For hundreds of years, Africa has existed in a state of despair. Famine, civil wars and rampant disease have left the continent without hope, but for the efforts of Western do-gooders. At first, they arrived with food, bibles and the magic of penicillin; more recently they have hosted rock concerts and sent plane loads of grain. And in the last decade of the 20th century they arrived and took babies home with them. First there was Angelina, then Madonna, and now...Pauly Shore! The film builds its comedy foundation on the international interest in Celebrity Adoptions, and the debate that surrounds these transactions on both sides of the Atlantic. Sometimes politically incorrect and never scared to tread on manicured toes.
William Kunstler was one of the most famous lawyers of the 20th century. His clients included Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Phillip and Daniel Berrigan, Abbie Hoffman, H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Leonard Peltier. Filmmakers Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler explore their father’s life, from middle-class family man, to movement lawyer, to “the most hated lawyer in America.”
Copyright Criminals examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and (of course) money. This documentary traces the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry. For more than thirty years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. When lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.” The film showcases many of hip-hop music’s founding figures like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground—while also featuring emerging hip-hop artists from record labels Definitive Jux, Rhymesayers, Ninja Tune, and more.
20 years after the fall of the Wall, the economic crisis prevails. In the ruined peripheral areas of West Germany, resentment towards the new federal states is growing. The consequences of decades of uncontrolled transfers from West to East are now clearly visible: while the zone has the highest density of water parks in Europe and the East German cities are being pimped out with designer street lighting, entire city archives are collapsing in the run-down West and weeds are sprouting up on the pothole-strewn streets. The times when Merkel was still locked away behind the Wall and the Federal Republic was in full bloom are long gone. The former people's parties SPD and CDU are just as incapable of acting as the fun party FDP, only Die PARTEI continues to gain popularity and now has over 8,200 members. Is it Germany's last resort?
Filmmaker Michel Orion Scott captures a magical journey into a little-known world, in a documentary which chronicles Rupert Isaacson and Kristin Neff's personal odyssey to make sense of their child's autism, and find healing for him and themselves in the unlikeliest of places.
Actor Michael Madsen turns the tables on notorious paparazzo, Billy Dant, by hiring a trio of documentary filmmakers to chronicle Dant's life, loves, and troubles.
A portrait of the hacking community. In an effort to challenge preconceived notions and media-driven stereotypes Hackers Are People Too lets hackers speak for themselves and introduce their community to the public.
A young black artist leaves his Los Angeles digs and travels to Europe to find himself. A theatrical stage production of the original Broadway musical.
This acclaimed documentary follows the story of six people who are determined to end the sufferings in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur. The six - an American activist, an international prosecutor, a Sudanese rebel, a sheikh, a leader of the World Food Program and an internationally known actor - demonstrate the power of how one individual can create extraordinary changes.
This journey into the inside of the Earth is fascinating, alarming but also beautiful. Only a tiny fraction of Earth is accessible to humans so scientists have developed interesting experiments to explain the mysteries from the crust to the core. With the aid of stunning computer generated footage, 'Inside Planet Earth' takes us on an amazing expedition of discovery. Along the way we will see how in the secret, hostile fiery depths of the Earth, incredible riches such as crystals, gold and diamonds are formed. We will encounter the forces that have shaped and continue to shape Earth as we know it and we will understand how life is a balance between the energy from the Sun on the outside and the energy coming from the inside: the core. The world beneath our feet may seem like an alien place but it's very much part of life above ground. This is the story of the incredible world we will never see or reach.
British Comedian Dave Gorman travels across America without supporting the 'Man'. In other words, no Holiday Inns, no Best Westerns and no Comfort Suites. No Shells, no Arcos and no BP gas stations. No MacDonalds, no Starbucks and no chains of any kind. Just Mom & Pop business all the way.
The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004, followed by the publishing of twelve satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed that was commissioned for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, provides the incendiary framework for Daniel Leconte's provocative documentary, It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks.
A film essay that intertwines the director's gaze with that of her late mother. Beyond exploring mourning and absence as exclusively painful experiences, the film pays tribute to her mother through memories embodied by places and objects that evidence the traces of her existence. The filmmaker asks herself: What does she owe her mother for who she is and how she films? To what extent does her film belong to her?
When green energy comes at the expense of Sámi traditional life and culture, this poetic film questions the sustainability of combating climate change by replacing one form of destruction with another.
“Civilized” means “big spender” in Greenlandic. Using this Indigenous language insight, the film meditates on the connection between climate change and overconsumption.