Movies like Crude Oil (2008)

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (2013)

Taking inspiration from Peter M. Bracke's definitive book of the same name, this seven-hour documentary dives into the making of all twelve Friday the 13th films, with all-new interviews from the cast and the crew.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Live Aid (1985)

Live Aid was held on 13 July 1985, simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States. It was one of the largest scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: watched live by an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations. "It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid...!"

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2004)

A detailed look at the gradual decline of Shenyang’s industrial Tiexi district, an area that was once a vibrant example of China’s socialist economy. But industry is changing, and the factories of Tiexi are closing. Director Wang Bing introduces us to some of the workers affected by the closures, and to their families.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

The Untold History Of The United States (2012)

Oliver Stone charts the history of the United States from the Second World War to the present.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

O.J.: Made in America (2016)

A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Railway Station (1980)

Warsaw's Central Railway Station. 'Someone has fallen asleep, someone's waiting for somebody else. Maybe they'll come, maybe they won't. The film is about people looking for something.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

California Company Town (2008)

Lee Anne Schmitt explores California's landscape and past to document the history of one-time boom towns built and abandoned by the industries that necessitated their creation. Sold as a limitless land expansive with free opportunity, California was actually, from its onset, fissured by the interwoven needs of private and public interests. Schmitt's film covers various locations through time, as the major industries of the early 20th century (mining, lumber, oil) give way to the military, eventually leading to multinational corporations, and the use of small towns as satellites for growing urban metropolises.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Miners Shot Down (2014)

In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days later the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more. Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, Miners Shot Down follows the strike from day one, showing the courageous but isolated fight waged by a group of low-paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company Lonmin, the ANC government and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Children of Labor: A Finnish-American History (1977)

How Finnish immigrants came into contact — and conflict — with industrial America. Three generations of Finnish-Americans recount how they coped with harsh realities by creating their own institutions: churches, temperance halls, socialist halls, and cooperatives.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

The United Kibbutz Newsreel #2 (1955)

The inauguration ceremony of the monument to the victims of the Harel Brigade of the Palmach during the War of Independence in the cemetery in Kiryat Anavim. A glimpse into the work of the fishermen of Kibbutz Nachsholim on their ship Nachshol, sailing towards the fishing grounds off the coast of Turkey. A veterinarian performs surgery and removes nails and glass from a cow’s stomach. And finally, a request not to throw away cigarette waste where it could cause a fire.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

The Hand That Feeds (2014)

Behind the scenes of a popular deli on New York's Upper East Side, undocumented immigrant workers face sublegal wages, dangerous machinery, and abusive managers. Mild-mannered sandwich maker Mahoma López has never been interested in politics, but in Jan. 2012, he convinces a small group of his co-workers to fight back. Risking deportation and the loss of livelihood, the workers team up with a diverse crew of innovative young organizers and take the unusual step of forming an independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. In one rollercoaster year, they must overcome a shocking betrayal and a two month lockout. Lawyers will battle in backroom negotiations, Occupy Wall Street protesters will take over the restaurant, and a picket line will divide the neighborhood. If they can win a contract, it will set a historic precedent for low-wage workers across the country. But whatever happens, Mahoma and his compañeros won't be exploited again.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

A Fire (1961)

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), formed upon nationalization of the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, employed film systematically, producing many films on oil and petrochemical subjects. It also made films depicting Iran's progress and modernization, highlighting the role of the Shah and NIOC in that direction. Under its auspices, Ebrahim Golestan directed A FIRE (1961), a highly visual treatment of a seventy-day oil well fire in the Khuzestan region of southwestern Iran. This film was edited by the Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad and won two awards at the Venice Film Festival in 1961.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

The Curious Case of Curt Flood (2011)

Inside the life of former baseball star Curt Flood whose fight against MLB's 'Reserve Clause' led to reform, but destroyed his career.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

La Part des singes (2021)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Tipping Point: The End of Oil (2011)

In an oil-scarce world, we know there are sacrifices to be made in the pursuit of energy. What no one expected was that a tiny Native community, living down the river from Canada's tar sands, would reach out to the world for help — and be heard.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Play On (2017)

What happens when subcontracted precarious workers turn into podcast DJ. Subcontracted precarious workers at the SK Broadband, Inc. began a podcast titled ‘Workers Have Changed!’ to broadcast the story about their strike for job security. The podcast studio becomes a theater of their life as they share their stories - daily hardshipsof subcontracted labor, coping with rude customers, and their futures and dreams.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Le Capitaine H (1961)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Jobs for All! (2021)

A highly choreographed review of the Industrial Age as we know it today – an intense and playful roller coaster ride that demands the viewer confronts how “work works.” Culled entirely from archival footage, the film unfolds in the filmmakers’ trademark, and humorously critical, cinematic voices.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

The Year They Discovered People (1974)

In the 1920s, Western Electric Company ordered a series of studies to be conducted at their plant in Cicero, Illinois. At first they wanted to see how lighting affected productivity on the factory floor. Researchers also interviewed employees to hear their ideas and opinions about company policies, management, and other subjects. These were the Hawthorne studies, landmark research in industrial and organizational psychology. In the early 1970s, some of the participants of this study—researchers and workers alike--reunited and reminisced about their involvement.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Nuuca (2018)

In this evocative meditation, a disturbing link is made between the resource extraction industries’ exploitation of the land and violence inflicted on Indigenous women and girls. Or, as one young woman testifies, “Just as the land is being used, these women are being used.”

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Earth 2100 (2009)

Experts say over the next hundred years the "perfect storm" of population growth, resource depletion and climate change could converge with catastrophic results. The scenarios in Earth 2100 are not a prediction of what will happen but rather a warning about what might happen.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)

A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

The Hasty Man Drinks His Tea with a Fork (2003)

A blend of drama and documentary, this film follows several people caught up in the turmoil of the modern world. The drama centres on a woman who has burned out and who holds up her own despair – and her attempts to rebuild her life – as a mirror to the rest of us. With a blend of gravity and humour, Sylvie Groulx's film shows the absurdity of a society dedicated to the cult of speed at all costs.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

With Sea Views (2021)

After consolidating itself as a tourist destination in the mid-1960s, this small coastal village has become the dormitory town for the workers of a Nuclear Power Plant. With the liberal promise of prosperity and socioeconomic wellfare, many workers left their homes to move to the small city and started working at the new Nuclear Power Plant. The collective unrest and the silence, cut off by the great gusts of wind, articulate the landscape of the village that is now under the aid of the Nuclear Power Plant.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Yama – Attack to Attack (1985)

This extraordinary documentary is an unflinching record of the workers’ struggle during Japan’s economic rebirth in the 1980s, centered on Tokyo’s Sanya “yoseba”—a slum community dating from the 19th century where day laborers lived in terrible conditions while they sought work.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary