1971 Documentary Movies

30 movies found (page 1/1):

WR: Mysteries of the Organism(1971)

3.0/5 (with 36 votes)

What does the energy harnessed through orgasm have to do with the state of communist Yugoslavia circa 1971? Only counterculture filmmaker extraordinaire Dušan Makavejev has the answers (or the questions). His surreal documentary-fiction collision WR: Mysteries of the Organism begins as an investigation into the life and work of controversial psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and then explodes into a free-form narrative of a beautiful young Slavic girl’s sexual liberation.

Directed by Dušan Makavejev - With Jackie Curtis, Zoran Radmilović, Milena Dravić, Ivica Vidović, Miodrag Andrić, Živka Matić, ...

Fata Morgana(1971)

1h 16min | Documentary

3.4/5 (with 31 votes)

Shot under extreme conditions and inspired by Mayan creation theory, the film contemplates the illusion of reality and the possibility of capturing for the camera something which is not there. It is about the mirages of nature—and the nature of mirage.

Directed by Werner Herzog - With Lotte H. Eisner

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Land of Silence and Darkness(1971)

1h 25min | Documentary

3.7/5 (with 34 votes)

Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since her teens, and her work on behalf of other deaf-blind people, this film shows how the deaf-blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.

Directed by Werner Herzog

The Hellstrom Chronicle(1971)

| 1h 30min | Science Fiction, Documentary

3.3/5 (with 13 votes)

A scientist explains how the savagery and efficiency of the insect world could result in their taking over the world.

Directed by Walon Green - With Lawrence Pressman

Directed by John Ford(1971)

| 1h 50min | Documentary

3.4/5 (with 15 votes)

A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Breathing Together: Revolution of the Electric Family(1971)

1h 24min | Documentary

2.7/5 (with 2 votes)

The title of this Canadian documentary may have some relation to Canadian Marshall McLuhan's theories. It combines interview with famous U.S. militants of the '60s, such as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, with reenactments of their Chicago trials (i.e., the "Chicago Eight," etc.). Other figures of cultural interest from the time, including Alan Ginsberg and Buckminster Fuller, are interviewed or featured. The filmmaker indicates his belief that powerful forces in the U.S. government worked together to suppress American radicals. This view, widely disbelieved at the time, has since been confirmed.

Directed by Morley Markson

On Any Sunday(1971)

| 1h 36min | Documentary

3.4/5 (with 9 votes)

Documentary on motorcycle racing featuring stars of the sport, including film star Steve McQueen, a racer in his own right.

Directed by Bruce Brown

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The Murder of Fred Hampton(1971)

1h 28min | Documentary

3.5/5 (with 4 votes)

Fred Hampton was the leader of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. This film depicts his brutal murder by the Chicago police and its subsequent investigation, but also documents his activities in organizing the Chapter, his public speeches, and the programs he founded for children during the last eighteen months of his life.

Directed by Howard Alk - With Fred Hampton, Rennie Davis, Edward Hanrahan, Bobby Rush

Death of a Legend(1971)

1h | Documentary

3.5/5 (with 1 vote)

This documentary film is about wolves and the negative myths surrounding the animal. Exceptional footage portrays the wolf's life cycle and the social organization of the pack, as well as film of caribou, moose, deer and buffalo.

Directed by Bill Mason

Alaska Wilderness Lake(1971)

1h | Documentary

Alaska Wilderness Lake is a 1971 American documentary film produced by Alan Landsburg. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film is based on the book Red Salmon, Brown Bear by Theodore J. Walker.

Naughty!(1971)

1h 23min

2.3/5 (with 3 votes)

A look at sex and pornography through down the ages. From the liberal ancient Greeks, to the hypocritical Victorians, and on to modern times.

Directed by Stanley Long

Blue Water, White Death(1971)

| 1h 39min | Documentary

3.2/5 (with 2 votes)

Peter Gimbel and a team of photographers set out on an expedition to find and film, for the very first time, Carcharodon carcharias—the Great White Shark. The expedition lasted over nine months and took the team from Durban, South Africa, across the Indian Ocean, and finally to southern Australia.

