1. The Wall
Like the best USIA films, The Wall distills political events into an emotionally clear and compelling ideological "story". In 1962 Walter de Hoog gathered footage from U.S. and German newsreel sources and crafted this taut short film about the first year of the Berlin Wall. Straightforward, keenly balanced narration portrays Berliners as "accepting the wall but never resigned to it". The extraordinary footage of the first escapes was propaganda enough-- His challenge was to make the politics human.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
2. FIFA: A Love Letter to Rwanda
Supermodel Adriana Lima presents a behind-the-scenes look at the FIFA congress in the Rwandan capital of Kigali in March 2023, which made Kigali the first-ever host city of a FIFA elective congress in Africa.
3. Bodybuilding (Bodybuilding)
Games with muscles, games with power, SM games. The naked body employed as a prop. Perceptions of one's own body are the focus of Body-building, and it leaves the good-girl role far behind, sometimes in striking poses, sometimes in martial dress.
4. Joe's Violin
A 91-year-old Polish Holocaust survivor donates his violin of 70 years to a local instrument drive, changing the life of a 12-year-old schoolgirl from the nation’s poorest congressional district, and unexpectedly, his own.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
5. Pacho's visual archive (Pacho, el archivo visual)
After the death of my only brother I found rolls of undeveloped film. This documentary is a reenactment of those stills and an exploration of the aspects of my brother's life that I didn't know.
6. Tapavica (Tapavica)
A story about the first Serbian Olympian who won bronze medal at the first Olympic games in 1896, also a world class architect.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
7. Pains (Pains)
Norival, has 41 years old, is a widower and father of Pedro, age 5. To support his child, Norival does small jobs in various farms across the country. The movie 'Pains' follows a day in their life during the harvest season of sugarcane. During this period Norival and his son live in Minas Gerais' countryside, in Brazil's southeast, in small city called Pains. As a cane cutter, Norival struggle to raise money and provide a good education for his child.
8. Death Day
During his adventure in Mexico, Sergei Eisenstein made footage of a Mexican "Death Day" celebration for inclusion in his "Que Viva Mexico!" film project. When the 200,000-plus feet of film he eventually exposed in Mexico was first attempted to be made into a feature film, "Thunder Over Mexico", the producers excluded the Death Day material for subsequent compilation as an independent short subject. Silent with music track and explanatory English intertitles.
It has an average vote of 5.9 on TMDB.
9. S'altra banda (S'altra banda)
What's on the other side of Fornells bay? Pepe el Malo is an urban legend or he really existed? This documentary doesn't try to shed light on the dark; it rather plays deftly with the ambiguities of a character that is part of the Menorcan imaginary.
10. We Work Again
The role of African Americans in the recovery years of the Great Depression is the subject of this informational short, which offers an idealized depiction of life in a segregated society. The highlight, by far, is rare footage of Orson Welles’s “Voodoo Macbeth,” produced in 1935 for the New York Negro Unit of the WPA’s Federal Theatre Project.
It has an average vote of 5.2 on TMDB.
11. Viva Tar! (Viva Tar!)
From the lens of its alumni, this film chronicles about the history of Marching Band Korps Putri Tarakanita, a marching band extracurricular that continues its legacy to this day.
12. Expiration (L'expiration)
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Steeve Day has been suffering from ALS for eight years and decides to call for assistance in dying. At the same time, however, visits to hospitals are suspended. Steeve then rents a hotel room in which to spend his last days and receive his loved ones.
13. Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon)
Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.
It has an average vote of 6.696 on TMDB.
14. Seeding Fear
Since Monsanto began selling their patented 'Roundup Ready' genetically modified seeds they have sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement. Michael White, a fourth generation farmer and seed cleaner living in the northeast corner of rural Alabama never imagined that he would become the target of the conglomerates aggressive legal tactics. But unlike other farmers in his area Michael refused to give in to Monsanto and in doing so became one of only a handful of farmers to maintain the ability to speak publicly about his case. This is his story.
15. The Bowler
Meet Rocky Salemmo. He’s a ramblin’ gamblin’ man. For the majority of his adult life Rocky has hustled bowling for a living. Here is his story. A short documentary about booze, broads and bowling.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
16. Hummus! the Movie
Restaurateurs, musicians, politicians-everyone loves hummus. A story of faith, community, and growth is told through the lens of a dietary staple and superfood, hummus! This documentary shows how food can bring people together.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
17. Little Belgium
A profile of the more than 2,000 Belgian refugees in the fishing port of Brixham.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
18. Mr. Gardenia Jones
Documentary short film depicting the work of the United Service Organizations in providing recreational and morale-boosting services for American troops.
It has an average vote of 4.2 on TMDB.
19. Our Lady of Loreto
An experimental documentary portrait of director Malcolm Quinn Silver-Van Meter's grandfather
20. Terminal City
Terminal City records the demolition of the Devonshire Hotel in Vancouver; through extreme show motion and symmetrical diagonal framing, Gallagher underscores the passage from order to chaos within the event. The sparseness of this centering and he patience required of the viewer heightens the literally explosive climaxes of the film, and transforms the everyday violence of the events into moments of convulsive beauty. – Jim Shedden, Michael Zryd, The Independent Eye