In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her.
Self
Capturing the story of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with unprecedented access, director Laura Poitras finds herself caught between the motives and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle in a documentary portrait of power, betrayal, truth and sacrifice.
A documentary about the development and spread of the virtual currency called Bitcoin.
In 2009, Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was covering Iran's volatile elections for Newsweek. One of the few reporters living in the country with access to US media, he made an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in a taped interview with comedian Jason Jones. The interview was intended as satire, but if the Tehran authorities got the joke they didn't like it - and it would quickly came back to haunt Bahari when he was rousted from his family home and thrown into prison.
An optician grapples with the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966, during which his older brother was exterminated.
GOING CLEAR intimately profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light on how they attract true believers and the things they do in the name of religion.
War in Abkhazia, 1992. An Estonian man Ivo has stayed behind to harvest his crops of tangerines. In a bloody conflict at his door, a wounded man is left behind, and Ivo is forced to take him in.
A film that exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.
Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.
IRIS pairs legendary 87-year-old documentarian Albert Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how, even in Iris’ dotage, a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. IRIS portrays a singular woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art and people are life’s sustenance and reminds us that dressing, and indeed life, is nothing but an experiment.
Marisa, a 20-year-old German girl, hates foreigners, Jews, cops, and everyone she finds guilty for the decline of her country. She provokes, drinks, fights and her next tattoo will be a portrait of Adolf Hitler. But Marisa's convictions begin to crumble when she meets a young Afghan refugee, and she learns that the black and white principles of her gang are not the only way.
Brad has committed murder and barricaded himself inside his house. With the help of his friends and neighbours, the cops piece together the strange tale of how this nice young man arrived at such a dark place.
Comic Hasan Minhaj of "The Daily Show" shares personal stories about racism, immigrant parents, prom night horrors and more in this stand-up special.
A group of young boys develops a crush on a girl, leading to jealousy toward her boyfriend. They scheme to disrupt their relationship, and when the boyfriend catches one of them spying, he punishes him harshly. In retaliation, the boys attempt to make the girl doubt her boyfriend's love.
When National Geographic photographer James Balog asked, “How can one take a picture of climate change?” his attention was immediately drawn to ice. Soon he was asked to do a cover story on glaciers that became the most popular and well-read piece in the magazine during the last five years. But for Balog, that story marked the beginning of a much larger and longer-term project that would reach epic proportions.
After the murder of his beloved wife, a man in search of redemption is set adrift in a world where nothing is as it seems. On his journey, he befriends slacker Jimmy "The Finn", becomes involved in rescuing his neighbor Colette from her own demons, and gets entangled in a web of deceit full of unexpected twists and turns.
At first glance, Matthew VanDyke—a shy Baltimore native with a sheltered upbringing and a tormenting OCD diagnosis—is the last person you’d imagine on the front lines of the 2011 Libyan revolution. But after finishing grad school and escaping the U.S. for "a crash course in manhood," a winding path leads him just there. Motorcycling across North Africa and the Middle East and spending time as an embedded journalist in Iraq, Matthew lands in Libya, forming an unexpected kinship with a group of young men who transform his life. Matthew joins his friends in the rebel army against Gaddafi, taking up arms (and a camera). Along the way, he is captured and held in solitary confinement for six terrifying months.
Time Is Illmatic is a feature length documentary film that delves deep into the making of Nas' 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation.
The idea is simple / A married woman and a single man meet / They love, they argue, fists fly / A dog strays between town and country / The seasons pass / The man and woman meet again / The dog finds itself between them / The other is in one, / the one is in the other / and they are three / The former husband shatters everything / A second film begins: / the same as the first, / and yet not / From the human race we pass to metaphor / This ends in barking / and a baby's cries / In the meantime, we will have seen people talking of the demise of the dollar, of truth in mathematics and of the death of a robin." - JLG
Follow three professional video game players as they overcome personal adversity, family pressures, and the realities of life to compete in a $1,000,000 tournament that could change their lives forever.
An upbeat and humorous account of the hard life under police protection led by Italian writer Roberto Saviano since the publication in 2006 of Gomorrah, his controversial book about the Camorra, the ruthless organization that has dominated the criminal underground in Naples for centuries.
