Consisting of rare footage filmed by President Richard M. Nixon’s aides, this experimental documentary revisits Nixon’s campaign to win an elusive majority.
The filmmaker Jeff Scher presents an abstract celebration of the New York City Marathon.
On the 48th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Errol Morris explores the story behind the one man seen standing under an open black umbrella at the site.
The filmmaker Matt Wolf and the writer Jon Savage reflect on the history of youth in times of crisis.
The filmmaker Casey Neistat explores the hazards of text messaging while walking in New York City.
The filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady look at young men who salvage scrap metal from Detroit’s derelict buildings, set against the backdrop of globalization.
The filmmaker Alison Klayman presents an exclusive look at the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and his struggle for the freedom of expression.
The filmmaker Ra’anan Alexandrowicz explores the impact of Israel’s High Court of Justice on Palestinian rights.
The filmmakers Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall explore the motivations, sorrows and dreams of the slain Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato.
The filmmaker Errol Morris explores the excessive eating habits of a five-time champion of the Philadelphia Wing Bowl.
The filmmaker Jon Shenk presents a portrait of Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and an environmental activist, who was deposed on Feb. 7.
The filmmaker Casey Neistat conducts an experiment in New York City, locking up his own bike and brazenly trying to steal it, to determine whether onlookers or the police would intervene.
Hi! I’m a Nutria In this animated short by the filmmaker Drew Christie, a rodent living in Washington State defends criticism that he is an invasive species and asks, “How long does it take to become a native?”
A look at the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of Lt. Col. John Darin Loftis, one of the U.S. Air Force’s prized experts in Afghan language and culture, who was killed in Kabul on Feb. 25, 2012.
A filmmaker explores the fate of Specialist Ryan Yurchison, who returned from Iraq with P.T.S.D. and, after seeking help at the local V.A. hospital, died of a drug overdose in a possible suicide.
The filmmaker Sharon Shattuck recalls the apprehension she experienced when her father, a transgender cross-dresser, decided to legally adopt a woman’s name.
Drinking water reclaimed from sewage might sound disgusting, but it could be a necessary solution to our domestic water woes.
The Gregory Brothers present a musical video mash-up about what Mitt Romney likes — from lakes and trees to music and cars to grits and “Twilight.”
The filmmaker Peter Nicks goes behind the doors of an American public hospital struggling to care for a community of largely uninsured patients.
The filmmaker Zina Saro-Wiwa presents an Op-Doc on black women’s decision to embrace their naturally kinky hair, rather than use chemical straighteners.
A short documentary film on New York’s stop-and-frisk policing focuses on Tyquan Brehon, a young man in Brooklyn who says he was stopped more than 60 times before age 18.
With interviews and concert footage, the filmmaker Alex Gibney covers a rally against hydraulic fracturing and accompanying benefit concert featuring Natalie Merchant and Mark Ruffalo.
The filmmakers Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix profile Houda al-Habash and her Koran school for women and girls in Damascus, Syria.
A video about the process of trying to recover $13,000 worth of items left in a New York City taxi.
In this animated Op-Doc by Drew Christie, two men discuss whether anything is truly original — especially in movies and books.
Conjuring scents on screen, the filmmaker Jacob LaMendola profiles people with a rare condition that renders them unable to smell.
The filmmaker Laura Poitras profiles William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency who helped design a top-secret program he says is broadly collecting Americans’ personal data.
In the first episode of an Op-Docs series called “Electoral Dysfunction,” the political humorist Mo Rocca explores a curious fact about the U.S. Constitution: why is there no universal right to vote?
In the second episode of an Op-Docs series, “Electoral Dysfunction,” the political humorist Mo Rocca explores controversial voter identification laws, which could benefit Republicans.
The filmmaker Casey Neistat presents a guide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s proposal to restrict sales of big sugary drinks in New York.
The filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin examine the lives of teenage girls in Siberia who audition at open casting calls for fashion models.
The Gregory Brothers present a video-game-inspired musical mash-up of President Obama and Mitt Romney’s speeches from the recent nominating conventions.
In the latest episode of the Op-Docs series “Electoral Dysfunction,” the political humorist Mo Rocca consults a third-grade class on the fairness of the Electoral College.
A documentary profiles Shane Taylor, one of more than 4,000 nonviolent offenders serving life in California prisons under a three-strikes law.
The Gregory Brothers present a musical mash-up of the vice-presidential debate between Representative Paul D. Ryan and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
A short animated film by Jeff Scher celebrates the fading (yet somehow glowing) leaves of autumn.
In this short documentary we meet Louis Ortiz, an unemployed man from the Bronx whose life is turned upside down when he discovers his uncanny resemblance to President Obama.
The Gregory Brothers present a musical mash-up video of the final presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney.
The filmmaker Errol Morris speaks with young Americans about the merits of voting and why some resist, from apathy to awkward family dinners.
Focusing on pastors with opposing views on same-sex marriage, the filmmaker Yoruba Richen explores the influence of African-Americans on a ballot initiative in Maryland.
