Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

Hawking is the extraordinary story of the planet's most famous living scientist, told for the first time in his own words and by those closest to him. Made with unique access to Hawking's private life, this is an intimate and moving journey into Stephen's world, both past and present. An inspirational portrait of an iconic figure, Hawking relates his incredible personal journey from boyhood under-achiever, to PhD genius, to being diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease and given just two years to live. Despite the constant threat of death, Hawking manages to make many remarkable scientific discoveries and rises to fame and super-stardom. Hawking - a remarkable man, and a remarkable movie.

Many movies lend themselves to dramatic interpretations, but none are as rich and far ranging as Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. In LA filmmaker Rodney Ascher's ROOM 237, we hear from people who have developed far-reaching theories and believe they have decoded the hidden symbols and messages buried in the late director's film. Carefully examining The Shining inside out, and forwards and backwards, and backwards and forwards, ROOM 237 as captivating, provocative as it is pure pleasure". It gives voice to the fans and scholars who espouse these theories, reworking the film to match their ideas and intercutting it with layers of dreamlike imagery to illustrate their streams of consciousness. Sometimes outrageous, always engaging, the words of those who were interviewed are given full force by Ascher's compelling vision. Also featured at the 2012 Sundance, Cannes and Toronto film festivals.

Alejandro Jodorowsky's daring and psychedelic films of the early 1970's, 'El Topo' and 'The Holy Mountain', cemented his status as the Godfather of the Midnight Movie. In 1974, he began work on his next film, possibly the most ambitious film ever attempted. In the pre-Star War era, Jodorowsky’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel DUNE was poised to change cinema forever. His DUNE would star Brontis Jodorowsky, Alejandro's own 12 year old son, alongside Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine and even Salvador Dali. The team of assembled visual artists were some of the most provocative talents of the era, including H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, and Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud. The groundbreaking special effects were under the control of Dan O'Bannon and the soundtrack would be created by Pink Floyd and the French prog-rock masters, Magma.
For two years, Jodorowsky and his team of 'Spiritual Warriors' worked night and day on the massive task of creating the fabulous world of DUNE. In order to secure the necessary Hollywood funding, they created over 3,000 storyboards, numerous paintings, incredible costumes, and an outrageous, moving, and powerful screenplay. In the words of Jodorowsky’s producer, Michel Seydoux, 'It should have been enough. But it wasn’t.' Through intimate and honest conversations with Jodorowsky, filmed over the span of three years, plus interviews with legends and luminaries including H.R. Giger (artist, ALIEN), Gary Kurtz (producer, STAR WARS) and Nicolas Winding Refn (director, DRIVE and THE NEON DEMON), as well as never-before-seen realizations of Jodorowsky’s mind-blowing psychedelic space opera, director Pavich's film finally unearths the full saga of 'THE GREATEST MOVIE NEVER MADE'.

The film, directed by James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, looks at the underdogs of the video game industry, indie game developers, who sacrifice money, health and sanity to realize their lifelong dreams of sharing their creative visions with the world.
This Sundance award-winning film captures the tension and drama by focusing on these artists' vulnerability and obsessive quest to express themselves through a 21st-century art form.

Join Keanu Reeves on a tour of the past and the future of filmmaking. Since the invention of cinema, the standard format for recording moving images has been film. Over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium. The film investigates the history, process and workflow of both digital and photochemical film creation. We will explore it via in-depth interviews with directors, cinematographers, colorists, scientists, engineers and artists such as James Cameron, David Fincher, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, and many more

The filmmakers challenge former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers. Anwar Congo and his friends have been dancing their way through musical numbers, twisting arms in film noir gangster scenes, and galloping across prairies as yodeling cowboys. Their foray into filmmaking is being celebrated in the media and debated on television, even though Anwar Congo and his friends are mass murderers.
Medan, Indonesia. When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.
The Act of Killing is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. The Act of Killing is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. And The Act of Killing is a nightmarish vision of a frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which killers can joke about crimes against humanity on television chat shows, and celebrate moral disaster with the ease and grace of a soft shoe dance number.