Browse Movies : 2017 : NR : Documentary

A feature-length documentary on the agony and the ecstasy of making people laugh. A stand-up comedian must be the writer, the director and the star performer—and in stand-up there is no rehearsal, no practice, no safety net, as it only works in front of a live audience, with feedback being instantaneous and often brutal.

Follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets, an organization comprised of ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards explosions in the hope of saving lives. Incorporating moments of both heart-pounding suspense and improbable beauty, the documentary draws us into the lives of three of its founders – Khaled, Subhi, and Mahmoud – as they grapple with the chaos around them and struggle with an ever-present dilemma: do they flee with their families or stay and fight for their country.

In a forgotten massacre during Guatemala’s decades-long civil war, a young boy was spared, only to be raised by one of the very soldiers who killed his family. Nearly 30 years after the tragedy, it will take a dedicated team—from a forensic scientist to a young Guatemalan prosecutor—to uncover the truth and bring justice to those responsible… by finding the missing boy named Oscar.

Reveals the untold story of Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the unlikely duo at the heart of 1960s American drug counter-culture. United in a utopian mission to save the planet through the consciousness-raising power of LSD, these underground chemists manufactured a massive amount of acid, including the gold standard for quality LSD, ‘Orange Sunshine,’ all while staying one step ahead of the Feds.

An unprecedented look into the life of conceptual artist and sculptor Chris Burden. He had himself shot, confined to a locker for five days, and was crucified on the back of a VW bug, only to reinvent himself as the creator of truly mesmerizing installations and sculptures, all in the name of art.

Prepare to be inspired and amazed by Richard Turner, one of the world's most renowned card magicians, who met adversity head-on and refused to let his disability define him.

Follows the hundreds of thousands of cats who have roamed the metropolis of Istanbul freely for thousands of years, wandering in and out of people’s lives, impacting them in ways only an animal who lives between the worlds of the wild and the tamed can.

Takes a unique and in-depth look at the years and events leading up to the city-wide violence that began April 29, 1992, when the verdict was announced in the Rodney King case.

The Price of Fame explores the life of Ted Dibiase, Million Dollar Man and his family. They built a Legacy in the ring, but the lasting impact will be felt for generations outside the ring. Discover what the Price of Fame was for Ted, and what he found that changed everything, something Priceless.

Music meets the Mob in this biographical documentary, narrated by Stevie Van Zandt, about the life and career of Bert Berns, the most important songwriter and record producer from the sixties that you never heard of. His hits include “Twist and Shout”, “Hang On Sloopy”, “Here Comes The Night” and “Piece Of My Heart.” He helped launch the careers of Van Morrison and Neil Diamond and produced some of the greatest soul music ever made.

Rooted in memories of her childhood, Okwui – who’s worked with conceptual artists like Ralph Lemon and Julie Taymor – fuses dance, song, drama and comedy to create a mesmerizing space in which audiences can engage with a story about two 12-year-old black girls coming of age in the 1980s. With intimate vérité access to Okwui and her audiences off the stage, Bronx Gothic allows for unparalleled insight into her creative process as well as the complex social issues embodied in it.

Follows female war reporter Alex Quade’s daring missions to tell soldiers' stories during a series of unprecedented embeds with Conventional Forces and US Special Ops Forces at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A documentary that encapsulates a momentous period in the history of Russia and the Russian Avant-Garde.

Director Alexandre O. Philippe pulls back the curtain on the making and influence of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho's cinematic game changer, breaking it down frame by frame and unpacking Hitchcock’s dense web of allusions and double meanings.

A feature-length documentary that puts the viewer inside the cockpit of an elite U.S. Army Aviation Helicopter Squadron as they launch a Deep Attack during the initial surge into Iraq in March, 2003.

A documentary chronicling the barrier-breaking Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas whose international fame peaked after a triumphant return to the stage at the age of 71.

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City is a story about our global urban future, in which nearly three-fourths of the world’s population will live in cities by the end of this century. It’s also a story about America’s recent urban past, in which bureaucratic, “top down” approaches to building cities have dramatically clashed with grassroots, “bottom up” approaches. The film brings us back mid-century, on the eve of the battles for the heart and soul of American cities, about to be routed by cataclysmically destructive Urban Renewal and highway projects.

The film details the revolutionary thinking of Jane Jacobs, and the origins of her magisterial 1961 treatise The Death and Life of Great American Cities, in which she singlehandedly undercuts her era’s orthodox model of city planning, exemplified by the massive Urban Renewal projects of New York’s “Master Builder,” Robert Moses. Jacobs and Moses figure centrally in our story as archetypes of the “bottom up” and the “top down” vision for cities.

They also figure as two larger-than-life personalities: Jacobs—a journalist with provincial origins, no formal training in city planning, and scarce institutional authority—seems at first glance to share little in common with Robert Moses, the upper class, high prince of government and urban theory fully ensconced in New York’s halls of power and privilege. Yet both reveal themselves to be master tacticians who, in the middle of the 20th century, became locked in an epic struggle over the fate of the city.

The documentary takes viewers into the warzone of ISIS-occupied Syria, where a band of anonymous activists known as Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently wage a counteroffensive against the terrorist group’s campaign of propaganda and misinformation. Armed with video cameras, these intrepid citizen journalists risk their lives to spread the truth about life under ISIS.

In the early 1970s, one man stood up to the entire New York City police force. Hailed as a hero by many, hated by others, officer Frank Serpico made headlines when he blew the whistle on a culture of bribery and corruption within the department. This is his story.