Documentaries About Actor and Actress

Elena, a young Brazilian woman, travels to New York with the same dream as her mother, to become a movie actress. She leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictatorship. She also leaves Petra, her seven year old sister. Two decades later, Petra also becomes an actress and goes to New York in search of Elena. She only has a few clues about her: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary and letters. At any moment Petra hopes to find Elena walking in the streets in a silk blouse. Gradually, the features of the two sisters are confused; we no longer know one from the other. When Petra finally finds Elena in an unexpected place, she has to learn to let her go.

Mark Rappaport's creative bio-pic about actress Jean Seberg is presented in a first-person, autobiographical format (with Seberg played by Mary Beth Hurt). He seamlessly interweaves cinema, politics, American society and culture, and film theory to inform, entertain, and move the viewer. Seberg's many marriages, as well as her film roles, are discussed extensively. Her involvement with the Black Panther Movement and subsequent investigation by the FBI is covered. Notably, details of French New Wave cinema, Russian Expressionist (silent) films, and the careers of Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and Clint Eastwood are also intensively examined. Much of the film is based on conjecture, but Rappaport encourages viewers to re-examine their ideas about women in film with this thought-provoking picture.

Dolores Hart left a successful Hollywood acting career to become a nun. A true story.

Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen is an unprecedented look at the bond between two of the most iconic artists of the 20th century.Utter opposites... nothing in common. The cowboy and the suburbanite. The conservative and the liberal. And yet these two artists (a word both men scoffed at) were the best of friends, right up to their deaths a mere seven weeks apart in 1961. But is the friendship of these two men really so surprising? A study of these two men is a study of the 20th century. Their internationally renowned careers (Cooper, two Best Actor Academy Awards; Hemingway, Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes) were played out over the same turbulent decades: the hedonistic 20s, the grim Depression 30s, the war-ravaged 40s, and the deceptively slumbering 50s; throughout, their public and private lives connected, parted, re-connected, intertwined, over-lapped, and collided. It is no small irony that the lives of these two men should suffer untimely ends at the dawn of the erupting sixties. Their final, poignant chapter closed at the beginning of a decade which would challenge many of the very ideals and precepts which both men so prominently represented.And yet, decades later, we have Liam Neeson reflecting: "...the character of Bryan Mills (Taken) fits into a cinematic iconic figure that we all recognize from way back ... I'm thinking of Gary Cooper in High Noon, who is kind of a Bryan Mills. That kind of iconic figure that audiences seem to be attracted to."Perhaps Cooper and Hemingway didn't really pass the torch, perhaps they merely leant it.

Famed and beloved actor Gregory Peck candidly delves into conversation and reflection about his on-screen roles and off-screen life.

The Captains is a feature length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors who have portrayed Starship captains within the illustrious science-fiction franchise.

Bruce Lee is universally recognized as the pioneer who elevated martial arts in film to an art form, and this documentary will reveal why Bruce Lee's flame burns brighter now than the day he died over three decades ago.

The love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the deep trust between the director and the actor, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.

Anyone who knew Babz Chula-a talented, larger-than-life actress-could tell you that her life force, or chi, was incredibly strong. When Babz reconnected with director Anne Wheeler in 2009, they discovered a mutual interest - India. Babz easily convinces Anne to join her on a journey to Kerala, where 63-year-old Babz will undergo treatment by a renowned Ayurvedic healer in an effort to rid herself of the cancer that has been threatening her life for the last six years. Anne suggests she bring her camera and film the treatment, and Babz enthusiastically agrees. Not all goes according to plan when they arrive; the centre is far less sophisticated than Babz anticipated, and she is very ill from her last round of chemotherapy and the long journey. But, after six weeks of treatments, introspection, and laughs with Anne at the bare-bones clinic, Babz seems to show considerable physical and psychic improvement. At least that's what Anne believes is happening, until they return home and it is revealed that Babz's cancer has spread-new tumors are present and she has weeks, if not just days, to live. And now all the things they'd pondered in India, like facing death without fear or a belief in a God, become an imminent reality. Amazingly, the irrepressible Babz invites Anne and her camera to continue bearing witness to her journey into the unknown.

Three narratives from around the world are woven together with insights from venerable filmmakers and ordinary moviegoers in this documentary on the universal appeal of movies. An aspiring actress in Mumbai battles to break into Bollywood; two friends in Scotland take a mobile film festival across the Highlands of Scotland; a young Tunisian director anticipates the premiere of his controversial film at a major festival. These stories intertwine with scenes from video stores, projection booths, studios, cinemas, and slums into a vivid meditation on the power of cinema to shape our world.

A documentary on Candy Darling, The Life and Times of the Andy Warhol Superstar.

A documentary on the life of famed character actor and rodeo star Ben Johnson, featuring interviews with his fellow actors and cowboys, as well as directors and film critics.

A documentary showing the life of Bruce Lee up-close.

A profile of the African-American actress Beah Richards, who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

The uncompromising Tony and Emmy Award-winner is showcased both on and off stage via rare archival footage and intimate cinema vérité.

Whatever happened to this promising young actress from Hollywood? A search for "the woman in the car" through the never-ending suburbia of Los Angeles, where the myth of cinema reigns. A sort of thriller without a corpse.

A portrait of the acting craft of John Cazale and a tour through the movies that defined a generation.

Several voice actors discuss their art and their careers.

This documentary, which was undertaken soon after James Dean's death, looks at Dean's life through the use of still photographs with narration, and interviews with many of the people involved in his short life.

Modern day celebrities interpret excerpts from memoirs written by people who knew Marilyn Monroe as well as her recently discovered personal journals and letters.

Women who have played orphans in "Annie" are brought together in this documentary.

Al Pacino's deeply felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."

Documentary profile of actor Sterling Hayden .

In 1996, Marcello Mastroianni talks about life as an actor. It's an anecdotal and philosophical memoir, moving from topic to topic, fully conscious of a man "of a certain age" looking back. He tells stories about Fellini and De Sica's direction, of using irony in performances, of constantly working (an actor tries to find himself in characters). He's diffident about prizes, celebrates Rome and Paris, salutes Naples and its people. He answers the question, why make bad films; recalls his father and grandfather, carpenters, his mother, deaf in her old age, and his brother, a film editor; he's modest about his looks. In repose, time's swift passage holds Mastroianni inward gaze.

Retrospective on the career of enigmatic screen diva Marlene Dietrich.