Jimmy Santiago Baca was a petty thief and a drug dealer when he was sentenced to five years in Arizona State Prison, one of the deadliest prisons in America. Baca began his incarceration violent, angry and illiterate, yet taught himself how to read and write, discovering a passion for poetry that ultimately saved his life.
Coach Joe Newton has used the sport of Cross Country Running to teach simple but important lessons to high school boys for the last 50 years. "Always do your best", "be on time" and "it's nice to be great but far greater to be nice" are mantras, which have turned the Boys Cross Country team at the public York High School in Elmhurst Illinois into the most winning high school team in any sport in America. Along with mastery of their sport, Newton turns boys into men, who carry his teaching and his love for each of them throughout their lives. The Long Green Line documents the York Duke's 2005 Cross Country season as the runners seek their record 25th state title in 50 years.
A two and half month journey from Buenos Aires (Argentina) to Medellin (Colombia), through some of the most amazing places in South America, immersed in the Backpacker's culture.
The Dinosaur Echo is a documentary by Canadian filmmaker Brandy Yanchyk about the renaissance of paleontology in Canada today and what dinosaurs can teach us about climate change. The film introduces us to a new generation of paleontolgists who are making extraordinary dinosaur discoveries in Alberta and British Columbia in Canada.
History's only scientifically verified encounter with alien life is revealed in this expose of the Billy Meier case. Corroborated by Wikileaks and celebrated by the Huffington Post, the film shows how Meier's long-foretold prophecies of war and ecological disaster have now begun.
In Germany’s big cities, members of families involved in crime live in a parallel world. Young men with well-kempt beards, bulging muscles and big cars let us into their homes and share their dreams. Gangsta rap and a different kind of integration. Better than any fiction.
In a delicate and humane manner, this film touches upon a very serious issue: how to stop fearing death while being in love with life. We talk (and laugh) about this subject with the protagonists of this film, modern geniuses and ordinary people from different parts of the world.
Arrested at 16 and tried as an adult for kidnapping and robbery, Eddy Zheng served over 20 years in California prisons and jails. Ben Wang’s BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY paints an intimate portrait of Eddy—the prisoner, the immigrant, the son, the activist—on his journey to freedom, rehabilitation and redemption. BREATHIN’ moves with a deep, critical love, unafraid in confronting the hard truths of Eddy’s crime, the harsh realities of mass incarceration and the intertwined emotional hardships experienced by all involved. The film finds Eddy at many crossroads — in and out of parole hearings, organizing in the community, othered and at risk of deportation — his resilience and astounding compassion resounding throughout. In chronicling Eddy’s decades-long struggle for freedom, the film interrogates the complexities and hypocrisies of crime and punishment in the United States, raising the greater question: For whom are prisons for?
The disappearance of Michael Rockefeller is one of the enduring unsolved mysteries of the 20th Century. In 1961, Michael Rockefeller left on a voyage down the cannibal coast of New Guinea in a trading canoe. Several miles off shore, heavy seas swamped his craft. After a night adrift, Rockefeller set out to swim for the distant shore, leaving his companion with the fateful words: "I think I can make it..." He was never seen again. Or was he?
Documentary / Other - Is it possible to shed light on the states of grace experienced by mystics and meditators? Mystical Brain shows us the most recent discoveries of scientific research on this phenomenon in North America and abroad. It seems that mystical ecstasy is a profoundly transformative experience. It could contribute to people's psychic and bodily health, treat depression and speed up the healing process in patients who combine meditation with conventional medicine.
The Hidden Hand is a controversial Award-winning documentary that explores the possibility of an extraterrestrial presence here on Earth. The film takes a keen look at a spectrum of topics like alien abduction, human/alien hybridization, the military's reverse-engineering of alien technology and the government cover-up of anything related to extraterrestrials. Is preoccupation with E.T.'s a form of cultural madness, or is something really going on? How would E.T. contact change the religious and political institutions of our society? The Hidden Hand is full of riveting interviews with experts and experiencers alike: Whitley Strieber, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the 6th astronaut on the moon, Paul Hellyer, a former Canadian Defence Minister, Richard Dolan, Jim Marrs, Linda Moulton Howe, Col. John Alexander, Lyn Buchanan, Clifford Stone, Nassim Haramein, David Icke, Dr. Roger Leir, Graham Hancock and Paola Harris, among others. The shadowy world of UFOs is suddenly brought to light.
In the 14 months prior to the revolution, filmmaker Lillie Paquette follows key opposition figures and young activists as they struggle against the odds and at great personal risk to remove an uncompromising US-backed regime.
BLIND shows the educational programs and daily life of students in kindergarten through the 12th grade at the Alabama School for the Blind. The School is organized around the effort to educate blind and visually impaired students to be in charge of their own lives. Sequences in the film include mobility training, braille instruction and orientation as well as traditional classroom subjects such as English, history, science and music. Other sequences show psychological counseling sessions; vocational training; staff dealing with student disciplinary problems; and the wide variety of recreational and athletic programs.
An outcast in his community, Farmer John bravely stands amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and violence. By melding the traditions of family farming with the power of art and free expression, this powerful story of transformation and renewal heralds a resurrection of farming in America. Through highly personal interviews and 50 years of beautifully textured footage, filmmaker Taggart Siegel shares Farmer John’s haunting and humorous odyssey, capturing what it means to be wildly different in a rural community.
Produced in collaboration with Stink Studios, "Duct Tape and Dreams" captures the essence of SFMOMA’s first artist Soapbox Derby in more than forty years: the creativity, collaboration, and exuberance of everyone who participated — and, of course, all that exciting downhill action! Year: 2022 Running time: 27 minutes Producers: SFMOMA and Stink Studios Directors: Ian Watt and RJ Kosineski Director of Photography: Jan Reichle Editor: Ian Watt
On October 14, 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager accomplished what many thought was impossible: he broke the sound barrier and in doing so, changed aviation history forever. Behind this remarkable achievement was a dedicated team of rocket scientists and engineers, and one incredible plane, a Bell X-1 named "Glamorous Glennis." This is the story of the plane and the people who dared to travel faster than the speed of sound, pushing flight science forward and proving that no matter the barrier, humanity can find a way to break through.
How much should you negotiate with the enemy? In Israel, the debate over that question evoked fury to the point of assassination. Such was the case of Kasztner. Dr Israel (Rezso) Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew who tried to rescue the last million Jews of Europe by negotiating face to face with Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, was gunned down by another Jew who never set foot in Nazi Europe. After 50 years, his assassin Ze'ev Eckstein breaks his silence on the fateful night he shot and killed Kasztner. (Storyville)