middle of eleven fixed screens. Viewers have described the intricate juxtaposition of screen images and narration and the complex relationship created between moving spectators and multiple screens. Documentation images and scripts of the bilingual narration by Lise Payette and Patrick Watson show elaborate temporal and spatial representations of the Arctic and Antarctic regions: the Inuit in daily activities in the Canadian North; other northern peoples of Alaska, Lapland, and Siberia; and settlers from the South, scientists, explorers, and other inhabitants of the landscape, including reindeer, bears, and birds. Archival film footage of early northern explorers, combined with newly shot documentary footage, was edited across the various screens to create spatial relationships that are sometimes coherent, sometimes fragmented.
2. Continental Divide
Filmed in 1987, this documentary chronicles the journey of Via Rail's The Canadian as it makes its way across Canada.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
3. Taking Alcatraz
A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island as told by principal organizer, Adam Fortunate Eagle. The story unfolds through Fortunate Eagle's remembrances, archival newsreel footage and photographs.
4. Nanook of the North
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.
It has an average vote of 7.106 on TMDB.
5. Planting Earth Week
Planting Earth Week follows a radical climate activist who tells the story of a splitting decentralized movement that made headlines in 2019.
6. The turning point - the environmental stuggle that became indigenous affairs (Vendepunktet - miljøkampen som ble en urfolksak)
Personal accounts from the Alta actions in the years 1979 to 1981. Large police forces were deployed against the demonstrators. The dispute over the Alta river began as an environmental issue, but became a major turning point for the Sámi people's struggle for equal rights in Norway.
7. Bowling for Columbine
This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.
It has an average vote of 7.532 on TMDB.
8. Voda na venkově (Voda na venkově)
(Voda na venkově)
9. Roger & Me
A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith.
It has an average vote of 7.127 on TMDB.
10. An Inconvenient Truth
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
It has an average vote of 6.972 on TMDB.
11. The Alps from Above: Symphony of Summits (Die Alpen - Unsere Berge von oben)
The most important mountain range in Europe is more than a holiday destination for sports and relaxation. The Alps are not just an unpredictable force of nature against which humans have to assert themselves again and again, or an area steeped in history, but also a landscape that enchants. The documentary takes a foray through the history and geography of the Alps.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
12. Elles livrent bataille: Nos seins, nos armes (Elles livrent bataille: Nos seins, nos armes)
"They fight: Our breasts, our weapons" - Born in Ukraine in 2008 in the wake of the "Orange Revolution", the feminist movement Femen fights for democracy, freedom of the press, women's rights, and against corruption, prostitution, sexism, racism, poverty and religions. Her activists quickly caught the attention of the media by shocking actions carried bare toes, the body covered with slogans. In 2012, at the creation of Femen France, Caroline Fourest followed their actions. They notably affirmed their support for "Marriage for All" by protesting on November 18, 2012, during the demonstration organized by the Civitas Institute against the bill, provoking sharp clashes.</p><p> An episode from "Infrarouge XXL".
It has an average vote of 4.5 on TMDB.
13. FEMEN: Exposed (FEMEN: Exposed)
They are FEMEN and their decision to fight for feminism topless has made them famous far beyond their native Ukraine. After being forced to move their HQ in Kiev, FEMEN take their struggle to Paris, France where they continue to challenge gender inequality, patriarchal institutions, religion and the sex industry. This report is produced by RT - former Russia Today - send a clear message how Kremlin view this type of activity.
14. 33 Days of Utopia (33 Tage Utopie)
In May 1980, more than 800 people lived for 33 days near Gorleben in the protest camp ‚Free Republic of Wendland‘ and thus prevented for a short time drilling for the planned nuclear waste repository in the nearby salt dome.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
15. I Am A Men's Rights Activist
Journalist Alvaro Alvarez travels with former porn-star and men’s rights activist Philipp Tanzer to a Conference on Men’s Issues, shedding light on the controversial movement.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
16. The Congolese Rainforests: Living on Borrowed Time (Congo: Des forêts en sursis)
In June 2010, French actress Marion Cotillard spent a week in the heart of the tropical forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo with members of Greenpeace France and Greenpeace Africa. She delivers in video a strong testimony on the looting of Congolese forests which benefits a few industrial groups, often European.
17. Glacier Park and Waterton Lakes
We begin at the train station near Montana's Glacier National Park, where Blackfeet Indians meet the arriving tourists. Glacier Park, an off-screen narrator tells us, has the remnants of 60 glaciers, from three ice ages. We visit the lodge, built in Swiss style, where college students dressed in Swiss garb do the serving at the restaurant. We watch Indian dancing and a ceremony. After views of lakes, mountains, and trails in the park, it's north to Canada's Waterton Lakes, a vacation spot for Canadian and U.S. families.
18. Mackinac Island
This Traveltalk series short begins in Chicago, where the narrator and his crew board a cruise ship. After a 20-hour trip up Lake Michigan, they arrive at Mackinac Island, near the southeast tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. On the island, we see many of the attractions for which it is famous. These include Arch Rock, Old Fort Mackinack, and a hotel owned by Chauncey Depew. No automobiles are allowed on the island. Transportation is limited to bicycles and horse-drawn carriages.
19. Quebec in Summertime
This Traveltalk series short takes the viewer to Quebec, the city that was called the "New France".
20. The Stone Speakers
In present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, economically depressed towns turn themselves into tourist destinations in order to survive—deliberately forming their own cultural narratives. Centering on four different locations, The Stone Speakers interrogates a nation’s contradictory memories. Made with subtlety and tactful distance, director Igor Drljaca’s film reveals the traumatic consequences of being a country that is stuck in a postwar identity crisis.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
