1. The Education of Auma Obama
The Education of Auma Obama is a captivating and intimate portrait of the U.S. president's older half-sister, who embodies a post-colonial, feminist identity.
2. Waiting for B. (Waiting for B.)
This observational documentary follows the journey of Beyoncé’s super-fans who, unable to pay for the most expensive tickets, camped out for two months to secure their front row spots. Living with this makeshift community bring to light important issues, such as economic class, black identity, homophobia, feminism, and what it means to make this sacrifice for a media phenomenon larger and more powerful than themselves.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
3. The Sower (El sembrador)
Bartolomé, a teacher in a multigrade school on the mountains of Chiapas in Mexico, knows well that pedagogy is not based on textbooks and cannot fit behind the four walls of a classroom. A true sower of knowledge unravels his philosophy and method and becomes a beacon of hope for the creation of a humanistic model of education based on curiosity and love for the outside world.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
4. My Really Cool Legs!
My Really Cool Legs! follows a group of pediatric amputee athletes who challenge themselves beyond their disability. Led by their amputee mentor and coach, these kids dance and ski, ice skate and run, refusing to let their disability define who they are and what is possible.
5. Underage
Underage lifts the lid on the insular world of a group of wayward Coventry teenagers in the early 1980s. In the run up to the summer holidays, struggling to make sense of their lives, the teens take solace in glue sniffing, drinking excessively, getting arrested or head-banging to Motorhead
6. The Black Belt
In September 2015, the state of Alabama closed 31 Department of Motor Vehicles offices, disproportionately affecting African-American communities and their ability to register to vote. A band-aid solution in the form of a pop-up mobile voter registration unit is quickly dispatched. It's so disorganized and unprofessional it could be a comedy skit—if it weren't so infuriatingly disrespectful.
7. Una pasión llamada Clara Lair (Una pasión llamada Clara Lair)
Through dramatization and interviews with her colleagues, this film captures the life and work of famed Puerto Rican poet Mercedes Negrón Muñoz .
8. Le plafond de verre (Le plafond de verre)
This is the story of the few people who went ahead, beyond racial prejudice. And their struggle to open the workplace to other people.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
9. The Yes Men
A comic, biting and revelatory documentary following a small group of prankster activists as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization on television and at business conferences around the world.
It has an average vote of 6.978 on TMDB.
10. Angry Inuk
With "sealfies" and social media, a new tech-savvy generation of Inuit is wading into the world of activism, using humour and reason to confront aggressive animal rights vitriol and defend their traditional hunting practices. Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril joins her fellow Inuit activists as they challenge outdated perceptions of Inuit and present themselves to the world as a modern people in dire need of a sustainable economy.
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.
11. 13 Related Sewing Machines (13 Related Sewing Machines)
Why can't I hear the sound of sewing machines anymore? A meeting with my family and the history of all their sewing machines.
12. L'oiseau de la nuit (L'oiseau de la nuit)
Mysterious portrait of Fernando, aka Deborah Krystal, the glittering and poetic performer of the Lisbon club Finalmente, where he has been performing every night over thirty years in golden dresses. Under the layers of his colorful fabrics, the many skins of Fernando are revealed, letting Lisbon’s legends come to life. Alternately woman mermaid, female birds, woman lion, we are taken into the desires and dreams of metamorphosis and myths.
13. La otra educación (La otra educación)
La otra educación is about the class action suit Rosa Lydia Velez vs the Department of Education, and serves as the storyline to document 30 years of struggles that the families of disabled children in Puerto Rico have suffered. Their only request is the right to an education for their sons and daughters with special needs.
14. We The People 2.0
American citizens who are normally marginalized, forgotten and left to fend against toxic dumps and other violations, come to understand that the only way to survive and save their communities is to challenge the system head-on.
15. Energy War
Documentary feature. 16mm; color; sound.
16. In Paraguay
Documentary film by Ross McElwee.
17. Lanterns of Memory (مصابيح الذاكرة)
After her husband was kidnapped in 1982 during the civil war in Lebanon, Wada Hilwani gathered together the families of the kidnap victims and formed the Committee for the Families of the Kidnapped and Missing. Decades after the end of the war, these families continue their painful search for the truth about their loved ones, and for justice against war crimes.
18. 33 Days (33 Yaoum)
33 Days chronicles the efforts of theatre director Sharif Abdunnur, graphic designer Sharif Bibi, journalist Fadia Baszzi and Mariam Al-Bassam, director of the news desk at New TV, as they try to provide emergency aid, report current news of the conflict and help Lebanese children process the violence and destruction they see around them on a daily basis. Masri's film is full of compassion and humanity even as it records the horrible devastation of war.
19. Beirut Diaries: Truth, Lies and Videos (Yaumiyat Beirut: haqa'eq wa akadheeb wa)
By focusing on the experiences of 25-year-old Nadine Zaidan, who was one of the thousands of activists who gathered in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square in the chaotic days immediately following the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February of 2005, Beirut Diaries explores critical transformations and crucial questions facing contemporary Lebanon. With this insightful video diary, director Mai Masri chronicles the political ferment embodied in the March 11th Movement, also known as The Cedar Revolution, as people of all factions, ages and religious affiliations passionately debate such issues as Syria’s influence in Lebanese politics, the establishment of an international commission to investigate Hariri’s assassination and the organization of free parliamentary elections.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
20. Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (حدود الاحلام والفزع)
This heartfelt documentary from award-winning filmmaker Mai Masri explores the enduring friendship that evolves between two Palestinian girls—Mona, who was born and raised in the economically marginalized Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, and Manar, who lives in the Dheisha refugee camp under Israeli control. The two girls begin their friendship as penpals, sharing the similarities and differences of life in the two refugee camps. Mona and Manar are finally able to meet face-to-face at the Lebanese-Israeli border during Israel's withdrawal from South Lebanon. But when the second intifada suddenly erupts around them shortly thereafter, both girls must face heart-breaking changes in their lives.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.