Documentaries

If conventional dramatic biopics grapple consistently with the difficulties of condensing a full and rich life into a reasonable running time, so too do nonfiction films examining a specific person or even a social movement – in their case typically struggling with integrating that focused illumination into a broader portrait of the changing culture at large. Co-directed by Abel Sanchez and Andrés Alegria, A Song for Cesar brings a unique point of view to the life and legacy of labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, who in the 1960s worked tirelessly on a series of campaigns to improve the lives and livelihoods of exploited, overwhelmingly immigrant Mexican field laborers in the United States.

Not long ago, documentary films used to struggle to find market share. Only a small handful of brand-name auteurs, like Michael Moore and Errol Morris, would receive consistent wide-scale international release, and big box office breakthroughs, like the $127 million worldwide haul of 2005’s March of the Penguins, were few and far between.

As the opening narration of Last Exit: Space aptly notes, outer space has held a special place of fascination for humankind from time immemorial. We see it in our shared cultural history, spanning both art and science.

On April 22, 1993, 32-year-old Pasang Lhamu Sherpa became the first Nepali woman to summit Mount Everest. After reaching the top of the 8,848-meter peak, she descended the mountain with five other Sherpas when weather conditions dramatically deteriorated.

The poster for the documentary On the Divide has a question: What does choice mean without any options? It’s a question that led female filmmakers Maya Cueva and Leah Galant on a seven-year journey to the town of McAllen, Texas, and the last abortion clinic on the U. S.

It's regarded as one of the most violent forms of repression which America uses against its own citizens, certainly the most violent in the U. S.

As the world holds its breath watching Russia continue its assault on Ukraine, Ukrainian filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk talks to the Golden Globes Around the World podcast series about her gut-wrenching experience of discovering life imitating art. The up-and-coming filmmaker won Best Director in the 2020 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Documentary Category for The Earth is Blue as an Orange, following a single mother and her four children trying to live a normal life in the war zone of southern and eastern Ukraine that began eight years ago when Russia annexed Crimea.

The American Civil Rights movement is an enormous topic, at once a vital part of the history of the United States and also tremendously difficult to distill for those who didn’t actually live some portion of it, because of age or a different country of origin. Thankfully, in celebration of Black History Month, Eyes on the Prize, the trenchant, 14-hour, two-part, Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning documentary series created and executive produced by Henry Hampton, is receiving a deserved boost in profile.

In the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, we see how a con man, who goes by the name Simon Leviev, uses the dating app Tinder to trick women into believing that he is the son of the ultra-wealthy diamond tycoon Lev Leviev. It is believed that Simon Leviev has stolen an estimated 10 million dollars over the years from numerous women all over the world.

The transportive power of music is given a rich, affecting showcase in The Conductor, a documentary from director Bernadette Wegenstein. It centers on and celebrates the life and work of trailblazer Marin Alsop, the first woman to lead a major orchestra in the United States.