Documentaries

The list below is from years of of searching and exploring many resources. A reorganization of the list is planned.

Also see Metanoia-Films (free) and Journeyman Pictures (some free, some pay, +youtube channels ONE & TWO), VICE (youtube channel, also see NotVice.com),  Aeon video shorts , Al-Jazeera Documentaries, Kevin Kelly True Films, Freedocumentaries.org, TopDocumentaryFilms.com, Reddit’s forum, DocumentaryStorm.com, Firstrun Features (pay; some torrents are online), MediaStorm , Films for Action , PBS Frontline, RT’s YouTube channel , Docuwiki, and the Media Education Foundation’s website.

Torrentz.EU is no longer active.

To download YouTube videos through the Firefox browser, check out the Easy YouTube Downloader. — This is a growing list. I recommend downloading uTorrent + ThePirateBay.org which has changed URLs in the past to ThePirateBay.bid and .fun, .pe, .ee, .sx, .se, and .ac). Beware, they have an onslaught of porn ads.
Use adblockplus.org when visiting ThePirateBay

See “Torrents” (wikipedia entry).  — “Historic content” is gradually being added to this History resources page .  

(currently in need of being reorganized)

  • Banking Nature – link
  • The Society of the Spectacle – The classic critique of a commodified culture where images are used to capture attention at all hours of the day & night. English version | French with subtitles
  • The Revolution Business – link
  • Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina (author of Beyond Words) – link
  • Symphony of the Soil – torrents 
  • Cooked (series with Michael Pollan)
  • Rotten (series about the global food industry)
  • Apocalypse Stalin (3 parts) – torrent
  • Sweet Suicide: How Sugar is Destroying the Health of Our Society (rare) – torrent / Also see “141 reasons sugar ruins your health” by Nancy Appleton
  • The Hadza: Last of the First (official site)
  • Connections with James Burke (seasons 1-3) – torrent
  • NYPD: Biggest Gang in New York? (BBC) – youtube 
    This video has been repeatedly removed from YT.
    The BBC page for this documentary is here.
  • Never Die Easy – link
  • The Truth About Killer Robots – torrent
  • The Age of Aluminum – link
  • Dope Grannies (short series) – elders’ relationships with cannabis for health
  • How to Die in Oregon (2011) – torrent 
  • WWF (World Wildlife Fund): The Silence of the Panda – About the WWF partnering with industry as real estate brokers, stealing land from locals for large agricultural businesses – link 
  • You’ve Been Trumped – Donald Trump wants to build a golf course on a special eco-preserve in Scotland … don’t bet on it.  torrents   |  official site 
  •  Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe (2016) – torrent 
  • At the Cross Roads: In India, indigenous and rural people fight for their lands against the government, military, police and companies who want the land for bauxite (needed for aluminum), wood and other resources. The people are also caught in the cross-fire of Maoist rebels, while the government labels anyone who resists as a “Maoist.” – youtube 
  • The World According to Dick Cheney – youtube 
  • (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies – torrents 
  • Salmon Confidential – A massive die-off of wild salmon in British Columbia (Canada) occurred because of the diseases produced by fish farming. The Federal government was silent in order to protect the industry and prevented access to test the farmed fish. Also, the government allows the industry to keep fish disease records a secret – youtube 
  • Salmon Running the Gauntlet – Informative about the salmon’s importance and the severe threat that government and industry has had on its future – youtube 
  • Plutocracy (2015) – link (FilmsforAction.org for a couple months, then at Metanoia-Films.org)
  • Syria’s Rebellious Women – preview
  • Reversing the Mississippi – trailer 
  • Bringing It Home: Industrial Hemp and a Greener Future – Vimeo  (pay on-demand)
  • Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine – torrents
  • The Science of Psilocybin (pay) – link 
  • Tales of the Grim Sleeper (2014, HBO) – youtube – horrible 25 year killing-spree in South Central L.A. while the LAPD with-held evidence because the people being killed were crack-addicted prostitutes.
  • Life of Birds (10 parts) – torrents 
  • Life of Mammals (10 parts)- torrents 
  • Life in the Undergrowth (insects) – torrents 
  • March of the Penguins – torrents (an incredible journey!) – youtube 
  • We Steal Secrets (Wikileaks) – torrents (by Alex Gibney, who has an incredible portfolio)
  • Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook – youtube – 25 yrs after the horrors of this mental institution were exposed
  • The  Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987) – torrents 
  • Small is Beautiful (about tiny houses) – trailer 
  • Bought  (about whistleblowers and corrupt marketing of pharmaceuticals/drugs)
  • Joybubbles!  – story of a blind telephone hacker (“phone phreak”), funded through kickstarter. Also check out this interview  from 1991.
  • The Endurance – youtube – A retelling of Sir Ernest Shackleton ‘s ill-fated expedition to Antarctica in 1914-1916, featuring new footage of the actual locations and interviews with surviving relatives of key expedition members
  • Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present – youtube 
  • War by Other Means (John Pilger) – The International Monetary Fund & the World bank using debt as a weapon of war
  • Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief – youtube 
  • The Take (click on the “cc” at the lower right for subtitles): In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into  their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. Also see TheTake.org 
  • Inside the Rhapsody – Queen – youtube 
  • Fashion Victims – Bangladesh (journeyman,youtube): The shocking truth behind the real cost of your favorite clothes, Bangladeshi lives. Everyone loves a bargain, but what’s the real cost of cheap clothes from Bangladesh’s sweat shops? Severed limbs, cruel labor conditions and 1000 dead.
  • Finding Forgiveness  – (18min) Jackie Millar took years to recover after two teenagers shot her in the head. Now, a pioneering program in the state of Wisconsin is helping to bring victims and offenders together to help both sides get on with their lives.
  • Wings of Hope, by Werner Herzog (youtube) – A plane crashed in the Peruvian jungle, killing 91 people. One 17 yr-old female survived. The rescue search was called off after 10 days. The 17 yr-old emerged on the 12th day.
  • Grizzly Man, by Werner Herzog – A man leaves his family to be close to wild bears in Alaska, which eventually becomes his doom. An interesting and bizarre peek into the mind of a man who wanted to become a bear.
  • The Cove  – (piratebay) world’s most renowned dolphin trainer from the TV show Flipper  fights against the Japanese dolphin meat industry
  • Blackfish  (SeaWorld corporation misinfo and the killings of whale trainers)
  • Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog) – shows the burning of Kuwaiti oilfields as if moving over hell on earth – torrents 
  • Speaking in Tongues: The History of Language – one  | two  | three  | four 
  • Before Babel – In Search of the First Language (audio has been removed!)
  • Strange Deep Sea Creatures – youtube 
  • Secret of Oz
  • Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (unable to find)
  • Bruno Bettelheim documentary (1986) – youtube 
  • Thought Crimes – The Case of the Cannibal Cop 2015 (HBO) –  youtube 

