This rare insight into the intensity of female relationships introduces 17-year-olds Margot and Amaryllis. The pair encounter jealousy, first love, heartbreak and the sense of their evolving identities and friendship.
Long before satellites would journey to planets and deep-space telescopes would photograph distant galaxies, there was an artist whose dazzling visions of planets and stars would capture the imagination of all who beheld them. Before that, he was an architect working on projects like the Chrysler Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. He would later become a matte painter in Hollywood working on films like Citizen Kane and Destination Moon. Who was this remarkable man? His name was Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986). Chesley Bonestell’s mesmerizing depiction of “Saturn As Seen From Titan” became known as “the painting that launched a thousand careers.” Told by the many people who were influenced by Chesley Bonestell or knew him personally and punctuated with rare interview footage of the artist himself, the documentary compellingly chronicles the life of a quiet, artistic visionary, whose architecture and space art continue to inspire us to reach for the stars.
When Dian was six years old, she heard a deep rumble and turned to see a tsunami of mud barreling towards her village. Her mother scooped her up to save her from the boiling mud. Her neighbors ran for their lives. Sixteen villages, including Dian's, were wiped away, forever buried under 60 feet of mud. A decade later, 60,000 people have been displaced from what was once a thriving industrial and residential area in East Java. Dozens of factories, schools and mosques are completely submerged under a moonscape of ooze and grit. The cause? Lapindo, an Indonesian company drilling for natural gas in 2006, unleashed a violent, unstoppable flow of hot sludge from the earth's depths. It is estimated that the mudflow will not end for another decade. Shot over the course of six years, GRIT bears witness to Dian's transformation from young girl to a politically active teenager as she and her mother launch a resistance campaign against the drilling company.
NOTHING IS TRUER THAN TRUTH is a feature length documentary about Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, A-list party boy on the continental circuit, who spent a year and a half in Venice and traveling in Europe, learning about commedia dell'arte and collecting the experiences that would become the Shakespeare plays. Shot in Venice, Verona, Mantua, Padua, and Brenta, the film ventures to actual sites De Vere visited in 1575-76, including the settings for THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, OTHELLO, ROMEO & JULIET, and TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. The film features renowned Shakespeare scholars, actors, and directors, including Sir Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, Tina Packer, and Diane Paulus, and argues that De Vere's bisexuality is the reason for the pseudonym Shake-speare.
Set in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn, "93Queen" follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City. With unprecedented-and insider-access, "93Queen" offers up a unique portrayal of a group of religious women who are taking matters into their own hands to change their own community from within.
Three islands off the coast of Tanzania are benefitting from huge efforts made by remarkable people. The three diverse projects focus on turtle hatching, coral protection and educating the next generation. Featuring the wisdom of one of the natural world's leading conservationist campaigners, Jane Goodall, Saving Paradise Islands shines an enlightening spotlight on practical marine conservation.
The Life & Times of Bobby Keys ... decades-long Sax player with The Rolling Stones, best friend to Keith Richards, and session player with John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, George Harrison, Dr. John, Joe Cocker, Harry Nilsson, Ian McLagan, Keith Moon, Etta James, Ronnie Wood, Sheryl Crow, Ringo Starr, Joe Ely, Warren Zevon, Billy Preston, Donovan, Marvin Gaye, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, John Hiatt, Yoko Ono and B.B. King.
The Pullars are the last family using traditional methods to fish for wild Atlantic salmon off the coast of Scotland. When these include killing seals, the salmon’s natural predators, conflict erupts. Animal activist groups Sea Shepherd and Hunt Saboteurs oppose the Pullars at every turn, despite the legality of the fishermen’s actions and the consequences to their livelihood. Challenging preconceptions, this ambiguous doc puts modern environmentalism under the microscope.
Fans, stars, creators, and more come together to explore the dynamic history and evolution of save-our-show television fan campaigns from the letter-writing and product mail-in campaigns of yesterday to the social media and crowdfunding campaigns of today.
Through stories and songs, Michael Franti captures the energy and drive of a diverse group of inspirational modern-day heroes. From an Indonesian midwife to a young couple battling the ravages of ALS, Franti uncovers the love and humanity possible in dire conditions and exposes his own struggles, creating an emotional resonance that is moving and motivating at once.
Parents, educators, students and college admissions professionals all intimately understand the financial, emotional and intellectual burden of the SAT/ACT—tests that are not only an integral part of the college admissions process for most American students, but also can be a rite of passage for teenagers in the United States. Even as adults, few of us forget our score, or how we felt about what it took to earn it. The Test & the Art of Thinking traces the history and evolution of the SAT/ACT as a major player on the pathway to higher education in America, and it documents its current power in our culture. In so doing, it strives to support individuals who are embarking on the road to college, by examining what the SAT/ACT measures and means, and asking a range of educational leaders, admissions professionals and stakeholders in the test—from tutors to parents to test designers—to grapple with the test’s use, ramifications and future.
In the summer of 2015, former US Marine and world record weightlifter Janae Marie Kroczaleski was publicly outed as being transgender. The reaction was universal: her sponsors abandoned her, she was disowned by her parents and banned from competing. This film follows Janae as she attempts to find her place in society. Initially wanting to strip off the muscle and become a much smaller looking woman, she found herself unable to lose the muscle she so desperately gained. She now finds herself living one day as an alpha male and the next day as a delicate girl. Will Janae be able to handle her muscle relapses? Will her passage from being a male bring her the peace she's looking for? Will society accept a 250lbs muscular woman? Is her path personal redemption or physical and psychological disaster?
Follow Peter Greenberg as he ventures to the country known as “land of a thousand hills.” For an entire week, Peter is taken on a tour hosted by Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame who showcases the visual gems his country has to offer.
For four long years, Islamic State ruled its 'caliphate' from the city of Raqqa. Now freed from IS' brutal dictatorship, survivors emerge and return to a city utterly destroyed by war. Can Raqqa be rebuilt?