1. Stolen
In 1990, thieves absconded with 13 masterpieces -- including works by Rembrandt and Vermeer -- from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, pulling off the greatest art heist in U.S. history. Rebecca Dreyfus's investigative documentary delves into this modern mystery, piecing together clues gleaned from archival documents, art critics, historians, collectors and informants to shed light on the as-yet unsolved case. Instant QueuePlay Trailer
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.
2. The Ties That Bind
The Ties That Bind is an experimental documentary about the filmmaker's mother, who was born and lived in southern Germany from 1920-1950. Through a mixture of personal anecdote and social history, she describes the rise of Nazism, the war years, and the Allied occupation, during which she met her future husband, an American soldier. The Ties That Bind breaks with the usual format of war documentaries, thus allowing a different portrait of the individual to emerge, while it reflects on the current political situation in America and the filmmaker's activities in relation to those issues.
It has an average vote of 6.3 on TMDB.
3. Unfinished Spaces
Cuba's ambitious National Art Schools project, designed by three young artists in the wake of Castro's Revolution, is neglected, nearly forgotten, then ultimately rediscovered as a visionary architectural masterpiece.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
4. Atlantiques (Atlantiques)
Short lo-fi film set in Senegal. Mostly focussing on a group of Senegalese youths, discussing their hopes and fears concerning the crossing of the atlantic to get to Europe. Will life be easier there or not?
It has an average vote of 6.125 on TMDB.
5. A Conversation with Gregory Peck
Not your usual film biography, A Conversation With Gregory Peck goes on-the-road and behind-the-scenes with Gregory Peck and his one man show. The actor's traveling program features question and answer sessions with the American icon and allows the actor to reminisce about his career.
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.
6. Farmingville
Documentary on the attempted murder of two Mexican day laborers in Farmingville, New York.
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
7. Fogo
The deterioration of a small community in Fogo Island is forcing its inhabitants to leave and resettle. Places once occupied by humans are now becoming part of the tundra landscape. In spite of a condemn future, there are some residents who decide to remain, holding on to their memories and grieving for the past, when life in Fogo was different.
It has an average vote of 5.6 on TMDB.
8. Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter
This Academy Award-nominated film takes a moving personal story, illuminates it with insight and humor, and makes it universal. In recounting her attempts to come to terms with her mother's advancing Alzheimer's disease, Deborah Hoffmann explores the relationship between mother and daughter, parent and child, and the tenacity of love.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
9. Union Maids
Three women labor activists in America tell their stories of organizing in the 1930s.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
10. 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.
11. Downeast
Explores Italian immigrant Antonio Bussone's use of federal grants to return factory work to the United States.
12. The List
A modern day Oskar Schindler story that focuses on Kirk Johnson, a young American fighting to save thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S. to help rebuild Iraq. After leading reconstruction teams in Baghdad and Fallujah, Kirk returns home only to discover that many of his former Iraqi colleagues are being killed, kidnapped or forced into exile by radical militias. Frustrated by a stagnating government bureaucracy in the U.S. that has failed to protect its 'Iraqi allies,' Kirk begins compiling a list of their names and helps them find refuge and a new life in America.
It has an average vote of 4.8 on TMDB.
13. Joe Camilleri: Australia's Maltese Falcon
Joe Camilleri, now aged 62, has been rocking the pubs and clubs of Australia for 45 years, as well as making close to 30 albums and producing countless more. This is a fascinating look at the man and his passion for music.
14. The Believers
March 1989: two respected chemists from the University of Utah stand in front of a wall of reporters. Flashbulbs pop as they announce they have solved the world's energy problems using seawater, batteries and a mysterious glass contraption. 'Cold Fusion' is born. Within days, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann are on the cover of Time Magazine. But three short months later, their careers in tatters and their reputations ruined, they flee the US as Cold Fusion becomes synonymous with 'bad science.' Twenty-two years later, despite continued disdain from mainstream science, a group of scientists, entrepreneurs and one high school student are confident that Cold Fusion will save the world, and that we're closer than ever to the Holy Grail of civilization. They're The Believers.
15. Bravehearts (Til ungdommen)
A documentary about youth politicians changes radically on July 22nd 2011, when a right-wing extremist murders 69 people at a summer camp run by the Workers Youth Party.
It has an average vote of 6.625 on TMDB.
16. Burn
A character-driven, action-packed documentary about Detroit, told through the eyes of the Detroit firefighters, the men and women charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead.
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.
17. Fragments of Kubelka
This epic documentary subtly introduces the complex worldview of iconic filmmaker and theoretician Peter Kubelka . While Kubelka’s radical and pioneering body of films is a highly condensed work of about an hour, focusing on the essence of cinema, his legendary lectures often unfold over many hours. These lectures on “what is cinema” and “cooking as an art form” are frequently illuminated by presentation of archaeological artefacts from Kubelka’s eclectic collection. He considers his ongoing collecting to be an expanded film practice which explores the evolution of humanity.
Martina Kudláček has carefully woven an open-ended portrait which goes beyond the biographical to reveal fresh insights into the phenomenon of film.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
18. Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman (Cinéma, de notre temps : Chantal Akerman par Chantal Akerman)
Janine Bazin and André Labarthe approached Chantal Akerman about making a film for the series; eagerly, Akerman proposed a number of filmmakers—but all had already been done. So she suggested…“How about me?” Akerman creates a fascinating self-portrait that takes us through her career, aided by critics Emmanuel Burdeau and Jean Narboni and filmmaker Luc Moullet.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
19. Mondo Lux: The Visual Worlds of Werner Schroeter (Mondo Lux - Die Bilderwelten des Werner Schroeter)
Werner Schroeter was one of the most significant proponents of New German Cinema. Schroeter was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. In her film, Elfi Mikesch, who photographed a number of Schroeter’s films and who collaborated closely with him to create his vision, provides us with an intimate insight into Schroeter’s artistic output during the remaining four years of his life.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
20. Normal School (Escuela normal)
Student council elections are about to be held at a school in Parana, Argentina and the two main parties are putting the finishing touches to their campaigns. As they present their positions to the student body, all the elements of political grandstanding are present and correct: quibbling over slogans, circular rhetoric, the benefits of an attractive candidate and the inevitable final mudslinging.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
