We've sought ease, comfort and wealth - but are people happier with more money? What is the science behind a good life? Following several people over a typical year, "A Small Good Thing" looks at the simple sources of human happiness.
Yallah! Underground follows some of today’s most influential and progressive artists in Arab underground culture from 2009 to 2013 and documents their work, dreams and fears in a time of great change for Arab societies. In a region full of tension, young Arab artists in the Middle East have struggled for years to express themselves freely and to promote more liberal attitudes within their societies. During the Arab Spring, like many others of this new generation, local artists had high hopes for the future and took part in the protests. However, after years of turmoil and instability, young Arabs now have to challenge both old and new problems, being torn between feelings of disillusion and a vague hope for a better future.
The journey of 12 people who share the common bond of losing 100 pounds on average and then embarking on one of the biggest challenges of their lives - the 200 mile mega distance Ragnar Relay Race.
Twenty-five years after Roseanne Barr’s groundbreaking number-one sitcom, Roseanne for President tells the tale of her 2012 grassroots campaign for President of the United States. While Roseanne may have revolutionized the way Americans talked about family, class, race, gender, and gay rights, this campaign trail adventure is a personal account of Roseanne’s thoughts on these subjects—and others, as we have never heard them before. What seems at first like a political profile quickly becomes a humorous and sentimental picture of an icon. This surprising journey uncovers raw and revealing moments from Roseanne’s private world, while juxtaposing her current influence as a politician with her role as a comedy leader in the '90s.
Through interviews filmed over four years, Noam Chomsky unpacks the principles that have brought us to the crossroads of historically unprecedented inequality – tracing a half-century of policies designed to favor the most wealthy at the expense of the majority – while also looking back on his own life of activism and political participation. He provides penetrating insight into what may well be the lasting legacy of our time – the death of the middle class, and swan song of functioning democracy.
Amy Kohn’s fascinating documentary offers a peek into the practice of Christian courtship, wherein a woman hands over the responsibility of finding a husband to her parents and the will of God. Such is the path for Kelly, who after growing up happily in a secular family is prompted to alter the course of her own life after her parents’ divorce. Enter Ron and Dawn Wright, a Christian couple who offer to serve as Kelly’s adopted spiritual-family through the courtship process. Now in her 30s, Kelly lives with the Wrights, relying on them to scout and vet all of her prospective partners, as she vows to save her next kiss for the altar.
Following the journey of an Evangelical minister trying to find the courage to preach about the growing toll of gun violence in America. Reverend Rob Schenck, anti-abortion activist and fixture on the political far right, breaks with orthodoxy by questioning whether being pro-gun is consistent with being pro-life.
Described by LA Times as the 'Foremost Doodler of Rap', this hilariously endearing film follows 7-year-old rap portraitist, Yung Lenox, and his Dad, Skip - an unconventional artistic duo simultaneously navigating the tumultuous worlds of rap and modern-day-parenting. Through Lenox's eyes, ears and encounters with Kool Keith and Cam'ron, the film presents an innocent entry point into the idolized and often explicit world of hip hop. It reconsiders the age-old parental advisory debate and realities of a kid growing up in an adult world. As Skip confronts criticism about his intentions and parenting, Lenox remains unfazed. He isn't listening to any of it. In his world, art is 'medium important' compared to school, Lego's and Minecraft. And that's why the kid is everyone's favorite artist.
The ivory trade is a cruel business. Every 15 minutes an elephant is killed for its ivory. 65 percent of the continents elephants have been killed for their ivory in the last five years. Crime syndicates involved in gun, drug and human trafficking reap huge profits from the ivory trade. So do dangerous terrorist groups including Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab. These terrorists threaten the safety and stability of Africa and the national security of the United States.
In the early 2000s, two brothers found tremendous success when their company began selling a device that has been called 'the biggest revolution in law enforcement since the radio.' But as their company grew, they made decisions that would have lasting impact on both the public and their increasingly skeptical customer base.
The relationship between an old single-floor house and her neighbor residence. There is the pink house and her ex-residents on one side, and the new neighbors on the other side. We witness their feelings and views about each other, and their dreams about the city, of course together with the scenery from their windows.
In 2014, scientists declared West Antarctic ice sheet melt unstoppable, threatening the future of our planet. A group of world-class researchers is in a race to understand climate change in the fastest winter-warming place on earth: the West Antarctic Peninsula. Trekking through dangerous and uncharted landscape, these scientists push the limits of their research and come to terms with the sacrifices necessary to understand this rapidly changing world.
August 16, 1977. All of America was stunned by the news of Elvis Presley's untimely passing. Some went so far as to believe that it couldn't be true. Somehow he had faked his death. For the executives at Sun Records that fantasy became an opportunity in the form of Orion, a mysterious masked performer with the voice of The King. First appearing in 1979, Orion recorded 11 albums and performed live to packed houses and rapturous fans around the nation. But who was the man behind the mask? In this stranger-than-fiction true story, Jeanie Finlay exposes the incredible life of an unknown singer plucked from obscurity and thrust into the spotlight with the complicity of a manipulative music industry and a public fan base unwilling to let The King go. Resonant in its themes of identity, fate, and the double-edged nature of fame, Orion is a stylish mystery story that finally gives a name and a face to a gifted artist who had been unjustly deprived of both.
Photographer Phil Toledano has become obsessed with his future. Using DNA tests, fortune tellers, and a prosthetic makeup artist, he begins photographing the many dark possibilities that might await him -- despite his wife's pleas to abandon the project. Over three years, Toledano's obsession alters him and his family forever.
How can we best meet every earth citizens need for healthy food facing our limited resources? Regarding the almost 10 billion humans living on earth by 2050, we have to decide now how we want to shape the future of agriculture.
An unsettling and eye opening exploration into the spread of the radical Islamic school Red Mosque, which trains legions of children to devote their lives to jihad, or holy war, from a very young age. With incredible access and chilling footage, Among the Believers is a timely and relevant look into the causes that have led to the growth of radical Islam in Pakistan and around the world.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's social and political institutions faced massive change, including an increasingly corrupt government and crippled infrastructure. A number of the nation's youth wound up homeless and addicted to a lethal cocktail of injected cold medicine and alcohol. In the early 2000s a pastor from Mariupol named Gennadiy Mokhnenko took up the fight against child homelessness by forcibly abducting street kids and bringing them to his Pilgrim Republic rehabilitation center—the largest organization of its kind in the former Soviet Union. Gennadiy's ongoing efforts and unabashedly tough love approach to his city's problems has made him a folk hero for some, and a lawless vigilante to others. Despite criticism, Gennadiy is determined to continue his work.
Through the unrelenting winter in the north of Japan, a small group of workers must brave unusual working conditions to bring to life a 2,000-year-old tradition known as sake. A cinematic documentary, The Birth of Sake is a visually immersive experience of an almost-secret world in which large sacrifices must be made for the survival of a time-honored brew.