1. The Living Stone
The Living Stone is a 1958 Canadian short documentary film directed by John Feeney about Inuit art. It shows the inspiration behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone. The film centres on an old legend about the carving of the image of a sea spirit to bring food to a hungry camp. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
2. Mark of the Hand
Guyanese painter Aubrey Williams returns to his homeland on a “journey to the source of his inspiration” in this vivid Arts Council documentary, filmed towards the end of his life. The title comes from the indigenous Arawak word ‘timehri’ - the mark of the hand of man - which Williams equates to art itself. Timehri was also then the name of the international airport at Georgetown, Guyana's capital, where Williams stops off to restore an earlier mural. The film offers a rare insight into life beyond Georgetown, what Williams calls “the real Guyana.” Before moving to England in 1952 he had been sent to work on a sugar plantation in the jungle; this is his first chance to revisit the region and the Warao Indians - formative influences on his work - in four decades. Challenging the ill-treatment of indigenous Guyanese, Williams explored the potential of art to change attitudes. By venturing beyond his British studio, this film puts his work into vibrant context.
3. Angry Inuk
With "sealfies" and social media, a new tech-savvy generation of Inuit is wading into the world of activism, using humour and reason to confront aggressive animal rights vitriol and defend their traditional hunting practices. Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril joins her fellow Inuit activists as they challenge outdated perceptions of Inuit and present themselves to the world as a modern people in dire need of a sustainable economy.
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.
4. Os Arara (Os Arara)
Documentation of the preparations and expeditions of the Frente de Atração Arara da Funai, in the state of Pará, Brazil. With the construction of the Transamazônica, the Arara territory is cut in half, and the Indians react by attacking the workers. Aware that all contact is a creation of dependency, the sertanista Sydney Possuelo, who also reflexively narrates the documentary, leads the expeditions that aim to identify the groups, how many individuals there are, establishing territorial limits to protect the area against invaders and loggers in the region.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
5. Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits (만신)
A life documentary of a woman who was shunned for being possessed by spirits as a girl, oppressed for following superstitions as an adult, how she grows to be a great shaman who embraces the pain of all people, and how she comes to be honored as a national treasure of Korea with her outstanding artistic talents throughout Korea's tumultuous history.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
6. Touching the Void
The true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' disastrous and nearly-fatal mountain climb of 6,344m Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
It has an average vote of 7.497 on TMDB.
7. Peru's City of Ghosts
Join a team of archaeologists and the Discovery Channel in an investigation into the mysterious lines of the Nazca region in Peru. Created by the Nazcas, these huge sculptures are only visible from the sky and depict people, animal, geometric forms, and strange creatures. See a premier exhibition of pottery and textiles, musical instruments, and mummies from this long-forgotten, pre-Columbian civilization and visit Cahuachi, a buried city of pyramids and ceremonial buildings which may have once been the religious capital of the Nazca people.
8. The Last Mooseskin Boat
This short documentary follows Gabe Etchinelle as builds a mooseskin boat as a tribute to an earlier way of life, where the Shotah Dene people would use a mooseskin boats and transport their families and cargo down mountain rivers to trading settlements throughout the Northwest Territories.
9. Holy Angels
Documentary about the Holy Angels Residential School in Alberta, where hundreds of First Nations children were imprisoned.
10. Our Land, Our Truth (Debout sur leur terre)
Made in collaboration with the Inuit Tungavingat Nunamini, this film focuses on those dissident members of the Inuit community who rejected the agreement signed on November 11, 1975, between the Northern Quebec Inuit Association, the Québec and federal governments, the James Bay Energy Corporation, the James Bay Development Corporation, Hydro-Québec and the Grand Council of the Crees, which took away Native rights to a territory of almost one million square kilometres. By their words and actions, the dissident Inuit of Povungnituk, Ivujivik and Sugluk express their strong desire to retain their land and their traditions. The filmmakers go into their homes, on the ice and the sea to record first-hand the lives of these northern people.
11. The Rhythm of My Life: Ismael Sankara
Follows in an unconventional way the journey of 'ISH', a former Miami based rapper, who traveled to Africa to visit family. Little did he know that Libreville Gabon would be the place where the project of his dreams would fall on his laps. Against all expectations the alchemy born between him and 2 local beat-makers would lead to the making of a potential first album. Written and Directed by Marc A. Tchicot and Franck A. Onouviet, the film captures glimpse of great encounters and musical moments between people from opposite backgrounds driven by the same passion: music. 'The Rhythm of my life' belongs to the new generation of short films, which combine fiction and documentary style. Deeply grounded in the line of non formatted and guerrilla style independent projects, the rhythm of my life set a different direction for film-making in Gabon and Africa.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
12. Sigo siendo (Sigo siendo)
A trip through the diversity of black and native Peruvian music. Character-driven film, one where the characters are integral to the nation itself. This movie delves into music and musicians, yet it's not strictly a musical; rather, it's a tapestry of seemingly disparate personal narratives woven together in a country also striving to define itself and sketch its identity
It has an average vote of 8.1 on TMDB.
13. Lady Warrior
This documentary follows a Cree woman as she takes on the Indian Relay race season, as well as the Canadian authorities in her quest to give Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women a voice.
14. Shipibos Konibos: Hombres mono, Hombres peces (Shipibos Konibos: Hombres mono, Hombres peces)
Alejandrina show us her connection with fire, plants and animals. Meanwhile, she tell us the changes that massacres, terrorism and drug trafficking have provoked in her culture. Are the lumbermen or the miners going to end her cultural history?
15. Ayahuasca and the Path of the Shaman
Desperate to recover from his depression, Dave travels from his home in British Columbia, Canada to Peru in order to experience the healing effects of the sacred medicine ayahuasca. After Dave spends some time in the country, a Shipibo healer begins to teach him how to work with the medicine more deeply.
16. Life of Ivanna (Жизнь Иванны Яптунэ)
A sensitive and intimate portrait of Ivanna, a nomadic reindeer herder in the Russian Arctic and mother of five small kids. Ivanna is forced to leave the traditional way of life and emigrate to the city, following her own dreams, due to the quickly deteriorating conditions of life in the tundra. We follow her life for several years.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
17. Contrasts of Peru (Contrasts of Peru)
Peru is a country of many contrasts. From the cold waters of the Coast over the 6000 m high Andes to the unique biodiversity of the Amazon Jungle. Peru isn't only Machu Picchu. It's much more.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
18. Dawnland
They were forced to assimilate into white society: children ripped away from their families, depriving them of their culture and erasing their identities. Can reconciliation help heal the scars from childhoods lost? "Dawnland" is the untold story of Indigenous child removal in the US through the nation's first-ever government-endorsed truth and reconciliation commission, which investigated the devastating impact of Maine’s child welfare practices on the Wabanaki people.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
19. Starblanket
At twenty-six, Noel Starblanket was one of the youngest Indigenous chiefs in North America--twice elected chief of the Starblanket Reserve, and also elected vice-president of all-Saskatchewan Indigenous organization. His great-grandfather's advice was to "learn the wit and cunning of the White man." That he did. Here he is seen in action, a chief with a briefcase, working with government officials for grants, running for public office, talking down his opposition, and solving the domestic problems of his reserve.
20. Acoustic Ocean
Acoustic Ocean is an artistic exploration of the sonic ecology of marine life in the North Atlantic. Located on the Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway, the video centers on the performance of a marine-biologist diver who is using a life-size model of a submersible equipped with all sorts of hydrophones and recording devices. In this science-fictional quest, her task is to sense the submarine space for acoustic and bioluminescent forms of expression.