Summer 1967. Two little boys, 9 and 11, drive a pony cart from Needham, Mass. to Montreal on their own—325 miles—to visit the Expo ’67—the World’s Fair.
From its shocking opening image of a bridge snapped in two, Zero Position crosses an eerie landscape fractured by dueling Russian separatist and Ukrainian forces. On this cinematic journey, there are no interviews or extensive explanations of the conflict between the opposing sides. Accompanied by an evocative soundscape, the film moves like a ghostly presence through a troubled region, pausing at heavily armed checkpoints and competing front lines. As the camera captures people scurrying past the aftermath of conflict, carrying plastic bags bulging with items gleaned from abandoned homes, we see the stark reality of a people caught in a borderland between East and West. Director Louie Palu's expressive, sparse and poetically delivered voiceover adds context to places the nightly news cameras don't take us, including an old coal mine and a family's home. Through its mood and atmosphere, Zero Position offers us an experiential look at a region on the brink of all-out war.
Although the Chinese government promised that Hong Kong would retain separate status until 2047, in recent years the Chinese state has consolidated its power over the metropolis. Large-scale protests by the populace have been brutally suppressed. This mix of documentary, fiction, and visions of the future reveals the current state of desolate depression among the people of Hong Kong. “A desperate attempt to capture the final moments of a sinking island”, as maker Chan Tze-woon himself puts it.
On Nov. 5, 2021, rapper Travis Scott headlined the Astroworld Festival in Houston, which tragically led to the deaths of 10 concertgoers in a crowd crush.
In the shadow of the pandemic, a small town rallies to protect a beloved local bookstore. A landmark in Lenox, Massachusetts, The Bookstore is a magical, beatnik gem thanks to its owner Matt Tannenbaum, whose passion for stories runs deep. This portrait of The Bookstore and the family at its heart offers a journey through good times, hard times, and the stories hidden on the shelves.
The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called "the most powerful movie musical ever made." Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, FIDDLER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison's quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director's chair and in Jewison's heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol (Tevye), composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small (Tevye’s daughters). The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul.
A rogue Chinese biophysicist disappears after developing the first designer babies, shocking the world and the entire scientific community, but an investigation shows he may not have been alone in his attempts to create a “better” human being.
A filmmaker unearths a pervasive history of multigenerational trauma in her Italian-American family. As decades of secrets, home movies, and long-avoided conversations surface, a family once bound by tradition forges a new path forward.
When Portugal was a great power bridging the Old and New Worlds, wild mountain horses, small enough for large ships, were captured and exported to gold-hungry conquerors. Now the seahorses of the Algarve in Portugal are threatened by the excesses of tourism: sinking anchors, noisy jet skis, illegal fishing...
Ana Deborah Mola and Belkis Lescaille were among the first young teachers who started pilot programs around the island of Cuba in 1960, laying foundation for the massive National Literacy Campaign that would take place the following year.
Interviews, reenactments, animations, and more tell the story of the Black army regiments, formed after the Civil War, who played vital roles (from railroad builders to park rangers) in the American settling of the West.
When a thriving, top-ranked African American elementary school is threatened to be replaced by a new high school favoring the community’s wealthier residents, parents, students and educators fight for the elementary school’s survival.
In an epic three-part documentary series, FRONTLINE investigates the decades-long failure to confront the threat of climate change and the role of the fossil fuel industry. Part, One charts the fossil fuel industry’s early research on climate change and investigates industry efforts to sow seeds of doubt about the science. Part Two explores the industry’s efforts to stall climate policy, even as evidence about climate change grew more certain in the new millennium. And as leading climate scientists issue new warnings about climate change, Part Three examines how the fossil fuel industry worked to delay the transition to renewable energy sources — including by promoting natural gas as a cleaner alternative.
A young Jewish woman named Helena Citron is taken to Auschwitz, where she develops an unlikely romantic relationship with Franz Wunsch, a high-ranking SS officer. Thirty years later, a letter arrives from Wunsch's wife asking Helena to testify on Wunsch's behalf. Faced with an impossible decision, Helena must choose. Will she help the man who brutalized so many lives but saved hers?
After the impressive Gulistan, Land of Roses (VdR 2016), the Kurdish filmmaker Zaynê Akyol returns with these conversations with imprisoned members of the Islamic State, alternating their words with aerial views of the countryside. An unexpected look at a far-reaching current political issue and a film whose subject matter and rhythm create an impressive cinematic object.
Discover the process behind Charli XCX’s 2020 quarantine album "how i'm feeling now", created in 40 days during the COVID-19 pandemic, including its semi-collaborative nature with her community of online fans.
STOP FILMING US BUT LISTEN (2022) takes a closer look at the imbalance of power inherited from colonialism and its consequences on the representation of The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In his documentary STOP FILMING US (2020), set in the city of Goma in DRC, Dutch filmmaker Joris Postema examined the link between stereotypes and this skewed balance of power. After a screening of STOP FILMING US in Goma, the audience wondered if the film could tell a different story using the same footage. Together with producer Ganza Buroko, filmmakers Bernadette Vivuya and Kagoma Twahirwa re-edited the footage to make a version that better reflects their perspective and does justice to their own experiences.
An archive of '90s culture and a philosophical study of fame via the intimate video-diary of Shannon Hoon, the late lead singer of alt-rock band Blind Melon.