1. B.D. Women
An erotic, stylised documentary celebrating the history and culture of black lesbians. Contemporary interviews are interwoven with a sultry narrative set in 1920s Paris, showing the relationship between a femme jazz singer and her butch daddy lover.
2. Columbus The Lost Voyage
Columbus' 4th voyage has been a total failure: he has not found the westward passage, he has no gold to show, he has lost men and ships and his efforts to build a colony have fallen through. The monarchs of Spain are not going to restore the rights and privileges which were taken away from Columbus after the first voyage. And Columbus will be shamed. Many of his sailors who have survived, can't face the journey home. They will choose to remain on Hispaniola or neighbouring Puerto Rico.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
3. Research and Crime: the Reich University of Strasbourg (Forschung und Verbrechen: die Reichsuniversität Straßburg)
Strasbourg was home to one of three Reich Universities founded by the Nazis, known as a project close to Hitler's heart. The university, founded in 1941, is infamous for the human experiments performed on KZ prisoners by the professors of the medical faculty. What did its dean, Johannes Stein, grandfather of documentarian Kirsten Esch, know of these crimes?
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
4. Sharaf (Sharaf)
Man flees from poor and war torn country.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
5. From Victoria Street to Ang Mo Kio
This work documents a segment of Singapore’s education history –– the survival of the nation’s first Catholic missionary Chinese girls’ school through adversities during her formative years. It is a tribute to the arduous efforts and contributions of a generation of admirable educators who persevered in delivering the education of love with resilience and steadfastness.
6. Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger
The story of a young boy forced to spend all five years of his short life in hospital while the federal and provincial governments argued over which was responsible for his care, as well as the long struggle of Indigenous activists to force the Canadian government to enforce “Jordan’s Principle” — the promise that no First Nations children would experience inequitable access to government-funded services again.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
7. There's Something in the Water
Elliot Page brings attention to the injustices and injuries caused by environmental racism in his home province, in this urgent documentary on Indigenous and African Nova Scotian women fighting to protect their communities, their land, and their futures.
It has an average vote of 7.2 on TMDB.
8. The Wolfpack
Locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch. Nicknamed ‘The Wolfpack’, the brothers spend their childhood reenacting their favorite films using elaborate home-made props and costumes. Their world is shaken up when one of the brothers escapes and everything changes.
It has an average vote of 6.819 on TMDB.
9. The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia
The meaning of art itself comes into question in this documentary about Shelby Lee Adams' controversial photos of families in Appalachia.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
10. Lotte Reiniger - Tanz der Schatten (Lotte Reiniger - Tanz der Schatten)
Portrait of the pioneer of animation films Lotte Reiniger.
11. Traces: The Kabul Museum 1988 (在りし日のカーブル博物館1988年)
The Kabul National Museum, once known as the "face of Afghanistan," was destroyed in 1993. We filmed the most important cultural treasures of the still-intact museum in 1988: ancient Greco-Roman art and antiquitied of Hellenistic civilization, as well as Buddhist sculpture that was said to have mythology--the art of Gandhara, Bamiyan, and Shotorak among them. After the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, some seventy percent of the contents of the museum was destroyed, stolen, or smuggled overseas to Japan and other countries. The movement to return these items is also touched upon. The footage in this video represents that only film documentation of the Kabul Museum ever made.
12. Out of Darkness: The Mine Workers' Story
OUT OF DARKNESS: THE MINE WORKERS' STORY is a documentary by Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple . Historical film footage and photographs are integrated with first-hand accounts of UMWA history and of the Pittston strike of 1989-90.
13. A Star Named Ayrton Senna (A Star Named Ayrton Senna)
The Official Film of Brazil's greatest Formula One driver, Ayrton Senna, who's sudden death in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix sent shock waves around the World. It cemented his reputation both within the sport, and his native Brazil, as a legend. The film looks at his life and career using archive footage and featuring revealing interviews with the man, as well as those who knew him well; friends, family and competitors. It also shows how the Ayrton Senna Foundation, set up in his honor, is working to help under privileged and street-bound children in his native Brazil using sport as an incentive to learn. Written by Oliver Warman.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
14. The Snowman
In 1978 Jimmy Graham, a thirty four year old happily married the father of two, scored his dream job with Operation Deepfreeze - training American scientists in survival skills in Antarctica. He left in December of that year. Three months later he arrived back agitated and paranoid. He said that while out on the ice he had stumbled onto a secret American nuclear site and the CIA had given him a chemical lobotomy to keep him quiet. Jimmy rapidly descended into schizophrenia. His behaviour became so frightening that his wife Frances fled to safety, taking their two children Sean and Juliet with her. For thirty years the family lived with this story, but no one ever dug deeper. The man they loved went away sane and came back permanently fractured – his mind was a blizzard. Now Juliet wants to know what exactly did happen on that frozen continent.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
15. Shahida (Shahida)
Documentary about female suicide bombers.
16. Vida Activa (Vida Activa)
New Opportunities were a portuguese education program with a focus on the academic certification of adults who left school early. Applicants will improve their academic degree from the re-elaboration and re-interpretation of his "life experience." These processes motivated workers to reflect on their working conditions, their training, their roots, producing a plurality of views about the school, emigration, the rural world and the universe of employment. Having its protagonists stories as a starting point, the film approches into a reflection about work in the contemporay world. This film was produced over four years work by the film director in a New Opportunities Centre.
17. Hidden Memory
We follow the filmmaker's struggle to reconstruct a period of her life when she lost her memory.
It has an average vote of 8.8 on TMDB.
18. Visions of Eight
Eight acclaimed filmmakers bring their unique and differing perspectives to the 1972 Summer Olympic Games held in Munich. The segments include Lelouch's take on Olympic losers and their struggle to remain dignified even in the face of bitter disappointment and defeat; Zetterling's dramatic exploration of the world of weightlifting; and Pfleghar's piece on young Russian gymnast Ludmilla Tourischev's majestic performance on the uneven bars.
It has an average vote of 7.1 on TMDB.
19. Tears of Gaza (Gazas tårer)
In a rough style, by way of unique footage, the brutal consequences of modern wars are exposed. The film also depicts the ability of women and children to handle their everyday life after a dramatic war experience. Many of them live in tents or in ruins without walls or roofs. They are all in need of money, food, water and electricity. Others have lost family members, or are left with seriously injured children. Can war solve conflicts or create peace? The film follows three children through the war and the period after the ceasefire.
It has an average vote of 6.2 on TMDB.
20. Invisibles
A series of short films examining the world's overlooked problems and the people who suffer from them.
It has an average vote of 4.4 on TMDB.