Directed by Peter Gimbel - With Ron & Valerie Taylor

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Celebration at Big Sur(1971)

| 1h 22min | Documentary, Music, History

1.6/5 (with 3 votes)

Star-studded show recorded at the Big Sur Folk Festival, Big Sur, California, September 13th and 14th, 1969. Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian, and others. This film captures a remarkable moment in folk, rock, and pop history - the famous folk festival that brought traditional acts like Dorothy Morrison & The Combs Sisters and Carol Ann Cisneros together with the psychedelic rockers of the day who were most deeply rooted in the folk revival. Older songs like ‘Oh Happy Day,’ ‘Rise And Shine,’ ‘All God’s Children,’ and ‘Swing Down, Sweet Chariot’ meet Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock,’ Joan Baez’s ‘Sweet Sir Galahad,’ ‘Bob Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released,’ CSNY’s ‘Down By The River,’ and many more of the now-classic songs of what was then called the ‘new rock.’ The scene is notably intimate and - aside from one fan’s dustup with Stephen Stills - mellow, with many rare, close-up moments with the stars.

Directed by Baird Bryant

The American Dreamer(1971)

1h 30min | Documentary

2.8/5 (with 7 votes)

A documentary about actor/director Dennis Hopper, showing him at his home and studio putting together his film "The Last Movie.".

Directed by L. M. Kit Carson, Lawrence Schiller

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The Save The Children Fund Film(1969)

50min | Documentary

Ken Loach's production for Save The Children, withheld from public view until 2011.

Directed by Ken Loach

Growing Up Female(1971)

50min | Documentary

2.9/5 (with 3 votes)

Focuses on the socialization of American females. It tells the story of six women and girls. The first film to emerge from the modern women's movement in the early 1970s.

Directed by Julia Reichert

La Région Centrale(1971)

3h 4min | Documentary

3.6/5 (with 9 votes)

A 1971 experimental Canadian film directed by Michael Snow. Shot in the Canadian mountains over a period of 24 hours using a robotic arm.

Directed by Michael Snow

Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen(1971)

| 1h 57min | Music, Documentary

5.0/5 (with 1 vote)

"Joe Cocker - the Rotating Rocker - and his 42 member communal touring company Mad Dogs & Englishmen with the Master of Space and Time Leon Russell - see them perform in the pleasure palaces of America - it's a moving picture" says the classic film poster. See this spectacular rock 'n' roll tour documentary and get a dramatic visual record that captures the spirit of the hippie era with mind-blowing performances, crazy backstage footage, and spaced-out interviews. Supporting cast includes Claudia Lennear, Rita Coolidge, Sherman Jones reciting "Face on the Barroom Floor," and Canina the dog.

Directed by Pierre Adidge - With Joe Cocker

Land of Milk and Honey(1971)

1h 20min | Documentary

3.0/5 (with 4 votes)

Pierre Etaix’s most radical film, and perhaps unsurprisingly the one that effectively ended his career in cinema, Land of Milk and Honey is a fascinating investigative documentary about post–May ’68 French society.

Directed by Pierre Étaix - With Maurice Biraud, Pierre Étaix

Minamata: The Victims and Their World(1971)

1h 45min | Documentary

3.4/5 (with 5 votes)

The first in a series of independent documentaries that Tsuchimoto made of the mercury poisoning incident in Minamata, Japan.

Directed by Noriaki Tsuchimoto

Say Goodbye(1971)

52min | Documentary

2.8/5 (with 2 votes)

Say Goodbye is a 1971 American documentary film about the relationship between humans and nature, directed by David H. Vowell. The film depicts the plight of various animal species at the hands of man and his influence. Some segments include the clubbing of seals on the Pribilof Islands, the effect of DDT on brown pelican populations in Texas, and the plight of severely endangered animals. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Directed by David H. Vowell - With Rod McKuen

Brazil: A Report on Torture(1971)

1h | Documentary

3.5/5 (with 4 votes)

The filmmakers spoke to ex-political prisoners who had been tortured by the military government who were at that point supported by the US government.

Directed by Saul Landau, Haskell Wexler

Mexico: The Frozen Revolution(1973)

1h 5min | Documentary

3.0/5 (with 3 votes)

A thorough analysis of the socio-politics of Mexico, within the historical context of the Mexican Revolution reality. Includes footage from the 1910s, interviews with farmers, politicians, intellectuals, middle class, union, etc, as well as scenes from the life of an Indian family in Chiapas, their religious rituals, their crops, trials and bilingual schools. The film ends with the slaughter in the Plaza de Tlatelolco in 1968, during the infamous Olympics.

