Largely composed of immigrants and first-generation Canadians from Vancouver’s suburbs, The Notic underground basketball collective overcame all odds to achieve global fame 20 years ago. In defiance of their high school coaches’ casual racism and desire for oppressive conformity, this gregarious group discovered self-expression through streetball’s loose structure and aversion to rules. Bursting onto the scene at the NBA-sponsored Hoop It Up tournament near Science World, the group unleashed a devastating arsenal of bravura tricks and moves. DIY VHS highlights of their showstopping exploits would soon be collected on their first "mixtape". With copies finding their way to every corner of the globe, it was anointed "the bible of streetball".
The computer game chain GameStop created so much chaos in the stock market that it forced large hedge funds to their knees. How could it happen? Here we follow different people who were brought together during 2020 because of their interest in GameStop's future. Some had invested in the chain's stock, others wondered about it. While the chain's employees trusted that the company would pay their salaries at a time when millions of people went bankrupt and became unemployed.
Nadia Nadim, whose dad was killed by the Taliban in 2000, has embarked on this quest. The young Afghan woman, her 4 sisters, and their mother fled Kabul in the wake of the violence. Today, the Taliban have returned to rule. Football passion is what saved Nadia. She became a striker on the national team of her adoptive land, Denmark, then for the Paris-Saint-Germain women's team. Nadia, having achieved football stardom, wants to return to Afghanistan, to find out more about her father's fate. But the country is torn by terrorism as the Taliban and ISIS sow chaos daily. Giving up the trip, Nadia must grieve for another loss. However, she is unsinkable, and has plans for the future: graduate as a reconstructive surgeon and heal her people.
"The Art of Dissent" celebrates the resilience and power of artistic engagement in Czechoslovakia before and after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. The documentary's main protagonists - Václav Havel, banned singer Marta Kubisová, and the underground rock group the Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) - became the most recognizable dissidents during the 1970-80s. Havel bridged the disparate clusters of individuals and fused the literary, musical, political, and philosophical nonviolent elements into a hybrid network that eventually toppled the totalitarian regime in 1989.
DARK SHADOWS & BEYOND – THE JONATHAN FRID STORY reveals the real man beneath the vampire’s cloak, exploring Frid’s personal and professional struggles, artistic triumphs and rise to fame. Among the family, friends and co-workers who offer fresh insights are actresses Marion Ross (Arsenic & Old Lace) and Christina Pickles (Seizure), American Shakespeare Festival associate Anthony Zerbe and Dark Shadows colleagues David Selby, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker, Nancy Barrett, Marie Wallace and James Storm. The documentary also includes rare performance footage and previously unseen interviews and archival materials from Frid’s private collection.
Something From Nothing takes you on a stand-up comedy tour during the pandemic from a comedians perspective, filmed in the parking lot of a diner in Queens, NY. The film shares the story of Jay Nog and his family during the pandemic as well as the comedians and employees who performed and worked at the diner.
Danny Abel’s documentary tells the incredible, all-American story of Jeremiah Heaton and his geographical conquest. It all starts in 2014, when Heaton lays claim to 500,000 acres of desert land between Egypt and Sudan; his initial aim is to establish a kingdom so that his daughter can be made a princess. What follows is media attention, a movie deal with Disney, and a shift in motivation: Heaton decides to create a bonafide nation, with industry, a military, and more.
Playing Frisbee in North Korea is the first documentary produced and directed by an African-American female filmmaker from inside North Korea. The idea began at a conference on Korean Re-unification organized by General Colin L. Powell and the Colin Powell Center, where director Savanna Washington was a Graduate Fellow. Through verité footage from inside North Korea, interviews with North Korean refugees, long time aid workers, scholars, and experts on the topic, this documentary provides an authentic, on the ground perspective of the lives, struggles, and humanity of the people of North Korea.
Mama Irene, Healer of the Andes, is the story of a remarkable 86 year old Shaman (Healer) from Peru who draws upon indigenous knowledge and traditions in danger of being lost forever. This film is not only a vital document of endangered wisdom; it is also a story about Women empowerment and a testament to living harmoniously with Mother Earth.
Travel is at a tipping point. From Carribean beaches to remote villages in Kenya, forgotten voices reveal the real conditions and consequences of one of the largest industries in the world. The role of the modern tourist is on trial.
1.8 trillion dollars in student loan debt is what’s separating more than 40 million Americans to achieve their goals in life. This crisis is only getting bigger and more dangerous.
RANGER is a story about a rite of passage. Set within Kenya’s Maasai homeland, an intimate and contemporary story of self-discovery unfolds, as 12 women become East Africa’s first all-female anti-poaching unit. Upending the male-dominated, reliance upon military-style training to make a wildlife ranger, Virginia, Liz, Momina and Damaris instead undergo a year-long program of deep trauma-release and healing, triggering profound transformation within themselves and sending shockwaves through their communities.
When the horrific murder of nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 sparks a national reckoning around the meaning of the Confederate flag, battle lines are drawn in Mississippi to determine the fate of the last state flag to include the most powerful, and divisive, symbol of our fractured history. In Look Away, Look Away, director Patrick O'Connor introduces us to an array of activists, and captures the fierce five-year battle over the Mississippi state flag, revealing how race, heritage and long-simmering grievances over the Civil War shapes our sense of who we are as Americans.
When a young woman turns to the camera for refuge, she ends up with a firsthand account of what will become the deadliest man-made epidemic in United States history.
The story of trailblazing 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who changed the world with his camera. Artful, resilient, selfish, naive, eccentric, deceitful--Muybridge is a complicated, imperfect man and his story drips with ambition and success, loss and betrayal, near death experiences and even murder. "The machine cannot lie," Stanford declared of Muybridge's pioneering motion images. But what about the photographer?
The film exposes the life of women who have been trafficked in various parts of India. Some of them have been trafficked because of debt bondage and some for sexual exploitation.
An exploration of the life and work of the legendary neurologist and storyteller, as he shares intimate details of his battles with drug addiction, homophobia, and a medical establishment that accepted his work only decades after the fact. Sacks was a fearless explorer of unknown mental worlds who helped redefine our understanding of the brain and mind, the diversity of human experience, and our shared humanity.