As a fair-skinned Aboriginal man living away from his country, middle-aged Grant struggles with his identity. So, he decides to quit everything and go fishing with his father.
An ultra-Orthodox Jew, a couch surfing custodian, and a personal injury lawyer - risk everything to find their voices on the cutthroat New York comedy scene.
The 29-minute experimental film Christmas on Earth caused a sensation when it first screened in New York City in 1964. Its orgy scenes, double projections and overlapping images shattered artistic conventions and announced a powerful new voice in the city's underground film scene. All the more remarkable, that vision belonged to a teenager, 18-year-old Barbara Rubin. A Zelig of the '60s, she introduced Andy Warhol to the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan to Kabbalah and bewitched Allen Ginsberg. The same unbridled creativity that inspired her to make films when women simply didn't, saw her breach yet another male domain, Orthodox Judaism, before her mysterious death at 35. Lifelong friend Jonas Mekas saved all her letters, creating a rich archive that filmmaker Chuck Smith carefully sculpts into this fascinating portrait of a nearly forgotten artist. An avante-garde maverick, a rebel in a man's world, Barbara Rubin regains her rightful place in film history.
Moroccan paralympic gold medalist Azzedine Nouiri is no longer looking for the longest throw, but to overthrow the system that keeps athletes with different abilities marginalized as destitute second-class citizens.
Born with cystic fibrosis, 28 year old Ethan Rice faces his demise with a dark sense of humour and more concern about what his passing will mean to those he leaves behind than for himself.
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.
From adoption and homelessness to navigating relationships and overcoming self-harm, the four transmen in MAN MADE all have something else in common: they are all bodybuilders. Through the lens of FTMFitCon, the world’s only FTM bodybuilding competition, we delve into the lives of Dominic, Rese, Mason, and Kennie as they define what it means to be a man while contextualizing that definition through the social, racial, and economic realities of their lives. For the men of MAN MADE, it’s not about winning—it’s about stepping on stage and being seen for everything they are.
Parents, educators, students and college admissions professionals all intimately understand the financial, emotional and intellectual burden of the SAT/ACT—tests that are not only an integral part of the college admissions process for most American students, but also can be a rite of passage for teenagers in the United States. Even as adults, few of us forget our score, or how we felt about what it took to earn it. The Test & the Art of Thinking traces the history and evolution of the SAT/ACT as a major player on the pathway to higher education in America, and it documents its current power in our culture. In so doing, it strives to support individuals who are embarking on the road to college, by examining what the SAT/ACT measures and means, and asking a range of educational leaders, admissions professionals and stakeholders in the test—from tutors to parents to test designers—to grapple with the test’s use, ramifications and future.
York University alumni Mandi Gray is forced to grapple with a university administration, legal system and police force unwilling to take seriously her report of rape by a fellow PhD student.
TAKE LIGHT is a look at the tangled wires of Nigeria's electricity crisis, told through the everyday trials and tribulations of a charismatic electrician.
'I Used to be Normal - A Boyband Fangirl Story' is the surprising coming of age story of four diverse women who have had their lives dramatically changed by their love of a boyband - Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Take That and The Beatles.
A documentary that looks at the problems for young modern Israelis returning to the Germanic countries of central Europe, and in particular how this impacts upon older generations of their families, who had to leave countries like Austria and Germany.
A humorous and poignant look at the man behind the music; W.G. Snuffy Walden has written the soundtrack of our lives. Friends and collaborators share stories, laughs and insights about this gentle soul with a compassionate heart and generous spirit. Overcoming challenges and loss, Snuffy has quietly worked behind the scenes to mentor, inspire and elevate those around him while becoming one of the most successful television composers of our generation.
Examine the American whaling industry from its 17th-century origins in drift and shore whaling off the coast of New England and Cape Cod, through the golden age of deep ocean whaling, the tragedy of the Essex, and the career of Moby Dick's Herman Melville, and on to its demise in the decades following the American Civil War.
The 1920s saw a revolution in technology, the advent of the recording industry, that created the first class of African-American women to sing their way to fame and fortune. Blues divas such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter created and promoted a working-class vision of blues life that provided an alternative to the Victorian gentility of middle-class manners. In their lives and music, blues women presented themselves as strong, independent women who lived hard lives and were unapologetic about their unconventional choices in clothes, recreational activities, and bed partners. Blues singers disseminated a Black feminism that celebrated emotional resilience and sexual pleasure, no matter the source.
This film tells the surprising story of how the Allegheny Observatory has been a world leader in the study of the stars since the 1860s. Self-educated, and often facing unrelenting hardships, the people associated with the Allegheny Observatory defied the odds to make enormous contributions to the founding of astrophysics and early aviation.
He is considered to be one of the most significant links in the history of comedy, admired by such people as Eric Bogosian and Woody Allen. His television appearances have spanned from Merv Griffin to Dick Cavett to David Letterman. His long-running Off-Broadway show was hailed as "diabolical genius". He is Brother Theodore. A former millionaire playboy in the late1930's of Germany, Theodore endured the sobering loss of his entire family, his fortune, and his own identity, as a survivor of Dachau concentration camp. Shipped to America humiliated and stunned, Theodore yearned to reclaim his high-status and wealth. Continually haunted by his loss, and hindered as a displaced foreigner, he tapped "the power of despair" to re-invent himself, capitalizing on his dark, existential humor - to become one of America's most respected humorists and monologists.