1. Dig!
A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
2. In the Realms of the Unreal
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
3. Ob's stürmt oder schneit (Ob's stürmt oder schneit)
On December 12, 1945 Maria Stadler got the license to operate a movie theater. At first she ran a traveling cinema, which went so well that she opened on 30 October 1953 Maria's Kino in Bad Endorf, which still exists today. In the winter of 1976/77 students of the Munich University of Film and Television made a documentary about the idealist, who had since become a movie legend.
4. How to Cook Your Life
A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
5. Morkovcha [Korean Carrot Salad] (Морковча)
This film tells a story of ethnic Koreans from Russia and the post-Soviet territories making their new home in New York City. The history of the diaspora is told through conversations with Lidiya Kan’s mother, personal stories, fragmented memories, and her family photo archive. An important character of the film is Morkovcha, the Korean carrot salad, an invention of the Russian Korean diaspora; its essence is symbolic of their mixed identity.
6. Weapon of War: Confessions of rape in Congo
Wherever war breaks out, men with guns rape. During the decades of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo possibly hundreds of thousands of women and girls were brutally raped. In WEAPON OF WAR military perpetrators unveil what lies behind this brutal behavior and the strategies of rape as a war crime. An ex-rebel explains how he raped. Like for many ex-soldiers, starting a normal life again is a struggle filled with trauma. In an attempt to reconcile with his past, he decides to meets one of his victims in an attempt to obtain forgiveness. Captain Basima is working as a priest in Congo's army and confronts perpetrators of rape. He urges them to change. Just like he did.
7. When Elephants Were Young
A young man and his young elephant street beg in gritty Bangkok amid the controversial elephant business that threatens their survival, until the opportunity comes to release the elephant to the wild.
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
8. A Magical Substance Flows Into Me (في إثر مادة سحرية)
Robert Lachmann was a German-Jewish ethnomusicologist. In the 1930s, his radio show "Oriental Music" explored the musical traditions of Palestine and included regular live performances by musicians from different ethnic and religious groups. Inspired by Lachmann’s musicological studies, Palestinian artist Jumana Manna travels through Israel and the Palestinian territories of today with recordings from the programme. What do these songs sound like now when performed by Moroccan, Kurdish, or Yemenite Jews, by Samaritans, members of the urban and rural Palestinian communities, Bedouins and Coptic Christians?
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
9. Saint Death
In Mexico there is a cult that is rapidly growing- the cult of Saint Death. This female grim reaper, considered a saint by followers but Satanic by the Catholic Church, is worshiped by people whose lives are filled with danger and/or violence- criminals, gang members, transvestites, sick people, drug addicts, and families living in rough neighborhoods. "La Santa Muerte" examines the origins of the cult and takes us on a tour of the altars, jails, and neighborhoods in Mexico where the saint's most devoted followers can be found.
It has an average vote of 5.1 on TMDB.
10. The Truth Be Told
The Truth Be Told is an epic-scale documentary that follows three and half years in the life of Supinya, a media activist who was sued by the Shin Corporation for stating that the company had benefited from the policies of the administration of Thaksin Shinawatra, whose family owned the company. The documentary is snapshot of a turbulent period in Thai politics, from the Thaksin years, the anti-Thaksin backlash that arose after Thaksin sold his share in Shin to Singapore's Temasek Holdings, and the military coup that ousted Thaksin.
It has an average vote of 6.2 on TMDB.
11. Space Junk 3D
50 years after launching our dreams into space, we’re left with a troubling legacy: a growing ring of orbiting debris that threatens the safety of earth’s orbits. SPACE JUNK is a visually explosive journey of discovery that weighs the solutions aimed at restoring our planet’s orbits. Experience mind-boggling collisions, both natural and man-made. Soar for the stunning depths of Meteor Crater to an unprecedented view of our increasingly crowded orbits – 22,000 miles above earth. Join us as foremost expert Don Kessler, the “Father of Space Junk,” guides us through the challenges we face in protecting them, forging a new age of space discovery.
It has an average vote of 5.941 on TMDB.
12. Winter
A journey through North Russia and Siberia where people have to cope with one of the world’s harshest climates, Zima portrays a reality where the boundary between life and death is so thin that it is sometimes almost nonexistent. In these remote places, civilization constantly fights and embraces nature and its timeless rules and rites. People, animals and nature become elements of a millennial existence cycle where physical and mental endurance are as important as chance and where life and death constantly meet each other.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
13. Finding Sayun (不一樣的月光)
For her debut feature Finding Sayun , Atayal director Chen Chieh-yao returns to her home village to unearth the legend of Sayun , an Atayal girl who fell to her death in a turbulent stream while carrying a Japanese teacher’s belongings at the end of World War II. The movie begins when the tale of Sayun draws a television crew to the Atayal hamlet of Tyohemg in Nanao Township , Yilan County. Yukan , a high-school boy and a young hunter, does not understand the crew members’ interest in the story. But his grandfather’s memories of Sayun, whom he went to school with, revives his interest in the old tribal village, which the villagers had been forced to desert 50 years prior.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
14. Bihttoš
Bihttoš is an unconventional documentary that explores the complex relationship between a father and daughter. Through animation, re-enactments, and archival photos, writer/director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers delves into the dissolution of her parents’ mythic love story and how it has colored her perception of love in her adult life.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
15. Eleganssi (Eleganssi)
Elegance is a short film about a group of Finnish men, and the style and elegance of hunting partridge and pheasant. The film’s protagonists are all wealthy men, for whom hunting is a treasured hobby, a passion and a way of life. The film unfolds in three acts on a scenic autumnal field. Meet the three businessmen: Nokia’s former CEO, Jorma Ollila, engineering company Kone Oy’s owner, Antti Herlin, and the charming narrator, Publishing Company Otava’s former CEO, Heikki A. Reenpää. His narration leads the viewer through hunting expeditions, creates the mood and introduces the people. Almost equally important are the gentlemens’ dogs: handsome pointers and setters, whose pedigrees, abilities and hunting prowess ultimately determine whether any birds are caught at all.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
16. A Tribute to Malcolm X
A short film made for William Greaves' "Black Journal" that discusses the influence of Malcolm X, and includes an interview with his widow, Betty Shabbazz.
It has an average vote of 8.7 on TMDB.
17. SHOW ME THE JUSTICE (청년정치백서-쇼미더저스티스)
Kim Chang-in, a self-proclaimed ‘democratic socialist,’ and Kim Hyun-jin, who calls himself an ‘extremely centrist person,’ are ordinary young people in South Korea. While Chang-in became interested in politics because he was angry at the sight of bleeding workers at the Ssangyong Motors strike, Hyun-jin was angry at tax money being wasted on populist policies such as minimum wage and work incentives and decided to go into politics.
18. Lenin v Praze (Lenin v Praze)
(Lenin v Praze)
19. Bitch Academy (Как стать стервой)
A documentary on women in St. Petersburg who enroll in a program which will help them land millionaire husbands.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
20. Maestra
Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women. MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island - and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.