Movies Similar to The Volunteer Archivists

Nani Ma(2022)

Musamoni Panigrahi (1920s–2017), fondly called “Nani Ma” by her neighbours, appears in the centre of this first film in the Baleswari dialect of India's Odia language. The story revolves around folklore and folk songs narrated by Nani Ma. Born in the 1920s in pre-independent rural India in a coastal village in the Balasore district of Odisha, she never got to go beyond the first few days of school. The film is an alternate history of a society broken through colonization, Brahminical patriarchy and a post-famine (Orissa famine of 1866, killing nearly 5 million people, one-third of the population), and the dominance of formal writing over spoken tongues. Three academics -- Damayanti Beshra, PhD (recipient of India’s fourth civilian award, “Padma Shri”), Panchanan Mohanty, PhD (noted linguist), and Laxmikanta Tripathy, PhD, DLitt (anthropologist and author) -- also appear in the film to provide contextual commentary on patriarchy, oral history and the sociolinguistic diversity.

10.0

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project(2019)

Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.

6.7

Beyond Paper(2022)

At a critical moment in the history of the written word, as humanity’s archives migrate to the cloud, one filmmaker goes on a journey around the globe to better understand how she can preserve her own Romanian and Armenian heritage, as well as our collective memory. Blending the intellectual with the poetic, she embarks on a personal quest with universal resonance, navigating the continuum between paper and digital—and reminding us that human knowledge is above all an affair of the soul and the spirit.

8.0

The End of Memory(2015)

Each day, some 2.5 trillion bytes of data are exchanged, a deluge known as "big data." How can we classify, store, and give meaning to this mass of digital information? Will our digital society remain capable of producing a lasting memory? Learn the fate of memory storage in the future.

7.0

Resurrecting Sinistar: A Cyber-Archaeology Documentary(2025)

Two-years in the making, SynaMax takes viewers on a journey into the extensive cyber-archaeology research involved with restoring the source code and documenting the development history to the 1983 arcade game, Sinistar. Featuring exclusive interviews with project lead and software engineer Noah Falstein, sound engineer Mike Metz, and video game designer John Newcomer, this video offers a very comprehensive glimpse into one of the most innovative video games from the early '80s.

0.0

A Life's Work(2020)

What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.

7.0

Victorian Britain on Film(2021)

Offers audiences a unique window into a bygone era when a thrilling new invention, the motion picture camera, first captures a nation on film.

0.0

Ananta(2025)

"Randi Pua Ananta" follows the journey of Ananta, a notorious troublemaker who undergoes a remarkable transformation into a selfless hero. When a devastating flood threatens his village, Ananta makes the ultimate sacrifice to save his people, proving that redemption can come in the most unexpected ways.

7.0

Hakim Babu(1985)

A man from lower social background qualifies and gets an administration job and to match his higher social occupation, he leaves his family, friends, and fiance. But gradually he understands his mistake and returns for his people. Finally he finds his wrong decision for the mining in his village has lead to the destruction and down fall of his people and everyone lives the village and him behind alone.

0.0

Byaase Sunucha(2022)

A Carefree Artist confronts The Pioneer of Odia literature Byaasakabi Fakir Mohan, to lament about the current state of the Odia Language and how it has been looked down upon by the elites of the state. Will his voice be heard?

0.0

Bringing Down a Mountain

A rural village never wanted to be a city’s landfill or a distant blur in Reels but rather home to new imaginations. Bringing Down a Mountain dissects the intersecting themes of access, abolition and caste through the experiences of residents of a rural village and that of a hyper-urban city. The film follows the village residents’ dreams—of mobile data, digital payment and relief from menial work. What happens when the landfill is full, and dreams want to break free?

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A Dangerous Game(2014)

In this sequel to the award-winning You’ve Been Trumped, director Anthony Baxter once again follows American billionaire Donald Trump and a cast of other greedy characters who want to turn some of the Earth’s most precious places into golf courses and playgrounds for the super rich. From the historic site of Dubrovnik to the ancient sand dunes and rolling green hills of the seaside town of Balmedie, these tycoons bully local residents, influence governments, ignore local referendums and even meddle in national environmental policies to acquire their latest trophies. With in-depth interviews and Baxter’s expert storytelling, we learn just how devastating these golf courses can be to the surrounding countryside and water tables. In this funny, inspiring and at times heartbreaking David and Goliath story for the 21st century, the locals don’t give in easily. But will their fight be enough to protect their land and traditional way of life?

6.5

Korengal(2014)

Korengal picks up where Restrepo left off; the same men, the same valley, the same commanders, but a very different look at the experience of war.

6.6

Spying on Hitler’s Army: The Secret Recordings(2013)

British intelligence undertook an audacious operation to listen in on the private conversations of 10,000 German prisoners of war without their ever knowing they were being overheard. The prisoners' unguarded reminiscences and unintentional confessions have only just come to light, and prove how closely the German army were involved in the atrocities of the Holocaust. British intelligence requisitioned three stately homes for this epic task, and converted each into an elaborate trap. The 100,000 hours of conversation they captured provided crucial intelligence that changed the course of the war, and revealed some of its worst horrors, from rape to mass executions to one of the earliest bulletins from the concentration camps. But when the fighting ended, the recordings were destroyed and the transcripts locked away for half a century. Only now have they been declassified, researched and cross-referenced.

9.5

A Few Stories About a Man(1983)

The film is a portrait of Jerzy Orłowski, an armless graphic artist. Impressionistic scenes present the protagonist in various situations: when he has to deal with everyday chores, when he jumps into water, skis and draws. Even the simplest activity requires struggle, resilience and outstanding fitness from him. Many takes are in slow motion, contemplating the smallest detail, which the director is so skilfully able to bring out.

7.7

Saul Bass: Title Champ(2008)

Set to a bebop jazz beat, this documentary brings to life the extraordinary work of graphic designer Saul Bass, whose groundbreaking title sequences for Hitchcock's films transformed the art of movie titles. Through interviews with directors such as Martin Scorsese and Guillermo del Toro, this film reveals why Bass is still considered the medium's greatest artist.

6.7

Elián(2017)

The story of Elián Gonzalez, a five-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits, and how the fight for his future changed the course of U.S.-Cuba relations. Featuring personal testimony, interviews, and a news archive, this documentary recounts Elián’s remarkable rescue on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, after his mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba perished at sea, and the custody battle between the boy’s Cuban father and his Miami-based relatives.

6.5

Sport in America: Our Defining Stories(2013)

Athletes and fans explore the impact of sports on the lives of Americans.

8.0

Momo: The Missouri Monster(2019)

In the summer of 1972, a hair-covered, three-toed monstrosity prowls the forests of Star Hill near Louisiana, Missouri, where it unleashes a campaign of terror against residents.

4.3

Pyotr Martynovich And The Years Of Great Life(1976)

A semi-documentary biography film about the life and work of Soviet film actor Pyotr Aleynikov. Includes newsreels from the 1930s, footage from films featuring Aleynikov and interviews with his closest friends and colleagues.

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