Playlists > ⭐THE GREAT DOCUMENTARIANS🎦

⭐THE GREAT DOCUMENTARIANS🎦
Description:

Films by (and about) some of the best documentary film makers of our time…
In no particular order, or exclusive to: The Maysles Brothers, Frederick Wiseman, John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, Adam Curtis, Ken Burns, Laura Poitras, Liz Garbus, Werner Herzog, Alex Gibney, Nick Broomfield, Louis Theroux, Errol Morris…

🛠 Still under construction…

Norman Finkelstein @ YT

Noam Chomsky @ YT

John Pilger @ YT


Creator: Merrigan Able
Posted: 3 years ago
 
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Movie: National Gallery ( 2014 )
A documentary that goes inside one of the great museums of the world: The National Gallery in London.
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Movie: My Country, My Country ( 2006 )
Documentary by Oscar winner Laura Poitras about the war in Iraq.
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Movie: My Best Fiend ( 1999 )
In the 1950s, an adolescent Werner Herzog was transfixed by a film performance of the young Klaus Kinski. Years later, they would share an apartment where, in an unabated, forty-eight-hour fit of rage, Kinski completely destroyed the bathroom. From this chaos, a violent, love-hate, profoundly creative partnership was born. In 1972, Herzog cast Kinski in Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972). Four more films would follow. In this personal documentary, Herzog traces the often violent ups and downs of their relationship, revisiting the various locations of their films and talking to the people they worked with.
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Movie: Multi-Handicapped ( 1986 )
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Movie: Monrovia, Indiana ( 2018 )
Following the 2016 presidential election, Frederick Wiseman's documentary dissects small-town America to understand how its values impact and influence the political landscape of the nation.
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Movie: Model ( 1981 )
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Movie: Missile ( 1988 )
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Movie: Mentor ( 2014 )
In both 2006 and 2010 Mentor, Ohio was selected as one of America's Top 100 Cities to Live. But over those five years, an alarming number of teens from this proud upperclass enclave committed suicide. 'Mentor' follows the families of two victims as they uncover a shocking history of bullying at Mentor High School. They realize what their children already knew: going to class meant a daily battle simply to survive. The families join forces in search of answers and justice, filing an unprecedented lawsuit against the school district for the death of their children that is met with willful denial and destroyed evidence. Through unflinching storytelling, 'Mentor' captures just how disturbing and dangerous protecting the status quo can be.
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Movie: Meet Marlon Brando ( 1966 )
Journalists from all over America meet Marlon Brando in a New York hotel room to interview him about his new film, Morituri. Seeing this as an opportunity to let the legendary actor promote the film, they find Brando unwilling to talk about it, instead he is more interested in larking about and turning on the charm when being interviewed by a former winner of the Miss USA competition.
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Movie: Meeting Gorbachev ( 2019 )
The life of Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final President of the Soviet Union in chronological order.
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Movie: Medal of Honor ( 2008 )
The story of the Medal of Honor - the highest U.S. award for valor in combat - is told through personal accounts of bravery and daring.
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Movie: Meat ( 1976 )
mid 70's documentary that shows how livestock are raised, sold, and processed in the United States.
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TV Show: Mark Twain ( 2002 )
In his time, Mark Twain was considered the funniest man on earth. Yet he was also an unflinching critic of human nature, using his humor to attack hypocrisy, greed and racism. In this series, Ken Burns has created an illuminating portrait of the man who is also one of the greatest writers in American history.Mark Twain tells the story of the writer's extraordinary life – full of rollicking adventure, stupendous success and crushing defeat, hilarious comedy and almost unbearable tragedy. By the end, the film helps us to see how Twain could claim with some justification, "I am not an American, I am the American."
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Movie: Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media ( 1992 )
This film showcases Noam Chomsky, one of America's leading linguists and political dissidents. It also illustrates his message of how government and big media businesses cooperate to produce an effective propaganda machine in order to manipulate the opinions of their populations. The key examples featured for this analysis are the simultaneous events of the massive coverage of the communist atrocities of Khmer Rouge regime of Cambodia and the suppression of news of the US supported Indonesian invasion and subjugation of East Timor.
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Movie: Manoeuvre ( 1980 )
This subtle yet effective documentary centers around a group of American soldiers in Germany. The soldiers volunteer to participate in a test of combat maneuver tactics, or, in essence, elaborate war games. The film is beautifully thought provoking and allows you to consider the state of the US defence department.