In Part 4 of the Op-Doc series “Electoral Dysfunction,” Mo Rocca invites the designer Todd Oldham to assess election ballots from across the United States.
An Op-Doc profiles Chris Williams, a medical marijuana grower in Montana who now faces life in prison.
The filmmaker Nadine Cloete explores childhood in a part of South Africa plagued by gang culture and violence.
In Times Square, protesters counter an anti-Islamic speech by pastor Terry Jones ... by singing the Beatles.
The filmmaker Laura Poitras follows the tragic return home to Yemen of a Guantánamo Bay prison detainee, Adnan Latif.
The filmmaker Jason DaSilva reveals the challenges for the disabled in navigating New York City’s public transportation system.
The filmmaker Roger Ross Williams reveals how money donated by American evangelicals helps to finance a violent antigay movement in Uganda.
The filmmaker Dawn Porter follows Travis Williams, a young public defender in the Deep South, who struggles against long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads to bring justice to all.
The filmmakers Florence Martin-Kessler and Anne Poiret present a 12-step program to establish the world’s newest country: South Sudan.
With the help of a science lab, the filmmaker Casey Neistat finds that calorie listings on food labels can be highly inaccurate.
In this animated satire, a former K.G.B. agent welcomes a future in which Americans live under the watchful eyes of drones.
This short documentary follows a 15-year-old from Stamford, N.Y., in the Catskills, as he hunts his first deer with his father.
This short documentary looks at Dennis Hope, a Nevada man who has made a living “selling” plots of land on the moon.
Two years after a tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, the filmmaker Itai Keshet presents a documentary portrait of public fear, mistrust and suspicion about the safety of food.
On the island of Cyprus, the filmmaker Iva Radivojevic explores how the economic crisis has contributed to a rise in hostility toward immigrants.
Branko Lustig, a Holocaust survivor and Oscar-winning producer of “Schindler’s List,” returns to Auschwitz for the bar mitzvah he couldn’t have in his youth.
The Gregory Brothers’ latest musical mash-up features Gov. Chris Christie, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, former Congressman Ron Paul and special guests who argue for the reform of U.S. drug laws.
In this animated Op-Doc by Drew Christie, a ghost mourns the failed history of gun control in the United States.
In Afghanistan, a Chinese mining company threatens to destroy the remains of an ancient Buddhist city, which archaeologists are now racing to excavate.
Meet a Colorado woman with a rare neurological disorder who has no sense of direction, even in her own home.
A filmmaker searches for a mysterious vandal who has been correcting grammar on placards in the sculpture garden of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Every summer, the blogger “Tiger Temple” bikes around China to report on rural news stories censored by state-run media.
A small community known as Miracle Village, surrounded by sugar cane fields in South Florida, has become a refuge for more than 100 registered sex offenders who seek to rebuild their lives.
In this animation, a New Yorker looks forward to the city’s bike-share program and reminisces about riding his bike when the city was very different.
Young men perform daring aerial dances in a crowded New York City subway car.
A smuggler named Dragon attempts to guide North Korean defectors across China into safe asylum.
Residents of McDowell County, W.Va., share memories and hopes for their rural community — in jeopardy because of high unemployment and an exodus of young people.
A short documentary explores the tender relationship between a caretaker who is an undocumented immigrant and an elderly woman in the last months of her life.
In a California lucha libre-style wrestling match, Blue Demon Jr., a self-proclaimed defender of Mexican immigrants, does battle against wrestlers who portray United States border patrol agents.
An immigrant fights to change working conditions at a Manhattan bakery cafe.
On a dangerous journey from war-torn villages to a refugee camp, Congolese families are caught in the cross-fire.
In New York, widely regarded as a gay-friendly city, reports of attacks on same-sex couples are on the rise. Here, one young couple tells their story.
Forensics experts in Arizona struggle to identify the bodies of migrants who perished while attempting to cross illicitly from Mexico into the United States.
Premiering October 2013, “A Short History of the Highrise” is an interactive documentary that explores the 2,500-year global history of vertical living and issues of social equality.
In this short film, Stan Dibben, a winner of the World Sidecar Championship in 1953, recounts the thrills and perils of his profession.
The Op-Doc “Paraíso” (Paradise) reveals the beauty and danger of three immigrant window cleaners’ work on Chicago’s skyscrapers.
Alan Berliner explores memory and forgetting in this short experimental documentary about his cousin Edwin Honig — a poet, translator and professor — and his journey through Alzheimer’s disease.
Filmed over 13 years, this short film presents a coming-of-age story of an African-American boy who attends an elite Manhattan prep school.
In the first episode of a four-part series, "Mud" traces the roots of the residential highrise, from the biblical Tower of Babel to New York's tenement buildings.
In the second episode of a four-part series, "Concrete" explores how, in New York City and globally, residential high-rises and public housing attempted to foster social equality in the 20th century.
In the third episode of a four-part series, "Glass" examines the recent proliferation of luxury condos and the growing segregation between the rich and poor.