American History (docs & talks) – also see many other sections

  • Half Life: America’s Last Uranium Mill (12min, 2016) – link
  • It  Felt Like a Kiss – by Adam Curtis, shows political archive footage  mixed with pop music & pop movie clips. It tells the story of  American power & culture along with other world events starting from  1959 – youtube 
  • Mike Wallace Interview with Erich Fromm (1958), a psychoanalyst whose ideas competed with Sigmund Freud’s. He discusses how America will destroy “itself” if it continues on its current path (in 1958). He also predicted that Russia & America will be more similar than different in the future.
  • Missile to the Moon  – about Wernher Von Braun’s collaboration with the Nazis to develop the  V2 rocket and his cross-over to working with Americans (Operation Paperclip) that led to the space race (youtube
  • Slavery by Another Name (PBS) – link 
  • Columbus & “The Colombian Exchange” – link 
  • Henry Ford documentary using old footage – link 
  • Freedom Riders    (piratebay) – incredible story of the committee on racial  equality   (CORE) in the 1960’s riding buses into the deep south for   desegregation  despite bigotry & violence
  • Let the Fire Burn – in 1981, the Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on one house, which led to 65 houses being allowed to burn, killing numerous people. Their target, a group called MOVE.
  • The Killing of America  (classic 1982 doc on how the murder rate skyrocketed after the assassination of president John F. Kennedy).
  • The World Without US (United States) – youtube 

Natives/American “Indians,” and other natives

  • John Pilger – The Secret Country – The First Australians Fight Back [1985]  – link  (YouTube)

And the follow-up documentary, Utopia about the struggle of the aborigines/aboriginals.

