Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "essay-film"
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1. The Big Short (2015)
R | 130 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
In 2006-2007 a group of investors bet against the United States mortgage market. In their research, they discover how flawed and corrupt the market is.
Director: Adam McKay | Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
Votes: 486,259 | Gross: $70.26M
2. Vice (I) (2018)
R | 132 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
The story of Dick Cheney, an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that are still felt today.
Director: Adam McKay | Stars: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell
Votes: 162,739 | Gross: $47.84M
3. Night and Fog (1956)
TV-14 | 32 min | Documentary, Short, History
The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Michel Bouquet, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler
Votes: 21,541
4. F for Fake (1973)
PG | 89 min | Documentary
A documentary about fraud and fakery.
Directors: Orson Welles, Gary Graver, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach | Stars: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach, Elmyr de Hory
Votes: 18,333
5. News from Home (1976)
85 min | Documentary
Impersonal and beautiful images of Akerman's life in New York are combined with letters from her loving but manipulative mother, read by Akerman herself.
Director: Chantal Akerman | Star: Chantal Akerman
Votes: 2,833
6. Sans Soleil (1983)
Not Rated | 100 min | Documentary, Drama
A woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Amilcar Cabral, Florence Delay, Arielle Dombasle, Riyoko Ikeda
Votes: 12,150 | Gross: $0.03M
7. Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)
R | 127 min | Documentary, Crime, History
An examination of the social costs of corporate interests pursuing profits at the expense of the public good.
Director: Michael Moore | Stars: Michael Moore, William Black, Jimmy Carter, Elijah Cummings
Votes: 43,893 | Gross: $14.36M
8. Naked Nations - Tribe Hong Kong (2024)
161 min | Drama
A group of homosexuals going through the harsh quarantine measured in Hong Kong.
Director: Scud | Stars: Adonis He, Stanley Kwan, Scud, Beatrice Wong
Votes: 9
9. The Image Book (2018)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Drama, Horror
Nothing but silence. Nothing but a revolutionary song. A story in five chapters like the five fingers of a hand.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Luc Godard, Dimitri Basil, Jean-Pierre Gos, Anne-Marie Miéville
Votes: 2,999 | Gross: $0.09M
10. Film socialisme (2010)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama
The passengers on a Mediterranean cruise enjoy their luxuries as a small family struggles with overbearing media attention.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Marc Stehlé, Agatha Couture, Mathias Domahidy, Quentin Grosset
Votes: 2,927 | Gross: $0.03M
11. It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971)
67 min | Documentary, Drama
A harsh but deeply sympathetic sociological essay film about gay life in Berlin in a time of secrecy and oppression, with no diegetic sound and constant narration, following Daniel's unsatisfying immersion into gay society.
Director: Rosa von Praunheim | Stars: Bernd Feuerhelm, Berryt Bohlen, Ernst Kuchling, Volker Eschke
Votes: 574
12. This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy (2019)
TV-14 | 40 min | Documentary
Actor and former White House Associate Director of Public Engagement, Kal Penn, takes viewers around the world to meet key players behind some of the more serious and bizarre movements in today's economy.
Stars: Kal Penn, Shahid Shaikh, Adam Davidson, Lesley Wolff
Votes: 872
13. My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock (2022)
120 min | Documentary
A fictional Alfred Hitchcock narrates an explanation of some of the lesser known cinematic techniques he used in his movies, richly illustrated with clips from his entire 50-year career.
Director: Mark Cousins | Stars: Julie Andrews, John Wayne, Paul Newman, Sean Connery
Votes: 315
14. Letter from Siberia (1958)
62 min | Documentary
A witty examination of life and culture in Siberia.
Director: Chris Marker | Star: Georges Rouquier
Votes: 851
15. Statues also Die (1953)
30 min | Documentary, Short
A documentary of black art.
Directors: Ghislain Cloquet, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais | Stars: Jean Négroni, François Mitterrand, Pope Pius XII, Sugar Ray Robinson
Votes: 1,376
16. Le joli mai (1963)
Not Rated | 165 min | Documentary
Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's LE JOLI MAI (The Lovely Month of May) is a portrait of Paris and Parisians during May 1962, the first springtime of peace after the ceasefire with Algeria ... See full summary »
Directors: Chris Marker, Pierre Lhomme | Stars: Chris Marker, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Jean-Luc Godard
Votes: 879 | Gross: $0.02M
17. London (1994)
Not Rated | 85 min | Documentary
An inspiring tale through London by pictures narrated by Paul Scofield.