In the final episode of a four-part series, "Home" comprises images submitted by New York Times readers, who show their lives in high-rises around the world.
This short film explains a troubling situation in English football, where ticket prices have risen to levels so high that many of the fans can no longer afford them.
This short documentary profiles the photographer Flo Fox who, in spite of near-blindness and multiple sclerosis, continues her work in the streets of New York.
This paper-puppet animation celebrates the life of Alfred Russel Wallace, who is co-credited with Charles Darwin for the theory of natural selection.
Twelve years after being interviewed by The New York Times Magazine, five women, who all started their law careers at Debevoise & Plimpton, reflect on ambition, leadership and success.
Will we ever know the truth about the Kennedy assassination? In a film by Errol Morris, Josiah “Tink” Thompson returns to what has haunted him for 50 years: Frame #313 of the Zapruder film.
A short film explores whether ordinary Americans should be concerned about online surveillance.
A group of dirt bike riders in Baltimore have been called reckless. But to them, riding their bikes provides a sense of escape.
An Argentine shares her intimate search for love and the answer to this question: To be happy, should she settle down or remain a free spirit?
This animated Op-Doc explores why J.J. Cale, who wrote such classic songs as “After Midnight,” “Cocaine” and “Call Me the Breeze,” never achieved stardom.
This Op-Doc video celebrates New York City’s taxi drivers through the life of Johnnie Footman, known as Spider, who was the city’s oldest cabby.
This animated Op-Doc explores the life of Nadezhda Popova, known as Nadia, who became a World War II hero as part of a Soviet all-female bombing regiment.
Santa has gone too soft on kids, argues this animated Op-Doc, prompting the need for more frightening Christmas-season icons - like the German Krampus or Japanese Namahage.
This Op-Doc celebrates the achievements of Caleb Moore, a competitive snowmobiler who was the first to fatally crash at the X Games.
A young woman, lured to North Dakota for a truck-driving job in the oil industry, shares her agonizing existence in an isolated boomtown.
After the writer John Hull became completely blind, he kept an audio diary of his experience. A short film by Peter Middleton and James Spinney is a dramatization using those recordings.
A short documentary about a Chinese boot-camp-style treatment center for young men “addicted” to the Internet.
Profiling a pregnant teenager in Missouri, this short documentary provides a window into rural poverty in America's heartland.
This video tells the story of a black teenager in Florida who was killed by a white man after an argument over loud music. The slain youth’s father shares his loss.
In Communist Romania in the 1980s, a young translator became an unlikely voice of freedom. She illicitly dubbed thousands of foreign films, distributed on VHS tapes, turning B-movie stars into heroes.
Catie and Kimberly were adopted from China by a couple from Maine, who attempt to pass on a culture they've never known firsthand.
This short film captures a young girl’s love for her brother, who has cerebral palsy.
A New Yorker questions whether the alarms on emergency exit doors in the New York subway system are necessary safety measures — or harmful annoyances.
Dr. John Kitchin quit a medical career to pursue his passion: skating along the boardwalk of San Diego’s Pacific Beach. He calls himself “Slomo.”
A photojournalist who covered last year’s deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh draws connections to New York from clothing labels he found in the rubble.
This short documentary follows the lawyer Steven Wise’s effort to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans.
After her mother passes away, the filmmaker Judith Helfand struggles to pack up her things — figuring out what to keep and how to let go.
This short documentary captures the rise and fall of a courtroom sketch artist in Texas.
This short documentary chronicles a remote Peruvian village’s four-year struggle to get Internet access.
This short documentary profiles residents of the Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana, as they confront a future threatened by sinking shorelines and rising seas.
This short video shows how a Congolese man turns scraps into a soccer ball for village children, so they can play the sport they love.
This short film celebrates the “Pink Helmet Posse,” three 6-year-old girls who share an unusual passion: skateboarding.
New rules proposed by the F.C.C. could divide the Internet into fast lanes and slow lanes, violating the central concept of “net neutrality.”
In the crowded favelas of Rio de Janeiro, flying kites is more than a leisurely escape: It’s also a playful form of battle.
After having grown up in the United States as an undocumented immigrant, Rufino Santiz Díaz decided to go back to Mexico — and now finds himself caught between two worlds.
In a remote valley in southwest Cambodia, an indigenous group fights to protect its homes from the looming construction of a hydroelectric dam.
In Colorado, two towns near each other have divergent reactions to their state’s legalization of marijuana.
Forty-five years ago, Patricia Krenwinkel killed for Charles Manson. Now she provides an emotional account of her life from prison.
This short documentary profiles the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni, a Native American language, and her creation of a comprehensive dictionary.
In this short documentary, the filmmaker Banker White explores how Alzheimer’s disease has revealed the strength of his parents’ marriage.
In this short documentary, a pastor runs a “fight ministry” out of his church in Rochester, N.Y.
This animated documentary celebrates the 17th-century citizen scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, whose discovery of microbes would change our view of the biological world.
