Best documentaries by movie_traveler
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- DirectorTomer HeymannStarsTomer HeymannZvi HeymannAndreas MerkSeventy years after his grandfather escapes from Nazi Germany to Palestine, Israeli documentary director Tomer Heymann returns to the country of his ancestors to present his film "Paper Dolls" at the Berlin International Film Festival, and there meets a man who will change his life. This 48-hour love affair, originating in Berghain Panorama Bar, develops into a significant relationship between Tomer and Andreas Merk, a German dancer. When Andreas decides to move to Tel-Aviv, he not only has to cope with a new partner, but to manage the complex realities of life in Israel and his personal connection to it as a German citizen. Tomer's mother, descendant of German immigrants was born and lived all her life in a small Israeli village, where she raised five sons. One by one, she watches her children leave the country she and her family helped to build, and now cannot help but try to influence the life of Tomer, the one son who remains. I SHOT MY LOVE tells a personal but universal love story and follows the triangular relationship between Tomer, his German boyfriend, and his intensely Israeli mother.
- DirectorPhilo BregsteinStarsPier Paolo PasoliniAlberto MoraviaLaura BettiDocumentary on the life and death of Pier Paolo Pasolini.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsLello BersaniAlberto MoraviaCesare MusattiDirector Pasolini traverses Italy in 1963 with camera and microphone interviewing people in public places about sex, marriage and gender roles.
- DirectorVentura PonsStarsOcañaCamiloGuillermoPortrait of Ocaña, a multi-artist who exploded the prevailing conventions in Barcelona during the last years of Franco's dictatorship.
- DirectorMitra FarahaniStarsBahman MohassesA documentary on provocative artist Bahman Mohassess, the so-called "Persian Picasso," whose acclaimed paintings and sculptures dominated pre-revolutionary Iran.
- DirectorRaphaël SiboniStarsHervé Pierre-GustaveCindy DollarMichael CherittoFrench porn director and performer, Herve P. Gustave (HPG), and the highs and lows of the business.
- DirectorSébastien LifshitzStarsYannPierreBernard RomieuSeveral elderly homosexual men and women speak frankly about their pioneering lives, their fearless decision to live openly in France at a time when society rejected them.
- DirectorNikolaus GeyrhalterStarsClaus Hansen PetzArkadiusz RydellekBarbara HinzOUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn't always easy to digest - and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.
- DirectorPatric ChihaStarsStefanYonkoAsenSoft boys by day, kings by night. The film follows a group of young Bulgarian Roma who come to Vienna looking for freedom and a quick buck. They sell their bodies as if that's all they had. What comforts them, so far from home, is the feeling of being together. But the nights are long and unpredictable.
- DirectorMarcel GislerStarsFlorian BurkhardtHildegard BurkhardtPeter J. Burkhardt'You can get it if you really want.' If this sentence applies to anyone, then it most definitely applies to Florian Burkhardt. He achieved nearly everything he wanted. Except the one thing that was most important to him: escaping himself.
- DirectorJennifer PeedomStarsRussell BriceTim MedvetzPasang Tenzing SherpaIn 2014, director Jennifer Peedom was working on a documentary about the Sherpas of Mount Everest when the largest avalanche in recent history occurred on the mountain, killing 16 Sherpas.
- DirectorUlrich SeidlStarsInge EllingerMarita NeemannMarkolf SchmidtA thought-provoking look on how white hunting tourists go to Afrika in search of excitement in killing wild animals, their backward views on humanity and the monetary reality behind this industry
- DirectorJimmy ChinElizabeth Chai VasarhelyiStarsAlex HonnoldTommy CaldwellJimmy ChinAlex Honnold faces the biggest challenge of his career, climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He pursues it Free Solo, which means climbing without a rope and alone.
- DirectorJosh LowellPeter MortimerStarsJohn BranchTommy CaldwellKevin JorgesonIn an unbelievable story of perseverance, free climber Tommy Caldwell and climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson attempt to scale the impossible 3000ft Dawn Wall of El Capitan.