This film features two Russian communist politicians. Being committed Leninists; both of them have served several terms as city council members. Their horizons are broad, but what concerns them the most is the future of global communism. At one point, by decree of fate, their booming activities begin to expand far beyond the boundaries of their native St. Petersburg and the Russian Federation. However, the future of global communism remains unclear. What remains clear is the fact that in the modern world the tail still wags the dog. A documentary comedy.
After giving birth, Joyce attempts to regain her position as a filmmaker while also caring for her new baby. The changes to both her and her husband’s professional lives are remarkable and frustrating. The new parents love the baby but must recognize the limitations she puts on their careers.
The gripping story of legendary American actor John Travolta: his rise to stardom in the 1970s; his agonizing fall in disgrace in the 1980s; and his stunning artistic rebirth in the 1990s.
Amanda is a divorced woman who makes a living as a photographer. During the Fall of the year Amanda begins to see the world in new and different ways when she begins to question her role in life, her relationships with her career and men and what it all means. As the layers to her everyday experiences fall away insertions in the story with scientists, and philosophers and religious leaders impart information directly to an off-screen interviewer about academic issues, and Amanda begins to understand the basis to the quantum world beneath. During her epiphany as she considers the Great Questions raised by the host of inserted thinkers, she slowly comprehends the various inspirations and begins to see the world in a new way.
THE LIMITS OF MY WORLD follows a nonverbal young man’s transition from the school system into adulthood. Brian has autism and faces the daily challenges of adjusting to his new life. Filmed from the intimate perspective of his older sister Heather, this documentary seeks to understand Brian’s personality beneath his disability. THE LIMITS OF MY WORLD is an autistic coming of age story exploring what it means to be a nonverbal disabled person in today’s society.
APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT is a feature-length documentary about The Teddy McArdle Free School, where classes are optional and rules are made by democratic vote. Summerhill, founded 90 years ago by A. S. Neill, was the first free school - now there are more than 200 worldwide. Approaching the Elephant chronicles a free school in the making - spanning two years, from Teddy McArdle's first day when there were no rules or classes, through the changing of the school's director and the expulsion of a student by democratic vote, to the last day of the second year, APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT is an intimate portrait of a small group of people from a range of educational backgrounds, come together to forge a place where children are treated as equals, at liberty to spend their days however they please.
A coast guard captain on a small Greek island is suddenly charged with saving thousands of refugees from drowning at sea.
A descent into Eastern Europe's haunted woodlands uncovers the secrets, fairy tales, and bloody histories that shape our understanding of man's place in nature.
When filmmaker Kathy Leichter moved back into her childhood home after her mother's suicide, she discovered a hidden box of audiotapes. Sixteen years passed before she had the courage to delve into this trove, unearthing details that her mother had recorded about every aspect of her life from the challenges of her marriage to a State Senator, to her son’s estrangement, to her struggles with bipolar disorder. HERE ONE DAY is a visually arresting, emotionally candid film about a woman coping with mental illness, her relationships with her family, and the ripple effects of her suicide on those she loved.
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.
Short directed by Agnès Varda in 1986 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the French Cinematheque.
A compilation of found footage from musicals, home movies, animated shorts, educational films, commercials, and propaganda set against pop music from the Third Reich, Hitler's Hitparade presents audiences with an unprecedented experiential collage of Nazi Germany.
A documentary about the outcome of a decision made by a brother and sister in 1945. One missed meeting, two families, and three generations.
A top-secret handbook takes viewers on an undercover journey to Titanpointe, the site of a hidden partnership. Narrated by Rami Malek and Michelle Williams, and based on classified NSA documents, PROJECT X reveals the inner workings of a windowless skyscraper in downtown Manhattan.
Four years after a military coup overthrew the Brazilian government in 1964, all civil rights were suspended and torture became a systematic practice. Using a mix of fiction and documentary this extraordinary film is a searing record of personal memory, political repression and the will to survive. Interviews with eight women who were political prisoners during the military dictatorship are framed by the fantasies and imaginings of an anonymous character, portrayed by actress Irene Ravache.
Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent more than a decade studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity and shame. With two TED talks under her belt, Brené Brown brings her humor and empathy to Netflix to discuss what it takes to choose courage over comfort in a culture defined by scarcity, fear and uncertainty.
In 2009, students of all walks of life at the Arts & Learning Children's Conservatory in Anaheim, CA set out to produce their own live musical parody version of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), as interpreted through their young talents. Follow the young actors, artists, musicians (and a few supervising adults) as they audition, rehearse and perform their take on this classic film.