BBC The Life of Buddha (2003)

Life of the Buddha is a major new landmark documentary following Buddha on his journey from the lap of luxury to the verge of starvation and final enlightenment.  Shot on location in Nepal and India, Life of the Buddha uses dramatic computer-generated images and recent archaeological discoveries to piece together this remarkable story.

An estimated half million women are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual slavery. They are "exported" to over 50 countries including Britain, Italy, Japan, Germany, Israel, Turkey, China, Kosovo, Canada and the United States. Misunderstood and widely tolerated, sex trafficking has become a multi- billion dollar underground industry.

According to the International Herald Tribune, human trafficking is the fastest growing form of organized crime in Eastern Europe. Kidnapped and/or lured by those who prey on their dreams, their poverty, and their naiveté, Eastern European women are trafficked to foreign lands -- often with falsified visas -- where they become modern day sex slaves. Upon arrival, they are sold to pimps, drugged, terrorized, caged in brothels and raped repeatedly. For these women and young girls, there is no life, no liberty and no chance for a happy and meaningful future.

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Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

 Capitalism: A Love Story examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). The film moves from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan. With both humor and outrage, the film explores the question: What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism? Families pay the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. Moore goes into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. What he finds are the all-too-familiar symptoms of a love affair gone astray: lies, abuse, betrayal...and 14,000 jobs being lost every day. Capitalism: A Love Story also presents what a more hopeful future could look like. Who are we and why do we behave the way that we do?

IMDB 7.3

8: The Mormon Proposition (2010)

In 2009, thousands of LGBT citizens are denied almost 200 civil rights their straight, married counterparts enjoy through civil marriage. Some states have signaled progress. But amid the progress, The Mormon Church, with its front-group THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MARRIAGE, has been coordinating, financing and leading the effort to stop the advancement of marriage equality for more than three decades. As an organization worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the Mormon Church has been able to wage this war in secret. Not until the California Fair Political Practices Commission launched an investigation into the Mormon's involvement in Proposition 8, did the secrets of the Mormon effort become a matter of record. Through never-before seen documents, recordings & insider-interviews, 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION, exposes the efforts of the Mormon Church and its members to halt nearly every piece of LGBT legislation on the desks of lawmakers from Hawaii to New York.

IMDB 6.6

Touching the Void (2003)

In the mid-80's two young climbers attempted to reach the summit of Siula Grande in Peru; a feat that had previously been attempted but never achieved. With an extra man looking after base camp, Simon and Joe set off to scale the mount in one long push over several days. The peak is reached, however on the descent Joe falls and breaks his leg. Despite what it means, the two continue with Simon letting Joe out on a rope for 300 meters, then descending to join him and so on. However when Joe goes out over an overhang with no way of climbing back up, Simon makes the decision to cut the rope. Joe falls into a crevice and Simon, assuming him dead, continues back down. Joe however survives the fall and was lucky to hit a ledge in the crevice. This is the story of how he got back down.
IMDB 8.1

War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2007)

War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
IMDB 7.8

Zero: An Investigation Into 9/11 (2008)

 

 

ZERO: An Investigation into 9/11, has one central thesis - that the official version of the events surrounding the attacks on 9/11 can not be true...

IMDB 7.8

China Blue (2005)

China Blue takes us inside a blue-jeans factory, where Jasmine and her friends are trying to survive a harsh working environment. But when the factory owner agrees to a deal with his Western client that forces his teenage workers to work around the clock, a confrontation becomes inevitable.  Shot clandestinely in China, under difficult conditions, this is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retail companies don’t want us to see – how the clothes we buy are actually made.
IMDB 7.5

Let's Make Money (2008)

Most of us don't know where their money is. However, one thing is for certain, it's is not in the bank to which we entrusted it. The bank and our money is already a part of the cycle of the global money market.