- DirectorMatjaz IvanisinStarsPeter MusevskiA documentary essay about the relationships among Mediterranean men and their games. The film takes the form of a travelogue across Croatia, Italy, Slovenia and Turkey, and examines men, young and old, who come together like their ancestors did - to play games. During filming, however, the director suddenly faces a serious creative crisis and turns the camera on himself, turning the film into a playful homage to absurdity.
- DirectorRok BicekStarsMatej RajkNia KastelecBarbara KastelecMatej, born into a family of people with special needs tries to create a family of his own, but soon it all starts to collapse. The Family is a piece of cinéma vérité that covers a whole decade of Matej's attempts at living.
- DirectorMaurice DekkersStarsThomas FrebelDan GiustiKim MikkolaOne of the world's best restaurant, the Copenhagen based NOMA and its renowned chef-owner René Redzepi relocate the restaurant and its entire staff to Tokyo.
- DirectorJannik SplidsboelStarsMichael ElmgreenIngar DragsetMorten OlafssonHOW ARE YOU is a remarkable documentary about two now famous artists. The film brings us back to when they fell in love with each other and started working together. And even though the two young rebels started out shooting salt water into their veins, they ended up meeting a real queen at the peak of their fame. In an astonishing few years Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have become some of the biggest stars in the international art world. In a sharp, playful and humorous way they pinpoint important themes such as identity, sexuality, welfare and democracy. With simple twists and turns they make us confront ourselves and make us face the conformity and tightness of everyday life and our idiosyncrasies. The film not only displays a strong selection of their works - and the makings of these. It also strings out their carrier from when the pink-knitting clown helped the emerging artist to create an Instant Baby - to the grand opening and prize reception in the 2009 edition of the Biennale in Venice.
- DirectorMarcelo GomesA small village in the Brazilian outback is considered the nation's capital of jeans. It's also a microcosm that depicts modern day capitalism and its transgressions.
- DirectorSteven BognarJulia ReichertStarsJunming 'Jimmy' WangRobert AllenSherrod BrownIn post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
- DirectorLuke LorentzenStarsJuan OchoaFer OchoaJosue OchoaIn Mexico City's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a private ambulance, competing with other for-profit EMTs for patients in need of urgent help.
- DirectorFrancisco Ríos FloresSweltering day in Buenos Aires, Miserere square packed with guys discreetly prostituting themselves for little money. Their inner thoughts unveil an invisible plot amidst oppressive bustle.
- DirectorBenjamin ReeStarsKarl Bertil-NordlandBarbora KysilkovaØystein SteneAn artist befriends the thief who stole her paintings. She becomes his closest ally when he is severely hurt in a car crash and needs full time care, even if her paintings are not found. But then the tables turn.
- DirectorDavid GelbStarsJiro OnoYoshikazu OnoMasuhiro YamamotoA documentary on 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono, his renowned Tokyo restaurant, and his relationship with his son and eventual heir, Yoshikazu.
- DirectorRachel MasonStarsKaren MasonBarry MasonMicah MasonIn 1976, Karen and Barry Mason had fallen on hard times and were looking for a way to support their young family when they answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times. Larry Flynt was seeking distributors for Hustler Magazine. What was expected to be a brief sideline led to their becoming fully immersed in the LGBT community as they took over a local store, Circus of Books. A decade later, they had become the biggest distributors of gay porn in the US. The film focuses on the double life they led, trying to maintain the balance of being parents at a time when LGBT culture was not yet accepted. Their many challenges included facing jail time for a federal obscenity prosecution and enabling their store to be a place of refuge at the height of the AIDS crisis. Circus of Books offers a rare glimpse into an untold chapter of queer history, and it is told through the lens of the owners' own daughter, Rachel Mason, an artist, filmmaker and musician.
- DirectorMads BrüggerStarsUlrich Løvenskjold LarsenMads BrüggerAlejandro Cao de Benos de Les y PérezA real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.
- DirectorOeke HoogendijkStarsEijk De Mol van OtterlooJan SixRose-Marie De Mol van OtterlooThis is set in the world of the Old Masters and offers a mosaic of gripping stories in which unrestrained passion for Rembrandt's paintings leads to dramatic developments and unexpected plot turns.
- DirectorJustin RobinsonStarsJordan RobinsonJustin RobinsonMy Brother Jordan is a love letter that chronicles the life and death of Jordan Robinson, told through the eyes of his younger brother, Justin.
