"I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word." - Emily Dickinson In a generation built on texts, tweets, memes, and irony, what has become of the weight of our words? In what way does communication serve as a form of self-expression, and self-expression a form of communication? Mattioli Production's upcoming documentary "Words" will explore how people navigate gender and identity in the open and evolving landscape of New York City. Using some if NYC's most fluid scenes as a backdrop, Mattioli Productions will investigate how masculinity, femininity, and everything in between are contextualized in a range of environments, from the theatre world to early childhood education. Featuring exclusive interviews from a variety of artists, activists, icons, and innovators to be announced, "Words" promises to be a poignant and powerful tribute to the language we use to shape our identities.
When a popular honors graduate becomes an unlikely campus gunman, citizen sleuths embark across the country to investigate the metamorphosis of a respected prosecutor turned mass shooter.
The breathtaking scenery of the Wissahickon Creek inspired Ben Franklin, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and generations of Philadelphians. Now it can be your own rich, meditative experience, or a soothing background for your daily activities.
Amateur astronomer Greg Quicke (a.k.a. Space Gandalf) presents the ultimate beginners guide to the southern sky. The Pearl Diver’s Guide to the Galaxy invites its audience to re-discover both the wonder of the night sky and the fundamental, basic science behind how it works. After a night of stargazing with Greg, people often report a profound shift in the way that they see both the stars and the planet beneath their feet. The aim of this series is for viewers to experience the same thing.
Mystery of the Mountain: Hidden In Plain View chronicles a most intriguing and remarkable story, and explores the question: what if one of the world's largest pyramids is waiting to be unearthed in Mexico?
Was Christopher Columbus born in Genoa, Italy? Most definitely not, say an unlikely collection of experts from European royalty, DNA science, university scholars, even Columbus's own living family. This ground breaking documentary follows a trail of proof to show he might have been much more than we know.
"Afterimages" is a short story about one plate from the archive of Ryszard Kisiel, the creator of "Filo" - one of the first gay zines in Central and Eastern Europe. The evoked negative from the end of the ‘80s is the starting point for both Kisiel's personal history and the portrait of the gay scene of the late PRL.
Written in the 10th century, the Aleppo Codex is the most ancient copy of the Jewish Bible. It had been kept in the Syrian town of Aleppo for centuries and was smuggled in the 1950s to Israel, where it was revealed that 200 pages had gone missing. A cheese merchant, a murdered antiques dealer, Mossad agents and Israel’s second president are all implicated in the decades-long mystery. This gripping documentary is an attempt to find the lost pages as well as the soul of the once unified Aleppian Jewish community.
Iceland is one of the wildest places on earth. You could be caught up in the midst of snowstorms and blizzards, but you are never alone... Although tourists from all over the world have started a silent invasion, nature keeps on winning.
A timeless look at art, love and beauty, The Oldies follows three elderly Cuban musicians as they relate their stories of struggle and reveal their undying passion for life.
Taking more than six years to complete, The Cut is a feature-length documentary that conclusively proves that female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM) can be found as a native practice on all inhabitable continents. From war zones in the Middle-East to bucolic Middle America, the film visits 14 countries and features key interviews with FGM survivors, activists, cutters, doctors and researchers to uncover an often secret practice shrouded in centuries of traditions, mysticisms and irrationalities.
A group of elders spends their weekdays in a retirement home in Sandim, in the north of Portugal, where they talk, do arts and crafts, practice yoga and pray. We follow them between October 2012 and March 2013, when an economic crisis overshadowed Portuguese society and unemployment rates reached record levels. Meanwhile, arrangements are made for the Carnival ball. Will they bring the first place home this time?
Investigate how an asteroid vanquished the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Join scientists as they drill into the impact crater and, for the first time, reconstruct the hell on earth that unfolded in the minutes, hours and months after the impact.
Guangzhou, China. A building erected in the communist style of the eighties: Tian Xiu. Since many years this is the Eldorado for African migrants who massively try their luck in this city. 'I'm New Here' sketches a unique look behind the scenes of a new economic relationship between the African continent and the superpower China through some of the people that populate Tian Xiu.
D'Inked is a documentary about the development of laser tattoo removal technology and how it has changed the culture of tattoos. The film follows a man named Jake on his 5-year journey through the process of removing a full color half sleeve tattoo. The film also features interviews with prominent figures in the tattoo and laser removal communities discussing the technological, physical and ethical realities of removing what has always been considered a definition of permanent.
There could hardly be a more telling contrast between the analog and digital eras than the beautifully blurry memories captured in a Polaroid picture and the thousands of pin-sharp photos on an iPhone. In this ambitious visual essay, Willem Baptist explores the visionary genius of Edwin H. Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Even today, all sorts of people are keeping his instant dream alive. Former Polaroid employee Stephen Herchen moved from the United States to Europe to work in a laboratory developing the 2.0 version of Polaroid. Christopher Bonanos, the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid, tells us, "When I heard Polaroid would stop making film, it felt like a close friend had died." Artist Stefanie Schneider, who is working with the last of her stock of Polaroid film, is using the blurring that occurs with expired film as an additional aesthetic layer in her photographic work.
Explores the history and mystery of Migraine, and its remarkable place in the human condition. Migraine is a devastating but fascinating neurological condition with a compelling story to tell. Alice in Wonderland, Thomas Jefferson, Sigmund Freud, and Joan Didion all figure into its colorful history.
How do perfectly ordinary, normal people cope with the extraordinary challenge of an embarrassing, provocative, famous or unbelievable name? This documentary examines the phenomena of "strange names."