Legal System

  • What it’s Really Like Inside Guantanamo   – it’s admitted by a military officer in this movie that people under  sixteen are being held captive beyond the rule of law through military  rule in the name of “the global war on terrorism.” (TM)
  • Into the Abyss  (Werner Herzog) – “Capital punishment” explored. Killers are  interviewed along with families that they have devastated. Texas  judicial employees are also interviewed.(youtube)
  • Death Row stories – a man on death row for 17 yrs; two days before his execution he was pulled away after new evidence showed he was innocent. Interview with an executioner (killed 67 people legally).
  • McLibel – made over a TEN YEAR period about two people in Britain who fought  against the censorship laws that favored McDonald’s in Britain. They were told their case would be impossible to win. Their persistence proved the contrary.
  • Terms and Conditions May Apply – About Faceb**k & G**gle’s anti-privacy business model (and hypocrisy). They want  everyone’s data, yet the people who work for those companies want their  privacy – YouTube  | torrent | official site
  • Prohibition (3 parts) one | two | three (youtube) – Also check out Whiskey Made America from the How Stuff Works series that shows some history and how distillation provoked many other innovations
  • Marijuana country: the cannabis boom (2015) – youtube link 
  • Incendiary: The Willingham Case

Schooling / Education

  • Not Waiting for Superman
  • Documentary trailer for The Fourth Purpose  which has been years in the making and is not yet finished! (Why didn’t they use Kickstarter or IndieGoGo?)

Children

  • Happy Valley (2014) – about the Penn State football coach convicted on dozens of accounts of child molestation – torrents 
  • Kidnapped (journeyman.tv) – an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 children have been reported to be abducted each year in China. See the Baby Come Home volunteer network.
  • Brat Camp – Chinese kids whose parents don’t know what else to do with them send them off  to an alternative school where they walk 800 kilometers over a six-week  period of time
  • Cheated of Childhood – The Russian Kids Driven to the Streets (journeyman/youtube)
  • Bus 174

Health / Food

  • Sugar Coated (asking “How did the food industry get us to stop asking the question: is sugar toxic?“) – torrents  (official site)
  • Frontline (May 12, 2015) “The Trouble with Chicken.” (*factory-produced* chickens)
  • Bought  (about whistleblowers and corrupt marketing of drugs)
  • Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead – link 
  • The Price of Sugar  (narrated by Paul Newman) – about the slave conditions in the Dominican  Republic of the sugar cane workers, while at the time of this movie,  the American government imported most of its sugar from the Dominican  Republic.
  • WhyPoverty.net’s documentary, Land Rush,  which focuses on the buying & leasing of African land (Mali) by  foreign governments (China & Saudi Arabia), and the farmers who  fought back. Also see other short and long videos are also available for free.
  • Fresh Truck Farm
  • Hamburger America
  • Urban Roots (Detroit urban farming)
  • Micreant Masterchefs   – An Italian jail is visited by gourmet chefs to instruct inmates how  to cook. Eventually, they conduct dinner parties that are open to the  public!

Guns

  • Frontline: Gunned Down  – battle over gun laws in America and the power of the NRA (but no  mention the role prescription drugs played in the history of school  shootings)

Media

  • War Made Easy – Media’s compliance in encouraging citizens to accept war. CNN becomes PNN (Pentagon News Network). DOD (Dept of ‘Defense,’ once called the War Dept, becomes the Dept of Deception.
  • Operation Hollywood: How The Pentagon Shapes And Censors The Movies – link 
  • See this reddit.com page (docs on the effects of media culture)

