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What Documentary Movies to watch on Pluto

Find what to watch on Pluto including the latest releases. Filter by movies, TV shows, release years, genres and more.

2,242 results

The Trials of Darryl Hunt

1 hr 46 mins

"The Trials of Darryl Hunt" is a feature documentary about a brutal rape/murder case and a wrongly convicted man, Darryl Hunt, who spent nearly twenty years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Both a social justice story and a personally driven narrative, the film chronicles this capital case from 1984 through 2004. With exclusive footage from two decades, the film frames the judicial and emotional response to a chilling crime - and the implications that reverberate from Hunt's conviction - against a backdrop of class and racial bias in the South and in the American criminal justice system. This documentary is the culmination of ten years of research and filming. In 1993, inspired by claims of injustice and police conspiracy, the filmmakers began to shoot in North Carolina. Working from a mix of formats (16mm and 24P video) the film melds the visceral reality of a murder case with first person accounts and cinematic imagery, illuminating perceptions and memories of events as they unfolded for the people closest to this haunting story. This unique look at one man's loss and redemption challenges the assumption that all Americans have the right to unbiased justice. Hunt's story - while one man's personal journey - reflects systemic issues of national concern: cross-racial eyewitness identification, prosecutorial misconduct, inexperienced defense attorneys assigned to capital cases, racial bias in death penalty cases and errors in police procedure. Barry Scheck from The Innocence Project, who worked on Hunt's case for ten years, and Gary Wells, professor and eyewitness expert, offer concrete examples where errors occurred in Hunt's saga and offer future remedies and effective ideas to prevent future "Darryl Hunts." Hunt himself addresses the need for systemic reforms to prevent wrongful convictions, underscoring the haunting reality that Hunt could have been sentenced to death and we would never have known this story.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt
  • 2006

Blood of the Martyrs

0 hrs 44 mins

On November 16, 1989, six Jesuits and two women were brutally murdered in El Salvador by US trained and funded commandos of the Salvadoran army. The executions, carried out in the middle of the night in the Jesuits' backyard, reminded the world just how dangerous preaching the Gospel and serving the poor in a politically fraught landscape could be. With twenty-five years of conflicting stories, ample questions remain: who, exactly, is responsible? Why did the US spend over $1,000,000 a day to fund the Salvadoran army? Finally, does the martyrs' sacrifice affect El Salvador--still the second most dangerous country--today? The Blood of the Martyrs reveals the definitive story in the words of the people who lived it.

Blood of the Martyrs
  • 2017

My Trip to Al-Qaeda

1 hr 26 mins

Chronicles fundamentalist Islam's rise to power and explores Wright's struggle to maintain his objectivity as a journalist writing about Islamic terror.

My Trip to Al-Qaeda
  • 2010

The Parking Lot Movie

1 hr 14 mins

The Parking Lot Movie is a documentary about a singular parking lot in Charlottesville, Virginia. The film follows a select group of parking lot attendants and their strange rite of passage. The eccentric brotherhood of attendants consist of grad students, overeducated philosophers, surly artists, middle-age slackers and more. This self-described "ragtag group of fractured poets" prefer skateboards and bicycles to cars and have at best a tolerant contempt for the people they serve. That's not to say they don't care about anything. They hang out at the lot even in their spare time, shooting the breeze or playing a spirited game of "flip cone," just because...they like it there. They conduct their own private "war" against the elites, the pretentious and obnoxious customers who park their BMWs, Hummers, Suburbans and other vehicles. They study the art of doing nothing and the knack of getting even with rude, SUV-driving dolts who treat them like inferior beings. The gradual devolution from enthusiasm to resentment in the psyches of guys self-aware enough to notice it is an interesting process; in an attempt to distract themselves from the rapidly mounting bitterness, the attendants amuse themselves any way they can-stenciling random messages on the parking gate, writing songs, even dancing for tips. Through interviews with former attendants who have moved on - we see that their time at the lot has clearly provided rites of passage and afforded them Zen-like perspective. As one parking attendant laments, "We had it all in a world that had nothing to offer us." If the intersection between the status quo and the quest for freedom is their ultimate challenge, could a slab of asphalt be an emotional way station for The American Dream?