Brown University faces questions about how it responds to a student’s charge of sexual assault, two decades after similar accusations sparked a national reform movement.
Through her activism to topple Liberia’s dictator, Leymah Gbowee was able to restore her own faith in humanity. Part 1 of “Three Short Films About Peace.”
The former Polish president Lech Walesa explains how he defied Communist rule to help bring down the Iron Curtain. Part 2 of “Three Short Films About Peace.”
The Irish rocker Bob Geldof used the power of music to combat famine in Africa. Now he recalls the best day of his life. Part 3 of “Three Short Films About Peace.”
During their monthly gatherings for tea, a group of Chilean women reflect on the past in a ritual that has held their friendships together for 60 years.
At one of California’s most notorious prisons, baseball teams take the field.
This animated vampire tale is based on an original 18th Century written account from the Balkans.
This short documentary profiles Mike Minter, an underfunded Democrat who seeks election against a Republican incumbent in one of the most conservative districts of Texas.
A national park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo struggles to protect gorillas from a brutal civil war.
Each year in Oregon, a group of men gather to re-create a war that so many Americans have tried to forget.
At a bronze statue of Joe Paterno, the former Penn State football coach, a critic and fans spar over his legacy.
Molding clay into scenes of war, displaced children tell their story in South Sudan in this short documentary.
In this short documentary, a front-line company of Afghan soldiers in Helmand, the country’s most dangerous province, faces new difficulties as their foreign allies prepare to withdraw.
In this short documentary, a former defense lawyer for prisoners at Guantánamo Bay argues against the C.I.A.’s use of torture.
Based on two police shootings in Ohio, this short documentary questions whether toy guns can really be innocent gifts.
This short documentary profiles a Kenyan activist who asks American student volunteers: “Why do you want to help us? Help your own country.”
In this short documentary filmed at Charlie Hebdo in 2006, cartoonists and editors design a satirical front page image of Muhammad.
This short documentary explores what we can learn from the Black Panther party in confronting police violence 50 years later.
This short documentary shows a mother’s efforts to manage her daughter’s daily struggle with a life-threatening condition: Type I diabetes.
In Silicon Valley, the region’s homeless use a 24-hour bus line as a shelter at night.
In this short documentary, students in a youth orchestra program in Chile pursue their love of music to escape poverty.
This animated documentary tells the story of polar explorer Alfred Wegener, the unlikely scientist behind continental drift theory.
This short documentary profiles a couple who spend their lives pursuing their passion for blowing things up.
This short documentary profiles two elderly Holocaust survivors in Florida who recently formed their own klezmer band.
A camera mounted on an umbrella captures scenes of New Yorkers struggling through a late winter snow across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.
This short documentary explores how the murder of a white minister in Selma, Ala., helped catalyze the civil rights movement.
In this short documentary, parents reveal their struggles with telling their black sons that they may be targets of racial profiling by the police.
This short documentary profiles the champion bull rider Gary Leffew, whose insights on rodeos apply far beyond the sport.
As cinemas across the United States transition to digital projectors, this short documentary celebrates the beauty of traditional 35-millimeter film.
This short documentary warns about the dangers posed by trains that transport explosive oil across North America.
This short documentary explains why one world-class chef overhauled his menu to emphasize sustainable ingredients.
In this short documentary, housing developers in China hire ordinary foreigners to pose as celebrities, boosting flagging property sales.
In this short documentary, young black men explain the particular challenges they face growing up in America.
In this short documentary, two survivors of a brutal war in the Middle East meet again years later under astonishing circumstances.
This short documentary celebrates the late conceptual artist Chris Burden’s landmark work “Shoot,” in which a friend shot him in the arm.
This short documentary shares the challenges of a transgender military couple, who are banned from serving openly.
Laura Poitras documents the dissidents Ai Weiwei and Jacob Appelbaum as they collaborate on an art project.
This short documentary explores the reasons that some men sound stereotypically gay, whether they are or not.
This short documentary tells the story of a gay Mormon’s love affair while he served on a mission in Italy.
This short documentary features interviews with white people on the challenges of talking about race.
This short Op-Doc documentary profiles a former prisoner who guides men released from life sentences in California through their first hours of freedom.
This short documentary profiles the queer farmer and food writer Sandor Katz, whose work in culinary fermentation transformed his relationship with life and death.
This short video juxtaposes the reenacted testimony of two key witnesses in the shooting of the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, MO.
The Gregory Brothers present a musical mash-up video of the first Republican presidential debate of 2016.
This short documentary chronicles the ordeal of three mountain climbers attempting one of the most elusive first ascents in the Himalayas.
This short documentary profiles a fisherman in Maine who practices a fading craft: diving for sea scallops on the ocean floor.
In this short documentary, a white separatist explains why he wanted to help transform a small North Dakota town into an all-white enclave.
In this short animation, a New Yorker explains why she wears her hair in its natural color.
In this short documentary, a former Pentecostal preacher starts a secular congregation in the heart of the Bible Belt.
This short documentary follows a mother’s devotion after her 11-year-old daughter is struck by a stray bullet in New York City.
