Documentary
cover
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (2024) WikiData NeoDB Douban Skybridge IMDb TMDB
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
director: Johan Grimonprez actor: Patrice Lumumba / Louis Armstrong …
other title: Colonna sonora per un colpo di stato / Banda Sonora de um Golpe de Estado …
Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Patrice Lumumba.
cover
Wreckage and Rage: Making 'Alien³' (2003) TMDB IMDb
Wreckage and Rage: Making 'Alien³'
director: Charles de Lauzirika actor: David Giler / Gordon Carroll …
other title: Wreckage and Rage : Making 'Alien³' / Destrucción y Rabia: Así se hizo 'Alien³'
The creation of the film Alien³ (1992) is covered here in this feature-length documentary in exhaustive detail. Many interviews with the cast and crew give us an idea of how hard of a time David Fincher had creating his first feature film, as well as present us with much information about every element that went into making this film, including how the plot and script changed drastically through filming.
cover
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007) IMDb WikiData TMDB
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
director: Jeffrey Schwarz actor: Forrest J. Ackerman / John Badham …
Chronicles the last great American showman, filmmaker William Castle, a master of ballyhoo who became a brand name in movie horror with his outrageous audience participation gimmicks.
June 18, 2026 to watch Trigger: going to watch William Castle's horror The Tingler (1959) in #ReMonsterdon watch party on Sunday 21 June 2026
Documentary 2000s Horror WilliamCastle
cover
Kung Fu Stuntmen (2021) Douban IMDb WikiData NeoDB TMDB
龍虎武師
director: Wei Junzi actor: Tsui Hark / Yuen Woo-Ping …
other title: 龍虎武師
A new documentary film revisits the golden age of kung fu stuntmen and action directors in Hong Kong during the 1960s-'80s, exploring their pain and struggles. The documentary is a tribute to kung fu stuntmen. “They risked their lives for stunts,” said kung fu choreographer Yuen Bin. In their heyday, these stuntmen and choreographers presented the best, most creative and most complicated kung fu fight sequences anywhere in the world, creating stunts that looked seemingly impossible.
cover
American Movie (1999) Douban NeoDB TMDB WikiData Skybridge IMDb
American Movie
director: Chris Smith actor: Mark Borchardt / Mike Schank …
other title: 아메리칸 무비 / 导演狂想曲 …
American Movie documents the story of filmmaker Mark Borchardt, his mission, and his dream. Spanning over two years of intense struggle with his film, his family, financial decline, and spiritual crisis, American Movie is a portrayal of ambition, obsession, excess, and one man's quest for the American Dream.
cover
Not Quite Hollywood (2008) IMDb WikiData TMDB
Not Quite Hollywood
director: Mark Hartley actor: Phillip Adams / Glory Annen …
other title: Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
cover
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (1998) NeoDB Douban TMDB IMDb WikiData
男生女相：華語電影之性別
director: Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang actor: Tony Rayns / Chang Cheh …
other title: Yang ± Yin: Gender im chinesischen Kino / 男生女相：華語電影之性別 …
An exploration of Chinese cinema and its relationships with gender and sexuality, which the film argues has been more frankly and provocatively explored than in any other national cinema. Utilizing both film excerpts and interviews with many leading directors and academics, the film examines topics such as male bonding in kung fu movies, depictions of same-sex bonding and physical intimacy, the emphasis on women's grievances in melodramas, and the career of Yam Kim-Fai, a Hong Kong actress who spent her life portraying men on and off the screen.
cover
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003) NeoDB WikiData TMDB IMDb Douban
铁西区
9.7 (7 ratings) director: Wang Bing
other title: Tie Xi Qu. Il distretto di Tiexi / À l'ouest des rails …
A detailed look at the gradual decline of Shenyang’s industrial Tiexi district, an area that was once a vibrant example of China’s socialist economy. But industry is changing, and the factories of Tiexi are closing. Director Wang Bing introduces us to some of the workers affected by the closures, and to their families.
cover
Scratch (2001) IMDb WikiData
Scratch
director: Doug Pray actor: Jazzy Jay / DJ Krush …
A feature-length documentary film about hip-hop DJing, otherwise known as turntablism. From the South Bronx in the 1970s to San Francisco now, the world's best scratchers, beat-diggers, party-rockers, and producers wax poetic on beats, breaks, battles, and the infinite possibilities of vinyl.
cover
The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) IMDb NeoDB TMDB WikiData Douban Skybridge
The Decline of Western Civilization
director: Penelope Spheeris actor: Eugene Tatu / Alice Bag …
The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.
cover
FantastiCozzi (2016) TMDB IMDb WikiData
FantastiCozzi
director: Felipe M. Guerra actor: Luigi Cozzi / Caroline Munro …
A feature-length documentary about the life and career of Italian director Luigi Cozzi and his obsession with Science Fiction and Fantasy.
cover
The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead (2015) WikiData IMDb
The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead
director: Wes Orshoski actor: Dave Vanian / Captain Sensible …
other title: The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead
From Lemmy filmmaker Wes Orshoski comes the story of the long-ignored pioneers of punk: The Damned, the first U.K. punks on wax and the first to cross the Atlantic. This authorized film includes appearances from Chrissie Hynde, Mick Jones (The Clash), Lemmy and members of Pink Floyd, Black Flag, GNR, the Sex Pistols, Blondie, Buzzcocks, and more. Shot around the globe over three years, the film charts the band's complex history and infighting, as it celebrated its 35th anniversary and found its estranged former members striking out on their own anniversary tour, while still others battle cancer.
cover
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021) IMDb WikiData NeoDB Douban TMDB
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
director: Questlove actor: Stevie Wonder / Lin-Manuel Miranda …
other title: Summer of Soul (...Ou, Quando a Revolução Não Pôde ser Televisionada) / Summer of Soul (…ou quand la révolution n'a pas pu être télévisée) …
During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.
cover
¡Qué Viva México! (1979) IMDb TMDB IMDb WikiData TMDB
Да здравствует Мексика!
director: Sergei Eisenstein actor: Sergey Bondarchuk / Grigori Aleksandrov
other title: ¡Que Viva Mexico! / Да здравствует Мексика! …
Lauded Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein spent an extended period of time in Mexico working on an ambitious project that was never realized until much later, when this film was assembled from the largely abandoned footage. Moving from ancient Mayan times to the 1930s, the episodic movie features various dramatic segments, including scenes of a marriage ceremony and of bullfighting, as well as a Day of the Dead celebration and depictions of the Mexican Revolution.
cover
Scala!!! (2024) IMDb TMDB
Scala!!!
director: Jane Giles / Ali Catterall actor: John Waters / Adam Buxton …
This feature-length big screen documentary tells the riotous inside story of the infamous sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll repertory cinema which inspired a generation during Britain's turbulent Thatcher years.
Dec. 28, 2025 to watch 1984-1989 the Scala was my local cinema!

Trigger: watching The Ladykillers (1955) & recognizing the Scala as someone leaves King's Cross Station
London Documentary 2020s Cinema UK