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Movie: Love, Marilyn ( 2013 )
Of all the stars in Hollywood's history, no one had a more potent mix of glamor and tragedy than Marilyn Monroe. Through performed readings of her personal papers, this film explores the life and personal thoughts of this seminal movie star and how she achieved her dream with determination and audacity. Furthermore, through additional readings and interviews of her colleagues and acquaintances, we also follow her emotional self-destruction under the sexist pressures of Hollywood until her premature death in 1962.
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Movie: Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World ( 2016 )
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World is a movie starring Elon Musk, Lawrence Krauss, and Lucianne Walkowicz. Werner Herzog's exploration of the Internet and the connected world.
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Movie: Little Dieter Needs to Fly ( 1998 )
German-American Dieter Dengler discusses his service as a U.S. naval pilot in the Vietnam War. Dengler also revisits the sites of his capture and eventual escape from the hands of the Viet Cong, recreating many events for the camera.
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Movie: Liberty Bound ( 2004 )
Liberty Bound takes an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek look at America's on-going struggle to keep a comfortable balance between democracy, capitalism and fascism. This is a film about courage, fear, ignorance, knowledge, propaganda, rhetoric and the amazing events that have shaped our history.
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Movie: Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery ( 1997 )
The story of the most important American exploration expedition in American history and the participants in it.
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Movie: Lessons of Darkness ( 2002 )
This film shows the disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames, with few interviews and no explanatory narration. Hell itself is presented in such beautiful sights and music that one has to be fascinated by it.
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Movie: Law and Order ( 1969 )
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Movie: Last Call at the Oasis ( 2012 )
A documentary on the world's water crisis.
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Movie: Land of Silence and Darkness ( 2002 )
Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since adolescence, and her work on behalf of other deaf and blind people, this film shows how the deaf and blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.
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Movie: LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton ( 2001 )
This documentary follows a Mississippi Delta school district and a single Delta family as they struggle against the crippling effects of poverty in the wake of more than one hundred years of slavery.
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Movie: Lake of Fire ( 2006 )
A graphic documentary on both sides of the abortion debate.
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Movie: La dernière lettre ( 2003 )
Locked away in the Jewish ghetto of an occupied Ukrainian town in 1941, a mother revisits her life in a last letter to her son.
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Movie: La danse ( 2009 )
The film follows the production of seven ballets by the Paris Opera Ballet.
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Movie: Juvenile Court ( 1973 )
An unobtrusive and naturalistic examination of the goings-on of a children's court, Memphis Juvenile Court 616.
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TV Show: Jazz ( 2001 )
This series explores the history of the major American musical form. We track its development in African American culture, its rise to prominence with its golden age of popularity spanning from the 1920's to the mid 1940's both in its original form and in Swing through its popular decline and the rise of vital new sub-genres into the present day. Along the way, we learn of the lives and work of major contributors to the form such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie "Bird" Parker and many others who helped form Jazz into the vibrant musical form it is. Moreover, we see how the music reflected the political and social issues of the African American community over the course of the form's history.
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TV Show: Jackie Robinson ( 2016 )
Jackie Robinson explores how the civil rights movement dovetailed with Robinson's baseball career.Jack Roosevelt Robinson rose from humble origins to cross baseball's color line and become one of the most beloved men in America. A fierce integrationist, Robinson used his immense fame to speak out against the discrimination he saw on and off the field, angering fans, the press, and even teammates who had once celebrated him for "turning the other cheek." After baseball, he was a widely-read newspaper columnist, divisive political activist and tireless advocate for civil rights, who later struggled to remain relevant as diabetes crippled his body and a new generation of leaders set a more militant course for the civil rights movement.
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Movie: It Felt Like a Kiss ( 2009 )
The story of America's rise to power starting in 1959, it uses nothing but archive footage and Amercia pop music. Showing the consequences on the rest of the world and in peoples mind.
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Movie: Into the Inferno ( 2016 )
An exploration of active volcanoes around the world.
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Movie: Into the Abyss ( 2012 )
Conversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people - and the state - kill.
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Movie: In Jackson Heights ( 2016 )
Jackson Heights, Queens is one of the most culturally diverse communities in the US where 167 languages are spoken. IN JACKSON HEIGHTS explores the conflict between maintaining ties to old traditions and adapting to American values.
