Movies: Biographical documentary

To mark the artist Fernando Botero's 75th birthday, Peter Schamoni made a documentary film about his moving life. Fernando Botero is immediately recognizable by his colourful and exuberant works. Schamoni convinces us that, behind the cliché of the n...

Steve McQueen truly is an American Icon. One of America's most endearing and intriguing movie stars, he "is still the King of Cool" according to Esquire Magazine-50 years after the zenith of his career. The strangest thing about him, however, is bare...

...

When Danish filmmaker Lea Glob first portrayed Apolonia Sokol in 2009, she appeared to be leading a storybook life. The talented Apolonia was born in an underground theater in Paris and grew up in an artists’ community—the ultimate bohemian existence...

This biographical docudrama traces the life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, from his birth in Alsace, up to the age of 30 when he made the decision to go to French Equatorial Africa and build his jungle hospital. The latter half of the film encompasses a f...

Based on the incredible true story of Dick Hoyt, who turned himself into a triathlete and marathoner so he could lug with him son Rick—a non-verbal quadriplegic whose strength and spirit helped galvanize a movement....

Afghan filmmaker Mithaq Kazimi documents injustices done to a targeted group of his neighbors, the Baha'is of Iran, by telling the life story of one current prisoner, Fariba....

...

A film about the gold panning adventures of Hans Söderström, an indigenous Swede. The story stretches from Scandinavia to Africa, via Asia and the Americas, but ultimately boils down to the simple boyish dream of finding gold. Lots of it....

A portrait of John Grierson, the first Canadian Government Film Commissioner and founder of the National Film Board in 1939. Interweaving archival footage, interviews with people who knew him and footage of Grierson himself, this film is a sensitive ...

Andreas Dresen is one of the most successful German directors. The documentary accompanies him through the year 2023 until the opening evening at the Filmmuseum Potsdam, which is honoring him and his team with an exhibition and film series. The portr...

The lack of respect with which the Black musician Thelonious Monk was treated in Autumn, 1969. At the end of his European tour, legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk appears on an interview show in Paris for French state television....

Very few Icons have at once embodied the Myths of their own country while revealing its contradictions: heiress of the Hollywood star system and muse of the French auteur Cinema, Academy Award winning actress and committed producer, feminist and aero...

...

Madonna's rise to fame from 1978 to 1992, exploring her personal life, controversies, and the challenges she faced during that period....

Dalida was an international star, selling over 140 million records in 10 languages. But behind her glittering career and dramatic and tragic personal life, was her ever supportive younger brother Orlando. The documentary sheds light on the profession...

Documentary on popular French singers spanning over three decades (60s, 70s, 80s)....

Jean Rochefort, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Philippe Noiret - This is the story of a bunch of friends. Comedian buddies. Actors who dreamed of the Conservatory and the National Theater of Paris. The theater was their ideal, cinema will be their paradise. T...

Marlon Brando is best known for his successful films and two Oscars. But his link with French Polynesia, where the actor lived for nearly thirty years, remains largely unexplored. For Brando, a complex and tortured character, known for being unmanage...

From Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp, to the University of Toronto and the Supreme Court of Israel, I Shall Not Hate follows the uncharted path of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, The first Palestinian doctor that worked in an Israeli hospital delivering babies,...