Movies Like In Praise of Hands

Yarigai

2023

Takumi: A 60,000 Hour Story on the Survival of Human Craft

2019

There is a popular theory that it takes at least 10,000 hours of focused practice for a human to become expert in any field. In Japan, there are craftspeople who go far beyond this to reach a special kind of mastery. These people are called Takumi and they devote 60,000 hours to their craft. That's 8 hours a day, 240 days a year, for over 30 years. It's an almost superhuman level of dedication to a life of repetition and no shortcuts. This film asks the question: Will human craft disappear as artificial intelligence reaches beyond our limits?

No Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad

2013

A documentary about the making of season five of the acclaimed AMC series Breaking Bad.

Baraka

1992

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

CircleSpeak

2005

Shot in Southern England over the course of six weeks by a crew of three American filmmakers, CircleSpeak offers a nuanced look at the passions and beliefs of the people immersed in the crop circle phenomenon during the season of 2001. This feature-length documentary presents interviews with serious “researchers”, self-proclaimed “hoaxers”, local farmers and villagers who are all, in one way or another, involved in this strange and compelling summer spectacle taking place year after year.

Inside The Dream: Dior

2023

Unraveling the mystery of perfume creation, the House of Dior is opening its doors. Over the course of a year, we followed new perfumer Francis Kurkdjian in one of his greatest challenges: reinventing the iconic "J'adore". A unique sensory journey, from conception to launch, into a secret world of passionate artisans.

Les Couturiers de l'Église

2016

Springtails: The hidden soldiers of Earth

2024

Who knows about springtails? And among those for whom this name rings a bell, how many have already seen them? Yet, these small animals, similar to insects, are present in all terrestrial ecosystems. Springtails are undisputed soil regulators. Scientists recognize them today as absolutely essential, especially in the search for pollutants, disruptors, and all the variations that affect our soils, but this little animal is almost unknown. Thanks to extremely precise cameras, as close as possible to these microscopic animals, a teeming life is revealed before our eyes. According to the seasons, the film invites us to get into the intimacy of the springtails, to discover their morphology, their role and their usefulness in the ecosystems of the planet while rubbing shoulders with other organisms in the same environments.

John Candy: I Like Me

2025

Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.

The Skywalker Legacy

2020

The story lives forever in this feature-length documentary that charts the making of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema

2022

With mesmerizing footage and time lapses of animators at work, this behind-the-scenes special captures the artistry of a unique tale years in the making.

Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20

2022

An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.

Passfire

2016

A film about fireworks, the people who make them and the cultures behind them across the globe.

Objectified

2009

A feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye

2022

Join the likes of Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Florence Pugh, and Vincent D’Onofrio as they reveal how Marvel Studios’ “Hawkeye” was conceived and created. Witness firsthand what it took to pull off the show’s pulse-pounding action set pieces, and discover how iconic characters from the pages of Marvel Comics such as Kate Bishop were adapted and brought to life for the six-episode series.

Happy

2012

Happy is a 2011 feature documentary film directed, written, and co-produced by Roko Belic. It explores human happiness through interviews with people from all walks of life in 14 different countries, weaving in the newest findings of positive psychology. Director Roko Belic was originally inspired to create the film after producer/director Tom Shadyac (Liar, Liar, Patch Adams, Bruce Almighty) showed him an article in the New York Times entitled "A New Measure of Well Being From a Happy Little Kingdom". The article ranks the United States as the 23rd happiest country in the world. Shadyac then suggested that Belic make a documentary about happiness. Belic spent several years interviewing over 20 people, ranging from leading happiness researchers to a rickshaw driver in Kolkatta, a family living in a "co-housing community" in Denmark, a woman who was run over by a truck, a Cajun fisherman, and more.

Girl Rising

2013

Nine filmmakers each profile a young girl from a different part of the world to weave a global tapestry of youth in the 21st century.

The Matrix Revisited

2001

The film goes behind the scenes of the 1999 sci-fi movie The Matrix.