Part road trip, part adventure story, FOLLOWING THE NINTH is an inspirational film about Beethoven's Choral Symphony, its majestic power to liberate us, to shield us against suffering, to provide hope and resilience during dark times. Filmed on five continents and in 12 countries, FOLLOWING THE NINTH is the story of four lives that have been transformed and repaired by the music, expressed most vividly in the prophecy of the Ode to Joy: “Alle Menschen werden Brüder”(All Men Will Be Brothers).
From the Academy-Award nominated creators of the Broadway show STOMP and the award-winning film Wild Ocean, The Last Reef is an uplifting, inspirational large-format and 3D cinema experience capturing one of nature's more vibrant and diverse wonderlands. Exotic coral reefs, vibrant sea walls in the sub-arctic pulsating with anemones and crustaceans: these biodiversity hot spots are as vital to our lives as the rainforests. Shot on location in Palau, Vancouver Island, French Polynesia, Mexico, and The Bahamas using groundbreaking 3D cinematography, The Last Reef takes us on a global journey to explore the connection of our cities on land with the ocean's complex, parallel world of the coral reefs beneath the sea.
Based on the best-selling book by Drew Gilpin Faust, this film will explore how the American Civil War created a "republic of suffering" and will chart the far-reaching social, political, and social changes brought about by the pervasive presence and fear of death during the Civil War.
An inspiring look at how wonderful birth can be when your right to choose how, where and with whom you give birth is respected & protected. Every woman has the right to be informed about their options in childbirth. Through an exploration of home birth, this 87 min film looks at what natural, physiological childbirth really is. Is birth a medical emergency waiting to happen or a profound, natural and physiological event that women are designed for? The most comprehensive film ever made on home birth and a voice of reason in the debate, The Face of Birth outlines the importance of education in birthing and the right of a woman to choose the best and safest birth method for her and her baby.
Kutsher's Country Club is the last surviving Jewish resort in the Catskills. One of the legendary Borscht Belt hotels during its heyday, Kutsher's has been family-owned and operated for over 100 years. Exploring the full Dirty Dancing-era Catskills experience-- and how it changed American pop culture in the comedy, sports and vacation industries-- this documentary captures a last glimpse of a lost world as it disappears before our eyes.
Do you know how to turn ordinary water into a billion-dollar business? In Switzerland there's a company which has developed the art to perfection - Nestlé. This company dominates the global business in bottled water. Swiss journalist Res Gehringer has investigated this money-making phenomena. Nestlé refused to cooperate, on the pretext that it was "the wrong film at the wrong time". So Gehringer went on a journey of exploration, researching the story in the USA, Nigeria and Pakistan. His journey into the world of bottled water reveals the schemes and strategies of the most powerful food and beverage company on our planet.
The Grammar Of Happiness follows the story of Daniel Everett among the extraordinary 'nonconvertible' Amazonian Pirah tribe, a group of indigenous hunter- gatherers whose culture and outlook on life has taken the world of linguistics by storm. As a young ambitious missionary three decades ago, Dan, a red-bearded towering American, decamped to the Amazon rain forest to save indigenous souls. His assignment was to translate the book of Mark into the tongue of the Pirah, a people whose puzzling speech seemed unrelated to any other on Earth. What he learned during his time with the Pirah led him to question the very foundations of his own deep beliefs. As a 'born again' atheist, Dan divorced his devout Christian wife and became estranged from his children. Having lost faith and family, his new life is dominated by the desire to leave behind his legacy. Everett's most controversial claim is that the Pirah language lacks 'recursion' - the ability to build an infinite number of sentences.
When six teenage boys came together as a skateboarding team in the 1980s, they reinvented not only their chosen sport but themselves too – as they evolved from insecure outsiders to the most influential athletes in the field.
Destroyed in a dramatic and highly-publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure amongst architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which they resided, while tracing the personal and poignant narratives of several of the project's residents. In the post-War years, the American city changed in ways that made it unrecognizable from a generation earlier, privileging some and leaving others in its wake. The next time the city changes, remember Pruitt-Igoe.
An investigative and powerfully emotional documentary about the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the US military, the institutions that perpetuate and cover up its existence, and its profound personal and social consequences.
Green was the symbol of recognition among the supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. This documentary-collage illustrates with animated blogs and tweets the story of democracy under fire and the dramatic events before and after the 2009 presidential elections in Iran.
Follow General George Armstrong Custer from his memorable, wild charge at Gettysburg to his lonely, untimely death on the windswept Plains of the West. On June 26, 1876, Custer, a reputation for fearless and often reckless courage ordered his soldiers to drive back a large army of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. By day's end, Custer and nearly a third of his army were dead.
30+ interviews in 10 U.S. states with authors, collectors, journalists, professors, bloggers, students, artists, inventors and repairmen (and women) who meet up for ‘Type-In’ gatherings to both celebrate and use their decidedly lo-tech typewriters in a plugged-in world.
A Journey to the Origins of Modern Yoga. Yoga is known to go back to God Shiva, who perfected 8,4 million postures, according to Indian tradition. Far less known is the fact that yoga is at the same time an early 20th century-creation of Indian savant T. Krishnamacharya, which is what this film is about. Krishnamacharya's life and teachings are seen through the eyes of the director on his search for authentic yoga. His journey leads him from students and relatives of Krishnamacharya's such as the legendary teachers Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois to the source of modern yoga: the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore, where Krishnamacharya founded the first ever yoga school. A feature-length documentary including rare historical footage as well as lavish reenactments.
As recently as forty years ago, most sections of the Maasai were semi-nomadic and relatively independent of the nation-state. However, political, social and economic changes in East Africa have forced many herders to adopt a sedentary lifestyle. The Chairman and the Lions introduces Frank Kaipai Ikoyo, a charismatic Ilparakuyo Maasai who, at thirty-three, is the leader of a Tanzanian village called Lesoit. Ikoyo was elected to his post at the age of twenty-six in part because he had completed primary school. That someone so young would be accorded such authority would have been without precedent not long ago. Yet this ethnography of Ikoyo's duties as village chairman shows how literacy and insight into the workings of the nation-state are essential for Maasai to combat the many lions, both real and figurative, that beset them: land grabbers, "bush" lawyers, unemployment, out-migration and poverty.