Pressure Cooker
2008 · 99 min · ★ 7.8 · Documentary
A committed, passionate teacher tries to make all the difference in the lives of disadvantaged students.
Directed by Mark Becker
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Amazing Live Sea Monkeys · 2026Amazing Live Sea Monkeys
★ 10.02026
MovieDocumentary
From her crumbling estate on the Potomac, Yolanda Signorelli battles to wrest control of her late husband Harold’s iconic toy Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys from the corporate men who stole them from her and from the stain of her husband’s dark legacy.
Jules at EightJules at Eight
★ 9.0
MovieDocumentaryMusic
Meet 8-year-old jazz and blues guitarist Julian Lage. JULES AT EIGHT takes you with Jules from the second-grade playground to his live gigs. Throughout the film, the strikingly poised Jules challenges the viewer to reconcile his childhood innocence with his aptitude for the blues.
Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae · 2024Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae
★ 8.72024
SeriesDocumentaryCrime
This true crime docuseries examines the murder of Annie Mae Aquash – a Mi'kmaq woman from Nova Scotia, Canada, a mother of two daughters, a teacher, and a revolutionary who fought for Indigenous rights in the 1970s whose death went unsolved for almost 30 years.
Romántico · 2005Romántico
★ 7.72005
MovieDocumentary
Romántico is a documentary about Mexican musician Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez, who returns home to his beloved daughters after years spent playing San Francisco’s taquerías and hipster joints. But once Carmelo arrives in his hometown, he finds himself immediately confronted with the struggles that led to his first border crossing. Despite working the mariachi circuit (weddings, funerals, quinceañeras) and at bars that cater to prostitutes and their clients, Sánchez soon realizes he can’t adequately support his family and plots a return to the U.S. At the age of 60, another border crossing begins to seem absurd, but Carmelo has not given up...
Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. · 2018Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.
★ 7.52018
MovieMusicDocumentary
Drawn from a never before seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, this is an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.
The Librarians · 2025The Librarians
★ 7.42025
MovieDocumentary
As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy.
The Beginning: The Making of Star Wars Episode I · 2001The Beginning: The Making of Star Wars Episode I
★ 7.32001
MovieDocumentary
The entire process of making Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) is shown here in this documentary. From pre-production through post-production, we get to see visual effects meetings, John Williams' music sessions, and even the storm that wiped out the pod-racers & props.
Art and Craft · 2014Art and Craft
★ 7.12014
MovieDocumentary
For several decades, gifted and incredibly prolific forger Mark Landis compulsively created impeccable copies of works by a variety of major artists, donating them to institutions across the country and landing pieces on many of their walls. ART AND CRAFT brings us into the cluttered and insular life of an unforgettable character just as he finds his foil in an equally obsessive art registrar.
Circo · 2011Circo
★ 7.12011
MovieDocumentary
Tino Ponce operates Circo Mexico, which journeys across the Mexican countryside in search of paying customers. Wanting to please his father and continue the family business, Ponce has recruited his young children as performers while laboring night and day to maintain the circus's faltering financial fortunes. But a growing resentment brewing within his wife about their hardscrabble existence suggests troubles on the horizon. While documenting the brutal regimen of circus life, Circo also peels back the curtain on the Ponce family's inner dynamics, revealing generational divides and money worries that threaten to tear apart a marriage. Buttressed by indie-rock band Calexico's evocative score, Schock's film observes this family drama with a sympathetic but clear-eyed view of a vanishing way of life. And because Circo refuses to be sentimental in its handling of the material, the story's twists become all the more poignant
Dusty & Stones · 2022Dusty & Stones
★ 7.02022
MovieDocumentaryMusic
Dusty and Stones struggle to sustain a country music career in their tiny African Kingdom of Swaziland and yearn for greater recognition. When they are unexpectedly nominated to compete in a Texas battle of the bands, the two cousins journey to the heart of American country music, determined to win big and turn their careers around.
Sing Faster: The Stagehands' Ring Cycle · 1999Sing Faster: The Stagehands' Ring Cycle
★ 7.01999
MovieDocumentary
With its four operas, seventeen-hour running time and months of rehearsal, Wagner's "Ring Cycle" is a daunting undertaking for any opera company. Jon Else goes backstage to show this rare event entirely from the point of view of union stagehands at the San Francisco Opera.
Kim's Video · 2023Kim's Video
★ 6.92023
MovieDocumentaryHistory
Since 1987, and for almost three decades, New York cinephiles had access to a vast treasure trove of rare films thanks to Kim's Video, a small empire run by Yongman Kim, an enigmatic character who amassed more than fifty thousand VHS tapes.
The Last Out · 2020The Last Out
★ 6.52020
MovieDocumentary
Three young Cuban baseball players leave their families and risk exile to train in Central America and chase their dreams of playing in the Major Leagues.
For the Birds · 2018For the Birds
★ 6.22018
MovieDocumentary
A woman's love for her pet ducks, chickens, geese, and turkeys—all 200 of them—ignites a battle with local animal rescuers and puts her marriage in jeopardy.
We Never Left · 2024We Never Left
★ 6.02024
MovieDocumentary
Set during the Lebanese revolution, WE NEVER LEFT portrays a heart-wrenching duality between Beirut and New York, an impassioned testament to the Lebanese diaspora’s unrequited but irrepressible love for their homeland.
Halston · 2019Halston
★ 5.62019
MovieDocumentary
From Iowa to Studio 54, this investigation into the rags-to-riches story of America’s first superstar designer uncovers the cautionary tale of an artist who sold his name to Wall Street.
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