While you probably haven’t thought about Ferdinand de Saussure or Roland Barthes since college, trust us, we over here at OVID make semiotics interesting! This collection of docs takes an ingenious approach to archival material, unpacking fascistic and right-wing ideologies that lurk behind propa...

From Detroit's days as the center of the automobile industry with a thriving Black middle class to today's post-industrial life, these films focus on the challenges facing residents. Whether fighting for equal pay, access to clean water, or a better life for their constituents, these films show h...

Here are films centering Lebanon, including We Loved Each Other So Much, a documentary that explores the enduring admiration in Beirut for the legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz, particularly during the 15-year civil war. We're also highlighting Skies of Lebanon with Alba Rohrwacher and Wajdi Mouaw...

Record stores often play an outsized role in peoples' lives and shaping their taste in music. These documentaries show the influence specific record stores have had on artists, their surrounding communities and how they stir up memories of bygone times.

A collection of documentaries about the dangers Mexican and Central American migrants face while trying to reach the southern border of the United States. It is a perilous journey and only some manage to cross over into the United States.

Stories of growing up, going to school and learning about life.

What makes someone an artist? What drives them to express themselves through painting and the visual arts? This collection of films about painters explores these questions and the creativity behind making art. Whether it's Pablo Picasso, Niki de Saint Phalle or an unknown artist, we see the inspi...

“I was determined to do what I was going to do at any cost. I kept plugging away. Whatever I had to do, I did it.” —Madeline Anderson

From the first half-hour documentary directed by an African American, unionized, female director, I AM SOMEBODY, to precarious gig workers living hand-to-mouth ...

Famously the only animal to domesticate itself, these documentary and animated films explore feline companionship. From Chris Marker's beloved cat Guillaume-en-Egypte being serenaded by music, to feral cats and their community of carers in present day Chicago, these films each convey Marker's tri...

With one exception all the films in this section feature great actresses PLAYING actresses. They explore the fraught realities of performance, where ambition, desire and artistry collide.

Featuring a remarkable performance from Tyne Daly, A Bread Factory centers on a local theater company caugh...

OVID brings you three chilling ghost stories to haunt you into your weekend! These atmospheric films from bygone Daiei film studios are adapted from stories that have spooked people for centuries.

We invited the team at Narrow Margin to curate their own selection of films from OVID’s vast collection, and they found gems even we forgot we had!

Narrow Margin’s quarterly print and digital magazine was founded by a small international collective of cinephile critics exploring obscure corners...

Appreciate summer with this collection of films that evoke warmth, sun and long days.

These visually stylish Yakuza classics by gangster film masters on the dealings of Japanese organized crime syndicates blend conventions of neo-noir thrillers with edge of your seat action hero films. The modern yakuza are depicted not as honorable heirs to the samurai code, but as ruthless (and ...

What is the “will of the people?” How might it be established, threatened, undermined, expressed, and hopefully secured? These questions and more are explored in OVID’s collection DEMOCRACY AND ITS DISCONTENTS.

Animal Kingdom is a collection of films about animals and people's often complicated relationships with them. Ranging from beloved service dogs (BUDDY and TO BE OF SERVICE) to the lives of farm animals (BESTIAIRE and OUR DAILY BREAD), these films show many facets of how people and animals interac...

Discover a wide array of documentaries from Latin America.

A mix of narrative and documentary, this collection of films from the Middle East and North Africa runs the gamut from love stories like Empire M and A Tale of Love and Desire, to hard-hitting political documentaries with Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said.

This is a collection of films about the newspaper industry, intrepid reporters, photojournalists and the important work that they do. Ranging from a profile of photographer Gerda Taro, who lost her life covering the Spanish Civil War, to films dealing with the role of mass media and journalism in...

From chairs mass-produced to hand-crafted, architects and architecture, buildings made of mud to high-rises, landscapes, cities and city planning, OVID offers a wide-ranging collection of over thirty films exploring our built environments, and how to live in them.

Travel to Berlin, Germany with this collection of both modern day and historical films. Experience today's club culture with THE NIGHTMARE or the fall of the Berlin Wall with Chris Marker's BERLINER BALLADE and Tilda Swinton in THE INVISIBLE FRAME. World War II is also represented with dramas lik...

Eighty years ago this week, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, another fell on the city of Nagasaki. To mark this grim anniversary, OVID is premiering HIROSHIMA BOUND by Martin Lucas, the latest addition to OVID’s collection spotlighting the Ato...

A selection of films of travel and adventure, discovery and cultural encounters, here and there, past and present!

A special collection of films that explore the recent political history of Russia and Ukraine.

Discover three films by Ukrainian-born Vitaly Mansky, on Mikhail Gorbachev's place in history (GORBACHEV. HEAVEN), Vladimir Putin's rise to power (PUTIN’S WITNESSES), and conflicts between Russia and U...