- DirectorAlexander NanauStarsDan Alexandru CondreaLiviu IoluRazvan LutacDirector Alexander Nanau follows a crack team of investigators at the Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor as they try to uncover a vast health-care fraud that enriched moguls and politicians and led to the deaths of innocent citizens.
- DirectorSébastien LifshitzStarsAnaïsEmmaAnaïs and Emma have been best friends since childhood. It's a friendship is filmed over the years, during a period when their physical, emotional and intellectual development is dramatic.
- DirectorJill MagidStarsLuis BarragánJill MagidFederica ZancoAn artist fights to make the archives of Mexico's most famous architect available to the public.
- DirectorJonas Poher RasmussenStarsDaniel KarimyarFardin MijdzadehMilad EskandariFLEE tells the extraordinary true story of a man, Amin, on the verge of marriage which compels him to reveal his hidden past for the first time.
- DirectorPeter MortimerNick RosenStarsMarc-André LeclercPeter MortimerAlex HonnoldMarc-André Leclerc climbs alone, far from the limelight. The free-spirited 23-year-old makes some of the boldest solo ascents in history. With no cameras and no margin for error, Leclerc's approach is the essence of solo adventure.
- DirectorAlessandro CassigoliCasey KauffmanStarsAlessandro CassigoliCasey KauffmanCasey, the new flatmate, was everything Alessandro was not. He was energetic and adventurous - even charismatic. But instead of being annoyed, Alessandro started to document this strange creature with his videocamera. They were in their early twenties and living in Rome...every experience together felt new and exciting. But when Casey moved to the Middle East to work as a TV journalist, Alessandro's world was cranked open even more. Alessandro started collecting Casey's footage and soon found himself immersed in his travels. There were smugglers in Mali, medics in Gaza, and snipers in Aleppo...the world beyond Alessandro's comfortable, stagnant life in the West became vast and real. Alessandro lived vicariously through Casey for years until both of them started to change. Thanks to Alessandro's pensive approach to life, Casey finally started to look inwards, while Alessandro found the courage to break out of his comfort zone. Drawn from 15 years of footage, The Things We Keep is both an intimate look at friendship, and a celebration of people's common humanity.
- DirectorMaria SpethStarsDieter BachmannAynur BalÖnder CavdarHow does one feel at home? In Stadtallendorf, a German city with a complex history of both excluding and integrating foreigners, genial teacher Dieter Bachmann offers his pupils the key to at least feeling as if they are at home.
- DirectorAhmet Necdet ÇupurStarsMahmut CupurNezahat CupurZeynep CupurA young director who las left his native Turkey comes back to his village in Antakya upon his sister's request. As a mere observer, the director shoots his family's daily life .
- DirectorRafiki FarialaStarsRafiki FarialaAaron KoyasukpengoNestor Ngbandi NgouyouThe filmmaker turns the camera on himself and his friends, capturing their everyday life as students of Bangui University. At once clear-eyed and poetic, they share their thoughts about their future in the Central African Republic.
- DirectorReka ValerikStarsRuben FrancqKhavaj, a young MMA (mixed martial art) fighter, fled Chechnya when his brother discovered his homosexuality and promised to kill him, under the persecution of Kadyrov's regime. In Brussels, facing the shock of exile, he is struck mute. The only link that he keeps with Chechnya are the vocal messages that his mother sends him. The film traces Khavaj's first months in Belgium. Forced to live in total anonymity to escape the Chechen diaspora, he will try to build a new identity.
- DirectorAndreas KoefoedStarsMohammad Bin SalmanRobert K. WittmanMartin KempThe mystery surrounding the Salvator Mundi, the first painting by Leonardo da Vinci to be discovered for more than a century, which has now seemingly gone missing.
- DirectorRahul JainA portrait of daily life of the workers in an Indian textile factory, revealing its beauty as well as its shameful working conditions.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanA 93-year-old director embeds inside a French restaurant that's held three Michelin stars for more than 50 years.
- DirectorPeter BardehleAndreas MartinA filmmaker gains rare access to the monastery in Mount Athos, offering an intimate glimpse into the monks' daily lives in this documentary.