Documentary
see all genres ›Nonfiction cinema has always existed largely outside the mainstream film industry. Perhaps the time and dedication often required to make an in-depth documentary on a difficult subject seldom shares much commonality with a purely commercial mindset.
Discover Documentary Films
Genres / Independent / Documentary
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Across the Border
ACROSS THE BORDER is a collage of found footage and documentary images, radio Spanish/English tracks and commentary by Philippe Bourgois, a Stanford Anthropologist trapped in an offensive by the United States-backed Salvadoran Military forces. The film’s position against U.S. intervention in the third...Start your free trial to watch -
Act of God
Is being hit by lightning a random natural occurrence or a predestined event? Accidents, chance, fate and the elusive quest to make sense out of tragedy underpin director Jennifer Baichwal’s captivating new work, an elegant cinematic meditation on the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. To explore these...Start your free trial to watch
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Affluenza
AFFLUENZA is a groundbreaking film that diagnoses a serious social disease caused by consumerism, commercialism and rampant materialism that is having a devastating impact on our families, communities and the environment. We have more stuff, but less time, and our quality of life seems to be deteriorating. By using personal...Start your free trial to watch -
The After Party
In 1993, the film THE LAST PARTY was released. The documentary followed Robert Downey Jr.'s initiation in to the world of politics. In 2000 came the sequel, THE PARTY'S OVER, following Philip Seymour Hoffman on the campaign trail. The third film in the trilogy, THE AFTER PARTY, is a documentary about a journalist who is...Start your free trial to watch -
aka Tommy Chong
At the height of the Bush administration, Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong was charged with selling bongs over the internet and sentenced to nine months in federal prison. As part of the government's $12 million 'Operation Pipe Dreams' drug paraphernalia sting operation, Chong, a vocal opponent of Bush's handling of the War on...Start your free trial to watch
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Alfred Eisenstaedt: Photographer
This is the behind-the-scenes look at the character and the style of one of the most important photojournalists of the 20th century, the premier LIFE magazine photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt. This film reveals a rare view of "Eisey" as he returns to Germany to photograph his homeland for his book,...Start your free trial to watch -
American Crusaders
A harrowing exploration of the rapid rise of American religious fanaticism after 9/11. This film explores an emerging ultra Right Wing mass movement seeking dominion over all aspects of contemporary American society. The film weaves archival video, contemporary Christian Nationalist movement propaganda...Start your free trial to watch -
American Mullet
What is a mullet? Simply a haircut, short in front and long in the back. People love to talk about the mullet but who is talking to the people with the mullet cut? We are. In asking people to talk about their mullets, we are asking them to talk about themselves and the people in this film are nothing short of amazing. If you...Start your free trial to watch
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American Values, American Wilderness
A diverse group of Americans, including a teenage daughter of Cambodian refugees, a children's book author, a cancer survivor, a Native American tribal chairman, inner city kids, and the late Christopher Reeve, among others, share their values for wilderness. Their experiences and hopes are interspersed...Start your free trial to watch -
Among the Missing
Vietnam is often called “the war that won’t go away”, largely because of the continuing controversy of the POW/MIA (Prisoners of War/Missing in Action) issue. Families of those who were POW/MIA in Vietnam organized an activist movement which went on to pursue a question which still haunts America nearly...Start your free trial to watch
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The Artists
Director Susanne Ullerich had often asked herself, “How will I earn money [as an artist]?” Because she couldn’t easily answer this and many other questions, she decided to interview other like-minded people. The interviews all take place in a studio, where the goal was to place the interviewees in a sort of job interview...Start your free trial to watch -
Athens, GA: Inside Out
Led by the success of the B-52's and R.E.M., Athens, Georgia was the most happening music scene in the country by the mid 80's. Following several different bands from different genres, this film paints Athens as a magical artistic environment where bands are not in competition, but co-exist in harmony and...Start your free trial to watch -
Atomic Wounds
At 89, Doctor Hida, a survivor of the 1945 atomic bomb at Hiroshima, continues to care for some of the other quarter of a million survivors. Atomic Wounds retraces his dedicated journey and highlights how the terrible danger of radiation was concealed by successive American administrations in the 50's-70's so that nuclear...Start your free trial to watch
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Bakhtiari Migration
BAKHTIARI MIGRATION documents (in visually splendid detail) the semi-annual journey, taking roughy five weeks and covering two-hundred torturous miles. Half a million people and millions of sheep and goats cross the rugged Zagros mountains in southern Iran twice yearly to move between summer and winter...Start your free trial to watch -
Be Like an Ant
Post-Vietnam, Paul bought a trailer for his family to live in. Annoyed by how bad living inside a mobile home during winter could be, he took matters into his own hands and started to build a house around the trailer. He never made any blueprints. As the house took shape, he would take a part of the trailer apart, carry it...Start your free trial to watch -
The Bell Rang to an Empty Sky
THE BELL RANG TO AN EMPTY SKY has taken one of the many tragedies buried in American history which befell the American Indian and, through the voice of Dennis Banks, creates a tight and perceptive visual and aural telling and interpretation of events. The selection of images (the iconography and meaning,...Start your free trial to watch



