Explores behind the big screen to meet the filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors who bring Australian films to us, the audience. Closures of many independent art-house cinemas like Electric Shadows in Canberra in 2006 have made fair and equitable screening of Australian films increasingly difficult. Exhibitors debate the efficacy of the industry's Code of Conduct and unfair trade practices, while a growing number of Australian films go unreleased.
Her name is Green, she is alone in a world that doesn't belong to her. She is a female orangutan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation. This film is an emotional journey with Green's final days. It is a visual ride presenting the treasures of rain forest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations.
What if you are made to feel ashamed when you speak your "mother tongue" or ridiculed because of your accent? "Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai'i" addresses these questions through its lively examination of Pidgin - the language spoken by over half of Hawai'i's people.
Roberto Orazi turns the camera on the lives of some of those involved in the scourge of the global traffic in human organs: lives united by a momentary hope and separated by that abstract yet insurmountable border called the North-South divide. This shocking documentary exposes the players who claim they know nothing of the crimes they commit.
"The Most Dangerous Man in America" is the story of what happens when a former Pentagon insider, armed only with his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file cabinet full of classified documents, decides to challenge an "imperial" presidency – answerable to neither Congress, the press, nor the people – in order to help end the Vietnam War.
Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director, choreographer and creator of new opera, music theater, films and installations. She has been proclaimed as a 'magician of the voice' and 'one of America's coolest composers.
Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez ended his life as a drug dealer 12 years ago, and started down a new path as a young Muslim. Now he's moved to Pittsburgh's tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family, and take his message of faith to other young people through his uncompromising music as part of the hip-hop duo M-Team.
Since 1946, Lucien Mouchet has been making small-scale reproductions of carousels and fairground scenes that existed in the past or are still in operation today. A machinist by trade, Mouchet retired nearly two decades ago, but his obsession with precision and detail has continued. To date, he has created 48 carousels; each is a functioning masterpiece that is constructed to be exactly 1/20 scale of the original. Mouchet works from photographs and measurements he has taken over the years of carousels that have toured France and across Europe. Mouchet tediously prepares shop drawings and hand-tooled parts, analyzing the different modes of assembly and the varying principles of movement. He combines an expertise in engineering with whimsical recreations of the carnival atmosphere, replete with electrical motors, lights, signage, transport trucks and miniature people, made by him and hand-painted by his wife, Georgette.
THE HERETICS uncovers the inside story of the Second Wave of the Women’s Movement for the first time in a feature film or video. Joan Braderman, director and narrator, follows her dream of becoming a filmmaker to New York City in 1971. By chance, she joins a feminist art collective at the epicenter of the 1970’s art world in lower Manhattan. In her first person account, THE HERETICS charts the history of a feminist collective from the inside out.
Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers he is tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it?
An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, GOOD HAIR visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of the black community.
Paying tribute to Swiss photographer Robert Frank's groundbreaking 1958 book The Americans, French filmmaker Philippe Seclier retraces Frank's footsteps across America with camera in hand, capturing images of contemporary America 50 years later.
This illuminating documentary explores the unity of humanity, featuring mystics from around the world, whose lives have been dedicated to answering the mysteries of existence.
RIO BREAKS is more than just a film about surfing. It follows the story of two best friends, Fabio and Naama, as they navigate their way between the pitfalls of life in the slums and the joys of surfing on their favorite beach. Their goal: to win the contest and become professional surfers. Thirteen-year-old Fabio and 12-year-old Naama live at Favela do Pavao, an enormous slum near Arpoador Beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pavao is home to Commando Vermelho (CV), or Red Command, one of Rio's most heavily armed drug gangs. It's the Red Command who sets the rules and regulates life in the community. Their presence is ubiquitous, with armed soldiers constantly patrolling the hills and regulating the various points of sale. Fabio lives in an area of the favela called Vietnam, the poorest and most violent part of the slum.
Werner Boote presents an up-close and personal view of the controversial and fascinating material that has found its way into every facet of our daily lives: plastic. He takes us on a journey around the globe, showing that plastics have become a threat for both environment and human health.
Life and art intersect on a spectacular Newfoundland farm where visual artist Colette Urban mounts thirteen art performances in the fields and barns of her property. Resilient, determined, self aware and funny, Colette embraces the transformative power of art as she restages the significant art performances of her thirty-year career. With the camera as her audience she transforms the quotidian into a playful world of the imagination with elaborate costumes and idiosyncratic self invented rituals.
In 'What's the Matter with Kansas?' a politically active Kansas megachurch splinters, moves to an amusement park, and when that fails, a Best Western motel. Meanwhile, an idealistic farmer revives Kansas' progressive tradition, taking his message all the way to Washington, D.C.