Director: Patrick Keiller | Stars: Paul Scofield, John Major, Norma Major, Dennis Skinner
Votes: 761
18. Das ist ja das Leben selbst! (2012)
59 min | Drama, Romance
Director: Björn Last | Stars: Stefan Sandrock, Arijana Antunovic, Kaya Marie Möller, Karolina Lodyga
Votes: 64
19. Wisdom Gone Wild (2022)
84 min | Documentary
A vibrant tender cine-poem; a filmmaker collaborates with her Nisei mother as they confront the painful curious reality of wisdom 'gone wild' in the shadows of dementia.
Director: Rea Tajiri
Votes: 21
20. Robinson in Space (1997)
82 min | Documentary
Robinson is commissioned to investigate the unspecified "problem of England." The narrator describes his seven excursions, with the unseen Robinson, around the country. They mainly ... See full summary »
Director: Patrick Keiller | Star: Paul Scofield
Votes: 391
21. Listen to Britain (1942)
Not Rated | 20 min | Documentary, Short
A depiction of life in wartime England during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.
Directors: Humphrey Jennings, Stewart McAllister | Stars: Leonard Brockington, Joseph Macleod, Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen
Votes: 1,856
22. The Joy of Life (2005)
Not Rated | 65 min | Documentary, History
Beautifully composed landscape shots of San Francisco juxtaposed with voiceover detailing the emotional intricacies of the love affairs of a butch lesbian and the history of Golden Gate Bridge as the world's prime suicide location.
Director: Jenni Olson | Stars: Harry Dodge, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Votes: 121
23. [Censored] (2018)
63 min | Documentary, History
A unique 63 minute documentary which was entirely created using the banned motion picture film footage removed by the censors working at the "Australian Film Censorship Board" located in Sydney Australia, between 1951 and 1978.
Director: Sari Braithwaite | Star: Sari Braithwaite
Votes: 20
24. Sagolandet (1988)
185 min | Documentary
When the daughter Johanna is born in 1983, Jan Troell tells the story about his childhood Sweden and how things were when he grow-up in the land of fairy tales and potential prosperity.
Director: Jan Troell | Stars: Ingvar Carlsson, Tage Erlander, Rollo May, Timo Nilsson
Votes: 218
25. The Contact Enigma (2021)
52 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi
Three people become connected through mysterious circumstances involving electronic devices which spontaneously appeared in their world.
Director: Joel Shelton | Stars: Ben Hoilman, Julie Nutter, Jason Smalling, Lance Metcalf
Votes: 26
26. Hasret: Sehnsucht (2015)
82 min | Documentary, Drama
A European director is commissioned to make a documentary about Istanbul. He starts to film its everyday life - but soon becomes drawn to the darker, more mysterious side of the city - its ... See full summary »
Director: Ben Hopkins | Stars: Isa Çelik, Bilge Güler, Serhat Saymadi, Ben Hopkins
Votes: 199
27. Letter from Korlai (2016)
22 min | Documentary, Short
A quaint village on India's Konkan coast becomes a point of meditation for an epistolary travelogue about faith, endurance and passing away.
Director: Aman Wadhan
Votes: 7
28. Dreams Rewired (2015)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, History, News
'Every age thinks it's the modern age...'
Directors: Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart, Thomas Tode | Star: Tilda Swinton
Votes: 139
29. Palmyra (2017)
90 min | Documentary
This passionate essay-film preserves the ISIS-destroyed antique city in unforgettable scenes taken before the war. But it gives also a critical account off the romantic discovery, ... See full summary »
Director: Hans Puttnies
Votes: 8
30. Film About a Father Who (2020)
74 min | Documentary
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 ... See full summary »
Director: Lynne Sachs | Stars: Julia Buchwald-Sachs, Ira Sachs Sr., Adam Sachs, Dana Sachs
Votes: 59
31. A Moon for My Father (2019)
73 min | Documentary
An Iranian filmmaker and her British sculptor partner read letters they have exchanged with each other about their lives and social conditions.
Directors: Mania Akbari, Douglas White | Stars: Mania Akbari, Douglas White
Votes: 37
32. Disneyland, mon vieux pays natal (2002 TV Movie)
46 min | Documentary
Disneyland reviewed by a true poet of cinema, Arnaud des Pallières who narrates a disturbing journey into the simulacrum.
Director: Arnaud des Pallières | Stars: Émile Breton, Isabelle Poudevigne
Votes: 107
33. Spare Time (1939)
15 min | Documentary, Short, Sport
A look at how industry workers spend their time when they are not at work.
Director: Humphrey Jennings | Star: Laurie Lee
Votes: 200
34. The Kids Play Russian (1993)
60 min | Drama
A famous French filmmaker is hired by a major Hollywood producer to make a documentary on the state of post-Cold War Russia. The filmmaker, though, subverts the project by stubbornly ... See full summary »
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: László Szabó, Jean-Luc Godard, Bernard Eisenschitz, André S. Labarthe
Votes: 173
35. Robinson in Ruins (2010)
101 min | Documentary
A tour around England featuring images of nature and various industrialized and militarized settings.
