Browse documentary movie in Australia
Dive into the world of documentary movie in Australia. From timeless classics to trending hits, explore an exciting collection of titles that define the documentary genre.
Explore critically acclaimed blockbusters, hidden gems, and trending new releases that showcase the diversity and creativity of documentary storytelling. Use our filters to find top-rated titles, recent hits, or beloved classics tailored to your taste.
With Popcorn Time, uncover your next favorite film and enjoy the best of documentary entertainment. Start browsing now and bring documentary into your watchlist today!
Movie
On April 1, 1945, the United States military launched its invasion of the main island of Okinawa, the start of a battle that was to last 12 weeks and claim the lives of some 240,000 people. This film depicts the Battle through the eyes of Japanese and American soldiers who fought each other on the same battlefield, along with Okinawa civilians who were swept up in the fighting. The film also depicts the history of discrimination and oppression forced upon Okinawa by the American and Japanese governments. Carrying up to the current controversy over the construction of a new base at Henoko, the film explores the root causes of the widespread disillusionment and anger expressed by many Okinawans. This ambitious documentary was directed by the American John Junkerman, long-term resident of Japan and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. Okinawa: The Afterburn is a heartfelt plea for peace and an expression of deep respect for the unyielding spirit of the Okinawa people.
Okinawa: The Afterburn (2015 )
- Free
Movie
A review of the wild New York City nightlife of the 90s. The cast of characters who made up the infamous Club Kids speak candidly about that era, culminating with Alig's release from incarceration.
Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig (2015 )
Movie
The life and work of German political philosopher of Jewish descent Hannah Arendt (1906-75), who caused a stir when she coined a subversive concept, the banality of evil, in her 1963 book on the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann (1906-62), held in Israel in 1961, which she covered for the New Yorker magazine.
Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt (2015 )
Movie
JOE FRANK - SOMEWHERE OUT THERE is a feature length film that explores the life of award-winning audio artist Joe Frank whose career on radio and on-line has spanned four decades. Frank's highly produced radio shows can be described as innovative, abstract, underground, autobiographical, surreal, funny, disturbing, and thought provoking meditations on the human condition.
Joe Frank: Somewhere Out There (2019 )
- Free
Movie
The story behind the rise and fall of New York's 42nd Street. The cinemas, the films, the people, the crime and the rebirth of the block as "New 42nd Street" - this is the document of the world's most notorious movie strip.
42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street (2015 )
- Free
Movie
From off the grid to under the grow lights, Mary Jane: A Musical Potumentary follows the story of a back to the land pot farmer coming to terms with raising her son and her income in a black market economy.
Mary Jane: A Musical Potumentary (2016 )
Movie
A documentary chronicling the impact and day to day operations of the journal The Nation.
Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation (2015 )
- Free
Movie
In 1935, 17-year-old aspiring actress Marsha Hunt was discovered in Hollywood. She signed with Paramount Pictures and went on to a flourishing career at MGM. She made 54 films in 17 years before a series of unfortunate events led to her being unfairly blacklisted. After the blacklist, she championed humanitarian causes, forging a career as one of Hollywood's first celebrity activists. She was the FIRST Angelina Jolie. As far back as 1955, Eleanor Roosevelt was a mentor of hers as they both worked tirelessly to support the work that the United Nations Association was accomplishing in this country. At age 96, Marsha continues to fight for causes she believes in. This film is a call to action for activists of all ages.
Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity (2015 )
Movie
Famously known as the live music capital of the world, Melbourne has achieved iconic status. Countless local artists have launched their careers on the storied stages of the city’s inner north, even while gentrification threatens the scene’s viability and other issues, including sexism, continue to undercut it.
Now Sound: Melbourne's Listening (2018 )
- Free
Movie
Leeds born filmmaker David Nicholas Wilkinson's thirty three year quest to prove that the worlds film industry started in Leeds, Yorkshire, England in 1888.
The First Film (2015 )
Movie
The issue of young Muslims traveling from Europe to countries such as Syria and Somalia to fight with Islamic rebels is a highly topical one, making this story of a Danish-Somalian boy even more relevant. His back turned to the camera as he looks out over a nondescript housing development in Copenhagen, “The Shadow” describes how he fell victim to recruiters from the militant Somalian rebel group al-Shabaab. He outlines the conditions that make boys such as him susceptible to the lure of the “holy war,” explaining that, “Nothing in my life made any sense.” So eloquent is he in his account that one might think it was scripted, but what happened to him is as real as the scenes from a suicide attack by one of his former friends.
Warriors from the North (2015 )
- Free
Movie
The life and career of legendary blues musician Paul Butterfield, including some of the most pivotal moments of his life.
Horn from the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story (2017 )
Movie
The film documents the rise and fall of the Wufeng Lin family in Wufeng, Taiwan over the turbulent years of Taiwan under the administrations of the Qing dynasty, Japan, and Republic of China.
Attabu 2 (2015 )
- Free
Movie
A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, The Royal Road simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions found in butch identity to achieve an achingly beautiful and poetic defense of remembering. Probing roads from El Camino Real, to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, to the road right outside the front door, Olson crafts a deeply intelligent and transcending observation of the human condition that reaches for redemption in the embrace of history, nostalgia, mindfulness, and sheer beauty. If you give yourself over to it, it will crack you wide open.
The Royal Road (2015 )
Movie
30 thousand Hasidim journey to Uman in Ukraine to celebrate the Jewish New Year at the gravesite of Rebbe Nachmann. A Ukrainian far-right group erects a cross at the site of Hasidic prayers and builds a monument to Cossacks who slaughtered thousands of Jews and Poles in 1768.