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Movie: Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable ( 2004 )
A documentary about the Indian Point power plant and it's virtual lack of security following the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
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Movie: Imperial Grand Strategy ( 2006 )
Chomsky is back giving two 1-hour lectures at Merrimack College and University of Manchester.
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Movie: I Miss Sonia Henie ( 2009 )
At the 1971 International Film Festival of Belgrade, Yugoslav director Karpo Acimovic-Godina instructed seven other directors to shoot less than three minutes of film footage inside a bedroom with static shots that contained the phrase "I Miss Sonja Henie". This film is the result.
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Movie: I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale ( 2009 )
A portrait of the acting craft of John Cazale and a tour through the movies that defined a generation.
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Movie: I Am ( 2010 )
Director Tom Shadyac speaks with intellectual and spiritual leaders about what's wrong with our world and how we can improve both it and the way we live in it.
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Movie: HyperNormalisation ( 2016 )
Adam Curtis explains how, at a time of confusing and inexplicable world events, politicians and the people they represent have retreated in to a damaging over-simplified version of what is happening.
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Movie: Huie's Sermon ( 1981 )
The reverend Huie L. Rogers delivers an intense and impassioned sermon at his church in Brooklyn.
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Movie: Huey Long ( 1985 )
Ken Burns' portrait of Louisiana governor/U.S. senator Huey Long.
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Movie: How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck... ( 1976 )
Herzog examines the world championships for cattle auctioneers, his fascination with a language created by an economic system, and compares it to the lifestyle of the Amish, who live nearby.
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Movie: Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train ( 2004 )
The life and times of Howard Zinn: the historian, activist, and author of several classics including "A Peoples History of the United States". Archival footage, and commentary by friend, colleagues and Zinn himself.
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Movie: Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States ( 2016 )
With the tremendous success of his book, A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn radically changed the way Americans see themselves. His friend Noam Chomsky says that Zinn litteraly transformed a generation's conscience. Zinn talks about those who have no voice in the official History : Slaves, Indians, deserters, textile workers, union men. On two occasi...Read all
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Movie: Hospital ( 1970 )
Daily activities of the Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, with emphasis on the emergency ward and outpatient clinics. The cases depicted illustrate how medical expertise, availability of resources, organizational considerations and the nature of communication among the staff and patients affect the delivery of health care.
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Movie: Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip ( 2003 )
The saga of Horatio Nelson Jackson, the first man to cross the United States by automobile--in 1903!
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Movie: Hobo ( 1992 )
Part-time hobos and full time philosophers, who narrates their way through the incredible scenery of the Northwest and gives us his views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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Movie: High School II ( 1994 )
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Movie: High School ( 1968 )
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students.
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Movie: Herdsmen of the Sun ( 1989 )
Herzog's documentary of the Wodaabe people of the Sahara/Sahel region. Particular attention is given to the tribe's spectacular courtship rituals and 'beauty pageants', where eligible young men strive to outshine each other and attract mates by means of lavish makeup, posturing and facial movements.
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TV Show: Hemingway ( 2021 )
Hemingway interweaves a close study of the biographical events of the author's life with excerpts from his fiction, non-fiction and short stories, informed by interviews with celebrated writers, scholars and Hemingway's son, Patrick. The filmmakers explore the painstaking process through which Hemingway created some of the most important works of fiction in American letters, including novels The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea; short stories "Hills Like White Elephants," "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "Up in Michigan," "Indian Camp" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro;" as well as the nonfiction works Death in the Afternoon and A Moveable Feast.
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Movie: Harlan County U.S.A. ( 1977 )
A filmed account of a bitterly violent miner strike.
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Movie: Happy People: A Year in the Taiga ( 2012 )
A documentary depicting the life and work of the trappers of Bakhtia, a village in the heart of the Siberian Taiga, where daily life has changed little in over a century.
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Movie: Handicapped Future (TV Short 1971) ( 1981 )
Illuminating look at the way physically disabled people were dealt with in West Germany in the late 60's / early 70's.
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Movie: Grizzly Man ( 2005 )
A devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.
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Movie: Grey Gardens ( 1975 )
An old mother and her middle-aged daughter, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy, live their eccentric lives in a filthy, decaying mansion in East Hampton.
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Movie: Glaube und Währung - Dr. Gene Scott, Fernsehprediger ( 1981 )
The documentary follows Gene Scott, famous televangelist involved with constant fights against FCC, who tried to shut down his TV show during the 1970's and 1980's, and even argues with his viewers, complaining about their lack of support by not sending enough money to keep going with the show. Werner Herzog presents the man, his thoughts and also includes some of his uncharacteristic programs.