Pre-Civilization / Society / Culture

  • Ascent of Man – Check out this time-stamped segment of Scandinavians who follow giant herds of reindeer in an icy climate for food. They do not control/domesticate the animals.
  • Quest for Ancient Egypt: Pioneers of Egyptology, part 1,2,3  (torrents )
  • Darwin’s Nightmare – 2004 French-Belgian-Austrian film dealing with the environmental and social effects of the fishing industry around lake Victoria in Tanzania, Africa. Planes enter bringing weapons and leave taking 50 tons of fish each flight to feed 2 million Europeans. Street children and villagers with HIV suffer while big business takes priority over the health of that society. Excess & neglect at it’s worst. Nominated for a 2006 Academy Award. –  torrents
  • We Come As Friends (2014) – (From the director of Darwin’s Nightmare) About Sudan, its many challenges, international business interests, and the visions shaping the country that have nothing to do with democracy – torrents (see the IMDB summary). See the interview  with the director, Hubert Sauper. Official website 
  • Alaskan hip-hop culture (short) – youtube  (11:48)
  • The Price of Pleasure – about the pornography industry and how it’s not simply a business, it’s a worldview – small preview video  |  torrents
  • The Killing Screens: Media & the Culture of Violence – preview (violence as a global commodity)
  • Qatsi Trilogy: Koyaanisqatsi (Life Out of Balance)  |  Powaqqatsi (Life in Transformation) |  Naqoyqatsi (Life as War) – check out this interview with director Godfrey Reggio
  • Visitors (director of Qatsi Trilogy) – torrents  |  Check this short called Evidence  |  Check this short called Evidence 
  • Science and Sacraments: Psychedelic Research and Mystical Experiences – link (youtube)
  • END:CIV  (2010, 76 min) Examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV  asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests,  poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you  resist?”
  • Breaking the Spell  (youtube) – Shows a variety of footage from the 1999 Seattle “protests” against the the World Trade Organization meeting
  • 5 start hotel to feeding the poor: In India, a man was on his way to a career at a 5 star hotel in Switzerland until he’s shocked when he sees an elderly man in poverty eating his own feces. He starts an organization to feed his fellow Indians. – link 
  • The Coconut Revolution – About the land-based Bougainville Revolutionary Army, which fought off Rio Tinto mining company and the Papua New Guinea army
  • The Shock Doctrine: An investigation of “disaster capitalism”, based on Naomi Klein’s  proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war  and terror to establish its dominance. (youtube)
  • Killing Us Softly – part 3 (34min)  | part 4  (45min) – the 1st & 2nd versions were done in the 1970’s & 80’s.
  • Tough Guise: Violence Media and the Crisis in Masculinity – torrents 
  • Religulous – travel with Bill Maher to meet people who explain why they believe what they believe. The travel starts at a tiny truck stop church.
  • Marjoe –  1972 documentary expose which h follows one-time child evangelist  Marjoe Gortner on the “church tent” Revivalist circuit, commenting on  the showmanship of Evangelism and “the religion business” prior to the start of “televangelism.”
  • God’s Angry Man (Werner Herzog) – angry American televangelist from 1981 – torrents 
  • Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (Werner Herzog) – A documentary depicting the life and work of the trappers of Bakhtia, a  village in the heart of the Siberian Taiga, where daily life has changed  little in over a century. Torrents 
  • The Long Distance Revolutionary – Using the life of prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal, the movie covers a range of historical and racial issues in America, starting with Philadelphia – torrents 
  • The One Percent (directed by the son of the Johnson & Johnson famed family business)
  • Jodorowsky’s Dune  – possibly the greatest movie never made with the likes of Pink Floyd, Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali, H.R. Giger, Orson Welles, and many others based on the science fiction book.
  • The Imposter  – a family whose son disappeared from Texas is impersonated by someone overseas in order to come to America. His lie became bigger than he could ever have realized.
  • Louis Theroux: Twilight of the Porn Stars  –  In 1997, Louis Theroux made a documentary about the world of male porn performers in Los Angeles. 15 years later, he returns to find a business struggling with the deluge of free porn on the internet. Louis revisits some of the original program’s contributors as well as meeting the latest crop of porn performers dreaming of porn stardom.

timelapse of nightlife at Burning Man

  • Salman Rushdie and The Satanic Verses Affair – (under personal security for 10 yrs) Trials and tribulations of Salman Rushdie as he struggled to lead a normal life under the constant threat of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa (religious death sentence).
  • Visitors, from Godfrey Reggio, director of the Qatsi Trilogy

Science

  • Earth from Space  – shows how the many types of satellites enable us to see below the oceans and much more (NOVA/PBS)
  • How Plants Communicate & Think – link 
  • 400 years of the telescope – torrents
  • 6:49min video (2012) about the Kepler telescope to detect “twin earths” – link
  • Cosmos: A Personal Voyage – Carl Sagan’s 13-part series (youtube)

“Drugs”

( Yet, supposedly 1 in 10 deaths among working-age Americans are from drinking an excess of legal alcohol )

  • Prescription Thugs – from the maker of Bigger, Faster, Stronger – torrents
  • Bigger, Stronger, Faster – about the American culture of steroids – torrents 
  • Prescribed Grass – Vimeo (Director Zach Klein, whose mother suffered from cancer)
  • The Scientist – youtube (Director Zach Klein, whose mother suffered from cancer)
  • The Science of Marijuana (PBS) – youtube 
  • Prince of Pot – Mark Emery, responsible for selling huge amounts of  cannabis seeds to the US
  • Marijuana country: the cannabis boom (2015) – youtube link 
  • The Union: The Business Behind Getting High – torrents 