The Dybbuk: A Tale of Wandering Souls (2015 )
Movie
Barn Burner is a first-hand account of the rise of Lancaster, Pennsylvania's metal scene. Featuring acts like Texas and July and the Grammy-nominated August Burns Red, it tells the story of how Amish Country became a hotbed of heavy music.
Barn Burner: The Rise of the Lancaster County Metal Scene (2018 )
- Free
Movie
It is August 1951 and an entire French village goes crazy. People are screaming in the streets and throwing themselves out of windows. 300 people are affected and 7 end up dead. Wild theories start circulating to explain the tragedy. 60 years later declassified documents from the United States reveal that the CIA conducted experiments on unsuspecting citizens.
CIA Covert Experiments (2015 )
- Free
Movie
'Black and Cuba' follows street-smart students, who are outcasts at an elite Ivy League university, as they band together and adventure to Cuba to see if revolution is truly possible. While filming their poignant encounters with AfroCuban youth, breathtaking sites and moving hip-hop performances, the travelers confront realities behind myths of color-blindness and social mobility. This edgy and artful documentary of their journey uncovers renewed hope for equality and human rights. 'Black and Cuba' is the feature film directorial debut of international human rights advocate and scholar Robin J. Hayes, PhD.
Black and Cuba (2015 )
Movie
A survey of Hans Holbein's career from his beginnings as a religious painter to his work for Henry VIII and beyond. The program also includes a close analysis of "The Ambassadors".
Holbein: Eye of the Tudors (2015 )
Movie
Archaeological sleuth Kathleen Martinez's explorations take her to a forgotten temple complex known as Taposiris Magna, 25 miles west of Alexandria, Egypt. Is it the site of Cleopatra's lost tomb?
Cleopatra's Lost Tomb (2015 )
Movie
In 1993, 16-year-old Hanit Kikos disappeared from Ofakim, Israel. A few days later, Suleiman al-Obeid Hoda was arrested, confessing that he raped and murdered her but gave conflicting confessions to investigators. 30 years after his imprisonment, the films with those involved in the affair shine a new light on the case.
The Reason Why (2021 )
Movie
This documentary brings to life the stories of four people believed by their family and friends to be “DB Cooper,” a man who hijacked a 727 flying out of Seattle and jumped from the plane over the wilds of Washington State with a parachute and $200,000, never to be heard from again.
The Mystery of D.B. Cooper (2020 )
- Free
Movie
To understand firsthand what the United States of America can learn from other nations, Michael Moore playfully “invades” some to see what they have to offer.
Where to Invade Next (2015 )
- Free
Movie
The 30-year legacy of the murder of black teenager Yusuf Hawkins by a group of young white men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, as his family and friends reflect on the tragedy and the subsequent fight for justice that inspired and divided New York City.
Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn (2020 )
- Free
Movie
Inhabit is a feature length documentary introducing permaculture: a design method that offers an ecological lens for solving issues related to agriculture, economics, governance, and on. The film presents a vast array of projects, concepts, and people, and it translates the diversity of permaculture into something that can be understood by an equally diverse audience. For those familiar, it will be a call to action and a glimpse into what's possible - what kind of projects and solutions are already underway. For those unfamiliar, it will be an introduction to a new way of being and a new way of relating to the Earth. For everyone, it will be a reminder that humans are capable of being planetary healing forces.
Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective (2015 )
Movie
The Eugenics Crusade tells the story of the eugenics movement and its long history in the United States, from its beginnings in the study of heredity, to its rise as a popular movement promising to uplift the human race through state sponsored sterilization, to its influence on immigration laws designed to close our borders to groups deemed genetically inferior.
The Eugenics Crusade (2018 )
Movie
Evangelist Bob Larson sits down with Zeena and Nickolas and tries to talk some good old fashioned religion into 'em, but they'll have none of it.
The First Family of Satanism (1990 )
Movie
A documentary examining what the Tyrannosaurus Rex was really like - both appearance and behaviour - using the recent palaeontological and zoological research.
The Real T Rex with Chris Packham (2018 )
- Free
Movie
An inspiring, triumphant and wickedly funny portrait of one of comedy’s most enigmatic and important figures, CALL ME LUCKY tells the story of Barry Crimmins, a beer-swilling, politically outspoken and whip-smart comic whose efforts in the 70s and 80s fostered the talents of the next generation of standup comedians. But beneath Crimmins’ gruff, hard-drinking, curmudgeonly persona lay an undercurrent of rage stemming from his long-suppressed and horrific abuse as a child – a rage that eventually found its way out of the comedy clubs and television shows and into the political arena.
Call Me Lucky (2015 )
- Free
Movie
The great media prankster, Joey Skaggs, wants to fool the world media AGAIN, and, with the most complex hoax of his career in the pipeline, he now must use every trick in his prankster's arsenal to make it work. Art of the Prank is an emotional journey following the evolution of artist Joey Skaggs-a fierce proponent of independent thinking and the man who has turned the media hoax into an art form. With unprecedented access to the man and his archives, the 95-minute documentary interweaves a current unfolding hoax with a look behind-the-scenes at some classic performance pieces (all reported as fact by a wide range of prestigious journalists) plus commentary from co-conspirators and others.
Art of the Prank (2015 )
Movie
What does it actually mean to be Canadian? This humorous documentary, featuring interviews with a who's-who of famous Canadians, hopes to find the answer.
Being Canadian (2015 )
Movie
Both an activist and a documentarian, Valentina Pedicini also brings her background in anthropology to this impressively captured, claustrophobic nonfiction feature. Venturing beneath sea level, From the Depths profiles the lone woman at work in the last coal mine in Sardinia, Italy.
From the Depths (2013 )