1. Tell Me (Dis-moi)
Chantal Akerman meets with elderly Jewish women in Paris, all of them survivors of the Shoah, and listens to their family stories. Between interviews, Akerman's mother Natalia speaks of her own family. Made for a French miniseries on grandmothers.
It has an average vote of 5.4 on TMDB.
2. Off by Heart
A documentary directed by Antonia Bird.
3. The Program
Filmmaker Laura Poitras profiles William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency who helped design a top-secret program he says is broadly collecting Americans' personal data.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
4. Death of a Prisoner
The filmmaker Laura Poitras follows the tragic return home to Yemen of a Guantánamo Bay prison detainee, Adnan Latif.
It has an average vote of 4 on TMDB.
5. Compton in C Minor
'Compton in C Minor' is a meditation on the gang capital of the world from a hometown girl's point of view. Frustrated by negative portrayals of the inner-city, director Ava DuVernay challenged herself to capture Compton in only two hours and present whatever she found. The results touch on everything from unemployment to entrepreneurship, from graffiti to pride of ownership. The short documentary ends with an inspiring spectacle that will cause you to rethink your stereotypes of this community.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
6. Gowanus Canal
Sarah J. Christman continues her 16mm ecological studies with Gowanus Canal, in which contamination and compression of refuse intimate a stultifying state for one of the most polluted bodies of water in the United States.
7. Still Alive: A Film About Krzysztof Kieslowski (Still Alive: Film o Krzysztofie Kieślowskim)
Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz directed this insightful TV documentary tracing the Polish filmmaker's career. Former classmates reminisce about Kieslowski's happy beginnings at the Lodz film school and how his dissatisfaction with some of his early documentaries prompted the dramatic work and stylistic experimentation that led to his monumental series of films The Decalogue . Wim Wenders, Agnieszka Holland, and Juliette Binoche are among the many admirers weighing in on his hard-driving work methods and preoccupation with the ephemeral. In Polish, French, and German with subtitles.
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
8. Death of a Princess
A journalist investigates a newspaper story of the execution of an Arab princess.
It has an average vote of 7.8 on TMDB.
9. Joe Leahy's Neighbors
Joe Leahy and his complicated relationship with the Guniga people in the Papua New Guinea highlands.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
10. Bullfight
Anna Sokolow’s choreographed reinterpretation of a bullfight. Sokolow plays the matador, an audience member, and the doomed animal.
11. Holding Our Ground
Filmed in a squatter community of Labangon in Cebu, Philippines, Holding Our Ground is the inspiring story of a group of women who have organized collectively to pressure their government for land reform, to establish their own money-lending system and to create shelters for street kids. A story of grassroots organizing that can be a model in both hemispheres.
12. A Calculated Forecast Of Ultimate Doom / The Deliberate Evolution Of A War Zone
Two Shows from Survival Research Laboratories: San Francisco, CA 1994 and Graz, Austria 1992. The Doom show was SRL's biggest show ever and the War Zone event resulted in a nation-wide defense alert in Austria.
13. For Love or Money
Using almost totally historical material, For Love or Money encompasses the role of Australian women in both paid and unpaid work, over a 200 year period.
14. The Muslims Are Coming!
The Muslims Are Coming follows a band of Muslim-American comedians as they visit big cities, small towns, rural villages, and everything in between to combat Islamophobia! These Muzzies not only perform standup at each tour stop but create ridiculous interventions in unsuspecting town squares, like the ol' classic, "Ask a Muslim Booth."
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
15. Selbe: One Among Many (Selbé et tant d'autres)
This revealing documentary offers a rare view of daily life in West Africa. Shot in Senegal, Selbe focuses on the social role and economic responsibility of women in African society. Because men often leave their communities to earn money in the city, women are left with sole responsibility for their families. Through the character of Selbe we observe how one woman's personal struggle reflects the broader issues faced by many women in developing countries.
16. Tesito (Tesito)
In 1989, this film was part of the PAMEZ project in Senegal which was part of the sea program of the CCFD, Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development. It presents the economic and social role of women in the Casamance region for the development of fishing. These women who process and market fish, who are responsible for management, have a voice and express their opinion.
17. Bisonhead
A quietly devastating look at a family of Ponderai Native Americans as they travel to Yellowstone to preserve their treaty hunting rights.
18. DIVINE MYSTICS: ANOTHER SIDE OF ISLAM
A documentary on sufism
19. The Infamous Chalk Girl
Two years since her arrest made her an accidental superhero of the Umbrella Movement, the infamous 'Chalk Girl', now 16, must decide whether to rejoin the battle for Hong Kong's democracy.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
20. A Message from the East
The story of Muhammad Iqbal, a turn of the century poet/philosopher from South Asia. Through Iqbal's work we open a dialog between the East and West, refute the notion of a class of civilizations and discover our shared humanity.