War

  • Fog of War: 11 Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara – torrents 
  • When the Mountains Tremble (youtube) –  filmed in 1982 at the height of the Guatemalan Army’s repression against the Mayan indigenous people, has become a classic political documentary. It describes the struggle of the largely Indian peasantry against a heritage of state and foreign oppression.
  • Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars – youtube 
  • The War on Terror: Truth & Lies , by John Pilger – The opening sequence is about a NYC woman whose brother was killed on Sept 11 traveled to Afghanistan to comfort the innocent people who were victims of the Bush administration’s invasion.
  • Vietnam – The Quiet Mutiny [1970], by John Pilger – link  (YouTube)
  • Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia (1979), by John Pilger – link   Note: PBS executives called in a Khmer Rouge apologist reporter to judge whether this film was worthy of PBS air-time according to this interview with John Pilger.
  • Death of a Nation: East Timor (1993, done in secret), by John Pilger – link 
  • Rocket Island   –   For 63 years the Marshall Islands has played host to American war  games but in 2016 Americas lease for 11 of the islands is up. The  Marshallese say the US compensation is inadequate and their people are  struggling. Dubbed The Slum of the Pacific, 15,000 people are crammed  into a narrow strip of coral and sand. 
  • VIDEO  (51:08) 15-month investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic reveals  how retired US colonel James Steele, a veteran of American proxy wars in  El Salvador and Nicaragua, played a key role in training and overseeing  US-funded special police commandos who ran a network of torture centres  in Iraq.
  • Restrepo
  • Armadillo
  • Crude The Fever of ’57
  • Greece: The Hidden War 1986

Nuclear

  • Hiroshima: Warning to the World   (journeyman.tv) – “I write this as a warning to the world…”  headlined  London’s Daily Express in 1945. The story was filed by  Wilfred  Burchett; the first Western journalist into Hiroshima – Japan  after the  atomic bomb explosion on 6th August, 1945. What Burchett saw  profoundly  affected his life. In one hospital the patients wanted to  kill him and  he was forced to flee. Others begged him for a cure to the  disease he  christened ‘Atomic Plague’. Burchett went on to report the  communist  side of the war in Vietnam, provoking such outrage in his  native  Australia that he was refused entry for 20 years. He finally  died in  1983 in Bulgaria, spurned by the West. This film contains  interviews and  shocking archive footage of the utterly destroyed city  of Hiroshima and  hospitalised victims of the blast.
  • Radiating the People  (journeyman.tv) – It’s what post-Fukushima Japan fears the most;  cancer. Amid allegations of government secrecy, worrying new claims say a  cancer cluster has developed around the radiation zone and that the  victims are children. Features multiple people (doctors and scientists)  with directly experienced the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear  disaster.

Electoral Fraud (America)

  • Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections – youtube 
  • Hacking Democracy

Corruption

  • Core of Corruption (overwhelming amount of footage from 9/11 that will force people to rethink) Also see this 15min video connecting who had access to the upper floors WTC.
  • Documentary podcast  (audio) Several interviews containing insider testimony pertaining to 50 CIA worker-bees responsible for with-holding key information that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. The men responsible for this brought you the documentary 9/11: Press for Truth.
  • A Noble Lie: Oklahoma City 1995 (piratebay torrent | official site)  From Plato’s Republic, the term “A Noble Lie” refers to the propping up  of a myth in order to “maintain social harmony” and keep the elite in  their present position.

FULL 10 hrs

  • Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
  • Orwell Rolls In His Grave
  • Mind Control: America’s Secret War (History Channel)
  • Nostalgia for the Light (unsolved Chilean murders during Pinochet + astronomy since Chile is the best location for telescopes)
  • The Man Who Knew  PBS Frontline about John O’Neil who quit the FBI due to their top-down  obstruction of his investigations in Saudis in connection to plotting  terrorism
  • Koch Brothers Exposed

Environment/Urban

  • Gasland – vimeo (2010, about fracking)
  • Gasland Part II – vimeo (2013)
  • Gaswork: The Fight for CJ’s Law – vimeo (2015)
  • The Sky is Pink – vimeo (18 min, about NY fracking)
  • Watermark (about our relationship with water) – torrent 
  • Eco Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson – youtube  |  torrents (founder of Sea Shepherd; direct action “animal conservation” group)
  • Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist – shows the Sea Shepherd crew in action and the results of insane laws that protect business, but not wildlife – link 
  • Black Ice: The Battle to Save the Arctic – link 
  • Garbage Warrior  –  an architects development of self-sufficient housing
  • Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia (limited availability, too costly/needs to be made free)

Business/Corporations (positive and negative)

  • Google & the World Brain: The Audacious Attempt to Control Human Knowledge (BBC, 2013) – torrents  
  • Deli Man (2014) – link (youtube)
  • Who Killed the Electric Car – torrents 
  • Revenge of the Electric Car – torrents 
  • The Price of Sugar (narrated by Paul Newman) – about the slave conditions in the Dominican Republic of the sugar cane workers, while at the time of this movie, the American government imported most of its sugar from the Dominican Republic. The circumstances are complex — illegal immigrants from Haiti employed instead of legal Dominicans and a Catholic priest leading an organization that’s on the side of the Haitians.
  • Pink Ribbons, Inc – Companies wrap their products in pink to  gain our admiration (and money)…wouldn’t it be something if some of  the very companies that profit from their pink marketing campaigns have  actually contributed to the breast cancer epidemic by selling known  carcinogens? info/trailer | PirateBay torrent
  • The Colonel Comes to Japan (worldcat reference, it’s not the video) This is about Kentucky Fried Chicken and needs to be online!

