In October 1967, documentary filmmaker George Paul Csicsery was beaten by police at an antiwar demonstration in Oakland, California. Thirty years later, he set out to find the policemen who were working that day. His only clue-a startling news photograph of himself begin clubbed by stern-faced cops. Take a trip back to America's turbulent 1960s as Csicsery visits a group of retired Oakland, California, policemen, who recall their days battling antiwar demonstrators and Black Panthers.
Over the course of four decades, filmmaker Paul Oremland documented his romantic and sexual encounters with roughly one hundred men. He preserved nearly all of these detailed recollections and threaded them together in a portrait of a gay life.
WHEN THE IRON BIRD FLIES takes us on an up-close and personal journey, exploring the complex interactions between contemporary Tibetan Buddhism and western culture. The film goes in-depth to portray the experiences and insights of both teachers and practitioners in the US and around the world. Along the way, it illuminates the wide ranging dialogs taking place between Buddhist teachings and science, psychology, gender theory and the arts. The film creates a vivid and entertaining portrait of the world of Tibetan Buddhism, as it is manifesting in the West and asks the vital question - 'In these increasingly chaotic modern times, can these age old teachings help us to find genuine happiness and create a saner, more compassionate 21st century world?'
From 1984 to 2019, Lynne Sachs shot film of her father, a bon vivant and pioneering businessman. This documentary is her attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings. As the startling facts mount, Sachs as a daughter discovers more about her father than she had ever hoped to reveal.
Barbecue is about more than grilling a piece of meat. It’s a ritual performed religiously across the world. For some it’s a path to salvation. It is the pride of nations. And the stories told around the fires become a way to bring the world together.
A documentary about the challenges and triumphs of female big wave surfers fighting sexism in the water, in competition, in the media and in the surf industry with the support of a closely-knit community of like-minded women. Probing, incendiary and thought-provoking, this film takes you inside a growing movement of women that are shattering the shallow and sexualized images of female surfers in the media. Featuring interviews with top female athletes and awe-inspiring big wave surf footage filmed in the icy waters of Ocean Beach, San Francisco and Mavericks - one of the biggest waves on the planet - this film is meant to empower a new generation of girls to live their dreams and overcome the challenges they face along the way.
My Comic Shop Country is a feature-length documentary film exploring the business, fandom, and community of comic book stores across the United States. In 2015, New York's Alternate Realities closed after 23 years in operation, setting filmmaker-and former AR employee-Anthony Desiato on a quest to explore the comics retail industry from coast to coast. Comic book characters are box office gold, but why isn't the same necessarily true for comic stores? See how the 20 shops featured in the film are turning the tide, one customer at a time, seven days a week. Plus: Learn the fate (and future?) of Alternate Realities.
Adapted from the international best-selling book by speaker/author/coach Hal Elrod, this documentary on morning routines tells the story of how a simple morning routine became a worldwide movement, showing the morning routines of some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, but in the middle of filming, Hal is diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia and given a 30% chance of survival. Will his morning routine save his own life?
'At the end of the day, it remains a secret why some can conduct and others can’t', Sir Georg Solti once said. CONDUCT! explores this secret. The struggle of five young artists for success at the International Conductors Competition in Frankfurt provides real-life drama that tests not only musical abilities but, above all, characters. CONDUCT! explores the secret of conducting with a unique intensity that culminates in a great showdown at Frankfurt’s Opera.
At the age of 28, I was drafted as a soldier in the Second Lebanese War. Instinctively, I grabbed my video camera. The movie recalls the lack of justice in this unnecessary war and the loss of valuable lives. This was my personal earthquake and the nation as a whole. (Yariv mozer)
In this documentary, filmmaker Nick Broomfield follows the saga of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who has been accused of committing a brutal series of murders. Broomfield conducts interviews with Wuornos herself, and his crew films her trial as well as her interactions with religious fanatic Arlene Pralle, who gives Wuornos dubious advice and legally adopts her. The cameras also roll as the accused's attorney ignores the case at hand to negotiate a deal to sell his client's story.
Daryl Davis has an unusual hobby. As a musician he has played with legends like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, but in his spare time he likes to meet and befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan. Join Daryl on his personal quest to understand racism.
One of the most successful teams in New York sports history, Gotham Girls Roller Derby is a feminist powerhouse of elite athletes, misfits, and renegades. QUEENS OF PAIN follows three skaters — Suzy Hotrod, Evilicious, and Captain Smack Sparrow — as they battle the constraints of being a woman in America while fighting for the coveted Golden Skate.
We’ve all heard of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but most people have no idea how widespread and prevalent Jewish resistance to Nazi barbarism was. Instead, it’s widely believed “Jews went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter.” Filmed in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel, and the U.S., Resistance – They Fought Back provides a much-needed corrective to this myth of Jewish passivity. There were uprisings in ghettos large and small, rebellions in death camps, and thousands of Jews fought Nazis in the forests. Everywhere in Eastern Europe, Jews waged campaigns of non-violent resistance against the Nazis.