Disneynature's international team of filmmakers travel to the mountains of China to find and film the elusive snow leopard on the highest plateau on Earth, while enduring brutal weather and unsettled terrain.
Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman found her medium in 1980: the larger-than-life Polaroid Land 20x24 camera. For the next thirty-five years, she captured the “surfaces” of those who visited her studio: families, Beat poets, rock stars, and Harvard notables. As pictures begin to fade and her retirement looms, Dorfman gives Errol Morris an inside tour of her backyard archive.
Canadian documentarian Jamie Kastner (The Secret Disco Revolution) looks back at a notorious 1970s murder trial in the Virgin Islands — where five politicized young islanders were convicted of a massacre at a ritzy country club — and its dramatic aftermath a decade later, when the culprits’ ostensible leader staged a skyjacking and found refuge in Cuba.
A documentary film about session and touring musicians that are hired by well-established and famous bands and artists. These people may not be household names, but are still top-notch performers!
A cruise ship and 3,000 men – it is a universe without heteros and women that usually remains a mystery to the outside world. Once a year the Dream Boat sets sail for a cruise exclusively for gay men where most passengers are united by the wish to live life authentically as themselves in a protected place.
'Scalia' is a 90-minute feature documentary from Mad Universe and director Chris Mortensen examining the judicial life, influence and legacy of the controversial and influential Supreme Court Justice who - in the words of his colleagues -will go down in history as one of the most important Supreme Court Justices ever because he changed not only the court but the law itself. But the public perception of the justice - and the man - conflicts dramatically depending on who you talk to.
Leading activists and commentators explore the changes that have taken place since homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK in 1967 and the influence of gay culture on society.
Yu Xiuhua was raised to hope for little from her life in the rural Chinese province of Hubei. At 19, Xiuhua’s mother encouraged her to marry a man nearly twice her age, fearful no one else would accept a wife with Xiuhua’s condition — cerebral palsy. But as her 20th anniversary approaches, Xiuhua’s poetry goes viral, and she becomes the voice of a rising feminist movement throughout China.
By mid-1945, Hitler is dead and the war has ended in Europe. Halfway around the world, however, the fighting is still going strong on a small island in the Pacific. Okinawa was the site of the last battle of the last great war of the 20th century, with a casualty rate in the tens of thousands. Through it all, military cameramen risked their lives to film the conflict, from brutal land combat to fierce kamikaze attacks at sea. See the footage they captured and experience this intense battle the way the soldiers saw it -- in color.
As society tackles the problem of feeding our expanding population safely and sustainably, a schism has arisen between scientists and consumers, motivated by fear and distrust. Food Evolution, narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, explores the polarized debate surrounding GMOs. Looking at the real-world application of food science in the past and present, the film argues for sound science and open-mindedness in a culture that increasingly shows resistance to both.
This is a film about the power and necessity of community action in Detroit, and the street level solutions that residents there are finding to make a way in the biggest city in our nation to ever go bust.
In his 1992 documentary "Compassion in Exile", filmmaker Mickey Lemle created a groundbreaking portrait of the 14th Dalai Lama. His new film takes a fresh look at what is important for His Holiness, who is now in his 80s: the historic confrontation between Tibet and China; his influence in political, spiritual and educational spheres; his work with neuroscientists; and his personal feelings on aging, dying and whether he will be the last Dalai Lama. His impact on the West has grown over the 25 years since the earlier film, and we see some of his influence at work in classes and scientific studies. Artfully weaving interviews and accounts from family, friends and people he inspired, this film vibrantly conveys the Dalai Lama’s humor, wisdom and compassion
Take an epic voyage over the remote island nation of New Zealand, the last habitable landmass to be discovered on the planet. No bigger than the state of Colorado, this small country offers an incredibly diverse landscape view that changes dramatically with each mile. From snow-capped mountains to sandy beaches, and from the glacier-carved Fiordland National Park to the crater lake of Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand is a land of extremes. It's a place where fire clashes with ice and people are always pushing the limits.
This is the story of a tiny country that made a decision to do something that no other country had ever done -- it decided to abolish its army and declare peace to the world. And this is the story of a young boy who grew up in that country, and how he ended up challenging -- and sometimes even convincing -- the greatest powers in the world to follow Costa Rica's example. "Oscar Arias: Without a Shot Fired" is a Don Quixote-like saga with great historical touchstones -- Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Cold War politics and Communism, Central American War and Peace. It follows a slight, academic, and most unlikely hero over the course of more than fifty years, as he travels the world in a quest to stop the spread of the weapons of war. In the end, it is a story about the triumph of reason, of the sparrow triumphing over the eagle, and how the impossible dream can sometimes come true.
In 2012 Dalya and her mother Rudayna fled Aleppo for Los Angeles as war took over. Months before, Rudayna learns a secret that destroys her marriage, leaving her single at midlife. Arriving in LA, Dalya enrolls as the only Muslim at Holy Family Catholic High School. Can mother and daughter remake themselves while holding on to their Islamic traditions?
We all know Curious George. But what about his creators, Hans and Margret Rey? From fleeing Nazi Germany on handmade bicycles to encounters with exotic animals in Brazil, the Reys lived lives of adventure that are reflected in the pages on one of the most treasured children’s book series of all time.
In less than a generation, cell phones and the Internet have revolutionized virtually every aspect of our lives, transforming how we work, socialize and communicate. But what are the health consequences of this invisible convenience? This documentary investigates the dangers of daily exposure to wireless technologies – including the devastating effects on our health from infertility to cancer – and suggests ways to reduce overexposure.
THE PINK HOUSE tells the story of Kalgoorlie's last original goldrush brothel through the eyes of the colourful Madam Carmel, 70, and her longest-serving lady of the night, BJ. Filmed over several years and with unprecedented access to the inner workings of this unique brothel, THE PINK HOUSE is an intimate portrait of two women bound together by the past and their precarious future. And when darker forces begin to exert pressure, their fragile relationship is tested to its limits.