Religion
see all genres ›Humans eat, sleep, make love and war on a consistent basis. They also thirst for meaning to be made of it all. Probing systems of belief and individuals of faith, these documentaries explore religion, spirituality and the more abstract ideas and myths guiding humanity.
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Genres / Documentary / Religion
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Scientology: The Ex-Files
Behind Scientology's high celebrity profile lies an organisation on its knees. In this powerful documentary produced for the Australian television program Four Corners, a band of former elite members emerge from the secretive religion to allege extreme cruelty, slave labour...Watch Movie
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Zizek!
The author of works on subjects as wide-ranging as Alfred Hitchcock, 9/11, opera, Christianity, Lenin and David Lynch, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek is one of the most important and outrageous cultural theorists working today. This captivating, erudite documentary explores the eccentric...Watch Movie
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Divine Horsemen
In 1946, Maya Deren was the first filmmaker ever awarded an artistic Guggenheim grant. With the $3,000 prize money, she traveled to Haiti, a country she would visit four times and where she would spend a total of nearly two years. Deren was the first known white woman to became a high priestess...Watch Movie
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The Sacred Art of Tibet
The making of THE SACRED ART OF TIBET was a long and arduous process. And, it made a deep impression in my life. The film culminated a long period of research into Northern Buddhist philosophy. I met an extraordinary lama from a land that has caused Westerners so much romantic...Watch Movie
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The Sapphire of St. Louis
In 1741, a ship called the Saphir sets sail from a port in La Rochelle, France on its way to the New World. On board are thirty crewmembers and two hundred seventy-one slaves. Somewhere off the coast of Santo Domingo, a slave revolt erupts. This little-known moment in history...Watch Movie
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The Sheik and I
Commissioned by a Middle Eastern Biennial to make a film on the theme of "art as a subversive act," independent filmmaker Caveh Zahedi goes overboard. Told that he can do whatever he wants except make fun of the Sheik of Sharjah (who rules the country and finances the Biennial), Zahedi decides to...Watch Movie
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Operation Filmmaker
In the wake of "Operation Iraqi Freedom," American actor Liev Schreiber had an idealistic notion: to rescue an Iraqi film student from the rubble of his country and bring him to the West to intern on a Hollywood movie. It promised to be a heartwarming tale, a small victory out...Watch Movie
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One Track Heart
In 1970, a young musician named Jeffrey Kagel walked away from the American dream of rock 'n' roll stardom (turning down the lead singer slot in the band that would become Blue Oyster Cult). He sold all his possessions and moved from the suburbs of New York to the foothills of the Himalayas in...Watch Movie
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Manakamana
Produced by the directors of SWEETGRASS and LEVIATHAN, MANAKAMANA is an exhilarating, one-of-a-kind documentary experience. Filmed entirely inside the narrow confines of a cable car that transports villagers to an ancient mountaintop temple, high above a jungle in Nepal, the documentary is an...Watch Movie
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American Crusaders
A harrowing exploration of the rapid rise of American religious fanaticism after 9/11. This film explores an emerging ultra Right Wing mass movement seeking dominion over all aspects of contemporary American society. The film weaves archival video, contemporary Christian...Watch Movie
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Ouled Bambara
Gnawa music is that of the ritual tradition known in Morocco as Tagnawit, "the craft of the Gnawi." The Gnawa are the practitioners of this tradition, be they the musicians or the initiates and clairvoyants who sponsor ceremonies and trance to the music. Their healing rituals are intercessions...Watch Movie
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God Loves Uganda
With GOD LOVES UGANDA, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams explores the role of the American Evangelical movement in fueling Uganda's terrifying turn towards biblical law and the proposed death penalty for homosexuality. Thanks to charismatic religious leaders...Watch Movie
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I Was Possessed by God
On February 14th (Valentine's Day), 1993, Caveh Zahedi, being without a date, decided to ingest five grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms. For the first time in his mushroom-taking experience, he had an experience of "divine possession," in which he felt that a divine being took...Watch Movie
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Conversations Across the Bosphorus
The narratives of two Muslim women from Istanbul, Gokcen and Mine, are intertwined in CONVERSATIONS ACROSS THE BOSPHORUS. Gokcen, from an orthodox Islamic family, tells her story of taking off the veil after years of struggle. Mine, from a secular family who immigrated to San...Watch Movie