In this short documentary, young mothers in a homeless shelter write lullabies to bond with their babies.
An Ecuadorian prep-chef explains how he’s become one of the fastest marathon runners in New York City.
In this short documentary, a prominent leader of the Christian right explains why he left the Republican Party over guns.
“UrbExers” are extreme explorers who infiltrate subways and skyscrapers for adventure—and the perfect photograph.
In this short documentary, former officers share their thoughts on policing and race in America.
In this short documentary, black women talk about the challenges they face in society.
This short documentary remembers the paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, who discovered footprints of human ancestors on the African savanna.
In this dramatization of transcripts from a legal deposition, lawyers grapple with a plaintiff’s bizarre testimony about the destruction of his chicken’s pasture.
This short video celebrates the discovery of the coelacanth, the fossil-like fish time left behind.
In this dramatization of transcripts from a legal deposition, a so-called “expert witness” fails to perform middle school math.
In this short documentary, a talented teenager in the Mojave Desert is torn between âââher goal of attending art school and wanting to help support her family.
In this short documentary, a 17-year-old Syrian films an intimate portrait of life in her refugee camp.
This short film follows a diver on a search below the ice.
A leading political strategist explains how candidates use the art of storytelling to help swing elections.
In this short documentary, Latinos grapple with defining their ethnic and racial identities.
Aâ transgender woman, a sufferer of severe mental illnessâ, and the parents of a child with cancer transform their experiences into intensely personal video games.
An activist is murdered on-air while hosting a radio show for fellow displaced residents of a rural town in Mexico.
After 63 years of marriage, a man’s devotion to his wife is unbroken by Alzheimer’s.
Asian-Americans confront stereotypes about their community.
Fashion occupies a prime position in our culture and economy. But is it art?
A mayor tries to secure his city’s future… by tearing it down.
A man brings objects to life in a struggle to recreate the lost memory of his mother’s last day.
In a hair salon in Israel, Arab and Jewish women find common ground… in a sink.
How do you make the wrenching decision of whether to leave your homeland?
There are only a few doctors left in Alabama who provide abortions. Yashica Robinson is one of them.
Antonio Guzmán makes a living by knowing how to peel the perfect orange. Part of a series about the workers of Jerome Avenue, in the Bronx.
At the age of 93, Norman Lear is still entertaining America. What’s his secret?
Every year, the city of Odessa, Tex., is witness to a strange phenomenon: cars that fly.
A racist system. A brother in jail. One teenage girl turned to animation to make sense of it all.
The arctic mining city of Norilsk is one of the most polluted in the world — but many residents are still proud to call it home.
An airport parking lot in Los Angeles has become an improvised village of airline workers.
Day after day, an elderly woman recalls the Spanish Basque country of her youth — while forgetting she is consigned to a retirement home in Chile.
Phillip Toledano was terrified of growing old. So he decided to do it as many times as possible.
A coast guard captain on a small Greek island is suddenly charged with saving thousands of refugees from drowning at sea.
This year’s election will be the first in over 50 years without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act.
Japanese men haven’t traditionally been caregivers. But for Masami Hayata, it’s a crucial part of raising his family.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the Gregory Brothers team up to present a musical mashup of highlights from the second 2016 presidential debate.
At the annual RedState gathering, prominent conservatives reflect on how Donald Trump has divided their party.
Weird Al Yankovic and the Gregory Brothers stage an apocalyptic musical at the final debate of the 2016 presidential campaign.
A teenage girl resists her arranged marriage so she can stay in school.
There's more to what you believe than you think.
A couple builds an unlikely menagerie of obese chickens, paraplegic possums, and bodyless fish.
The plus-size women who pole dance.
In Britain, some immigrants face a future of indefinite detention.
Step inside a police department struggling with budget cuts and public distrust.
Would you jump? Or would you chicken out?
Allen adopts Benjamin, a baby capuchin monkey.
Safely back in New York, Allen raises his adopted capuchin monkey as a member of the family, and their friendship becomes “the closest relationship I ever had.”
As Benjamin grows into an increasingly wild animal, Allen is forced to question whether New York is any place for a monkey.
Allen makes a painful decision, and then must smuggle Benjamin to safety.
Benjamin finds a home in the country. But then disaster strikes, and he and Allen must hit the road to evade the authorities.
In the series finale of this six-part documentary, Allen Hirsch and his monkey alter ego face a heart-rending farewell.
Through music and relationships, a man with Asperger's syndrome finds another way to be "normal."
“Where does the sun go? Can girls be robots? Why don’t worms have faces?” A little girl wants to know.
After a lifetime of intestinal problems, Josiah Zayner declared war on his own body's microbes.
Jesselyn Silva is only 10 years old, but she's already in the ring.
Refugees from around the world spend their first night in the U.S. at an airport hotel.
When seeing your mother means a trip to prison.
When actually getting an abortion is even harder than the decision to have one.
A pony-riding quest for speed and glory.
Sam Sambucci would prefer you not bulldoze his neighborhood.
