Directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath • 2008 • United States

Codirected by acclaimed cinematographer Ellen Kuras and subject Thavisouk Phrasavath, this haunting documentary chronicles a refugee family’s epic journey from Laos in the aftermath of the secret war waged by the United Stat...

Directed by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus • 2009 • United States

For French pastry chefs, the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (Best Craftsmen in France) is nothing less than the Olympics of their trade: an intense three-day competition in which a selection of the country’s finest pâtissiers tu...

Directed by Sky Hopinka • 2020 • United States

A poetic experimental documentary circling the origin of the death myth of the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, MAŁNI—TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE follows two individuals as they wander through nature, the spirit world, and somethi...

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1964 • Italy
Starring Pier Paolo Pasolini, Lello Bersani

Let’s talk about sex. In this radically engaged and engaging documentary, Pier Paolo Pasolini takes to the streets, town squares, beaches, factories, and universities of 1960s Italy to solicit everyday cit...

Directed by Margot Benacerraf • 1959 • Venezuela

A work of such overwhelming grandeur that Jean Renoir told director Margot Benacerraf after viewing the film, “Above all . . . don’t cut a single image,” this poetic documentary-narrative hybrid is a landmark of both neorealist and feminist South ...

Directed by Forugh Farrokhzad • 1963 • Iran

The only film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad finds unexpected grace where few would think to look: a leper colony whose inhabitants live, worship, learn, play, and celebrate in a self-contained community cut off from ...

Directed by Yevgeni Tsymbal • 2002 • Russia

The fascinating and tumultuous lives of Mikhail, Boris, and Denis Kaufman—the last better known as revolutionary Soviet director Dziga Vertov—are the focus of this illuminating documentary. All visionary artists who pushed the stylistic boundaries of c...

Directed by Leo Hurwitz • 1948 • United States
Starring Alfred Drake, Muriel Smith, Gary Merrill

In 1945, the free world rejoiced over the defeat of fascism. But the sense of peace was short-lived, and as the Cold War began, the United States entered a period of national paranoia and political r...

Directed by Kent MacKenzie • 1961 • United States
Starring Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, Tom Reynolds

A major work of American independent cinema, Kent Mackenzie’s revelatory fiction-documentary hybrid chronicles a night in the life of a group of twentysomething Native Americans who were relocate...

Directed by Manoel de Oliveira • 2001 • France, Portugal
Starring Jorge Trêpa, Ricardo Trêpa, Maria de Medeiros

With the freedom and rigor that were his trademarks, Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira returned to Porto, the city where he had been born ninety-three years before, for this sublime...

Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack • 1925 • United States

In 1924, neophyte filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack—later to achieve cinematic immortality as the makers of KING KONG—joined forces with journalist and spy Marguerite Harrison and set off to film an a...

Directed by Philip Haas • 1988 • United States
Starring David Hockney

Artist David Hockney invites you to join him on a captivating journey through China via a magnificent, seventy-two-foot-long seventeenth-century Chinese scroll. Painted by Wang Hui (1632–1717) and his assistants, the work, kno...

Directed by Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore • 1981 • United Kingdom
Starring Gilbert Prousch, George Passmore

See the world through the beautiful, humorous, shocking, and absurd lens of British “living sculpture” provocateurs Gilbert & George, a couple in life and art-making whose defiantly ...