IMDB 7.2

The Carbon Connection (2009)

Two communities affected by one new global market – the trade in carbon dioxide. In Scotland a town has been polluted by oil and chemical companies since the 1940s. In Brazil local people's water and land is being swallowed up by destructive monoculture eucalyptus tree plantations. Both communities now share a new threat. 
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"Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth" (1988)

The Power of Myth is a book and six part television documentary originally broadcast on PBS  in 1988 as Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. The documentary comprises six one-hour conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987) and journalist Bill Moyers.  "The Power of Myth" is based on the interviews between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers that became a famous television series. It deals with the universality and evolution of myths in the history of the human race and the place of myths in modern society. Campbell blends accounts of his own upbringing and experience with stories from many cultures and civilizations to present the reader with his most compelling thesis that modern society is going through a transition from the old mythologies and traditions to a new way of thinking where a global mythology will emerge.
IMDB 8.5

WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception (2004)

There were two wars in Iraq--a military assault and a media war. The former was well-covered; the latter was not. Until now... Independent filmmaker, Emmy-award winningTV journalist, author and media critic, Danny Schechter turns the cameras on the role of the media. His new film, WMD, is an outspoken assessment of how Pentagon propaganda and media complicity misled the American people, while selling the war to influence international public opinion. Schechter compares and contrasts coverage on a global basis, including exclusive material and insider interviews. WMD is a serious film that exposes the media role--the biggest scandal of our time.
IMDB 7.5

The English Surgeon (2007)

This documentary offers a glimpse into the life of an English neurosurgeon (Henry Marsh) situated in Ukraine as we are exposed to the overwhelming dilemmas he has to face and the burden he has to carry throughout his profession.
IMDB 8.0

Blind Spot is a documentary film that illustrates the current oil and energy crisis that our world is facing. Whatever measures of ignorance, greed, wishful thinking, we have put ourselves at a crossroad, which offers two paths with dire consequences. If we continue to burn fossil fuels we will choke the life out of the planet and if we don’t our way of life will collapse.

The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror (2005)

IMDB 7.4

The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm (2001)

"Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" looks at the origins of the Gulf War crisis and challenges the official Western "party-line" view of a spontaneous crusade for "Freedom & Democracy".  Instead, the documentary exposes the White House and US State Department's hidden agenda in the Gulf as well as the Pentagon's use of radioactive ammunitions made of uranium 238.

IMDB 8.0

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.

IMDB 7.7

The Corporation (2003)

Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance.
IMDB 8.2

Collapse (2009/II)

From the acclaimed director of American Movie, this portrait of radical thinker Michael Ruppert explores his apocalyptic vision of the future, spanning the crises in economics, energy, environment and more.
IMDB 8.0

Run for Your Life (2008/I)

Without one eccentric first-generation Jewish immigrant from Transylvania, the New York City Marathon simply wouldn't exist...
IMDB 6.5

The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2002)

Part contemporary investigation and part historical inquiry, documentary follows the quest of one journalist in search of justice. The film focuses on Christopher Hitchens' charges against Henry Kissinger as a war criminal - allegations documented in Hitchens' book of the same title - based on his role in countries such as Cambodia, Chile, and Indonesia. Kissinger's story raises profound questions about American foreign policy and highlights a new era of human rights. Increasing evidence about one man's role in a long history of human rights abuses leads to a critical examination of American diplomacy through the lens of international standards of justice.
IMDB 7.7

Secrecy (2008)

Amidst the American hunger for instantaneous news and up-to-date "facts," this unflinching film uncovers the vast, invisible world of government secrecy.
IMDB 7.0

Super Size Me (2004)

Several legal suits have been brought against MacDonald's Restaurants that they are knowingly selling food that is unhealthy. Some of the court decisions have stated that the plaintiffs would have a claim if they could prove that eating the food every day for every meal is dangerous.
IMDB 7.6

Earth Days (2009)

In EARTH DAYS, acclaimed director Robert Stone (Oswalds Ghost, Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst) traces the origins of the modern environmental movement through the eyes of nine Americans who propelled the movement from its beginnings in the 1950s to its moment of triumph in 1970 with the original Earth Day, and to its status as a major political force in America. Drawing heavily on eyewitness testimony and a wealth of never before seen archival footage, Stone examines the revolutionary achievementsand missed opportunitiesof a decade of groundbreaking activism. The result is both a poetic meditation on mans complex relationship with nature and a probing analysis of past responses to environmental crisis.
IMDB 6.7

At the Edge of the World (2009)

At the Edge of the World chronicles the controversial Sea Shepherd Antarctic Campaign against a Japanese whaling fleet. The international volunteer crew, under-trained and under-equipped, develop a combination of bizarre and brilliant tactics with which to stop the whalers. But first they must find the Japanese ships, a far more difficult challenge than ever imagined - long-time activist Paul Watson and first-time captain Alex Cornelissen employ an array of strategies in the hopes of finding an elusive adversary in the vast expanse of the Ross Sea. With one ship (the Farley Mowat) too slow to chase down the whaling fleet, with their second ship (the Robert Hunter) unsuited for Antarctic ice conditions and with no country supporting their efforts to enforce international law, the situation becomes increasingly desperate. Against all odds, however, a real-life pirate tale unfolds - a modern-day "David vs. Goliath" adventure.
IMDB 7.5

