OVID

09/19/2025

DETROIT 48202: CONVERSATIONS ALONG A POSTAL ROUTE:

“A truly brilliant and illuminating film. By the simple act of trailing a mail carrier on his route through the city, Pam Sporn presents a stunning alternative history of Detroit that powerfully illustrates the impact that racist housing policies, capital flight, and neoliberalism have had on Black urban communities.” —Robin D.G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History, UCLA

Streaming ONLY on OVID courtesy New Day Films Directed by Pam Sporn

09/18/2025

HOW I LIVE (dir. Meghan Shea) follows the children, their families, and their healthcare providers as they confront the realities of living with cancer in Guatemala, El Salvador, Egypt, Myanmar, and Ghana. Through their journeys, we see the realities of global health inequities, yet also the movement underway to give all children access to treatment.

“Thought-provoking and inspiring.” —Farooq Kazi, The Lancet

Now Streaming on OVID courtesy New Day Films

09/17/2025

“The film is very moving and intimate, and to any of us with an Indian family, it makes a powerful connection." —The Oregonian

CROSSING LINES by Leena Jayaswal & Indira S. Somani tells the story of an Indian American woman’s struggle to stay connected to India after the loss of her father.

Now Streaming ONLY on OVID courtesy New Day Films

Being born and brought up in the U.S., Indira Somani led an American life, but at home, her world was Indian because of her father's immense love for the country. Crossing Lines you on a journey to India, where Indira visits her father's extended family for the first time after his death. It is t...

09/17/2025

Boat rides on the Ganges River are a spiritual experience. LIFE ON THE GANGES (dir. Indira S. Somani) explores an event called “Dev Diwali” alongside the livelihood of one particular boatman.

“Vivid and direct... poignantly juxtaposes scenes of a boatman's humble home life with his young boss's cavalier assessment of the job's long hours and lack of a retirement system.” —Tim Lubin, Professor of Religion, Washington and Lee University

Now Streaming on OVID courtesy New Day Films

Directed by Indira S. Somani • Documentary • With Gauri Shankar • 2017 • 10 minutes In Varanasi, India the boat rides on the Ganges River are part of the spiritual experience and the film introduces the audience to the river, an auspicious event called “Dev Diwali,” and one particular bo...

09/17/2025

The US imprisons more people per capita than any country in the world. A SENTENCE APART (dir. Theo Rigby) follows three stories of people coping with a family member in prison, attempting to bridge broken relationships, and diligently working to reverse the generational cycle of incarceration.

“Speaks volumes about the complexity of issues facing the families and children of the incarcerated… An invaluable tool.” —Ruth Morgan, Executive Director, Community Works West

Now Streaming on OVID courtesy New Day Films

Directed by Theo Rigby, Jason Sussberg • Documentary • 2012 • 11 minutes The United States imprisons more people, per capita, than any country in the world. Behind 2.4 million prisoners lies an infinite ripple effect of incarceration on the family and community. A Sentence Apart follows three ...

09/16/2025

OVID's October presents a week of Bullfrog Films spanning subjects from habitats to quantum science. Other exclusive documentaries include Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha's THE FALLING SKY (pictured): “One of the most necessary and scorching pieces of nonfiction storytelling in recent memory.” (Variety) For narrative features, the tension-drenched drama WHO BY FIRE (NYFF Main Slate, 74th Berlin International Film Festival, Winner, Grand Prix of the International Jury of Generation), Atsushi Yamatoya's seedy 1967 noir INFLATABLE S*X DOLL OF THE WASTELANDS (MVD Entertainment Group), and others to keep you on the edge of your eyeballs! For Halloween, we’ll present the documentary A WITCH STORY, a personal ancestral account of the Salem Witch Trials. All this and more below!

OVID.tv, the curated streaming destination for documentary and art-house films from around the world, announces its wide-ranging selection of 21 new films—16 exclusives!—coming in October 2025.

09/16/2025

In a mission fit for a sci-fi plot, GENESIS 2.0 observes the harsh and dangerous life of hunters on the remote New Siberian Islands searching for tusks of extinct mammoths. Such finds are magnets for high-tech Russian and South Korean clone researchers in search of mammoth cells with intact DNA.

