Documentary Movies
Risto Jarva My Colleague (1984)
Finnish TV documentary featuring archival interview footage of Jarva and clips from his films
Streetwise (1984)
This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty…
Twenty Years Later (1984)
Eduardo Coutinho was filming a movie with the same name in the Northeast of Brazil, in 1964, when there came the military coup. He had to interrupt the project, and…
Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984)
A group of Miskito Indians use Nicaraguan child soldiers in their resistance against the Sandinistas.
The Shakers: Hands to Work Hearts to God (1984)
They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, but because of their ecstatic dancing, the world called them Shakers. Ken Burns creates a moving portrait of…
Terror in the Aisles (1984)
A non-stop roller coaster ride through the scariest moments of the greatest terror films of all time.
The Making of Fanny and Alexander (1984)
The Making of Fanny and Alexander is a fascinating look at the creation of a masterpiece. Directed by Ingmar Bergman himself, this feature-length documentary chronicles the methods of one of…
Tosca’s Kiss (1984)
Memoirs of the Italian Opera by the singers and musicians of the Casa Verdi, Milan, the world’s first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi in…
Dire Straits: Alchemy Live 1983 (1984)
Alchemy is a double live album originally released in 1984 with an accompanying VHS, now released on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time. Recorded on 23rd July 1983 at…
The Road to Bresson (1984)
A Dutch documentary about legendary French filmmaker Robert Bresson.
Kaddish (1984)
From an early age Yossi Klein received a special education. He was prepared for another Holocaust. So were other children in Boro Park, the largest Orthodox survivor community in America,…
Style Wars (1984)
Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant’s PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Mississippi Triangle (1984)
This is an intimate portrait of life in the Mississippi Delta, where Chinese, African Americans and Whites live in a complex world of cotton, work, and racial conflict. The history…
Bruce Lee: The Legend (1984)
The Official Golden Harvest tribute to the Master of the Martial Arts Film, Bruce Lee.
Incident at Restigouche (1984)
Incident at Restigouche is a 1984 documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin, chronicling a series of two raids on the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation (Restigouche) by the Sûreté du Québec in…
The So-Called Caryatids (1984)
Commissioned by French television, this is a short documentary on the neo-classical statues found throughout Paris, predominantly on the walls of buildings, holding up windows, roofs etc.
Fellini Racconta: Diary of a Film (1983)
A documentary made by Italian television with behind-the-scenes footage of the making of Federico Fellini’s AND THE SHIP SAILS ON and extensive interview footage of Fellini.
Longing for Women: Dorothy Arzner (1983)
By the time director Katja Raganelli arrived in California to make a film about Dorothy Arzner in 1980, Arzner had passed away in a car accident. Nonetheless, Raganelli visited Arzner’s…
Ghost Dance (1983)
Through the experiences of two women in Paris and London, Ghost Dance offers an analysis of the complexity of our conceptions of ghosts, memory and the past. The film focuses…
Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983)
One of comedian Richard Pryor’s later stand-up performances. As foul-mouthed as ever, Pryor touches on most of the same topics as in his previous live shows.
Warren Miller’s Ski Time (1983)
Time is the most precious and valuable thing we own, so hopefully, you’ll invest yours in Ski Time. From the Alps to Oregon, Montana, Idaho, down to New Zealand, and…
Pharos of Chaos (1983)
A superb, moving and thrilling interview with American actor Sterling Hayden (1916-86), held in Besançon, France, on board a dilapidated barge, when he was 65 years old. An unparalleled portrait,…
Hells Angels Forever (1983)
What starts off as a squadron of American daredevil bombers in World War II, branded by society as renegades, turns into a revealing ride into the world of honor, violence,…
The Power of Emotion (1983)
Emotions and feelings should not be confused with sentimentality. Emotion is ancient and more powerful than any artistic expression. The film observes young couples facing difficulties while trying to move…
Seventeen (1983)
In their final year at Muncie’s Southside High School, a group of seniors hurtles toward maturity with a combination of joy, despair, and an aggravated sense of urgency. They are…
Dressed in Blue (1983)
A documentary about the lives of six transgender women in post-Franco Spain.
When Women Kill (1983)
When Women Kill is a poignant documentary exploring the shocking violence that seven women fell victim to at the hands of men. The program profiles the battered women who speak…
Huie’s Sermon (1983)
Reverend Huie Rogers is a preacher at the Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Brooklyn. He is the topic of this short film, during which launches into…
In the King of Prussia (1983)
Dramatization of the trial of Christian anti-war activists, known collectively as the “Plowshares Eight”. In September 1980, they broke into a General Electric weapons plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania,…
Black Wax (1983)
Gil Scott-Heron, one of rap’s earliest (and unfortunately unknown) pioneers, gets his full due in Black Wax, the 1982 documentary recently reissued on video. Interspliced between performance footage of Scott-Heron…
Pirate Tape (1983)
Derek Jarman’s film portrait of American writer William S. Burroughs was shot in September 1982 during his first visit to England to attend the legendary Final Academy events at the…
Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti (1983)
An unconventional portrait of painter Frida Kahlo and photographer Tina Modotti. Simple in style but complex in its analysis, it explores the divergent themes and styles of two contemporary and…
The Indomitable Teddy Roosevelt (1983)
Theodore Roosevelt was America’s 26th president and a larger-than-life legend whose incredible story must be seen to be believed. Narrated by George C. Scott, this documentary weaves extremely rare archival…
Snowonder (1982)
Grab your skis and discover the Snowonder of skiing. Join the likes of skiers like David Butterfield, Billy Campbell, Greg Athens, Dick Dorworth, John Harlan, Hal O’Leary, and many others…
The Compleat Beatles (1982)
Now, for the first time, you can re-live the Beatles legends with this stunning 2-hour musical “Rockumentary”. It’s all there from the wild exuberance of the early Cavern Club days…
Burden of Dreams (1982)
The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents,…
Poetry in Motion (1982)
More than 20 contemporary North American poets recite, sing, and perform their work. Early in the film, Charles Bukowski talks about the energy of poets and of a poem. These…
The Road to Patriation (1982)
This feature documentary retraces the century of haggling by successive federal and provincial governments to agree on a formula to bring home the Canadian Constitution from England. This film concentrates…
Genocide (1982)
The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazi regime is chronicled, with a warning that anti-Semitism is on the rise and the events of the Holocaust could happen again….
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982)
Richard Pryor’s stand-up act includes his frank discussion about his freebasing addiction, as well as the infamous night on June 9, 1980 that he caught on fire.