Documentary movies

After their beloved venue is forced to close, a determined group of comedians battle the odds to achieve their dream of launching an epic comedy festival in Bristol

All the best from the Modern Traction Scene in 2025

From his chaotic childhood to the White House, JD Vance embodies the MAGA-style revenge of America. To recount the ideological journey of the Vice President of the United States, Thomas Snégaroff and David Thomson met with a dozen people who have been close to him throughout his life. They reveal who Vance truly is: how the man evolved ideologically and how he transformed politically. These encounters and interviews with his closest associates, including his mother Beverly and his mentor, David Frum, uncover the secrets of his ambitions and plans to transform America and Europe.

A documentary that focuses on the effects that alcohol has on someone's honesty, performativity and behaviour; Anyone's candid and composed exterior could just be a façade hiding their true selves.

A poetic David and Goliath tale, where David is an eco-activist with shields, helmets and Molotov cocktails in the backpack. Director Laurie Lassalle documents the spirit and atmosphere with loyalty and an extraordinarily confident cinematic vision.

Set inside the Richmond City Jail, The Trouble I See… follows two incarcerated fathers chosen to participate in a powerful father-daughter dance. Spanning five years, this deeply moving documentary explores generational cycles of incarceration, gun violence, and systemic inequality—while celebrating the unbreakable bonds of family, love, and resilience.

Annette shares stories from throughout her life, discussing how they influenced her and made her the woman she is today.

The film is a visually stunning and emotionally resonant documentary filmed in Kenya's legendary Amboseli ecosystem. The film follows the lives of elephant bulls towering tuskers whose presence embodies resilience, wisdom, and the legacy of an ancient lineage. Set against the dramatic backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro and the open plains of Amboseli, Tusker offers a rare glimpse into the complex lives of these giants, from solitary journeys to the subtle social bonds that form between males. Their movements reflect a lifetime of survival and strength each step shaped by decades of navigating drought, conflict, and the shifting rhythms of the wild.

Life on Earth could be descended from space-faring microbes from Mars — or even further beyond, riding here on an interplanetary highway of asteroids. Extremophile bacteria may be resilient enough to survive the intense 3-stage journey, by repairing their own damaged DNA or hibernating for the long, deadly journey through space. The chemistry of life could even be spreading across star-systems to other parts of the galaxy, connecting biologies together in a huge web of life. Could we be part of an ancient cosmic family-tree? What other creatures could this tree contain?

Genesis and Rise of an Anti-Idol traces Kid Yugi's journey from his origins in the provinces to his success on the Italian rap scene, exploring the construction of an artistic identity based on the rejection of exposure and the role of idol. Through images, archival material, and personal reflections, the documentary recounts the birth of a dark and literary imagination, the centrality of writing as a form of survival, and the conflictual relationship with success. What emerges is the portrait of an artist who transforms isolation into language and rise to fame into an act of resistance, maintaining a conscious distance from the public and the logic of the industry.