Interviews, reenactments, animations, and more tell the story of the Black army regiments, formed after the Civil War, who played vital roles (from railroad builders to park rangers) in the American settling of the West.
When a thriving, top-ranked African American elementary school is threatened to be replaced by a new high school favoring the community’s wealthier residents, parents, students and educators fight for the elementary school’s survival.
Director Yasmin C. Rams invites us on her journey to try and heal from epilepsy through several forms of therapy that are frowned upon by her own family. A first-person account that brims with charm and hope but is deeply rooted in skepticism, Yasmin’s film portrays people from all around the world who tell her about how they deal with their chronic illnesses using the tools of natural medicine. Will she stop having seizures?
The campaign to free Julian Assange takes on intimate dimensions in this documentary portrait of an elderly man’s fight to save his son. Arguably the world’s most famous political prisoner, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a figure pretty much everybody has an opinion about; perhaps more importantly, he serves as the emblem of an international arm wrestle over freedom of journalism, government corruption and unpunished war crimes. For his family members who face the prospect of losing him forever to the abyss of the US justice system, however, this David-and-Goliath struggle is personal – and, with his health declining in a British maximum-security prison and American government prosecutors pulling out all the stops to extradite him, the clock is ticking.
Opera confronts us with extremes of emotion, sometimes delivering unforgettable, life-changing experiences. Fuoro sacro (‘Sacred Fire’) seeks out singers who have the power to pierce our hearts, presenting three of them at work in the most intimate details of their rehearsals and preparations. Ermonela Jaho, Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian are watched closely as some of their secrets are revealed: how they inhabit their roles and transform words and notation on a page into that intangible but powerful magic being communicated to audiences from the opera stage. Over 90 minutes of extras are included featuring vocal warm-ups and live performances accompanied by pianists Evgenia Rubinova, Reinbert de Leeuw and Francesco Piemontesi.
In an epic three-part documentary series, FRONTLINE investigates the decades-long failure to confront the threat of climate change and the role of the fossil fuel industry. Part, One charts the fossil fuel industry’s early research on climate change and investigates industry efforts to sow seeds of doubt about the science. Part Two explores the industry’s efforts to stall climate policy, even as evidence about climate change grew more certain in the new millennium. And as leading climate scientists issue new warnings about climate change, Part Three examines how the fossil fuel industry worked to delay the transition to renewable energy sources — including by promoting natural gas as a cleaner alternative.
"Now I Know Where to Find you" is a story about my childhood in Spain and the trip I made to Argentina when I was 12 years old. One day I decided that I wanted to live with my father. I missed him too much. 10,000 km later a whole new life began for me, but my childhood memories didn't fade away. And, of all these memories, the memory of my yaya (grandmother) was always vivid. She raised me as if I was her own son, when none of my parents were ready to do that.
'Oski' is an intimate portrait of a young prodigy and the culture that surrounds him. A film documenting a year in the life of skateboarding sensation Oskar ‘Oski’ Rozenberg as he transforms from cool street skater to celebrity sportsman competing in the Olympics. The demands of being a sportman with a shot at the gold medal in Tokyo weighs hard on Oski. It’s obvious that he is not your everyday athlete. Can his sport, and his culture survive the transition from underground to mainstream? And will he loose himself and everything dear to him in the process? 'Oski' explores the history of a subculture at a pivotal point in its history and how a humble and different thinking athlete, loved and adored by thousands of skateboarders all around the world, struggles to find his own path in life as an adult and sportsman.
A young Jewish woman named Helena Citron is taken to Auschwitz, where she develops an unlikely romantic relationship with Franz Wunsch, a high-ranking SS officer. Thirty years later, a letter arrives from Wunsch's wife asking Helena to testify on Wunsch's behalf. Faced with an impossible decision, Helena must choose. Will she help the man who brutalized so many lives but saved hers?
Doolittle's Raiders pull off a one-way bombing run over Tokyo and ditch their planes in and along the coast of China, where they are rescued by Chinese villagers, guerrillas, and missionaries. That generosity triggers horrific retaliation by the Japanese that claims an estimated quarter-million lives and prompts comparisons to the 1937-38 Rape of Nanking. The memory of the Raiders and their rescuers is kept alive by their children and grandchildren.
Dave Evans was a renowned prosthetist, humanitarian and peace activist. A double amputee himself, he dedicated his post-military career to transforming lives shattered by these seemingly never-ending, interchangeable wars. From Syrian refugees in a prosthetics clinic in Amman, Jordan, to the fallout of war in places like Iraq, Dave chose a life of service to others.
It's a subject we don't talk about. And yet, throughout the world, our toilets are undergoing a revolution unparalleled since the 19th century. Bill Gates is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop new types of toilet. India is installing millions of latrines so that no-one defecates in the open air any more. A public health issue, of course, but also a fable about our relationship with our most basic waste.
Despite Blacks making up only 7% of Madison WI's population, they are leading in so many important areas from education to politics, and are launching so many multi-million dollar projects that people describe this period as a "Black Renaissance."
This is Not Me tells the story of unhappy gay men who have had to marry women to hide their sexual orientation in the face of societal and family pressure in Turkey, and their own internal conflicts. The three main characters of the film, Mustafa, Mehmet and Yusuf migrated to Istanbul from small towns and come from conservative families. The film reveals each characters’ world: exhausted from continually playing at social roles and lying about their identity, faltering between their reality and their dreams, frustrated and stuck in their lives. It also looks at the subject from the aspect of women who are the other victims of these marriages. Mehmet and Yusuf, both married to women, act the part of heterosexual males and family men within their own social circles.
The story of the special U.S. Air Force squadron whose pilots volunteered for one of the Vietnam War’s most dangerous air missions. Their assignment: search for enemy supply transports and anti-aircraft installations concealed within the web of trail paths and waterways collectively known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The squadron also directed rescue operations for U.S. and allied aircrews shot down.
A lagoon in Cuba suddenly dries up. All that remains of this lost landscape is an old painting with faded contours. This is the starting point for Violeta Mora’s quest: how does one remember a landscape that is no longer there? She then interviews those who do remember it, in an attempt to make the lagoon reappear.
Barbara Marcel runs a film workshop at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Kinshasa. Starting with a discussion of the film The Lion Has Seven Heads by Glauber Rocha (Congo Brazzaville, 1969), the filmmaker questions the relationship between her country, Brazil, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Marlene offers an impassioned consideration of militant filmmaking.
After the impressive Gulistan, Land of Roses (VdR 2016), the Kurdish filmmaker Zaynê Akyol returns with these conversations with imprisoned members of the Islamic State, alternating their words with aerial views of the countryside. An unexpected look at a far-reaching current political issue and a film whose subject matter and rhythm create an impressive cinematic object.
Discover the process behind Charli XCX’s 2020 quarantine album "how i'm feeling now", created in 40 days during the COVID-19 pandemic, including its semi-collaborative nature with her community of online fans.