Food, Inc. (2008)

The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies.
IMDB 7.9

Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (2003)

Narrated by Gabriel Byrne (Usual Suspects, Vanity Fair, Miller's Crossing), this seven-time Best Documentary award-winning film (Silver Lake Film Festival, Beverly Hills Film Festival) is the most comprehensive and mind-blowing investigation of humankind's relationship with death ever captured on film. Hailed by many viewers as a "life-transformational film," Flight from Death uncovers death anxiety as a possible root cause of many of our behaviors on a psychological, spiritual, and cultural level.
IMDB 7.4

Crude (2009)

One of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet. An inside look at the infamous $27 billion "Amazon Chernobyl" case, CRUDE is a real-life high stakes legal drama set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film examines a complicated situation from several angles while bringing a story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.
IMDB 7.5

Unmistaken Child (2008)

In Nepal, a venerable monk, Geshe Lama Konchog, dies and one of his disciples, a youthful monk named Tenzin Zopa, searches for his master's reincarnation. The film follows his search to the Tsum Valley where he finds a young boy of the right age who uncannily responds to Konchog's possessions. Is this the reincarnation of the master? After the boy passes several tests, Tenzin takes him to meet the Dali Lama. Will the parents agree to let the boy go to the monastery, and, if so, how will the child respond? Central to the film is the relationship the child develops with Tenzin
IMDB 7.4

Derren Brown: Messiah (2005)

Derren Brown takes on a number of fake identities as he travels across the USA trying to convince people of his abilities in the area of psychic powers and the supernatural world.
IMDB 8.5

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

 

An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002. 

IMDB 8.1

"The Atheism Tapes" (2004)

Jonathan Miller interviews five atheists and one theologian on the subject of atheism. 

IMDB 6.5

The Dead Sea Scrolls BBC4

Rageh Omaar tells the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls and uncovers the truth behind the myth. The biblical find of the age, they contain the earliest versions of the Hebrew bible, maps to hidden temple treasure, and insight into the mindset of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the early Christians. But the scrolls were soon embroiled in controversy, with allegations of conspiracy and cover-up, rumours that persist today thanks to The Da Vinci Code.
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Blue Gold: World Water Wars (2008)

Wars of the future will be fought over water as they are over oil today, as the source of human survival enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive. Past civilizations have collapsed from poor water management. Can the human race survive?
IMDB 7.8

Flow: For Love of Water (2008)

How did a handful of corporations steal our water? Water is the very essence of life, sustaining every being on the planet. 'Flow' confronts the disturbing reality that our crucial resource is dwindling and greed just may be the cause.
IMDB 7.4

American Teen (2008)

Documentary following the lives of four teenagers--a jock, the popular girl, the artsy girl and the geek--in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. We see the insecurities, the cliques, the jealousies, the first loves and heartbreaks, and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future.
IMDB 6.5

The Devil Came on Horseback (2007)

At age 27, Brian Steidle became a monitor with the African Union in Darfur, Sudan. He was completely unprepared for what he would see.
IMDB 7.7

No End in Sight (2007)

Chronological look at the fiasco in Iraq, especially decisions made in the spring of 2003 - and the backgrounds of those making decisions - immediately following the overthrow of Saddam: no occupation plan, an inadequate team to run the country, insufficient troops to keep order, and three edicts from the White House announced by Bremmer when he took over: no provisional Iraqi government, de-Ba'athification, and disbanding the Iraqi armed services. The film has chapters (from History to Consequences), and the talking heads are reporters, academics, soldiers, military brass, and former Bush-administration officials, including several who were in Baghdad in 2003.
IMDB 8.4

BBC King Solomon's Tablet of Stone (2004)

2001. A clandestine meeting of leading Israeli archaeologists are shown a remarkable artefact. It's a stone tablet, apparently from 1,000BC. The writing on its face describes repairs to the temple of King Solomon. It is the first archaeological evidence ever found of this legendary building.  The relic caused a sensation. But this was only just the start.

