1. Keep Up the Good Work (Frohes Schaffen)
It is a fetish, a mantra, a secret religion to modern man: work. In times of the financial crisis and massive job reductions, this documentary movie questions work as our 'hallow' sense in life in a way that both humors and pains us.
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
2. Afganistanbul (Afganistanbul)
(Afganistanbul)
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
3. Haus und Hof (Haus und Hof)
Agricultural scientist and mother Isolde struggles with the dicrepancies between her personal convictions and the political realities in East Germany.
4. La Meilleure Façon de tracer (La Meilleure Façon de tracer)
(La Meilleure Façon de tracer)
5. Musician
Common sense says you can't make a living in America playing avant-garde improvisational jazz. But Ken Vandermark does it anyway. Among musicians, Vandermark's work ethic is almost mythic. The Chicago reed player has released over 100 albums with nearly 40 ensembles, spends over eight months per year on the road, and lives every other waking moment composing, arranging, performing—and trying to discipline his two hyperactive canines. Though Vandermark was the recipient of a 1999 MacArthur genius grant, he still spends most of his life in smoky clubs and low-budget recording studios, hoping people will plunk down hard-earned cash to hear his wholly non-commercial music. Following the artful cinéma vérité style of the internationally acclaimed Sheriff , Musician forgoes all interviews and voice-overs. It is a fly-on-the-wall time capsule that expertly captures every subtle sound and texture of this most American of art forms.
6. Midnight Family (Midnight Family)
In Mexico City's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a for-profit ambulance, competing with other unlicensed EMTs for patients in need of urgent care. In this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from compromising the people in their care.
It has an average vote of 7.1 on TMDB.
7. Safety Awareness for Forklift Equipment
An overview on safety precautions that protect forklift operators on the job.
8. Font Men
You've never heard of Jonathan Hoefler or Tobias Frere-Jones but you've seen their work. They run the most successful and respected type design studio in the world, making fonts used by the Wall Street Journal to the President of the United States.
It has an average vote of 5.7 on TMDB.
9. Island Shunters
Short documentary on the shunters in the Darling Island, Sydney, Australia railyard. Filmed in 1977.
10. Jobs for All! (Arbete åt alla!)
A highly choreographed review of the Industrial Age as we know it today – an intense and playful roller coaster ride that demands the viewer confronts how “work works.” Culled entirely from archival footage, the film unfolds in the filmmakers’ trademark, and humorously critical, cinematic voices.
11. Almost Nothing (Almost Nothing - Cern: Experimental City)
CERN, the world's largest physics laboratory, is also a society in itself. A mythological microcosm and science's answer to the Tower of Babel, with its many thousand employees as an indispensable element among cables and computers. The researchers speak the same esoteric and nerdy language. But their physical trials are not the only experiments in the human anthill. CERN is also a utopian experiment in collaboration across cultures, where the world's most advanced technology meets the world's sharpest—and some of the quirkiest—minds.
It has an average vote of 4.9 on TMDB.
12. On the Other Side (De l'autre côté)
The oldest Quebecois Benedictine convent open its gates to a documentary filmmaker for the first time. Observed up close, life behind its walls is busier than one would expect. About twenty cloistered nuns, most of them over 70, share their daily life with diligence and humor. A contemplative portrait of a community of sisterhood and solidarity emerges, punctuated by prayer, work and games evenings.
13. Weg vom Fenster - Leben nach dem Burnout (Weg vom Fenster - Leben nach dem Burnout)
(Weg vom Fenster - Leben nach dem Burnout)
14. Baby Annette, à l'impossible ils sont tenus (Baby Annette, à l'impossible ils sont tenus)
In 2019, the director Leos Carax proposes to Estelle Charlier and Romuald Collinet to design, make and animate "Annette", the puppet of his new film. This one will be the child of the couple Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver. Propelled into the world of cinema, begins for this charismatic duo a unique and singular adventure in their career as puppeteers. Faced with the demands of the filmmaker, the impossible, they are held.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
15. The End of the Endless (O Fim do Sem Fim)
"Fim do Sem Fim" is a feature-length documentary that has as its backdrop the imminent disappearance of certain trades and professions in Brazil. Shot in 10 Brazilian states, the film is a dive into the inventiveness and resistance of men in the face of technological and cultural changes.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
16. Three of Many (Drei von vielen)
Böttchers film showcases three young workers who learn how to paint, draw, and make sculptures out of stone. The film generated a storm of mistrust, as there is no leading communist party, and the three individuals live blithely and independently of the official dictates. It became one of the first DEFA documentary productions that were not allowed to be shown.
17. Dans les bureaux (Dans les bureaux)
The gestures, the words, the rites of a day like any other in the offices of a large insurance company.
18. The Happy Worker - Or How Work Was Sabotaged
Our premise is that work has become an act of self-sabotage. Empty corporate jargon, ever-changing management fashions and self-serving bureaucracy masquerading as efficiency hijacked the purpose of work. Creative documentary The Happy Worker will show how we got to this point and the very human behavior that led us here. We want to show how this unhealthy system is maintained and what keeps us from calling bullshit.
It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.
19. Open files (Dosare Deschise)
A more experimental aproach to labor protection films. In the line of Săucan's style, the soundtrack is as important as the image, the threatening music, full of shrillness, composed by Ion Dumitrescu potentiating the visual construction that mixes - in a montage reminiscent of the Soviet avant-garde school of the 1920s - all kinds of shooting techniques and frame combinations.
20. Handbook of Movie Theaters’ History (Manuale di Storie dei Cinema)
Handbook of Movie Theaters’ History is a documentary about the history, the development in the present days and the future of movie theaters in the city of Turin, Italy. It mixes the documentary language with comedy and fiction, and is enriched by interviews to some of the most important voices of Turin cinematography. The film follows the evolution of movie theaters by enlightening its main milestones: the pre-cinema experiences in the late 19th Century, the colossals and the movie cathedrals of the silent era, the arthouse theaters, the National Museum of Cinema, the Torino Film Festival, the movie theaters system today and the main hypothesis about its future.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.