The Parking Lot Movie

I Am What I Play

1 hr 45 mins

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the rock radio DJ played an unprecedented creative role in the rock music world. I Am What I Play profiles four disc jockeys in major markets during this period: their programming, their politics and their deep connections with musicians and fans in the heyday of rock radio. Where are they now - and how did they reinvent themselves as the medium changed? Featuring the music of The Ramones, Joni Mitchell, Rush, David Bowie, The Cars, The Sonics and more.

I Am What I Play
  • 2015

The Battle of Pussy Willow Creek

1 hr 35 mins

Ken Burns meets Spinal Tap in a subversive tour de force relaying the outrageous life stories of four forgotten Civil War heroes: an opium-addicted gay colonel, an aging Chinese launderer, a nerdy escaped slave, and a one-armed teenaged prostitute.

The Battle of Pussy Willow Creek

The Devil's Double

1 hr 49 mins

A chilling vision of the House of Saddam Hussein comes to life through the eyes of the man who was forced to become the double of Hussein's sadistic son.

The Devil's Double

Terror's Advocate

2 hrs 15 mins

An examination of the career of Jacques Vergès, attorney for members of Algeria's FLN, Palestine's FPLP, the Khmer Rouge, Carlos and associates, Klaus Barbie, and other revolutionaries and outcasts. Archival footage, news articles, and photographs mix with contemporary interviews of Vergès, friends, associates, and historians. Connections with Nazis are explored, as well as Vergès's marriage to Djamila Bouhired, his courtroom methods, his disappearance from 1970 to 1978, and the roots of his radicalism. Throughout, Vergès remains playful and charming, with a soupçon of arrogance. The film suggests Vergès's anti-colonial nature is at his center.

Terror's Advocate

My Week with Marilyn

1 hr 39 mins

Sir Laurence Olivier (Sir Kenneth Branagh) is making a movie in London. Young Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), an eager film student, wants to be involved and he navigates himself a job on the set. When movie star Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) arrives for the start of shooting, all of London is excited to see the blonde bombshell, while Olivier is struggling to meet her many demands and acting ineptness, and Colin is intrigued by her. Colin's intrigue is met when Marilyn invites him into her inner world where she struggles with her fame, her beauty, and her desire to be a great actress.

My Week with Marilyn

A Mighty Heart

1 hr 48 mins

Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie), the wife of journalist Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman) of The Wall Street Journal, heads to Pakistan after terrorists capture her husband. In the terrifying weeks that follow, she must cope with international attention and find her way through the dangerous world of underground politics in a desperate effort to find him.

A Mighty Heart

My Father and the Man in Black

1 hr 27 mins

The inside story of 'bad boy' Johnny Cash, his talented but troubled manager, Saul Holiff, and a son searching for his father in the shadow of a legend.

My Father and the Man in Black

Juice: How Electricity Explains the World

1 hr 20 mins

Juice tells the human story of electricity and explains why power equals power. To illuminate its importance, the Juice team traveled 60,000 miles to gather 40 on-camera interviews with people from seven countries on five continents. Juice shows how electricity explains everything from women's rights and climate change to Bitcoin mining and indoor marijuana production. Juice explains who has electricity, who's getting it, and how developing countries all over the world are working to bring their people out of the dark and into the light.

Juice: How Electricity Explains the World
  • 2019

Brexitannia

1 hr 20 mins

A sociological portrait of the United Kingdom after the historic Brexit vote of 2016. A funny, sometimes terrifying and non-judgemental look at the new populist politics sweeping western democracies.

Brexitannia
  • 2017

Occupy Love

1 hr 24 mins

An inspiring, cinematic journey to today's history-making hot spots, from the Egyptian Revolution to the Indignados of Spain to Occupy Wall Street, asking the question, 'How can crisis create a love story?' A profound look at a new paradigm of social change that is sweeping the planet.

Occupy Love
  • 2012

Do Women Have a Higher Sex Drive?

1 hr 10 mins

For years men have underestimated women. For years men have thought they were smarter than women, but now women outnumber men in colleges. For years men have thought that women should not work, now women are the majority of the American workforce. For years men have thought that women could not lead, now women are the majority of the American managers are women. For years men have thought women could not fight. But now women fight alongside men in military . For years men have thought women had a lower sexdrive? Can men be proven wrong again?

Do Women Have a Higher Sex Drive?
  • 2018

Spitfire

1 hr 39 mins

The story of the fighter plane and pilots that helped win the Battle of Britain in World War II.

