1. The Way of the Shaman Drum (鼓韵关东)
During the Cultural Revolution in China in the late 20th century, ethnic Manchu people were persecuted and forced to give up such cultural traditions as the shaman dance . However, on Changbai Mountain in Northeast China, a farmer named Guan Yunde decided to start designing and building traditional Manchu shaman drums. At age 70, he is one of a minority of ethnic Manchu people in China's Jilin province, and one of the few people keeping the Manchu shamanic tradition alive.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
2. The Native Hue of Resolution
A documentary celebrating 20 years of the work of Kaleidoscope, an organisation devoted to the preservation of archive television.
3. Basic Elements
The documentary explores the world of culture, nature and gastronomy through one chef's eyes across the marshlands of the Venetian Lagoon.
4. Spain: The First Globalization (España: la primera globalización)
A new reading of the historical period that began with the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and the discovery of America , as well as an analysis of its undeniable influence on the subsequent evolution of the history of Spain and the world.
It has an average vote of 7.818 on TMDB.
5. Our Story: The Indigenous Led Fight to Protect Greater Chaco
Over 90 percent of the available lands in the Greater Chaco region of the Southwest have already been leased for oil and gas extraction. Witness the Indigenous-led work to protect the remaining lands that are untouched by oil and gas, as well as the health and well-being of communities surrounded by these extractive industries.
6. Dan Cruickshank & The House That Wouldn't Die
This unique recreation of an 18th-century home, in London's Spitalfields, has to be seen to be believed. Dan Cruickshank smells the rotting food and warms his hands by the roaring fires and asks whether this living museum is really more accurate than a National Trust treasure, or just an eccentric one-off from its outlandish Californian creator, the late Dennis Severs. A follow-up of sorts to the 1985 BBC series Ours to Keep episode "Incomers" focused on this residence.
7. Povo da Floresta (Povo da Floresta)
(Povo da Floresta)
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
8. The Wikipedia Promise (Das Wikipedia Versprechen – 20 Jahre Wissen für alle?)
In 2001, Jimmy Wales published the first article on Wikipedia, a collaborative effort that began with a promise: to democratize the spreading of knowledge, monopolized by the elites for centuries. But is Wikipedia really a utopia come true?
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
9. Death of a Skyline
A group of citizens lobbied to save the landmark Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator, one of the defining features of Mayerthorpe’s landscape, from being torn down in 2003 - as thousands of others had been. This film documents those efforts while exploring the broader history and significance of the grain elevator.
10. For All People, For All Time
Mark and Dan Jury document the gradual demise of a community nestled within the Cuyahoga National Recreation Area between Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, as the National Park Service works to acquire the land of ~500 residents in order to establish a National Park. After initially being told only a handful of houses would be taken, residents are shocked by hundreds of homes and businesses being bought up, boarded up, and posted No Trespassing - and by the homes of the politically connected being spared. Significant portions of this film appeared in the PBS FRONTLINE episode For the Good of All.
11. Battle Over Bears Ears
At its heart, it’s a battle for homeland and sovereignty. Bears Ears, a remote section of land lined with red cliffs and filled with juniper sage, is at the center of a fight over who has a say in how Western landscapes are protected and managed.
12. Old St. Patrick's Church: Chicago Renaissance Story
Mike Leonard tells the inside story of how the west Loop’s St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, known to residents as Old St. Pat's, transformed itself from an empty church in a declining neighborhood into a Chicago hub of worship, culture, social life, education, and service -- revitalizing a then-struggling West Loop.
13. Der vergessene Tempel von Banteay Chhmar (Der vergessene Tempel von Banteay Chhmar)
(Der vergessene Tempel von Banteay Chhmar)
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
14. Arctic Summer
ARCTIC SUMMER is a poetic meditation on Tuktoyaktuk, an Indigenous community in the Arctic. The film captures Tuk during one of the last summers before climate change forced Tuk's coastal population to relocate to more habitable land.
15. Our Vanishing Americana: A South Carolina Portrait
Photographer Mike Lassiter journeys across South Carolina capturing the stories of historic, often family-run businesses that line main streets from the coast to the upstate.
16. Under the Protection of the State (Unter Denkmalschutz)
The film was shot in an old, decrepit building where dozens of guest-workers' families live. The owner, a local influential politician, has avoided paying for the maintenance of the building under the legal standards by using his connections to proclaim the building a national cultural heritage. However, the rent he has been charging was as if the building were an object that offered standard comfort. The only German tenant takes the crew around and speaks of his battle against the landlord’s manipulation.
17. Canada Vignettes: The Move
In this short documentary from the Canada Vignettes series, a Saskatchewan grain elevator is moved across the snow-covered prairie to a new home after nearly a half-century of use. The film follows the lifting and transporting of the 9-storey, 200-ton structure, and examines the feelings of the people as they witness the final passing of their town's one and only grain elevator.
18. Going Going Gone: Nick Broomfield's Disappearing Britain
Two iconic British buildings - the Wellington Rooms in Liverpool and the Coal Exchange in Cardiff - are threatened with demolition and Nick Broomfield is on the case.
19. Přesun kaple svaté Máří Magdaleny (Přesun kaple svaté Máří Magdaleny)
(Přesun kaple svaté Máří Magdaleny)
20. La Grotte Cosquer, un chef-d'œuvre en sursis (La Grotte Cosquer, un chef-d'œuvre en sursis)
A short distance from Marseille, at Cape Morgiou, in the depths of the Calanques massif, lies the Cosquer cave, discovered only about thirty years ago by a diver, Henri Cosquer. With its bestiary of hundreds of paintings and engravings - horses, bison, jellyfish, penguins - the only underwater decorated cave in the world allows us to learn a little more about Mediterranean societies 30,000 years ago. Today, threatened by rising water levels accelerated by global warming, this jewel of the Upper Paleolithic is in danger of being swallowed up. To save the cave from disappearing, the Ministry of Culture has chosen to digitize it. From this virtual duplicate, a replica has been made on the surface to offer the public a reconstruction that allows them to admire these masterpieces.
It has an average vote of 7.7 on TMDB.