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Movie: Girlhood ( 2003 )
Documentary chronicling America's justice system. Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center.
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Movie: Giovanna d'Arco ( 1989 )
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Movie: Gimme Shelter ( 1970 )
When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway, the bloody slash that transformed a decade's dreams into disillusionment was immortalized on this film.
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Movie: Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices ( 1995 )
Works, legend and murders of Carlo Gesualdo, a notorious Italian composer and murderer from the 16th century.
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TV Show: Frontline ( 1983 )
Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change..
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Movie: Frank Lloyd Wright ( 1998 )
This film illustrates the life and work of the American architect. We follow the development of his work and his turbulent family life amidst scandal and tragedy. Despite all the difficulties of his personal life, Wright rises above all and beats all the odds to design some of the most famous buildings using brilliant and distinctively innovative designs that only his genius could create.
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Movie: Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds ( 2020 )
A documentary from Werner Herzog about meteors and comets and their influence on ancient religions and other cultural and physical impacts they've had on Earth.
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Movie: Fata Morgana ( 1972 )
Footage shot in and around the Sahara Desert, accompanied only by a spoken creation myth and the songs of Leonard Cohen.
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Movie: Ex Libris: The New York Public Library ( 2017 )
A look within the walls of the New York Public Library.
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Movie: Essene ( 1972 )
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Movie: Encounters at the End of the World ( 2008 )
Film-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there.
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Movie: Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio ( 1991 )
For 50 years, radio dominated the airwaves as the first mass medium. Ken Burns examines the lives of three men who shared the responsibility for its invention and early success.
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Movie: Echoes From a Somber Empire ( 1990 )
Documentary examining Bokassa's rule in the Central African Republic using the testimony of witnesses and visits to key sites.
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Movie: East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story ( 2020 )
The history of the East Lake Meadows public housing project in Atlanta and the people who lived there from 1970 to its demolition in 2000, with special emphasis on the activism of Eva Davis asserting the rights of the tenants.
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Movie: Do You Remember Vietnam ( 1978 )
John Pilger, after reporting the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, returns in 1978 to take a look at the Vietnam of three years later and along with David Munro made this documentary.
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Movie: Downloaded ( 2013 )
A documentary that explores the downloading revolution; the kids that created it, the bands and the businesses that were affected by it, and its impact on the world at large.
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Movie: Domestic Violence 2 ( 2002 )
The opening scene in this film is of an arrest in Hillsborough County Florida where a woman has scratched her husband while he was trying to restrain her from getting back in her car and leaving after an argument. The officers explain that she has committed a battery and thereby earned herself an inescapable arrest and overnight stay in jail because by law they have no discretion. This sets the stage for two hours of court proceedings before three different judges, each trying to apply the Florida domestic violence laws. Though it gets repetitive, it also is fascinating to try to figure out what to do with such issues as restraining orders, parental visits, child support and punishment as each witness testifies, and to see how the judges react.
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Movie: Domestic Violence ( 2001 )
Renowned documentarian Frederick Wiseman turns his observational camera on The Spring, a Florida shelter for battered women and children. For one-hundred and ninety-six minutes, Wiseman profiles the women and children that have been victim to domestic violence, showing them endure therapeutic, thoughtful lectures and learn from the tireless social workers employed at The Spring that their sanctuary has been found.
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TV Show: Documentary Now! ( 2015 )
From the minds of Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Seth Meyers comes a new series Documentary Now! that looks back on 50 years of excellence and integrity in documentary filmmaking. See Fred and Bill investigate drug cartels, join an indifferent ‘70s rock band, reenact Iceland's annual Al Capone Festival, take part in a dramatic exposé of the world's first documentary about the Inuit and much more.
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Movie: Discordia ( 2004 )
In the fall of 2002, it was announced that Benjamin Netanyahu would deliver a speech at Concordia University in Montreal, and reaction from the student body was swift and sudden.
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Movie: Deliver Us from Evil ( 2007 )
Documentary about Father Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest who was relocated to various parishes around the United States during the 1970s in an attempt by the Catholic Church to cover up his rape of dozens of children.
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Movie: Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War ( 2016 )
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War: Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian minister, and Martha Sharp, a trained social worker, in February 1939, boldly commit to a life-threatening mission in Europe to assist refugees.