A refugee girl comes of age in America.
“It’s not a fake sport. It’s a form of storytelling.”
Richard Atkins was at the beginning of a promising musical career — until a single disastrous performance changed the course of his life.
In Florida, going to church without leaving your car.
Native Americans challenge their invisibility in society.
Is a single photograph enough to find your soulmate?
Our harsh treatment of sex offenders is based on flawed social science.
What if your most important experiences could live on after you die?
Fighting bombs with satire.
To escape Auschwitz, she left her father to die. Decades later, she got a message from him.
What do you do when your relationship conflicts with your religion?
Our family business involved taking photos with Frankenstein’s Monster and the Easter Bunny.
In Felixstowe, England, visiting sailors venture off their ships … but not outside the port.
When a reporter takes too many risks, who pays the price?
To beg for leniency, defense attorneys are producing entire documentaries for an audience of one: the judge.
It’s time to embrace the shamanistic side of Christmas.
How my side effects made me four different people
The President’s dealings with these important institutions has ranged from out-of-touch to outright bizarre.
Was my father’s leftover stuff the key to who he really was?
Sometimes coming home is the hardest move of all.
Rising sea levels are forcing the nation of Kiribati to make difficult choices.
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther shook the church — and the world.
Coming of age on the Greenland tundra.
An illustrator captures one of the world's largest migrations.
When he died, Byron Levy left behind a vast inheritance — of drawings.
Discovering quiet in an ever-noisier world
Diamonds and humans have more in common than you might think.
Polar bears haunt the landscape around the remote town of Churchill in northern Manitoba.
Two decades ago, Mario Salcedo went on a cruise — and never came back.
Ibraheem was just a regular kid — until he lost everything.
John Bixby was first prescribed opioids when he was 16. Thirteen years later, he’s still struggling to quit.
Mark Zabawa is on a mission: to fight cancer and chase tornadoes.
A blue line intended to show support for police instead turned neighbors against each other.
Hindu nationalism reaches new heights in a quest to find a sacred river.
A 96-year-old who fled the Holocaust finds a new way to be heard.
I have multiple sclerosis. Why can’t I move to be closer to my son?
For a generation of people with cochlear implants, technology is transforming the experience of deafness.
A teenager helps her ranching family save calves during a snowy spring.
ICE has triggered a perpetual state of fear among undocumented immigrants in the U.S. — even among those living in so-called sanctuary cities.
The World Trade Center wreckage once smoldered here. Now visitors come from around the world to learn, remember and grieve the loss of 9/11.
In a small Colombian village, a mother guides her daughter through a rite of passage.
The first people to see the Earth from the moon were transformed by the experience. In this film, they tell their story.
No one lives there anymore. So what should we do with my family’s land?
In the sport of equestrian vaulting, even a 12-year-old girl can be “too big.”
Alex Honnold took a huge risk when he made his free solo climb of El Capitan. Did making a film about it make it even riskier?
A close-knit group of rural African-American women have perfected the distinctive art of quilting.
A cautionary tale about the epic power struggle between humans and poultry.
Out of desperation, a woman has kept her mentally ill son under lock and key for over twenty years.
Many indigenous people who enter the Mexican justice system must navigate it without a translator — even if they don’t speak Spanish.
In the aftermath of a major earthquake in Mexico City last year, aerial footage captures the resilience of the city’s response.
Mexico City employs a diver to clear out clogs and snags from its gigantic sewer system. And he loves it.
What it’s like to grow up as the child of an avowed gangster.
I love my baby. But I was unprepared for how childbirth would change my body.
The Green Book was a critical guide for African-Americans struggling to travel safely in the Jim Crow era. This 360 degree video explores its complicated legacy.
Hazari is a traditional faith healer, exorcising patients who’ve been possessed. But against the backdrop of the long-running conflict in Kashmir, nothing is as it seems.
They served near dangerous nuclear tests — and it has haunted them ever since.
I’d never understood the Israeli settlers. So I moved in with them.
Mario Guevara, a reporter for Mundo Hispánico, investigates the impact of ICE arrests on his Atlanta community.
Years living as an undocumented immigrant taught me not to believe in the American Dream.
In Luling, the “toughest town in Texas”, two Latina high school girls compete to be the next Watermelon Thump Queen.
Ever since the 1969 riots on the streets outside New York City’s Stonewall Inn, L.G.B.T.Q. communities have gathered there to express their joy, their anger, their pain and their power.
I was certain of my assailant’s identity. Why didn’t an alarm bell go off?
How do you find independence when you’re coming of age with autism?
“One of the last things that my grandmother said was, ‘When you grow up, come visit me.’”
Can a marriage made of video chats and airplane tickets survive?
A family divided by immigration authorities struggles to reunite.
In the late 1960s, Haddon Salt built a fast food empire. Then Kentucky Fried Chicken came knocking.
He was 21 years old. And then he left to join the insurgency.
A Chinese businesswoman in California has become a matchmaker between Chinese parents and American wombs.
