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New: Documentaries

The sixty-or-so most recent documentaries released on OVID.

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  • Uncanny Me

    Directed by Katharina Pethke • Documentary • 2022 • 46 minutes

    Lale is a hard-working photo model. Now she’s discovered a way to get more freedom. She can get her body scanned to create a digital clone that can also become a model, in the virtual world. Before leaping into the abyss, she decides...

  • Adonis

    Directed by Jérémie Battaglia • Documentary • 2024 • 52 minutes

    Though it was once limited to elite athletes, the use of anabolic steroids has reached endemic proportions among young male bodybuilding and strength training enthusiasts. Daring to tackle the taboos surrounding the concept of male ...

  • The Illusion of Abundance

    Directed by Erika Gonzalez Ramirez, Matthieu Lietaert • Documentary • 2022 • 58 minutes

    Three women share a common goal: Carolina, Bertha and Maxima are leading today's fight against modern conquistadors. Whereas governments and corporations, trapped in a global race towards unlimited growth, ne...

  • 300 Trillion – The Debt Trap

    Directed by Rudolph Herzog • Documentary • 2022 • 80 minutes

    The worldwide mountain of debt is more than 300% of the world's annual economic output. Since the pandemic, debt expansion is out of control. Will the system collapse under its weight?

    The film explores the significance of our debt si...

  • Where God is Not

    Directed by Mehran Tamadon • Documentary • 2023 • 112 minutes

    Taghi, Homa and Mazyar were arrested and interrogated by the Iranian regime. All three testify with their bodies, with their gestures and tell what it means to resist, what it means to break. Is there any hope that the torturer will o...

  • A Shepherd

    Directed by Louis Hanquet • Documentary • 2024 • 70 minutes

    In the mountains of France, a shepherd fights to preserve his way of life against the threat of wolves and the challenges of traditional livestock farming. A Shepherd is a poetic documentary that explores the intimate relationship betwe...

  • The Elk Forest

    Directed by Ane Helga Lykka • Documentary • 2021 • 57 minutes

    Sigrid has hunted elk for years, but is still not sure if she actually wants to shoot the beautiful animal. She’s hunting with her father, Geir, who is faithfully doing everything he can to facilitate for his daughter’s first kill. Si...

  • Youth (Homecoming)

    Directed by Wang Bing • Documentary • 2024 • 160 minutes

    Shi Wei, a young migrant garment worker, flops back onto a pile of soft fabric bundles on his workshop’s floor, cellphone in hand. “Shit, I’m exhausted,” he says to the boss who’s trying to get him to sew more clothing before the Lunar New...

  • Youth (Hard Times)

    Directed by Wang Bing • Documentary • 2024 • 226 minutes

    YOUTH (HARD TIMES) is the second installment in Chinese director Wang Bing’s monumental series chronicling the lives of migrant garment workers — some as young as 15 — in the Zhili district of Huzhou City. Wang immerses himself in the live...

  • Film About a Father Who (Lynne Sachs)

    Directed by Lynne Sachs • Documentary • 74 minutes

    Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, filmmaker Lynne Sachs shot 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images of her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her ...

  • La Camioneta

    Directed by Mark Kendall • Documentary • 2021 • 71 minutes

    After eight years, American public school buses are auctioned off by the state school system. Filmmaker Mark Kendall follows the extraordinary second life of one decommissioned school bus as it travels from 3000 miles from Pennsylvania t...

  • Four Paths to Dignity

    Directed by Gabriela Chaim Tumax • Documentary • 2022 • 28 minutes

    Four Paths to Dignity profiles the pursuit of dignity for Guatemalan midwives. The midwives confront challenges, as they battle racism and a health establishment that strives to prevent them from providing care that is culturally...

  • From Ground Zero: Stories from Gaza

    Directed by Rashid Masharawi • Documentary • 2025 • 113 minutes

    From Ground Zero is a collection of short films initiated by Palestinian film-maker Rashid Masharawi, in response to the events following the attacks of 7 October 2023. The project brings together 22 filmmakers from Gaza, offering a...

  • Mona Lisa is Missing

    Directed by Joe Medeiros • Documentary • 2013 • 86 minutes

    How did an unassuming housepainter from Italy pull off the greatest little known art heist in modern time? Was his motivation more than money?

    Writer-director Joe Medeiros traces the path of Vincenzo Peruggia, charged with the 1911 thef...

  • The Fruitless Tree

    Directed by Aicha Macky • Documentary • 2016 • 52 minutes

    Married but childless, Aicha finds herself in a situation that is totally “out of the ordinary” in her country, Niger. Just like everywhere else in the world today, Niger also experiences problems with infertility.

    Relying on her pers...

  • Life is Beautiful

    Directed by Mohamed Jabaly • Documentary • With Mohamed Jabaly • 2023 • 97 minutes

    Stuck in the arctic of Norway and refusing to accept the boundaries imposed by international politics and rigid bureaucracy, filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly insists on telling heartfelt stories from his hometown Gaza. De...

  • This Is Home

    Directed by Alexandra Shiva • Documentary • 2018 • 91 minutes

    From acclaimed filmmaker Alexandra Shiva comes the urgent and beautiful story of a community of Syrian immigrants who are resettled in Baltimore in the US. Upon their arrival, they have eight months to find jobs, learn English, and be...

  • The Gospel of Revolution

    Directed by François-Xavier Drouet • Documentary • 2024 • 116 minutes

    The revolutionary fervor that swept through Latin America in the 20th century owes much to the participation of millions of Christians who engaged in political struggles in the name of their faith. Driven by liberation theolog...

  • Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini

    Directed by Charly Wai Feldman • Documentary • 2023 • 89 minutes

    At 20, Sara was already famous. She fled Syria in 2015 with her younger sister Yusra. When their boat broke down as they were crossing the sea to Greece, Sara and Yusra and two others jumped into the waves and swam for three and a ...

  • Ennio

    Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore • Documentary • With Ennio Morricone, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood • 2021 • 156 minutes

    Giuseppe Tornatore, director of the beloved CINEMA PARADISO, turns his camera on his longtime collaborator Ennio Morricone (1928 – 2020) in a moving and comprehensive profi...

  • Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Unholy War on Democracy

    Directed by Stephen Ujlaki, Christopher Jacob Jones • Documentary • With Peter Coyote • 2024 • 89 minutes

    BAD FAITH explores the dangerous rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. Part archival chronicle, part exposé, the film reveals the secretive political machinery that has relentl...

  • The Frankenstein Complex

    Directed by Gilles Penso and Alexandre Poncet • Documentary • With Rick Baker, Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro • 2015 • 107 minutes

    The Frankenstein Complex explores a century of cinematic thrills and wonders, focusing on the relationship between movie monsters and their makers like modern Franken...

  • Reconstruction of Occupation

    Directed by Jan Šikl • Documentary • 2021 • 99 minutes

    For 30 years, director Jan Šikl has collected amateur films from families in his community. Then one day, he is brought archival materials - stock shot by Czech military cameramen, which remained hidden for over half a century. Jan accomplis...

  • Francofonia (Alexander Sokurov)

    Directed by Alexander Sokurov • Documentary • With Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Benjamin Utzerath, Vincent Nemeth • 2016 • 87 minutes

    Set against the backdrop of the Louvre Museum’s history and artworks, master director Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) applies his uniquely personal vision onto stage...