In her documentary Country Roads Marieke Schroeder embarks on a search for the authentic America - a country at a turning-point. It is a search for the substantial: the morale, the pioneering spirit that holds the nation and its population together in crisis. We meet the young generation of American singer-songwriters who consider themselves as successors of Country-rebels such as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Steve Earle. They despair of themselves and their homeland and at the same time are full of hope, full of faith. Country Music opens up our view of the soul of the American nation and lets us rediscover the land and the music.
A backwoods dreamer from Ohio with an obsession for 'Stradivari' and all things violin, who, through the magic of social-media, convinces a famous European concert violinist that he can make a copy of the most famous and valuable violin in the world. Fighting time, poverty, and most of all - himself - Danny Houck puts everything on the line for one shot at glory.
Nicknamed the "Harlem Hellfighters", these African-Americans wanted to become ordinary citizens like everyone else. They saw fighting heroically in the trenches as their chance to achieve this. In 1918, the 15th New York National Guard Regiment became the most highly decorated unit of the First World War.
For much of the 20th century, successive Australian governments pursued a policy of deporting and barring entry to any race of people they considered undesirable. This was known as the White Australia policy. Admission Impossible is the true story of the behind-the-scenes political forces and the propaganda campaigns that attempted to populate Australia with “pure white” migrants.
Filmmaker Christina Zorich follows abolitionists throughout Southeast Asia that have dedicated their lives to rescuing, rehabilitating, preventing and prosecuting those involved in human sex trafficking.
Poured in Pennsylvania follows the Commonwealth's storied beer past, delves into recent growth, and aims to capture the full tale of the beer industry in the Keystone State. This documentary features interviews with many industry pioneers like Dick Yuengling, Carol Stoudt, and Harris Family Brewery as they set out to be the first black-owned brewery in Pennsylvania.
This film follows the director's coming-out-story as trans, the first shots of testosterone to the increasingly tense relationship with his mother. The film started as a web-serie, and we meet friends, lovers and family in this close and personal portrait, where subjects as polyamory, packing and the importance of a community and a self-chosen family is shared.
The Fantasy Makers is a feature documentary which examines the profound impact fantasy pioneers C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and George MacDonald have made on popular culture to this day. This film interviews scholars, writers, filmmakers and lovers of the fantasy genre throughout the world.
Fashion and design affect everybody, every day of their life. Most people are clueless about how these things work - how trends emerge to make their creators a lot of money. Trend Beacons look into the hidden world of Trend forecasting, explaining how things really work.
Charles Alexander Eastman was a renowned physician, author, lecturer and Native American rights advocate. His life has been documented in various articles throughout history, but Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian makes for a truly unique effort—a project helmed by Eastman’s descendants. Kate Beane and her family bring Eastman’s story to screen, charting from his childhood growing to his education to his illustrious career.
Roland-Garros, 1981: For the very first time, a documentary team is allowed to shoot sequences in the backstage of the French Open of tennis of Roland-Garros. William Klein's camera takes us on the heels of the greatest players of the time: Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Chris Evert-Lloyd, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Yannick Noah, Guillermo Vilas... Miles of film. Historical pictures, a thousand and one details, a thousand and one unusual scenes. A declaration of love from a tennis lover.
«Izolyatsia» was a major art center in Eastern Europe, was transformed into a prison and torture camp after Russia's 2014 occupation of Donetsk. This film examines survivor testimonies, revealing the tragic dehumanization of a place once dedicated to art.
Harambee is a traditional Swahili chant meaning heave-ho or pull together the slogan for a united Kenya. Harambee Day or Independence Day is celebrated in this small town in North Kenya with political speeches and an auction at the native school. The film shows how North Kenya- isolated for years- tries to adapt to the new concept of nationhood. Government officials from South Kenya are appointed as ambassadors to spread the idea of national unity to a people unaccustomed to it.
Bluefin is a tale of epic stakes set in “the tuna capital of the world.” In North Lake, Prince Edward Island, filmmaker John Hopkins tries to shed light on a baffling mystery: normally wary bluefin tuna no longer fear humans, and no one is quite sure why. Astonished Island fishermen and scientists offer conflicting explanations for the bluefin’s puzzling behaviour. One thing is certain: this great resurgence of gigantic tuna flies in the face of scientific assessments claiming that endangered stocks are down by 90 percent.
Using first-hand accounts, award-winning filmmaker Michael Verhoeven goes on a search to unearth evidence documenting one of the greatest robberies in human history.
Two-time Academy Award® winner Barbara Kopple shines a powerful, inspiring and entertaining spotlight on contemporary soul queen Sharon Jones. As she prepares to release her much-anticipated new album, Sharon comes face to-face with the greatest challenge of her life: a grave cancer diagnosis. Follow this tour de force over the course of an eventful and remarkable year as she struggles to hold her band The Dap-Kings together while battling her way back to the stage with the unstoppable determination of a true soul survivor
This recording of all six cantatas from the Salle Henry Le Bœuf in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium, in December 2012 features internationally renowned Bach expert Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent.
If you want to impress your dining companions in Cyprus, it's not caviar that you order, but ambelopoulia: a tiny songbird. But as this gripping doc reveals, the cost to bring such delicacies to the table is enormous. Bestselling novelist Jonathan Franzen takes a break from the world of fiction to guide us through an all too horrifying reality: tens of millions of protected migratory songbirds are illegally killed every year. Franzen, a longtime bird lover, accompanies young staffers of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter on their expeditions. With police enforcement in Southern Europe practically non-existent, they risk their lives to rescue trapped birds, and confront hostile poachers. It's a topic that proves a cultural flashpoint -- the Cypriot landowners cannot understand why a bunch of Italians can tell them what to do on their land.
The British architect based in Stockholm looks back on major projects of a long career inspired by European Modernism combined with his personal sensitivity to nature and community. Erskine is especially valued for his vital understanding of social interaction, exemplified in commissions for universities and housing complexes built from Scandinavia to Italy. The architect takes the camera on a tour of his buildings while offering revealing comments and interpretations.
"Cecil Balmond: Visionary Engineer and Architect" is a compelling documentation of a unique thinker and practitioner at the height of his architectural career. Through his conversation with architecture theorist and critic, Sanford Kwinter, Balmond reveals his vision and talent while the two tour his retrospective exhibition at the Graham Foundation in Chicago. Since the early 1980s Balmond has collaborated with many of today's important contemporary architects such as Toyo Ito, Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Libeskind. With his astounding aesthetic algorithms, Balmond has introduced innovative structural concepts that have resulted in some of the most challenging buildings in the canon of contemporary architecture.