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Deliver Us from Evil (2006)

Moving from one parish to another in Northern California during the 1970s, Father Oliver O'Grady quickly won each congregation's trust and respect. Unbeknownst to them, O'Grady was a dangerously active pedophile that Church hierarchy, aware of his predilection, had harbored for over 30 years, allowing him to abuse countless children. Juxtaposing an extended, deeply unsettling interview with O'Grady himself with the tragic stories of his victims, filmmaker Amy Berg bravely exposes the deep corruption of the Catholic Church and the troubled mind of the man they sheltered.
IMDB 8.0

PBS The Mormons (2007)

A four-hour exploration into the richness, the complexities and the controversies of the Mormons' story as told through interviews with members of the church, leading writers and historians, and supporters and critics of the Mormon faith.

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PBS Frontline Black Money (2009)

As the global financial downturn continues and pressure for profits increases on corporations across the world, a small group of lawyers in the U.S. Justice Department is pursuing an aggressive crackdown against an international business tactic -- bribery -- which the World Bank says  amounts to as much as a trillion dollars a year in payments.

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Who Wrote the Bible? (2004)

Who actually wrote the book that millions of people describe as the word of God? Theologian Robert Beckford sets off on a voyage of historical discovery through Genesis and beyond. (Channel4)
IMDB 7.4

Home (2009/I)

With aerial footage from 54 countries, Home is a depiction of how the Earth's problems are all interlinked, but with only one thing responsible: the human. It starts with the creation and the evolution of the animal species on Earth including the human, who starts living peacefully with nature. But the accelerating growth of population in the last 60 years and the discovery of oil, changed everything.
IMDB 8.4

Ten trillion and counting - PBS

All of the federal government's efforts to stem the tide of the financial meltdown have added hundreds of billions of dollars to an already staggering national debt, a sum that is expected to double over the next 10 years to more than $23 trillion. In Ten Trillion and Counting, FRONTLINE traces the politics behind this mounting debt and investigates what some say is a looming crisis that makes the current financial situation pale in comparison.
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Hacking Democracy (2006)

This is a ground breaking documentary investigating allegations of election fraud during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. A group of concern citizens heading up watchdog organizations investigate the 2004 election in the wake of these allegations on the 2000 presidential election which ended up decided in the Supreme Court.
IMDB 7.8

The Ascent of Money (2008)

In the first episode of the four-hour series THE ASCENT OF MONEY, economist and historian Niall Ferguson documents the roots of money in the conquest of the Americas, from the Incan empire to the Louisiana territory.

In the final episode of four-part THE ASCENT OF MONEY series, Niall Ferguson chronicles the spread of good -- and bad -- financial practices across the globe, the meteoric rise of the American real estate market, and the consequences of the subprime mortgage fiasco.
IMDB 7.6

"Panorama" Sex Crimes and the Vatican (2006)

Panorama investigates a secret Vatican document known as the "Crimen Sollicitationis", which established a guideline for handling allegations of child abuse, homosexuality and bestiality within the Catholic Church and was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope.
IMDB 8.8

Trouble in Amish Paradise (2009)

An extraordinary insight into the secretive world of the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Trouble In Amish Paradise tells the story of Ephraim and Jessie Stoltzfus who, along with their wives, have become disillusioned with the amount of control the church now exerts over their lives. They are extremely proud of their Amish heritage and have no wish to leave their community, but feel they can no longer unquestioningly follow every pronouncement from the bishops. 
IMDB 6.9

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002)

Tells the story of the seventh century prophet who changed world history in 23 years, and continues to shapes the lives of more than 1.2 billion people. The film takes viewers not only to ancient Middle Eastern sites where Muhammad's story unfolds, but into the homes, mosques and workplaces of some of America's estimated seven million Muslim to discover the many ways in which they follow Muhammad's example.
IMDB 8.3

Religulous (2008)

Bill Maher interviews some of religion's oddest adherents. Muslims, Jews and Christians of many kinds pass before his jaundiced eye. Maher goes to a Creationist Museum in Kentucky, which shows that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time 5000 years ago. He talks to truckers at a Truckers' Chapel. (Sign outside: "Jesus love you.") He goes to a theme park called Holy Land in Florida. He speaks to a rabbi in league with Holocaust deniers. He talks to a Muslim musician who preaches hatred of Jews. Maher finds the unlikeliest of believers and, in a certain Vatican priest, he even finds an unlikely skeptic.  
IMDB 7.8