What Documentary Movies to watch on Pluto
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The Lost Bladesman
This historical martial arts film adapted from the story of Guan Yu crossing five passes and slaying six generals in Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In AD 200 during the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao eliminates his political opponents Dong Cheng and others, before turning his attention towards rival warlords Liu Bei and Yuan Shao. To avoid fighting a war on two fronts, Cao Cao decides to attack Liu Bei first. Liu Bei flees north to join Yuan Shao, while his family is captured by the enemy. Liu Bei's sworn brother Guan Yu (Donnie Yen), surrenders to Cao Cao to uphold his oath of brotherhood and preserve his honor. Cao Cao knows he's a great warrior & hopes that Guan Yu will continue serving him. Meanwhile, Guan Yu is secretly in love with his sworn brother's concubine Qilan, but is afraid to express his feelings to her. Qilan reproaches Guan Yu for serving Cao Cao. By then, Guan Yu has also received news of Liu Bei's whereabouts, so he prepares to leave Cao Cao to deliver Liu Bei's fiancé, Qilan, to him. Cao Cao is unable to stop Guan Yu and gives orders for the defending generals at the various passes to let Guan Yu through. Despite so, Cao Cao's followers feel that Guan Yu will become a threat to them if he succeeds in escaping, so they plot to have Guan killed. Guan Yu then embarks on a dangerous long journey through the passes to reunite with Liu Bei.

- 2011
The National Parks Project
Released in 2011 for the 100th anniversary of Canada's national parks, The National Parks Project sent teams of musicians and a filmmaker to 13 parks-one per province and territory-to create short documentaries inspired by each location.

- 2011
Crossed Over
Based on the book Crossed Over: A Murder/A Memoir by Beverly Lowry, Crossed Over tells the true story of a woman, Beverly Lowry, who after the tragic hit-and-run death of her teenage son, sinks into a deep depression. Lowry and her supportive husband struggle to cope with this devastating loss. Lowry forms an unusual friendship with the first and only woman executed while on death row in Texas, Karla Faye Tucker, a friendship that puts great pressure on her marriage. Through this friendship, she is able to come to terms with unresolved personal issues and rediscover the simple joy in living and her marriage.

- 2002
The Ballymurphy Precedent
The Ballymurphy Precedent tells the unknown story of the death of eleven innocent people at the hands of the British Army in a Catholic estate in Belfast in 1971. This is a massacre that few have heard of, yet it was one of the most significant events in the Troubles. The British army continues to cover it up because they cannot afford to admit the truth. The relatives of those who died are fighting for justice - and our investigation shows why. This secret massacre led directly to the Bloody Sunday killings by the same Parachute regiment just five months later.

- 2018
Harry & Meghan: A Modern Royal Romance
Meet the new royal couple and their entourage as we follow their story from the beginning of their romance through their engagement announcement and discover how an American actress will soon be a member of the British Royal family.

- 2018
The Scythian
These are times when one civilization is replacing another. A new era is about to begin in Central Eurasia. Scythians, the proud warriors, are all but gone. The few of their descendants have become ruthless mercenary assassins, the "waves of Ares." Lutobor, is a soldier with a difficult task at hand. He becomes involved in internecine conflicts and sets off on a perilous journey to save his family. His guide is a captive Scythian by the name of Weasel. Lutobor and Weasel are enemies. They pray to different gods but must embark on this journey together. They brave the wild steppes, moving toward the last haven of the Scythians, to what seems to be their inevitable demise.

- 2018
No Place on Earth
While mapping out the largest cave system in Ukraine, explorer and investigator Chris Nicola discovers evidence that five Jewish families spent nearly a year and a half in the pitch-black caves to escape the Nazis. This is the story of the longest uninterrupted underground survival in recorded human history.

- Metascore58
- 2012
Stolen Seas
Thirteen powerless men become trapped aboard a ship when Somali pirates attack and demand a huge ransom for their release.

- Metascore71
- 2012
The Institute
Feature-length documentary that examines a San Francisco-based Alternate Reality Game, where thousands of participants got more than they bargained for. Told from the players' perspectives, the film looks over the precipice at an emergent new art form where the real world and fiction narratives merge to create unforeseen and often unsettling consequences.

- Metascore55
- 2012
Genghis Blues
The extraordinary odyssey of a U.S. musician of Cape Verdean ancestry to Tannu Tuva, in central Asia, where nomadic people throat sing more than one note simultaneously, using vocal harmonics. A bluesman, Paul Pena, blind and recently widowed, taught himself throat singing and was by chance invited to the 1995 throat-singing symposium in Kyzyl. Helped by the "Friends of Tuva," Pena makes the arduous journey. Singing in the deep, rumbling kargyraa style, Pena gives inspired performances at the festival, composes songs in Tuvan, washes his face in sacred rivers, expresses the disorientation of blindness in foreign surroundings, and makes a human connection with everyone he meets.

- 1999
Bible Quiz
BIBLE QUIZ follows seventeen-year-old Mikayla Irle as she memorizes books of the Bible on her quest to win the National Bible Quiz Championship and the heart of JP, her quiz team captain. The film explores coming of age in the face of faith, doubt, fierce competition, sexuality and teen love. It is director Nicole Teeny's first feature length documentary.

