A fly-on-the-wall film crew follow cult Comedy Rock Band 'Dead Cat Bounce' on a desperate quest across Europe to reunite lead singer Jim with his long lost father, who he believes is the legendary rock singer and Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale.
Acclaimed Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh presents a compelling documentary that puts a human face on a national tragedy: the murders and disappearances of an estimated 500 Aboriginal women in Canada over the past 30 years. This is a journey into the dark heart of Native women's experience in Canada. From Vancouver's Skid Row to the Highway of Tears in northern British Columbia, to Saskatoon, this film honours those who have passed and uncovers reasons for hope. Finding Dawn illustrates the deep historical, social and economic factors that contribute to the epidemic of violence against Native women in this country.
In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." He set the poem to music and a few years later convinced Billy holiday to record it in a legendary heartbreaking performance. Intertwining jazz genealogy, biography, performance footage, and the history of lynching, director Joel Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind a true American classic. Written by Excerpted from Coolidge Corner Theatre Program Update
This film highlights moments in the long and rich African American cinema history in relation to social and political events, and how it affected Black viewers of the time.
Everyone has ideas. But what where do they come from? And what ensures they keep coming? How do you sort the genius ideas from the useless ones? Why invest all this hope and energy into making things in the first place? From Nothing, Something profiles creative thinkers across a variety of disciplines and finds common methods, habits, mindsets and neuroses that help bring breakthrough ideas into being. This is a thoughtful, intimate, often funny look at the creative process—straight from the brains of some of our culture's most accomplished and inspiring talents.
Waiting to Inhale examines the heated debate over marijuana and its use as medicine in the United States. Twelve states have passed legislation to protect patients who use medical marijuana. Yet opponents claim the medical argument is just a smokescreen for a different agenda-- to legalize marijuana for recreation and profit. What claims are being made, and what are the stakes? Waiting to Inhale takes viewers inside the lives of patients who have been forever changed by illness-and parents who lost their children to addiction. Is marijuana really a gateway drug? What evidence is there to support the claim that marijuana can alleviate some of the devastating symptoms of AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis? Waiting to Inhale sheds new light on this controversy and presents shocking new evidence that marijuana could hold a big stake in the future of medicine.
Remembering Yayayi reflects on a pivotal moment in the history of Pintupi people through a body of archival film. In 1974, filmmaker Ian Dunlop visited Yayayi, a remote community in Central Australia. The Pintupi people had recently moved there to get away from the difficulties of living at the larger permanent government settlement of Papunya. Dunlop had come to Yayayi to follow up on the lives of people he had photographed ten years earlier as they were leaving their Western Desert homeland for the first time. He never made a film with the material he shot there and Yayayi has long since been abandoned.
Jon Aes-Nihil's experimental documentary about iconic Beat author William S. Burroughs' experiences using a stroboscopic device, known as the dream machine, which simulates the electric pulses of the human brain to elicit hallucinations and dream-like imagery while the user's eyes are closed.
The creators of The Mysterious Origins of Man present a revolutionary film that examines one of our greatest mysteries: The Great Sphinx of Egypt. Hosted by Charlton Heston, this program presents geological evidence that the world's most famous monument, The Great Sphinx of Egypt, may be thousands of years older than we have been taught.
Tulare, The Phantom Lake explores the landscape of what was once the largest lake in America west of the Mississippi River, a lake that disappeared by the year 1900 due to water diversion and land reclamation for agriculture. The Tulare region in California's Central Valley is home to the most productive agricultural region the world has ever known. The same landscape also harbors less than five percent of the original natural landscape and the poorest Congressional region in the United States. In an age of climate change, we journey through this landscape guided by a series of individuals who never meet: an agricultural consultant; a Native American basket weaver; a journalist; a writer; a biologist; and an archaeologist.
A profoundly moving documentary that tells the stories of three families who adopt children from China as well as the stories of those who loved these children first; The biological parents who feel they can’t keep their children and the orphanage nannies or foster-families who must say goodbye to the children they’ve raised for months…or years.
'Clothes to Die For' is a documentary about the worst industrial disaster of the 21st century - the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, in which more than 1100 people died and 2400 were injured. The building housed factories that were making clothes for many western companies. Through a series of compelling interviews and unseen footage, the film gives a voice to those directly affected, and highlights the greed and high level corruption that led to the tragedy. It also provides an insight into how the incredible growth in the garment industry has transformed Bangladesh, in particular the lives of women.
Andrew Marr discovers the story of Winston Churchill's passion for painting, travelling to the places he loved to paint and revealing how his private hobby shaped his public life.
The Conflict between Jews and Arabs in the Old City of Jerusalem dates back many years. Since the birth of the State of Israel in 1948, there has been an influx of violence in the Old City. But is it really a religious war, or is it political? In this documentary Ali M. Jiddah, an Afro-Palestinian whose participation in the national struggle lead to him doing a lengthy prison sentence unveils truths and facts regarding the Old City, like never before heard on mainstream media.
This short documentary showcases Australian photographer Trent Parke’s The Black Rose exhibit while delving into his past, techniques, and philosophy of art.