Director: Patrick Keiller | Star: Vanessa Redgrave
Votes: 260
36. Exergo (2024)
18 min | Documentary, Short, Drama
By focusing on the peripheral or hidden details of some paintings in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, a female narrator relates several stories linked to the social, economic and psychological conditions of the artists, both past and present.
Director: Jorge Moneo Quintana | Stars: Ilazki Azaldegi, Elorri Sarasola Barandiaran, Elena Montejo, Miren Barrena Rebe
37. Atmospheric Marginalia (2023)
Unrated | 75 min | Drama
Equal parts poetic essay film and family folklore, Atmospheric Marginalia is an enchanting probe into a pair of star-crossed lovers and misfits, the continuing bonds theory of grief, and the existence of an afterlife.
Director: Adam Stone | Star: Adam Stone
38. 23 Kilometres (2015)
82 min | Documentary, Drama
On the Damascus Road in Lebanon's beautiful Bekaa Valley, an aging man with late-stage Parkinson's takes one last journey.
Director: Noura Kevorkian | Stars: Barkev Kevorkian, Noura Kevorkian, Serena Kevorkian, Lara K. Scherzer
Votes: 17
39. Life May Be (2014)
80 min | Documentary, Biography
An epistolary feature film: a cinematic discourse between a British director, (Mark Cousins, the celebrated film maker and historian) and an Iranian actress and director (Mania Akbari, ... See full summary »
Directors: Mania Akbari, Mark Cousins | Stars: Mania Akbari, Mark Cousins
Votes: 76
40. Die Kunst der Folgenlosigkeit (2021)
67 min | Documentary, Drama
"Art is looking for new ways out of the climate disaster." - After a successful fundraising dinner, Chief Curator Cornelia Stohmann (Katharina Meves) writes a press release for the "Museum ... See full summary »
Directors: Jakob Brossmann, Friedrich von Borries | Stars: Albert Meisl, Katharina Meves, Ahmed Soura, Antje Stahl
41. Of Great Events and Ordinary People (1979)
65 min | Documentary
A cinéma vérité documentary about the elections in Paris which reflexively inverts in on itself.
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: Pascal Bonitzer, Jean Baudrillard
Votes: 56
42. Cofralandes, rapsodia chilena (2002)
311 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: Bernard Pautrat, Raúl Ruiz, Malcolm Coad, Rainer Krause
Votes: 54
43. Which Way Is East (2003)
Not Rated | 33 min | Documentary, Short
This travel diary of the filmmaker's trip to Vietnam with her sister Dana is a colleciton of tourism, city life, culture clash, and historic inquiry that is put together with the warmth of ... See full summary »
Director: Lynne Sachs | Stars: Dana Sachs, Lynne Sachs
Votes: 38
44. Am Rande (2013)
17 min | Documentary, Short
Mediterranean Sea, June 2004: the crew of the Cap Anamur encounters a boat with 37 refugees in distress. They bring them to the closest harbor in Sicily. As a result, the captain of the ... See full summary »
Directors: Yasmin Angel, Maya Connors, Pablo Narezo | Stars: Stefan Schmidt, Kostiantyn Vlasenko
45. Im Anfang war das Wort
Documentary, Romance | Filming
Director: Björn Last | Stars: Jon Frickey, Peter Brötzmann, Nicolaas Schmidt, Claudia Apel
47. Das Kolonialinstitut (2019)
89 min | Documentary
When Hamburg University was founded in 1919, it was proud to be the first university of a new, democratic Germany. But the university didn't come from nothing. As early as 1909, professors ... See full summary »
Director: Daniel Kulle | Star: Stella Jürgensen
48. The GateKeeper of Enmyoin (2008)
Not Rated | 124 min | Documentary
Though the life of an old Buddhist priestess and her young heiress in rural Japan, a US-based filmmaker couple searches for the meaning of freedom and happiness.
Directors: Reiko Tahara, Max Uesugi | Stars: Teijun Ogawa, Seijun Baba, Masako Tsutsi, Zoshu Iwasaki
49. The Mountain of Signs (2003)
28 min | Documentary, Short
A young woman moves to Tokyo. Her quest to find spiritual values hidden in the modern city leads her to take photographs and ends in a pilgrimage to a remote cemetery in the mountains. Shot... See full summary »
Director: Mika Johnson | Star: Bonnie Huie
50. Minotaur (2020)
64 min | Documentary
Experimental documentary essay film that spans 15 years of its author's life. Composed of various formats and footage originating in private archives, recordings from mobile phones, ... See full summary »
Director: Zulfikar Filandra