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Movie: Deep Web ( 2015 )
A feature documentary that explores the rise of a new Internet; decentralized, encrypted, dangerous and beyond the law; with particular focus on the FBI capture of the Tor hidden service Silk Road, and the judicial aftermath.
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Movie: Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy ( 1994 )
Documentary of the events that occurred in the East Timor genocide during 1990-91.
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Movie: Deaf ( 1986 )
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Movie: Crazy Horse ( 2011 )
In Crazy Horse, he pulls back the curtain on Le Crazy Horse de Paris, a landmark that has prided itself as "the best nude dancing show in the world" since 1951. Le Crazy Horse sets itself apart from the average strip club by adhering to exacting standards in choreography, lights and physiques. The erotic revue is composed of songs and sequences that blend traits of old-fashioned burlesque, Bob Fosse and Cirque du Soleil, designed not only for the enjoyment of men, but also couples.
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Movie: Coma ( 2007 )
Al'Khan, Roxanne, Sean, and Tom have each emerged from their Traumatic Brain Injury comas, but just how conscious are they, and will they get better?
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TV Show: College Behind Bars ( 2019 )
Shot over four years in maximum and medium security prisons in New York State, the four-hour film takes viewers on a stark and intimate journey into one of the most pressing issues of our time – our failure to provide meaningful rehabilitation for the over two million Americans living behind bars. Through the personal stories of the students and their families, the film reveals the transformative power of higher education and puts a human face on America's criminal justice crisis. It raises questions we urgently need to address: What is prison for? Who has access to educational opportunity? Who among us is capable of academic excellence? How can we have justice without redemption?
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Movie: City Hall ( 2020 )
A look at Boston's city government, covering racial justice, housing, climate action, and more.
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Movie: Central Park ( 1990 )
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Movie: Cave of Forgotten Dreams ( 2011 )
Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a movie starring Werner Herzog, Jean Clottes, and Julien Monney. Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations...
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TV Show: Can't Get You Out of My Head ( 2021 )
We are living through strange days.Across Britain, Europe and America societies have become split and polarised not just in politics but across the whole culture. There is anger at the inequality and the ever growing corruption - and a widespread distrust of the elites.And into this has come the pandemic that has brutally dramatised those divisions.But despite the chaos there is a paralysis - a sense that no one knows how to escape from this.This new series of films by Adam Curtis tell the story of how we got to this place. And why both those in power - and we - find it so difficult to move on.The films trace different forces across the world that have led to now, not just in the West, but in China and Russia as well.It covers a wide range - including the strange roots of modern conspiracy theories, the history of China, opium and opiods, the history of Artificial Intelligence, melancholy over the loss of empire and, love and power. And whether modern culture, despite its radicalism, is really part of the new system of power.And the films are told in a different way - they are an emotional history of what went on inside the heads of all kinds of people.Because in the age of the individual - what you felt and what you wanted and what you dreamed of were going to become the driving force across the world.What was forgotten in that age was that much of what we feel is also formed by the society around us. Above all by the power structures.And now those structures are decaying - everywhere - their weakness and uncertainty makes us feel empty and frightened of the future.That is what is paralysing us - and blocking us from imagining different kinds of societies and a better futureCan't Get You Out of My Head is an epic history that shows how and why that happened. How we made this particular world. And that it was not inevitable.
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TV Show: Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies ( 2015 )
Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies tells the complete story of cancer, from its first description in an ancient Egyptian scroll to the gleaming laboratories of modern research institutions. At six hours, the film interweaves a sweeping historical narrative; with intimate stories about contemporary patients; and an investigation into the latest scientific breakthroughs that may have brought us, at long last, to the brink of lasting cures.
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Movie: Canal Zone ( 1977 )
On the one hand, you have the Panamians, but Frederick Wiseman shows them as the Americans see them: from a distance. They are poor and of no particular interest to them even if Panama is THEIR country. But the Canal Zone belongs to the USA and what really matters is THEMSELVES living in closed circuit, worshiping the standards of American culture, God and Coca Cola, money and nationalism...
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Movie: Brooklyn Bridge ( 1981 )
This documentary chronicles the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The difficult construction process is described in interesting detail; later parts of the film interview current notables who describe the effects that the Brooklyn Bridge has had upon New York society and beyond.
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Movie: Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror ( 2003 )
A critical documentary about the war on terror since 9-11.