Money/Financial System

  • Money as Debt
  • Born Rich
  • The Accent of Money
  • In Debt We Trust

Technology

  • Internet Rising (youtube) – some is interesting but a lot of it consists of experts rambling on. One interesting part was “emotional communion is not enough..”
  • Rock-a-fire Explosion movie (ShowBiz Pizza animatronics band) – trailer  | torrent 
  • Tilt – The Battle to Save Pinball
  • BBS: The Documentary
  • Get Lamp
  • Revolution OS

China

  • China Since Mao  (old BBC archive, 20min) – Mao died in 1976. This shows some of what  happened after his death. One thing that happened was that his wife was sentenced to death!
  • China’s Bleak House (documentarystorm.com, youtube) – made over a 12 year period of time! Incredible stories of tragedy that reveal the need for deep and vast changes
  • China’s Empty Forests   –  60 yrs ago China’s Heilongjiang forest was home to millions of   trees. But today a staggering 90% of the forest has been felled, making  it one of the fastest rates of deforestation in human history.
  • Behemoth (2015) – About the mining industry – torrent 
  • The China Hustle – torrent
  • Check out this huge list of China documentaries from Journeyman Pictures (Journeyman.tv). Many clips are available but overall it’s a pay site
  • The Cost of Capitalism  – features a “maverick” lawyer who fights for migrant workers’ rights. There is a need for balance between economic growth and protection of workers.
  • What the Ancients Knew (Discovery Channel series, The East – China, part 2 of 3) – mentions many inventions that originated in China (piratebay)
  • China.com  – Shows the dot com world coming to China in the year 2000.
  • Kidnapped (journeyman.tv) – an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 children have been reported to be abducted each year. See the Baby Come Home volunteer network.
  • Glowing Mountains  – The village of Wuda lies between the Yellow River and the Gobi Desert and it’s dangerously close to the coal fires beneath the earth.
  • The Lost Children of Sichuan  – A year after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and Chinese officials are  still blocking investigations into the collapsed schools. Yet the  parents of the dead fight for the truth that remains buried in the ruins
  • 2009 Tianamen Anniversary  – man who lost his legs in the massacre speaks for the first time. The  day after the interview he fled to America under political asylum.
  • China’s Foul Play  – Police in Beijing are racing to rid the streets of so-called  troublemakers before the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony. Their targets  are the law-abiding Chinese who go to Beijing to protest against  corruption.
  • Executing Dad  – Despite international pressures, an estimated 10,000 executions take  place in China every year. What happens to the children whose parents  are killed by the state?
  • China Dissident – Who’s Afraid of Wei Jingsheng? – Mr Wei was jailed for 18 years  (released with the help of Bill Clinton) for writing an article that  criticised the then-Premier Deng Xiao Ping. Now, he is a leading figure  in China’s democracy movement and has hit the campaign trail in the  months before the Beijing Games.
  • Troublemakers are Insane  – Chinese authorities have got a radical weapon against troublemakers:  lock them up indefinitely in police-run mental hospitals. Written off as  ‘dangerously ill’, ‘patients’ are often never seen again.
  • China’s Pollution Busters  – (2007) In the past six years, infant birth defects in China have  increased by an unprecedented 40%. This rise is being blamed on  pollution from factories. Now green campaigners are taking on the  multinationals.
  • Empty Cities (journeyman.tv) 2011 – an estimated SIXTY FOUR MILLION homes are uninhabited in China
  • True Believers  (journeyman.tv) – As a multiplicity of religions flourish we find out  why the state is so concerned (this film crew was followed by secret  police)
  • Dirty LIttle Secrets  (journeyman.tv) – a medical waste incinerator at the edge of a very old  village whose villagers are suspicious that the company is  collaborating with the local government
  • Toxic Linfen (journeyman.tv) – the world’s most polluted city according to the World Bank
  • Brat Camp  – kids whose parents don’t know what else to do with them send them off  to an alternative school where they walk 800 kilometers over a six week  period of time
  • Never Say Die (journeyman.tv) – about longevity (100+) in a region of south China
  • Up the Yangtze
  • China Rises (BBC)
  • China: Mandate of Heaven
  • Transcending Fear: The Story of Gao Zhisheng

