The Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) was founded in 1972 with the goal of using filmmaking as a tool to catalyze, inform, and empower communities. From humble beginnings (DCTV's first educational projects operated from the back of a dilapidated mail truck), fifty years later DCTV has g...

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...

Jezebel Productions was founded by Andrea Weiss and Greta Schiller in 1985, when only a handful of women were directing documentary features.

Jezebel grew out of their collaboration on the groundbreaking documentary, Before Stonewall (1984), which was directed by Schiller. The film premiered at ...

From charismatic portraits of iconic designers to exposés on the darker realities of the industry, these documentaries take unconventional approaches to the many-sided world of high fashion. Punk rock and high fashion collide in Westwood, a portrait of trend-setting designer and activist Vivienne...

These films deal with beauty, whether its young women trying to become models, turning to plastic surgery to achieve a desired look or how to make food look as desirable as possible.

FRIENDS SINCE THE AGE OF NINE, Sucher and Fischler grew up in a rough-and-tumble Brooklyn neighborhood and early on they took the rebellious road: declaring themselves “anarchists” while still enrolled in Brooklyn Technical High School. In 1970, two of their NYU student films, I AM CURIOUS HAROLD...

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...

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." —Robert Capa

The photographers featured in these films have all mastered the art of what makes for a good picture. From a portrait of Robert Frank, who produced the important book, The Americans, to Gerda Taro, whose wartime work wi...

Our wide-ranging collection of films that defy easy classification.

The Internet defines avant-garde as "new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or the people introducing them". We here at OVID have tried to stay true to that idea while curating this collection. These are only some of the many films on OVID that either highlight artists tha...

Salvador Allende, the Chilean president who was overthrown by a coup on September 11, 1973, is the focus of both Patricio Guzmán's SALVADOR ALLENDE and Marcia Tambutti Allende's BEYOND MY GRANDFATHER ALLENDE. The death of Allende and the years of military dictatorship that followed have left deep...

Two documentaries detail the life of legendary Italian photographer, Tina Modotti, while she was living and working in Mexico.

Films about the critically acclaimed Argentine film director and screenwriter.

Whether animated or experimental, these four films and one series with Pablo Picasso showcase his talent and personality often in surprising, unexpected ways.

In honor of Earth Day, here's a collection of the top 25 most-streamed environmental films on OVID so far this year.

True to its name, this is a collection of narrative films based on real-life stories.

All of these films push the boundary of what constitutes a musical. Whether they are documentaries or unconventional narrative films, they use music in surprising and inventive ways.

For more films about music, check out the overall Music collection.

From the fight for gay rights to basement recording studios, to people making their home in dark subway tunnels and the energy of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the '80s, these films transport the viewer to a different time in New York City's history. There might have been graffiti covering the subway...

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...

Travel to the world’s most populous metropolitan area with an eclectic trilogy of films all set in Tokyo.

These powerful films signal the emergence of a vital Basque cinema in Spain.

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...

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.