Who enjoys a good doco every now and then? I'd like to think that everybody has their hands up right now - that not everyone is so engrossed in celebdom that they wouldn't spend a small chunk of their time on earth to watch something about the world around us that's really interesting, useful or valuable in some way . 
What is a documentary? Broadly speaking, a documentary film attempts to capture and document reality. Companies such as Disney began making documentaries about the animal kingdom some decades ago and have recently produced a movie called Earth which earned $32 million at the US box office, behind Fahrenheit 9/11 and March of the Penguins. $32 million doesn't sound like much for a movie revenue, but apparently that's pretty good takings for a documentary. Unfortunately, many documentaries might be interesting, useful or valuable but they are not deemed commercially viable, and therefore don't get sufficient distribution time in theatres. This of course reduces the likelhood that they will be seen. So it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. Fortunately, there are there other avenues of distribution available, and one of these is the internet.
Online documentaries are gaining in popularity, there are so many sites available where viewers can search and watch movies online for free (just do a Google search for online documentaries). Here are a few to get you started: Top Documentary Films Watch Documentaries Online Documentary Films.net and here is an online film festival site; Culture unplugged Tv stations such as the BBC, ABC, and SBS often broadcast some of their documentary shows online after they've been shown on tv, and are a good way to catch up on missed episodes. the best things is, viewers are not restricted to their country of origin, and can watch movies from anywhere inthe world. Check them out!
Just about any topic that one might be interested in is available, and many old movies can be also be found. Now's the time to seek out that old film you wanted to see many moons ago and never got around to. Online documentaries also provide a wealth of useful reference information and resources for teachers and students, such as the movie - A Class Divided - based on a classroom experiment by a teacher in Iowa in 1968 demonstrating to the 3rd graders what discrimination means. The original movie was called Eye of the Storm. This topic is still as valuable now as it was then, probably more so, as teachers would not be able to conduct activities such as this today.
Just about any topic that one might be interested in is available, and many old movies can be also be found. Now's the time to seek out that old film you wanted to see many moons ago and never got around to. Online documentaries also provide a wealth of useful reference information and resources for teachers and students, such as the movie - A Class Divided - based on a classroom experiment by a teacher in Iowa in 1968 demonstrating to the 3rd graders what discrimination means. The original movie was called Eye of the Storm. This topic is still as valuable now as it was then, probably more so, as teachers would not be able to conduct activities such as this today.
Michael Moore is a name that readily springs to mind when the word documentary is mentioned, and many of his films can be found for free online all over the internet. Moore is well-known for his insights and critique of almost everything crappy about being an American - gun ownership, fast food & consumerism, the health system, big business & capitalism, and of course the Bush government.
Other individual and group activists may perhaps not be as well known, but still have a chance to be heard, which is the best thing about using the internet as a distribution method. Movies can be as short as just a few minutes, cheaply produced and easily uploaded to YouTube, yet viewed by many millions of people. Clips and longer movies can be viewed on topics as diverse as Childhood Consumerism, Human Trafficking, Hospitals in Haiti, Interview with an Apartheid spy, and Life in African refugee camps. These issues are very deserving of being disseminated to the world at large so that everyone can know what is going on without constant mediation by traditional media sources.
Youtube in particular provides a special place where people can load their films without having to have special skills, to pay fees or to host their own website or pay to use someone else's. This provides a unique opportunity for personal expression about issues of 'reaality' that can be documented for viewing by other people, for information, or to prompt the viewer into action. Emma Thompson has been instrumental in bringing to light the plight of women and children being trafficked as sex slaves and has been filmed in a shocking clip to further promote public awareness - view story and video clip here or at YouTube. These may not be the most pleasant of topics to curl up on the couch and watch, but may be quite worthwhile in understanding other people's lives, and appreciating how fortunate many of us are, if nothing else.
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