Latin America

  • The Panama Deception (award-winning, surprisingly) – link 
  • The War on Democracy, by John Pilger – link 
  • The Engineer: Unearthing the Lost Generation of El Salvador –  trailer  |  one  |  two  |  three   – Wikileaks collaboration with Guerrilla Pictures on digging up those  who have been murdered in El Salvador and the gangs that have developed,  in part, due to deportations from America.
  • The Battle for Chile (Spanish, no subtitles) – part 1   |  part 2   |  part 3   – Also check out this mp3  of an event in 2010 with friend and physician of Allende, Oscar Soto.
  • Nostalgia for the Light (unsolved Chilean murders during Pinochet + astronomy since Chile is the best location for telescopes)
  • Cocalero  – about the indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales
  • The Coup Against Hugo Chavez, by Greg Palast (2002) – link 

India

  • Recycling and the Poor  (JTV) – very few places in the world have organized as sophisticated and  successful a network of ‘recycling cooperatives’. They keep the place  clean and provide employment for the poorest.
  • A Revolutionary Toilet  that’s self-composting and requires no drainage which reduces disease, improves health and eliminates poverty.

See many more free and pay videos on India here  (journeyman.tv). Indonesia

  • Death of a Nation: East Timor (1993, done in secret), by John Pilger – link 
  • Sex, Lies & Cigarettes  –  As big tobacco’s revenue declines in “the west,” the cartel seeks prey elsewhere, far away from restrictions. Kids can buy packs of cigarettes or singles without any problems (or laws).

Vietnam

  • Vietnam – The Quiet Mutiny [1970], by John Pilger – link  (YouTube)

Cambodia

  • Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia (1979), by John Pilger – link      Note: PBS executives called in a Khmer Rouge apologist reporter to    judge whether this film was worthy of PBS air-time according to this interview with John Pilger.

Burma

  • Land of Fear: Inside Burma, by John Pilger (1998, made in secret) – link 

Africa Uganda

Nigeria

Congo

  • King Leopold’s Ghost (based on the book with the same name) – torrents  – This is an incredibly important documentary that spans over 100 yrs of history. The Congo is probably the most exploited region of the world in human history.

Kenya

Sudan

  • We Come As Friends (2014) – (From the director of Darwin’s Nightmare)  About Sudan, its many challenges, international business interests, and  the visions shaping the country that have nothing to do with democracy –  torrents (see the IMDB summary). See the interview  with the director, Hubert Sauper.

Iraq

  • Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror, by John Pilger (2003) – link 

| wikipedia entry

Pakistan

  • How Musharraf Rose To Power Before His Fall From Grace (profile of a general)  – link  (JTV)
  • Who really controls Pakistan? (about Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, US ally) – link 
  • Bhutto – This features the story of the Bhutto family and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto (whose father was hanged, brother poisoned, another brother assassinated, & husband imprisoned for 11 yrs, then released without charge). It traces some of the origins of extremism in Pakistan that were fueled by a military dictatorship that was supported by the Regan administration. It also mentions the massive increase in the budget of the ISI (Pakistan’s notorious “intelligence” service). This documentary becomes disorganized about halfway through. Not enough is clearly explained such as details about the dictator Zia’s plane crash, how Bhutto was re-elected after being removed, and details about the positive things she was responsible for while she was prime minister.

