After Barack Obama swept to power promising a new era of hope and change, the emergence of a citizens protest movement called the Tea Party threatened to derail his agenda. Was this uprising the epitome of grassroots democracy? Or was it an example of "astroturfing" - the creation of fake grassroots groups, designed to put corporate messages in the mouths of seemingly independent citizens?
Milena, a young woman from Ukraine, who along with her mother and grandmother (and cat), desperately struggle to escape their war- torn home while an army of supporters on the opposite side of the world fight to keep them safe. Milena survived the destruction of Mariupol, cowering for a month in the basement of a bombed-out building, watching her home and history burn. She managed to contact Ken Pontac, long-time Facebook friend and father figure. Their conversations bolstered Milena's spirits while Ken listened with growing apprehension.
How far would you go in pursuit of justice? The tragic murder of 13-year old Yara Gambiarasio near her home in northern Italy in 2010 sparked the most high-profile and shocking murder investigation in recent Italian history. This documentary follows the tenacious and emotionally-invested lead prosecutor in her case as she seeks justice.
Part jazz history, part true-crime tale, Kasper Collin’s new documentary employs extensive archival footage and new interviews to tell the tragic story of the magnificently talented trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, who murdered him in a New York bar in 1972.
Four American teenagers have received a mission from God that takes them from the safety of their remote religion-filled bubbles to the other side of the planet. In the frozen forested lands of Finland, these impassioned, wide-eyed teens confront local Finns, Europe’s most non-religious and private people, and attempt to convert them to their faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Ed Asner narrates this documentary about U.S. involvement in Colombia's drug trafficking and civil unrest. The film examines the impact of chemical spraying and military funding and reveals alternate U.S. interests. Features interviews with Noam Chomsky, the late Senator Paul Wellstone, Colombian Presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, Congressmen John Conyers and Jim McGovern, U.S. State Department officials, guerilla leaders and others.
Documentary narrated by Paul Winfield, this documentary follows the course of Mahalia Jackson's extraordinary life - from her humble beginnings as a sickly child singing in New Orleans churches to her breakthrough with Columbia Records and her ascendancy to Carnegie Hall and Europe's great stages. Her story's told through archival footage and interviews with those who knew her best.
Inside the very first girls' school in a small Afghan village, education goes far beyond the classroom as the students discover the differences between the lives they were born into and the lives they dream of leading.
Master Qi and the Monkey King explores the life and work of the preeminent master of Chinese Opera living in the United States. Qi Shu Fang was a household name in China due to her feature role in one of the Cultural Revolution Opera films, and traveled the world to show off her mastery of the art form. The film explores the reasons why Ms. Qi, her husband and a whole troupe of Chinese Opera performers have moved to the United States to transplant their art form to a foreign culture.
Lauren Greenfield returns to Las Vegas - a favorite location of hers, also central to the plot of The Queen of Versailles (2012) - to film this short documentary about "Marquee," one of the country's highest-grossing nightclubs, where the clientele routinely spend thousands of dollars on a single evening out.
On February 6, 2023, an earthquake on the border of Turkey and Syria claims more than 55,000 lives. On this day, I am in an oncology center, 6 days since having my tumor removed, and in the afternoon my partner ends our relationships. Blending memory and theory, this autofiction documentary unfolds the relationships between love(s) and catastrophes.
Music producer, Apple executive and N.W.A. rapper recently announced that he would be releasing his first album since 1999, featuring guests such as Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg amongst many others. From his humble beginnings with the World Class Wreckin’ Cru, to his brash coming out party with N.W.A., and now as a mentor to some of the greatest recent talent in rap, the Compton-born producer has never eased his stranglehold on the game. Ranked at the top of the Forbes rich list in 2014, Andre Romelle Young, aka Dr. Dre is set to become one of the first hip-hop billionaires in the world! . Follow the inside story of how it all began for Dr. Dre as we take a journey though his pinnacle producer years right through to his lucrative partnership with Apple.
In August 2021, the director Thierry Mauvignier revisited a Poitevine legend of "the grave of the child" with his brother, the writer Laurent Mauvignier. This immersive and humanist documentary retraces the long road that Thierry and his actors and his technical team had to travel to reach the end of his production.
MISSILE follows the 4315th Training Squadron of the Strategic Air Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where Air Force officers are trained to man the Launch Control Centers for the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Sequences include discussion of the moral and military issues of nuclear war; the arming, targeting and launching of the missile; codes; communications; protection against terrorist attack; emergency procedures; staff meetings and tutorial sessions.
With extraordinary access, BLAST exposes a world of risky, hardcore, scientific adventure. The story follows an international team of astrophysicists trying to launch a multi-million dollar telescope on a NASA high-altitude balloon. Their journey to discover thousands of early galaxies takes them from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Revealing frustrations, inevitable failures and ultimate triumph, BLAST puts a human face on the quest to answer our most basic question - How did we get here?
Armed with a camcorder, farmer-filmmaker-activist Severine von Tscharner Fleming spent two years crisscrossing America, meeting and mobilizing a network of revolutionary young farmers resettling the land. 'The Greenhorns' is an ode to their grit and entrepreneurial spirit, an exploration of sustainable agriculture, and an enticement to reclaim our national soil. The ninety minute feature is the culmination of well over 200 hours of original footage from all regions of the United States, as well as original animation by young urban farmer and artist Brooke Budner, and rare agricultural archival footage from the Prelinger Archives. Ultimately, The Greenhorns shows us how farmers can move out of the margins recent history has consigned them to, and back to the heart of the American food landscape.
The film's title is borrowed from a Dani fable that Gardner recounts in voice-over. The Dani people, whom Gardner identifies mysteriously as "a mountain people," believe that there was once a great race between a bird and a snake, which was to determine the lives of human beings. Should men shed their skins and live forever like snakes, or die like birds? The bird won the race, dictating that man must die. The film's plot revolves around two characters, Weyak and Pua. Weyak is a warrior who guards the frontier between the land of his tribe and that of the neighboring tribe. Pua is a young boy whom Gardner depicts as weak and inept.