Spitfire
  • 2018

Pink Floyd: Behind the Wall

1 hr 20 mins

Selling over 200 million records worldwide, Pink Floyd has produced some of the most celebrated music in Rock history. This is their incredible story.

Pink Floyd: Behind the Wall
  • 2011

FrackNation

1 hr 17 mins

FrackNation follows journalist Phelim McAleer as he faces gun threats, malicious 911 calls and bogus lawsuits when questioning green extremists for the truth about fracking. Fracking is going to make America one of the world's leading energy producers and has become the target of a concerted campaign by environmentalists who want it banned. In FrackNation McAleer travels across the USA and Europe to uncover the science suppressed by environmental activists and ignored by much of the media. He talks with scientists and ordinary Americans who live in fracking areas and who tell him the truth behind the exaggerations and misrepresentations of anti-fracking activists.

FrackNation

You Don't Need Feet to Dance

1 hr 28 mins

In the film You Don't Need Feet to Dance, African immigrant Sidiki Conde, having lost the use of his legs to polio at fourteen, balances his career as a performing artist with the almost insurmountable obstacles of life in New York City, from his fifth-floor walk up apartment in the East village, down the stairs with his hands and navigating in his wheelchair through Manhattan onto buses and into the subway. Sidiki struggles to cope with his disability and to earn a decent living, but he still manages to teach workshops for disabled kids, busk on the street, rehearse with his musical group, bicycle with his hands, and prepare for a baby naming ceremony, where he plays djembe drums, sings, and dances on his hands.

You Don't Need Feet to Dance

Our Nixon

1 hr 24 mins

Never before seen Super 8 home movies filmed by Richard Nixon's closest aides - and convicted Watergate conspirators - offer a surprising and intimate new look into his Presidency.

Our Nixon

The Motivation

1 hr 28 mins

Eight of the world’s best pro-skateboarders prepare for the Street League Championship in NYC. They all must overcome unique challenges for a chance to win $200,000 and the title of best street-skateboarder in the world.

The Motivation
  • 2013

Stay Human

1 hr 34 mins

During these turbulent times, the feeling of hopelessness is an epidemic. In a quest to find a path to STAY HUMAN and hold on to humanity in the craziness of the world we live in today, Michael Franti takes us on an experiential journey through his songs and stories of people who have chosen to overcome cynicism with optimism and hope. Michael shares the tales of Robin Lim, a midwife who opened a birthing clinic in the aftermath of a devastating typhoon in the Philippines, Steve and Hope Dezember, a young couple whose love carries them through Steve's battle with ALS, Arief Rabik, an environmental scientist in Bali who perfected a method to make industrial and household products with bamboo in an effort to curb deforestation, and Sive Mazinyo and Busisiwwe Vazi, who help inspire their community of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, through music and education. Michael reflects on his own personal journey facing adversity as a child, struggling to find his voice as a musician, and how he came to find inspiration through these stories. He hopes to inspire people to become changemakers by utilizing creativity, tenacity, and heart to face our daily challenges as individuals, and together as citizens of our planet to STAY HUMAN.

Stay Human
  • 2018

A Cam Life

1 hr 17 mins

A Cam Life pulls back the curtain and delves further into the webcam business than any documentary has ever done before. Filmmakers Billy Sorrentino and Andy Weiss (producers of After Porn Ends) give you full access to the industry's top studio owners, cam sites and cam houses, traveling to Colombia, Romania and all over the US to reveal a vast, multi-billion-dollar underground world of adult entertainment.

A Cam Life
  • 2018

American Commune

1 hr 30 mins

In 1970, 1,500 hippies and their guru Stephen Gaskin founded a commune in rural Tennessee. Members forked over their savings, grew their own food, delivered their babies at home and built a self-sufficient society. Raised in this alternative community by a Jewish mother from Beverly Hills and a Puerto Rican father from the Bronx, filmmakers and sisters Rena and Nadine return for the first time since leaving in 1985. Finally ready to face the past after years of hiding their upbringing, they chart the rise and fall of America's largest utopian socialist experiment and their own family tree. The nascent idealism of a community destroyed, in part, by its own success is reflected in the personal story of a family unit split apart by differences. American Commune finds inspiration in failure, humor in deprivation and, most surprisingly, that communal values are alive and well in the next generation.

American Commune
  • 2013
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