The story of three lifelong friends who overcame domestic violence, substance abuse and depression to form Life of Agony, one of the most influential bands in its genre, led by the very first openly transgender singer. Through the success of their groundbreaking 1993 debut "River Runs Red", hailed by Rolling Stone as "One of the Greatest Metal Albums of All Time", they channeled their cumulative life stories into a soundtrack for a broken generation. This new found fame allowed them to suppress the tragedies of their past, but in its wake new obstacles arose.
This illuminating documentary explores the life of a unique American artist, a man with a remarkable and unlikely biography. Bill Traylor was born into slavery in 1853 on a cotton plantation in rural Alabama. After the Civil War, Traylor continued to farm the land as a sharecropper until the late 1920s. Aging and alone, he moved to Montgomery and worked odd jobs in the thriving segregated black neighborhood. A decade later, in his late 80s, Traylor became homeless and started to draw and paint, both memories from plantation days and scenes of a radically changing urban culture. He made well over a thousand drawings and paintings between 1939-1942. This colorful, strikingly modernist work eventually led him to be recognized as one of America’s greatest self-taught artists and the subject of a Smithsonian retrospective.
The documentary Schwarze Adler (Black Eagles) lets black players of the German national football team tell their personal stories for the first time. What road did they take before they got to where we cheer for them? What hurdles did they have to overcome? What prejudices and racist hostility were they exposed to – and what was it like in the past, what is it like today?
It is a remarkable story of personal endeavour following professional surfer, Laura Enever who leaves a comfortable place on the WSL Championship Tour to explore the unpredictable world of big-wave surfing.
A glimpse into the raw and simple power of nature through encounters with farm animals: the eponymous Gunda, a mother pig; two cows, and a one-legged chicken.
The American Craft Beer movement began with a group of restless homebrewers searching for something genuine and flavorful. Today it’s evolved into a redefinition of beer and an international cultural phenomenon. That uniquely American spirit of rebellion and innovation survives in two groups of homebrewers from Long Beach, California who are looking to open their own breweries and bring their beers to the world. These include a Christian father-son team who grew close over making beer and a retired rock star looking for the “quiet" existence of a brewery owner. With the insight and commentary of legendary brewers Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada), Fritz Maytag (Anchor Brewing), Charlie Papazian, Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head), Jim Koch (Boston Brewing) and others, BREWMANCE reveals the soul of craft beer in the heart of America.
A documentary that paints a remarkable picture of America and how the rise of civic and economic reinvention is transforming small cities and towns across the country. Based on journalists James and Deborah Fallows' book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America, the film spotlights local initiatives and explores how a sense of community and common language of change can help people and towns find a different path to the future.
Filmed over eight years, Rothman follows a group of adolescents who discover that they were conceived from the same sperm donor, forming an unlikely family of familiar strangers. There are presently 37 half-siblings, and counting. This documentary explores the complexities of alternative conception while defining a new realm of modern family.
Contemporary artist Trevor Paglen is known for his political and mind-blowing art pieces on global mass surveillance, data collection, and artificial intelligence. This visually stunning and immersive film follows Paglen as he travels through the desolate Nevada desert while discussing the motivation for his latest and most audacious project: launching a satellite into orbit. Stunning cinematography, trippy computer graphics, and a percussive score imbue this compelling documentary with an ethereal tone that perfectly captures the provocative and breathtaking beauty of Paglen’s work.
In a dramatic attempt to bring attention to climate change, an international expedition led by renowned explorer Will Steger embarked on the first-ever coast-to-coast expedition across Antarctica in 1989. Six men and their sled dogs braved howling storms, sub-zero temperatures, snow crevasses, and other perils as they traversed the icy terrain. Tasha Van Zandt’s enthralling feature debut catches up with Steger 30 years later as he revisits the frigid continent, deftly weaving his contemporary journey with rare, dynamic footage of his original, treacherous seven-month odyssey.
A documentary film exploring humanity's relationship with technology and with the natural world. Shot over a 5-year period in more than 30 countries, the film pioneers new timelapse, time-dilation, underwater, and aerial cinematography techniques to give audiences new eyes with which to see our world.
The life and career of Brazilian singer Chorão, Charlie Brown Jr's frontman. The story of one of the most important rock stars in Brazil, from testimonies about his personal and professional life and archival footage. Beginning in the early 1990s, when his band released their first album and hit the radio stations, Chorão lived two intense decades of national and international success, full of controversial moments, until his premature death in 2013.
The unbelievable story of Leonid Bernshtein, a young Jewish soldier who rose to become the leader and led the operation to destroy the secret facility of the notorious Nazi V2 ballistic missiles.
The hospitality industry is the artistic heartbeat of New York. Thousands of artists, musicians, and actors flock to Queens to work in the service industry to supplement their dreams. In March of 2020 these dreamers put their lives on hold, self- isolating and sacrificing their income as Queens became the global epicenter of COVID-19. LAST CALL follows two local bars and frontline workers in a tale of two sacrifices that saved not only the lives of thousands but also the future of New York.
In Alaska's last native reserve, two cousins lead their local basketball team to its first state championship in more than thirty years. That quest is the only thing that will bring life back to a remote island that has been rocked by tragedy.
Leaving Tracks tells the intimate and compelling story of the founder of the Haas Moto Museum, and his immense impact on the lives of the custom builders whose masterpieces elevate the Museum to the pinnacle of its industry.