These 2 one-hour specials will take a look back at Ronald Reagan from his ups and downs as a Hollywood movie star to a legendary force in American politics. HOLLYWOOD YEARS: will take a look at the actor as he goes from local sports broadcaster to respected leading an using film clips, interviews and rare footage. This one a kind documentary traces the ups and downs of his on-screen career, his marriages to Hane Wyman and Nancy Davis and his role as a "friendly witness" during the McCarthy hearings. PRESIDENTIAL YEARS: documents Ronald Reagan's extraordinary transformation from a Hollywood movie star to a legendary force in American politics. From political spokesman to Governor of California, Reagan's rapid rise in leadership carried him all the way to the White House where he would inscribe an indelible legacy into the pages of world history.
Documentary about Fidel Castro, covering 40 years of Cuban Revolution. Rare Fidel Castro footage: he appears swimming with a bodyguard, visiting his childhood home and school, playing with his friend Nelson Mandela, meeting kid Elián Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with the Buena Vista Social Club group.
Visiting examples of Herzog and de Meurons ground-breaking style, this film reflects their capacity to astonish and explore the way in which they transform what might otherwise be ordinary through new treatments and techniques.
Captured over two years, Take It From Me is a feature-length documentary about four women struggling against great odds to raise themselves and their families out of poverty in New York City.
The Naked Dance is the first documentary about America's legendary legal red-light district that thrived in New Orleans from 1898 until World War I. Storyville got its name when Alderman Sidney Story attempted to clear up the New Orleans waterfront by restricting prostitution to a specific neighborhood. To his chagrin, the area was dubbed "Storyville," and it was so known until the U.S. Navy closed it for good in 1917.
Anne Boyd, one of Australia's leading contemporary composers, teaches music at the publicly funded University of Sydney. This documentary chronicles a year in the life of an academic department that's under the financial gun.
This film traces the road of the Blues and takes us on a journey to mythical places: From the banks of the Niger to New Orleans, going up the Mississippi through Memphis to the skyscrapers of Chicago. It tells the story of this culture which faced the worst barriers and shows that Humanity can overcome barbarity.
Wendy, Veda, and J.C. are part of Southern California's thriving figure skating community - the bottom part. Luckily this is America, the land of opportunity, where a dream in your heart and personal gain in your sights can propel almost anyone to stardom. With this in mind Wendy, Veda, and J.C. are fighting their way to Olympic glory. But first they have to win the Regional Competition - and there can only be ONE winner. Will it be Veda? The beautiful ice princess who responds to her over-bearing mother by routinely puking up her lunch. Or Wendy? The plus-size skater with the super-plus libido. And what about J.C.? The orphaned trailer park girl who'd gladly trade you a pack of smokes for a sequined thong. Under the watchful gaze of Zamboni Phil, the girls train, toil and plot their way to success. Let the Games begin!
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE shows the Tampa, Florida police responding to domestic violence calls and the work of The Spring, the principal shelter in Tampa for women and children. Sequences with the police include police response, intervention, and attempted resolution of domestic violence calls. Sequences at the shelter include intake interviews, individual counseling sessions, anger management training, group therapy, staff meetings, conversations among clients and between clients and staff, and school activities, therapy and counseling for children at the shelter.
Once a symbol of '60s counterculture and psychedelic drug use, Ram Dass has since become a renowned speaker and author on the topics of aging, spirituality, and overcoming the mistakes of the past. This documentary chronicles his journey from his affiliations with LSD advocate Timothy Leary to his endeavor to continue remaking himself after his stroke in 1997.
Travel back to late 18th century Lowell, MA, now infamous for its textile mills and its "Lowell Girls," the poor, barely-educated waifs who helped turn those mills into sweatshops.
Between 1880 and 1960, hundreds of Luxembourgers went to settle in the Belgian Congo to live and work there; some for some time, others for ever. The film tells their story and their experiences.
Stephen and Lynn Harvey left England for South Africa with their children, assuming a land of milk and honey. Their dreams ended in a bizarre tale of family betrayal and coercion to murder in a smallholding in South Africa’s industrial belt, the Vaal Triangle, south of Johannesburg.
Raw Spice is a fly-on-the-wall documentary like no other. It charts the formation of a girl band in 1994, a group who would go on to be the biggest selling girl band in history, five girls who became... The Spice Girls. This footage was shot two years before the girls had their first hit single. We see them living together in a tiny house in Maidenhead as they rehearse day in, day out, striving to become a success. We watch their rehearsals; and we discover their very distinctive personalities that we all know help make up the band. This includes never before seen footage of the girls speaking of their ambitions and fears, as well as their trademark outrageous behaviour and some titanic bust-ups. This is the girls before blockbuster hits, weddings, babies, and bust-ups. This is before stylists, PR People and make-up artists. THIS IS RAW SPICE.
ETOILES: DANCERS OF THE PARIS OPERA BALLET celebrates the legacy one of the best ballet companies in the world by weaving together rehearsals, tour snapshots and performances of classical ballets such as Swan Lake and La Sylphide, as well as contemporary works such as Maurice Bejart's Ninth Symphony, Jiri Kylian's Doux Mensonge (Sweet Lies) and Pierre Darde's Orison. Celebrated filmmaker Nils Tavernier endeavors to understand the psychology of dance by talking candidly with some of the biggest stars in dance today. The film also features interviews with the dancers who explain how and why they endure the emotional and physical hardships of their profession in their intense drive to be on stage.
Dave Rodney's summit celebration is short lived as he immediately faces a terrible tragedy. Two years later watch as he attempts to summit again even while plagued by the horrible memories.