Paul and Millie Cao lost their youth to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they are rediscovering themselves on the dance floor.
One man’s unlikely path to fencing glory.
Meet the people who keep their city running while the rest of the world sleeps.
On the Ethiopian highlands, church grounds have become accidental time capsules of biodiversity.
Kim Hill was a rising singer. She met a young rapper named will.i.am. The rest is history — or is it?
In the mid-1960s, four teenagers from Liverpool were changing the face of pop music. Their names were Mary, Sylvia, Pam and Val.
In 1963, Ed Dwight Jr. was poised to be NASA’s first African-American astronaut. Until suddenly he wasn’t.
What I wish people understood about having a family member with Down syndrome.
In the first film from our Sundance 2020 series, meet Betye Saar, who says her weapon is art.
In the next film from our Sundance 2020 series, two brothers carve their community’s first totem pole in nearly a century.
Dating is hard. A government campaign to get you married is worse.
I was stuck inside with my parents during Chinese New Year. Here’s what we did.
Op-Docs is premiering one of SXSW’s picks, which re-examines Freud through the lens of his female subject.
In the age of coronavirus, the only way you can see Milan is to fly through it.
Albert Einstein had a theory. These scientists proved it a century later.
The agony and anxiety of living in a migrant camp.
I was struggling with quarantine — until I found the polar explorers.
Larry Callies comes from a long line of black cowboys living and working on the frontier.
“I was young and in denial of my own sexuality.”
From unjustified stops of Black teenagers to a device to torment people in custody, racist police brutality runs deep.
For these former inmates in Texas, the rush of emotions that accompany freedom play out at a Greyhound bus station.
Arsenal legend Bob Wilson on the loneliest role in soccer.
A teacher travels across Japan to encourage adults to cry more.
A palliative care doctor on finding a “good death” for children in the worst situations.
The Aetherius Society believes in selflessness and extraterrestrial life.
The star of this short documentary calls himself "Catman."
When the coronavirus shut down clubs around the world, I found community in a queer dance party on Zoom.
One woman’s revenge against the Nazis has become legend in a small Czech town.
The story of a priest who left the Catholic Church for love.
What to do when your neighbors have carried out crimes against humanity.
A virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer tracks his family’s lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
"There are still many women who think that menopause is the end of your life."
In a small town in Kentucky, an immense replica of Noah’s ark looms over the countryside.
Five women share the experience of being treated less like a person than like a body — like flesh.
Self-help guru Louise Hay’s “Hayrides” drew in thousands during the hopelessness and government neglect of the AIDS crisis.
Through a day of role-playing, a group of students get an eye-opening introduction to the careers that may await them.
A mother told her daughter to keep her father’s absence a secret. Years later, they look back on the stigma they faced as a single-parent family in South Korea.
“Why would I want to hear about death and destruction? I’d rather hear somebody made a hole in one yesterday.”
Livestreaming your life to a devoted audience is big business. What happens when the cameras are off?
A daily routine becomes a symbol of resilience for a New York artist.
For a forensic cleaner in Mexico City, healing is at the core of his service.
I don’t know how I feel about adulthood, so I called my middle school friends.
After 57 days in a coma, Julio Lumbreras awoke to learn he had been one of Spain’s earliest Covid-19 patients.
In this short film, go bird-watching through New York City’s parks with Robert DeCandido, known locally as “Birding Bob.”
Lusia Harris led her team to three national championships, scored the first basket in women’s Olympic history and was officially drafted by the New Orleans Jazz in 1977.
Moath al-Alwi has never been charged with a crime, but has spent over 19 years at the U.S. military detention camp in Cuba. In a new short film, see the art he makes to survive.
Stable, affordable housing was out of reach for a San Francisco Bay Area family. So they built a home without a house.
In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell made a breakthrough in astronomy. But as a woman in science, her role was overlooked.
What does love look like? This intimate short film captures the relationship between the artist Wilfrid Wood and his boyfriend-muse, Theo Adamson.
As an investigative reporter, Jason Berry exposed the church’s systematic cover-up of sexual abuse. Somehow, it wasn’t enough.
Musician Topaz Jones and directing duo rubberband. reimagine the Black ABCs in this Sundance-winning short film.
Devon Michael was a rising child actor in the 1990s. Until he auditioned for “Star Wars.”
On July 14, 1970, members of the Young Lords took over Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. Among their demands? Accessible, quality health care for all.
is work working for us?
The director Rona Segal learned filmmaking in the Israel Defense Forces. Now she turns the camera on her fellow soldiers.
From period pains and hip dips to bullying and catcalling, five girls talk about the trials of growing up.
When a beloved uncle died, he left behind an inheritance made of love.
A rabbi in a long-term-care facility reflects on what it means to be alive in a state of profound isolation.
For a community of Black women, dressing up as baby dolls is a Mardi Gras tradition and a celebration of freedom.
Yaren, age 10, lost her mother at 6. She felt alone in her grief — until she attended a camp for kids who have lost someone important.