- 2013
Mayor of the Sunset Strip
Through the glitter and the grunge, from The Monkees to Coldplay, Rodney Bingenheimer--a.k.a. Rodney on the ROQ--has reigned over the Los Angeles music scene for over two decades. A constantly evolving fixture as rock fan, journalist, promoter, club owner and radio DJ on KROQ, Bingenheimer has helped advance every adventurous rock mutation--California pop, glam, punk, goth, new wave, alternative--since he first hit the Sunset Strip during its psychedelic 1960s heyday.

- Metascore71
- 2003
The Legend of Cool Disco Dan
The Legend of COOL "DISCO" DAN is a documentary narrated by Henry Rollins that tells the story of Washington DC in the 1980s through the eyes of a DC graffiti legend. Blending interviews local & national celebrities with archival footage, Washington natives offer a broad portrait to date. The development of Go-Go music, racial tensions, crews, crack, & graffiti are important pieces of this story.

- 2013
Hype!
The world of grunge. This documentary examines the Seattle scene as it became the focus of a merging of punk rock, heavy metal, and innovation. Building from the grass roots, self-promoted and self-recorded until break-out success of bands like Nirvana brought the record industry to the Pacific Northwest, a phenomenon was born. More than just an examination of the music, this is a look at how this artistic movement became a societal and fashion trend with a major effect on American culture.

- 1996
The Typewriter (in the 21st Century)
The documentary film The Typewriter (In the 21st Century) is an ode to a marvelous machine that changed the world, and the surprisingly enduring culture that valiantly attempts to preserve its legacy and save it from cultural extinction.

- 2012
Food Chains
From Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser, producer of Food Inc and Fast Food Nation, comes a powerful and shocking expose about what feeds our country. This powerful true story of one small group of workers overcoming corporate greed to end slavery and abuse in America's fields will inspire you to demand your food be fair!

- Metascore62
- 2014
The Sunshine Makers
The untold story of two idealistic young underground chemists at the heart of the American psychedelic revolution. A real-life 'Breaking Bad' for the psychedelic set, this documentary reveals the entertaining, untold story of Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the unlikely duo at the heart of 1960s American drug counterculture. United in a utopian mission to save the planet through the consciousness-raising power of LSD, these underground chemists manufactured a massive amount of acid, including the gold standard for quality LSD, Orange Sunshine, as they tried to stay one step ahead of the feds.

- Metascore68
- 2015
In the Blink of an Eye
Hamel portrays director Dickoff who suspends her career in order to help a friend who's been in prison for quite some time in connection with a murder.

- 1996
Free Jazz Vein
From the director of Expencive Porno, comes the new experimental surf movie shot on super 16mm film, Free Jazz Vein.

- 2017
New Chefs on the Block
Two chefs in DC struggle to open and maintain their first restaurants. Against all odds, one becomes Bon Appetit Magazine's Best New Restaurant in America. The other is forced to redefine success. Starring Aaron Silverman of Rose's Luxury and Frank Linn of Frankly...Pizza. Featuring legendary chefs and restaurateurs Danny Meyer, Michel Richard, Mike Isabella and Washington Post food writer Tim Carman.

- 2017
The Assassins
In 198 B.C., Cao Cao, prime minister of the Han Dynasty, ventures to the east and defeats China's greatest warrior, Lu Bu, terrifying every ambitious warlord across the country. Several years later, Cao crowns himself King of Wei.

- 2012
The Hooping Life
Hula-hooping is back. The Hooping Life is about the rise of a hot new trend. Life inside the hoop's about your body, your soul, your art and your heart. Featuring Shaq O'Neal, The String Cheese Incident, The Scissor Sisters, and a score by Basement Jaxx, that captures the free-spirited nature of The Hooping Life. The film follows seven hoopers - Tisha, the daughter of a drug-dealer, creates a hoop program in South Central, LA, to keep kids off the streets taking in her parentless student Jeffery. Karis survives the gang-ridden streets of LA to become an explosive trans gendered performer. Baxter, the son of a southern Bible belt preacher, overcomes suicidal depression by hooping and turns his "Hoop Path" into a spiritual practice followed by thousands. Sandy (aka Sass),South Africa's first black television star, fire-hoops away the trauma of a brutal rape. Big personalities collide as the divas of the movement, Christabel (aka HoopGirl) and Anah (aka Hoopalicious) team-up for a blockbuster international tour. From the street to the club to the arena, the film alternates between self-filmed video diaries, verité documentary footage and spectacularly filmed performances. Filmed over six years and with an appearance by late hoop-promoter and TV personality Art Linkletter, The Hooping Life's about sultry dance, cool culture, slammin' clothes, outer struggle and inner peace.

- 2014
Last Days of the Arctic
RAX is a photographer who has made a career of capturing the human faces of climate change, and the vanishing lifestyles of the Far North.

- 2011
Queens & Cowboys: A Straight Year on the Gay Rodeo
QUEENS & COWBOYS: A STRAIGHT YEAR ON THE GAY RODEO chronicles a complete season of the International Gay Rodeo Association. Roping and riding across north America for the past 30 years, the IGRA's courageous cowboys and cowgirls brave challenges both in and out of the arena on their quest to qualify for the World Finals at the end of the season. And along the way, they'll bust every stereotype in the book.

- 2014