“A double-stranded helix of a real-life thriller, chilling and unforgettable.”
—The Hollywood Reporter

Directed by Christian Frei & Maxim Arbugaev courtesy KimStim

09/15/2025

Nine years after Brexit, Gibraltarians will regain the ability to travel the E.U.’s Schengen area visa-free: "As much as they love being British, Gibraltarians — a conglomeration of Anglo, Spanish, Italian, Maltese, Moroccan and other ethnicities who mostly speak with vaguely English accents — had no interest in distancing themselves from Europe." (source: Steve Hendrix for The Washington Post)

A tiny U.K. territory, Gibraltar has been British since a Spanish king gave up “the Rock” 300 years ago. In 1969, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, closed the entrance to the British territory of Gibraltar, isolating 30,000 people without food, water, or telephone lines. In his words, “The Rock will fall like ripe fruit.”

This doc on THE ROCK gets into the tensions of this region and its complicated history. Streaming on OVID courtesy PRAGDA | Latin Cinema

Directed by Raúl Santos • Documentary • 2011 • 70 minutes In 1969, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, closed the entrance to the British territory of Gibraltar, isolating 30,000 people without food, water, or telephone lines. In his words, “The Rock will fall like ripe fruit.” La Roca is ...

09/15/2025

Born on this Day, Jean Renoir!

OVID recommends the short DIRECTING ACTORS BY JEAN RENOIR. Directed by actor Gisèle Braunberger, the pair offer fascinating insights into Renoir’s approach to developing authentic character.

Streaming on OVID courtesy Icarus Films

Directed by Gisèle Braunberger • Documentary • 1968 • 22 minutes Actor Gisèle Braunberger sits across a small table from Jean Renoir. She leans forward, focusing intently on the director, her hands rhythmically fidgeting, as he outlines the premise of the script page he is about to work thro...

09/13/2025

LEAD BELLY: THE MAN WHO INVENTED ROCK & ROLL
Directed by Curt Hahn
With interviews and performances by Janis Joplin, Harry Belafonte, Paul McCartney, B.B. King, Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Odetta
George Harrison famously claimed: “No Lead Belly, no Beatles.” Revered by countless musicians, the first record Janis Joplin ever bought was by Huddie Leadbetter: Lead Belly, who was born in poverty and went on to become King of the 12-string guitar and the greatest folk singer in the world according to Woody Guthrie.

“The music world knows Lead Belly. It is time everyone else did.” —Michael Doherty’s Music Log

courtesy MVD Entertainment Group

09/12/2025

OVID‘s Film of the Week is SHERMAN’S MARCH by Ross McElwee. McElwee’s new film Remake made waves of critical praise at this year’s Venice Film Festival. We highly recommend this cult classic, wherein McElwee retraces an infamous Civil War path and looks for love in the wake of a bad break-up.

* Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance in 1987.

“[A] masterpiece... McElwee’s style - the almost-zero-budget, one-guy-with-a-camera, real-life approach to big screen narrative - has become a commonplace in the two decades since Sherman’s March, the deeper features that make McElwee’s work so unique, moving and funny now set him apart from his contemporaries more clearly than ever.” —James Meek, The Guardian

Streaming on OVID courtesy First Run Features

Seen it? Check out more films by McElwee on OVID’s dedicated filmmaker page!

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Directed by Ross McElwee • Documentary • 1986 • 155 minutes When First Run released Ross McElwee's Sundance Award winning Sherman's March in 1986, it went on to become one of the largest grossing documentaries ever. Audiences and critics alike fell in love with McElwee's "quirky, funny and fas...

09/12/2025

“Stylistic verve, sophisticated, compelling!” —Slant Magazine

Katô Tai's TOKIJIRO LONE YAKUZA tells the story of a gambling drifter honor-bound to a gang boss who leaves him with no choice but to kill a man. To atone for his crime, he vows to take care of his victim’s widow and young son, but the gang won’t rest until they’ve killed the entire family – including the man who stands in their way.

on OVID courtesy Radiance Films .films + MVD Entertainment Group