Directed by Raymundo Gleyzer

The Moon and the Sledgehammer(1971)

1h 5min | Documentary

3.4/5 (with 3 votes)

The Page family lives without electricity or running water deep in the Sussex woods. Amidst ever-growing modernity and industrialization, the family carries out chores, hunts pheasants, builds steam engines, and postulates on man's trip to the moon. They demonstrate fine lateral thinking and, through their particular delivery, display fears and concerns about pollution, intensive farming, mechanization, and self-fulfillment during a time of technological advancement.

Directed by Philip Trevelyan

Raga(1971)

1h 36min | Music, Documentary

A Film Journey to the Soul of India documents the life of sitar master Ravi Shankar in the late 1960s and early 1970s, following him on his return to India to revisit his guru, Bengali multi-instrumentalist and composer, Baba Ustad Allauddin Khan. It further explores Shankar's life as a musician and teacher in the United States and Europe, initiating those in the West to the exceptional world that is Indian classical music and culture. Through rare and candid footage shot in both India and the United States, Raga sheds light on Shankar's influences and collaborations, from Allauddin Khan to his famed dancer brother Uday Shankar, to his associations with Western musicians Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison. Fully narrated by Shankar himself, the film reveals music as the soul of India and of Shankar's life.

Directed by Howard Worth

Millhouse(1971)

1h 32min | Documentary

3.3/5 (with 4 votes)

Emile de Antonio's film decimates Richard Nixon and exposes him as a paranoid, power mad lunatic... de Antonio compiles (via video and film) what amounts to the "best of" one of the worst political figures of the 20th century. Nixon was a shameless self-promoter while trying desperately to convince everyone that he wasn't. Through Alger Hiss and the "Checkers" speech to the character assassination of Helen Gahagan Douglas (among others), there are few stones left unturned.

Directed by Emile de Antonio

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Derby(1970)

| 1h 33min | Documentary

2.0/5 (with 1 vote)

Roller derby is the bond between individuals of every strain; the film-makers capture both on-track footage and elucidating moments before and after bouts.

Directed by Robert Kaylor

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Walls of Fire(1971)

1h 20min | Documentary

2.5/5 (with 1 vote)

Narrated by Ricardo Montalbán, this documentary examines the history of Mexican murals and their artists. Among the works examined are those by José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Directed by Edmund Penney, Herbert Kline - With José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros

Les philharmonistes(1971)

57min | Documentary

In the town of Saint-Hyacinthe in Quebec, far from the halls of concert, the men share their lives between their profession of harmonist in the factory of Casavant organs and their participation in the activities of the company local philharmonic.

The Sun Ship Game(1971)

1h 22min | Documentary

Flying hundreds of miles a day through wild weather with no engine requires feats of airmanship unprecedented in human history and known before only to the birds. George Moffat and Gleb Derujinsky are great pilots and good friends who compete in the sport of Soaring for speed and distance in aircraft without engines - sleek competition gliders. Both would like to win the U.S. Soaring Championship. Derujinsky relies most on feel and creative impulse to sense his way through invisible air currents. Moffat does the same but relies more on a hand calculator he constantly works in his cockpit. This film 'The Sun Ship Game', voyages with both pilots into the sky at a regional contest in Vermont and into wild weather with eighty three other competitors in Marfa, Texas. Through eight days of hard flying in skies alternately filled with brilliant beauty and black violence, their two approaches arrive at a dramatic conclusion and one of them is named the U.S. Champion.

Directed by Robert Drew

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1971 Documentary Movies

RSS feedEntries in this List

WR: Mysteries of the Organism(1971)

Fata Morgana(1971)

Land of Silence and Darkness(1971)

The Hellstrom Chronicle(1971)

Directed by John Ford(1971)

Breathing Together: Revolution of the Electric Family(1971)

On Any Sunday(1971)

The Murder of Fred Hampton(1971)

Death of a Legend(1971)

Alaska Wilderness Lake(1971)

Naughty!(1971)

Blue Water, White Death(1971)

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Celebration at Big Sur(1971)

The American Dreamer(1971)

The Save The Children Fund Film(1969)

Growing Up Female(1971)

La Région Centrale(1971)

Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen(1971)

Land of Milk and Honey(1971)

Minamata: The Victims and Their World(1971)

Say Goodbye(1971)

Brazil: A Report on Torture(1971)

Mexico: The Frozen Revolution(1973)

The Moon and the Sledgehammer(1971)

Raga(1971)

Millhouse(1971)

Derby(1970)

Walls of Fire(1971)

Les philharmonistes(1971)

The Sun Ship Game(1971)

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