1. Bowling for Columbine
This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.
It has an average vote of 7.532 on TMDB.
2. Down in Dallas Town
Through interviews with people on the street and songs recorded to memorialize JFK in the mid-1960s, the film explores the impact of the November 22, 1963 assassination on issues in today’s world, from lingering conspiracy theories to the proliferation of gun violence, homelessness, and the scourge of K-2.
3. Journey Into Dyslexia
Addresses misunderstandings of learning differences and demonstrates potential in dyslexic persons.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
4. Obituaries
A chronicle of lives lost in a school shooting. In the wake of another tragedy, we get a glimpse of each victim and see who they were, who they loved, who they hurt, and who they wanted to be.
5. I Don't Like Mondays
A documentary about the killing spree of Brenda Spencer, the 16-year-old schoolgirl who opened fire on a school playground in January 1979, killing two men and injuring eight children. Her only explanation of her actions was "I don't like Mondays". This incident was the first ever school shooting of its kind, and inspired the Boomtown Rats' number one hit song I Don't Like Mondays
It has an average vote of 6.2 on TMDB.
6. Friskt och sjukt i konsten (Friskt och sjukt i konsten)
Documentary about the two of the greatest Swedish artists of the 19th century, Ernst Josefson and Carl Fredrik Hill, and how their lives were changed by mental illness.
7. Back from Madness: The Struggle for Sanity
In part of the HBO's America Undercover series, this documentary provides an insider's view of mental illness, and the use of psychotropic drugs to alleviate some of its symptoms. Tracks the odyssey of four psychiatric patients, beginning with their arrival at Massachusetts General Hospital and the affiliated Lindemann Center, revealing their personal struggles and inner strength as they enter the world of psychiatric treatment to seek relief from insanity.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
8. Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence
Documentary that frames gun violence as a Disaster and Public Health issue by taking an in depth look at how one shooting impacts individuals, families and communities, while also giving voice to the questions and insights that arise from these conversations. In the documentary, all those scarred by gun violence eventually arrived at the same question: "Why...Why did this happen to us?" After looking at these in depth experiences of gun violence "Trigger turns its attention to the bigger question: "What can we do to prevent gun violence?"
9. Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane
In the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that took the lives of 20 first graders and their teachers, local clergymen Father Bob Weiss receives a letter from a fellow priest in Dunblane, Scotland, whose community suffered an eerily similar fate in 1996. From across the Atlantic, the two priests forge a poignant bond through the shared experience of trauma and healing.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
10. Love in the Time of Antidepressants
Filmmaker Paul Gallasch is 30 and still lives at home with his mentally ill mother. When he meets the woman of his dreams, Paul decides that if he's ever going to make a new life of his own, he must first find a cure for his mother's illness.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
11. Dislecksia: The Movie
Dislecksia: The Movie, dyslexic director Harvey Hubbell V and crew explore Hubbell's own experiences about growing up as a dyslexic while also looking into the latest scientific research and educational developments regarding the condition. They examine how the education system in the US handles students with learning disabilities, and explore ways in which this treatment can be changed to improve the social status of dyslexics. And along the way, they meet a variety of dyslexics from very different backgrounds who share their experiences and demonstrate that dyslexics are not disabled - just different.
12. À ciel ouvert (À ciel ouvert)
On the Franco-belgian border, there's a unique place that takes in children with mental and social problems. Day after day, the adults try to understand the enigma that each one of them represents and, without ever imposing anything on them, invent the solutions that will help them to live in peace, case by case. Through their stories, 'Like an Open Sky' reveals their singular vision of the world to us.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
13. War and Peace of Mind (Sota ja mielenrauha)
War and Peace of Mind explores what war does to the human mind and how both, the individuals and the nation as a whole, survive it psychologically. Finland and WWII, locally known as continuation war, is the backdrop of this documentary.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
14. Wake Up
Jonas Elrod woke up one day with the ability to see and hear angels, demons and ghosts. Filmed over the course of three years, this documentary follows Jonas and his girlfriend as they try to understand the phenomenon.
It has an average vote of 6.4 on TMDB.
15. Old Growth Murder
A feature-length documentary exploring the unsolved murder of French bicyclist Alain Malessard who was found dead in an Oregon Coast campground on Thanksgiving 1987.
It has an average vote of 2 on TMDB.
16. Attila
Filmmaker Stephen Hosier takes a journey with Richard Csanyi, his childhood friend, as he investigates the life and death of his twin brother Attila, who was found dead on a rooftop in 2020.
17. G is for Gun: The Arming of Teachers in America
A growing program in Ohio is training school staff to respond to active shooter situations with guns. Often reflecting a multitude of social issues, explore what both sides have to say about the issue, and the divide it has created in the town of Sidney, Ohio.
18. Asylum: A History of the Mental Institution in America
The complex and controversial history of the mental institution in the U.S. through a detailed study of St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.
19. James Bulger: The New Revelations
25 years after the verdict in the Jamie Bulger murder trial, we reveal what the jury, public and press never heard, and what his two killers, Thompson and Venables, said during their time in custody from arrest to release.
20. Quand la maladie mentale s'invite (Quand la maladie mentale s'invite)
(Quand la maladie mentale s'invite)
