Public schools don’t have to be a minefield of metal detectors, minimal expectations, and mind-numbing routine. An alternative exists right here in Chicago, at the Dixon Elementary Public School in the Chatham neighborhood, where former principal Joan Crisler and her successor Sharon Dale have implemented the idea that art should be an integral part of the learning environment, with museum-quality works openly adorning the halls. The results, in terms of student performance and morale, have been spectacular, but, as this inspiring but pragmatic documentary demonstrates, there are no miracle solutions: Crisler’s protégé Carol Briggs has an uphill battle applying the same approach at another school, and recent budget cuts have left even the most successful programs vulnerable to the axe.
With dazzling nature photography, Academy Award®–nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full) takes a global examination of endangered honeybees — spanning California, Switzerland, China and Australia — more ambitious than any previous work on the topic.
In the 14 months prior to the revolution, filmmaker Lillie Paquette follows key opposition figures and young activists as they struggle against the odds and at great personal risk to remove an uncompromising US-backed regime.
An experimental portrait of the North American commercial fishing industry through the lens of GoPro cameras placed on a fishing vessel off the coast of New England.
Ten director graduates from Marina Razbezhkina’s School of Documentary Film and Documentary Theatre lived with a camera for two months in order to chronicle the last “Russian winter” and its popular uprising against Vladimir Putin’s presidential run. People, faces, conversations, protests, failures and triumphs come together to chronicle the campaign.
Up Heartbreak Hill chronicles the lives of three high school seniors living on the Navajo Nation and struggling to shape their identities as both Native American and modern American. They must decide whether to stay in their community - a place inextricably woven into the fiber of their beings - or leave in pursuit of educational and economic opportunities.
A diverse group of full-of-attitude New Yorkers reveals how a hidden world of beautiful wild birds in the middle of Manhattan has upended and magically transformed their lives.
In 1994 a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later he is found alive thousands of miles away in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
David Malone asks if we are right to see the heart as merely a brilliant pump or whether it should be allowed to reclaim something of its old place at the centre of our humanity. The heart is the most symbolic organ of the human body.
With the epic dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy, The Queen of Versailles follows billionaires Jackie and David’s rags-to-riches story to uncover the innate virtues and flaws of their American dream. We open on the triumphant construction of the biggest house in America, a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by Versailles. Since a booming time-share business built on the real-estate bubble is financing it, the economic crisis brings progress to a halt and seals the fate of its owners. We witness the impact of this turn of fortune over the next two years in a riveting film fraught with delusion, denial, and self-effacing humor.
Many objected to leather-jacket, spike-hair kids with tattoos. But, that did not dissuade a generation... No one realized that a little club in Costa Mesa, CA would end up spawning a multi-billion dollar youth culture that still endures today! It was the Cuckoos Nest of the late 70s and early 80s. With archival, unseen and new footage, the filmmakers compiled an intimate story about the beginning of a movement, a place of refuge for a youth culture, a fearful establishment and a police force that didnt understand what was happening.
Anne Braden: Southern Patriot is a first person documentary about the extraordinary life of this American civil rights leader. Braden was hailed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail as a white southerner whose rejection of her segregationist upbringing was eloquent and prophetic. Ostracized as a red in the 1950s, she fought for an inclusive movement community and mentored three generations of social justice advocates. Braden’s story explores not only the dangers of racism and political repression but also the power of a woman’s life spent in commitment to social justice.
Giving fans unprecedented access to the real life of the music sensation, Katy Perry: Part of Me exposes the hard work, dedication and phenomenal talent of a girl who remained true to herself and her vision in order to achieve her dreams. Featuring rare behind-the-scenes interviews, personal moments between Katy and her friends, and all-access footage of rehearsals, choreography, Katy’s signature style and more, Katy Perry: Part of Me reveals the singer’s unwavering belief that if you can be yourself, then you can be anything.
In the 1970s and 80s, hundreds of thousands of senior citizens migrated from New York City to Kings Point, a typical retirement community, located just outside West Palm Beach, Florida. Lured by blue skies, sunshine, palm trees, and the promise of a rich social life, they bought their way to paradise for just a $1,500 down payment. Now, as an aging community faces its own mortality, paradise has begun to exact a higher price. Through the experiences of six longtime residents, 'Kings Point' captures both the allure and the darker complexities of living in a world where 'nobody gets too close.' Poignant, funny and dark, 'Kings Point' is a deeply empathetic portrait of the last act of the American Dream.
After the 11 March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, residents of Futaba, a town in Fukushima Prefecture, are relocated to an abandoned high school in a suburb of Tokyo, 150 miles south. With a clear and compassionate eye, filmmaker Atsushi Funahashi follows the displaced people as they struggle to adapt to their new environment. Among the vivid personalities who emerge are the town mayor, a Moses without a Promised Land; and a farmer who would rather defy the government than abandon his cows to certain starvation.
Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League's New York, narrated by Campbell Scott, chronicles the life and times of the Photo League, a legendary organization of amateur and professional photographers that flourished in New York between 1936 and 1951.
A lyrical documentary that follows three adolescent brothers as they journey through one night in New Orleans, encountering a vibrant kaleidoscope of dancers, musicians, hustlers, and revelers parading through the lamplit streets. The filmmakers fully immerse us into the New Orleans night, passing through many lively and luminous locations and introducing us to the people who make the city their home.
Bat City USA delves into Austin's complicated relationship with a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats under the downtown Congress Avenue Bridge. Each year, thousands of people get a fascinating, close-up glimpse of the world's largest urban bat colony amid the colorful downtown Austin, Texas setting. The film reveals how the bats moved into the bridge and survived eradication plans by hostile residents. Viewers discover how the bats eventually became a beloved part of what makes Austin unique and weird, mainly through the efforts of Merlin Tuttle, founder of Bat Conservation International, who convinced residents of the benefits of the bats.