Misc

  • The Oath (by Poitras, the same film-maker who did My Country, My Country)
  • The Big Guy
  • Bowling for Columbine
  • God Grew Tired of Us
  • Meet the Stans
  • Places That Don’t Exist
  • Deliver Us From Evil
  • Legacy of William Cooper
  • The American Ruling Class (Hulu)
  • Manufactured Landscapes
  • The Man from Earth
  • History of electronic warfare
  • The Battle of Argel
  • Our Brand is Crisis
  • BBC Horizon Infinity and Beyond
  • BBC Horizon Is Seeing Believing
  • BBC Dangerous Knowledge
  • Human Experience (?)
  • Wild China (nflix)
  • Run From The Cure:The Rick Simpson Story
  • The Union: The Business Behind Getting High
  • Super High Me
  • Spellbound Overnight (Hollywood success)
  • Crumb
  • Harlan County U.S.A
  • Hoop Dreams
  • Monster Camp
  • Animals are beautiful people
  • Helvetica
  • Senna
  • Riot On Brian Cox’s physics & astronomy
  • David Attenborough stuff
  • From the Earth to the Moon
  • When We Left Earth
  • Through the Wormhole
  • The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
  • Riding Giants
  • Driver 23
  • Man on Wire
  • Absolut Warhola
  • Last Train Home
  • Up The Yangtze
  • The People’s Republic of Capitalism-4 part series China Rises, 4 parts CBC series
  • Megacities BBC 3 parts series
  • “Seven Up” series
  • Triumph of the Nerds
  • Code Rush
  • Losers and Winners
  • Client 9
  • Planet Earth (BBC
  • Cocaine Cowboys
  • The Vice Guide to North Korea
  • Cave of Forgotten Dreams
  • James Burke’s Connections
  • Gates of Heaven (about pets)
  • Objectified (nflx)
  • Heavy Metal In Baghdad
  • Heavy Metal In Istanbul
  • This Film Is Not Yet Rated
  • Maxed out (nflx)
  • Between The Folds (nflx)
  • Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control
  • Inside Iran (BBC)

Time-lapses

Non-Docs, Talks, Misc

  • The Betrayal by Technology with Jacques Ellu
  • IBM and the Holocaust – youtube
  • Schlomo Sand: challenging notions of a Jewish people – youtube
  • Everything You Think You Know About Lincoln and Race Is Wrong by Lerone Bennett, Jr. – link
  • A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehnrenreich (58min with Q&A) – link 
  • Object of Plunder: The Congo through the Centuries” by Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost – link  (YouTube). Also check out the documentary which is powerful and highly disturbing – torrents
  • Roberto Saviano interview , author of Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples’ Organized Crime System
  • Interview with Carrol Quigley  , author of Tragedy & Hope. Even after only 4 minutes into the  interview, you will see that his views seem to have been hugely  misrepresented online.
  • Doug Fine, author of Hemp Bound talks about his findings traveling to farms all over the world – youtube (1 hr, Strand Bookstore in NYC, 2014)
  • Cannabis in the Ancient World (lecture by Chris Bennett) – link (pot.tv)
  • Reflections with John Pilger  – renowned film-maker discusses his work from 1970-present, from Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor, Burma, Latin America, aborigines, problematic dealings with PBS executives, the mythology of journalism… 
  • Aung San Suu Kyi  – woman from Burma who stood against the authoritarian regime in the 1980’s and was put under house arrest. She eventually went on to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (just like Henry Kissinger!). She’s also featured in John Pilger’s Inside Burma  film. 
  • Interview with journalist I.F. Stone (1973) – link 
  • Based on the book:The Dangers of Dissent: The FBI and Civil Liberties since 1965 by Ivan Greenberg (video talk)
  • Godfrey Reggio talk (director of the Qatsi Trilogy) He talks about art, technology, and the hope in the uncreated future (as opposed to conformity to institutions); the artist as one who fly’s the flag of their own shadow – link
  • Paul Watson (SeaShepherd.org) and Ward Churchill speaking at the Environmental Land, Air and Water Conference in Eugene, Oregon (2001) talking about the media culture matrix, indigenous people, truth and respect – link 
  • Lawrence Krauss (self-proclaimed anti-theist) hosted by an Islamic organization for a debate – link 
  • The problem with atheism  – Sam Harris (this is not really as much about “atheism” as it is intellectual honesty and the sincere search for deeper meaning)
  • Two videos of David Rothkopf on the “Rise of the Superclass” (consists of around 6,000 people) video 1 | video 2
  • Mind-altering microbes: how the microbiome affects brain and behavior – link 
  • Terence McKenna ~ Dreaming Awake at the End of Time – link
  • Dr. James Hansen (former NASA scientist) Tedtalk on his work against climate change & the Bush administration’s resistance to his freedom of expression.
  • Derrick Jensen on anti-civilization theory & the need for resistance – link 
  • Submission (part 1) – Part 2 was never released because the director, Theo Van Gough, was   murdered for making Part 1. A knife in his chest with a note was for  the writer of the Part 1, Ayaan Hirsi Ali .
  • Debate: “Atheist” scientist Lawrence Krauss VS. “Christian theologian” William Lane Craig – link (debate can be a sad exercise sometimes)
  • David  Galipeau has said “I’ve worked with all the evils.” He transitioned  into UN from working with “all the evils” (finance, big pharma, big  tobacco, and DARPA) talking about civil society and how the internet has  helped transfer power. video link