Mourners from across the country gathered among hundreds of thousands of white flags to honor those lost to Covid.
Prosopagnosia means “face blindness.” But what does it mean to live with it?
The path to adulthood is a precarious one for those with disabilities. So Samuel Habib, 21, seeks out guidance from America’s most rebellious disability activists.
Do you worry about the same things as these Warsaw residents?
Throughout her life, Representative Patsy Mink challenged the status quo. As a leading advocate of Title IX, she defended the bill against those who sought to weaken it.
After nearly 33 years in prison — and over two decades in solitary confinement — Jack Powers embarks on the first day of his new life.
Fleeing war, a pianist left her dreams behind. Thirty years later, she returns to her piano.
Sally Schmitt sold her successful Napa Valley establishment, the French Laundry. Then it became “the best restaurant in the world.”
Two brothers from the Boston suburbs set out on an improbable journey to Montreal’s Expo 67 by hoof.
Indigenous Sami tradition versus Swedish bureaucracy — which one wins this dogfight?
In Northern California, the Karuk people celebrate a girl’s first period in a coming-of-age ceremony.
Volunteers at a Montreal call center train to be an ear for a lonely society.
In Mumbai, India, science, religion and politics collide when a group of laundry workers sets out to design a poster in time for a major festival.
An idealistic journalist and a prosperous real estate guru question each other’s worldviews.
A filmmaker documents his mother’s bond with an abandoned baby squirrel.
Incarcerated men and women watch nature videos on a loop in a mental health program.
In a traditional Catholic town, Alex develops his identity and defends his dreams.
In Burkina Faso, a diplomatic spouse spends her days within the boundaries of the embassy.
A filmmaker revisits his time in Cuba to tell a story he left unfinished.
It was 1970. Over 50 years later, these words serve as a dire warning.
When a director gets hold of an action movie he and his best friend made two decades ago, he reconsiders the risks they took as young men
Nearly 20 years after their deployment to Iraq, veterans grapple with their younger selves and try to make sense of the war.
Akiko Takakura survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This is her story, in her voice.
Two teenage Ukrainian refugees in Budapest express their pain and grief through art.
A mother and daughter find a connection in a place they least expected.
Three women reflect on the complexities of their relationships with their A.I. companions.
Two actors, partners at the time, discuss relationship conflicts between takes of a scripted scene.
As background extras, some nonplayer characters are programmed to do one thing forever: drudgery.
Dream Hampton explores water as a force of harmony and devastation as climate change affects her home city of Detroit.
A Northern Irish man’s relationship with a peregrine falcon reveals a personal history of torture during the Troubles.
Nikita Diakur tried to do a backflip, and injured himself. With A.I. and a six-core processor, his avatar learns to do one instead.
A filmmaker captures her attempt to come off the synthetic opiates that kept her off heroin for the past six years.
Conversations with slaughterhouse workers, by the son of one, explore family and masculinity.
At the dawn of their teenage years, the bond between the twins Raphaël and Rémi begins to weaken. But during the summer, time seems to stand still.
Through reconstructions in a special effects studio, “Neighbour Abdi” embarks on a candid journey through Abdiwahab Ali’s personal history scarred by war.
Every week Raquel and Madeleine, two friends born 67 years apart, spend time together. Madeleine refuses to leave her retirement home, but Raquel finds a way to bring her on a road trip.
On Achill Island in Ireland, Cian hopes to spend the summer playing soccer with his friends. But his grandfather thinks it’s about time to pass down a family tradition.
S. Leo Chiang reflects on his relationship with Taiwan, the United States and China from the islands of Kinmen, just a few miles from mainland China.
The ecologist Karen Lips observed frogs for several years in Central America. She left briefly, and when she returned, the frogs were gone. She sets out to find them and encounters a horrible truth.
Nearly 13 years after his civil service in Senegal, Paul Drey questions his role as a volunteer in the German system of development aid.
Older crafters across Britain speak to how knitting can help us heal, even at our most broken.
In this short film, Congolese artworks voice the poet and author Aimé Césaire’s words: “Colonization is thingification.”
After the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, loved ones of the deceased artist and political prisoner San Zaw Htway wrote him letters as an act of remembrance and hope.
A martial arts master traces the evolution of lion dancing mapped through his path to teaching.
Louis Johnson, the choreographer of “The Wiz,” could “outdance anyone.” Watch two rarely seen performances here.
Why did a U.F.O. allegedly crash in Roswell, N.M., of all places? In 1994 the filmmaker Bill Brown set out on a road trip to explore the 1947 incident.
Rob C., a firefighter in Idaho, undergoes psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in an attempt to address his PTSD.
In the midst of a political and environmental dispute between the Czech Republic and Poland over a coal mine, a potato salad contest is held in a small border town.
In the 1970s, the filmmakers Claudia Weill and Eli Noyes interviewed New Yorkers across the city about their unwanted roommates: roaches.
When a young Chinese filmmaker returns to his hometown in search of himself, a long-due conversation with his mother dives the two of them into a quest for acceptance and love.
