Kim, a Duluth, MN mother of three, is at the center of this compelling exploration of gender violence. As Kim and her daughters flee to a domestic violence shelter, we follow the harrowing struggles in a single-parenting survivor's quest to find work, housing and peace of mind. This multi-level narrative also examines the causes of domestic violence and solutions that have evolved to stop it.
The end of an eight-year upmarket renovation of the legendary Chelsea Hotel is partly longed for and partly dreaded by the artists who still live there. The film grants us access to their apartments and interweaves the past with the present.
This film is composed of black and white images from the somber depths of Manila’s Sta. Mesa district, which are juxtaposed in the railroad system that metaphorically connects the lives of each individual in the community. Captured by a single camera and a keen eye, each moving picture is accompanied by stories of grief, misery, hope and inspiration.
A portrait of Japanese master chef Hiroji Obayashi and his wife Yasuyo over a sixteen-year year span as they managed the day to day operation of their LA restaurant Hirozen Gourmet.
A graffiti artist in his early 20s, begins a 3½ year prison sentence for vandalism. He must attempt to cope with the struggles of his new life on the inside: sharing a cell with an aggressive murderer, being moved to high security, living 23 hours a day alone. An unlikely allay soon teaches him how to survive. Questions then begin to arise. Who can he trust? Will he ever find solace?
Journalist Assia Boundaoui sets out to investigate long-brewing rumors that her quiet, predominantly Arab-American neighborhood was being monitored by the FBI.
In Kennesaw, a small American town in the state of Georgia, a good citizen is an armed citizen. By law, since 1982, each head of household must own at least one working firearm with ammunition.
This riveting documentary depicts former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as a warmonger responsible for military cover-ups in Vietnam, Cambodia and East Timor, as well as the assassination of a Chilean leader in 1970. Based on a book by journalist Christopher Hitchens, the film includes interviews with historians, political analysts and such journalists as New York Times writer William Safire, a former Nixon speechwriter.
Born in the colonial time from a Belgian agent and a Rwandan woman, Suzanne is only 4 years old when her father brings her to Europe in 1930 to give her a European education. Suzanne’s father is also the director’s grandfather, who discovered only at the age of 27 that she had a mixed race aunt. Twenty years later, she makes this film, in which the family story intersects the bigger history.
Curtis Duffy, a teen who fought and stole for the thrill, discovered his place in the kitchen after a home economics teacher nurtured his talents. After an unimaginable tragedy involving his parents, Duffy doubled down on his cooking career. Soon, his intense drive earned him accolades as one of the country's most renowned chefs. But as he began building his dream restaurant in Chicago, called Grace, Duffy found himself in another point of personal crisis: His laser focus cost him his marriage and two young daughters. For Grace is a documentary about food, family, sacrifice, and the journey from concrete box to opening night of one of the world's most acclaimed restaurants.
Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history, The Sari Soldiers is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties. The Sari Soldiers follows Devi, a mother who's 15-year-old daughter is abducted by the army, and five other brave women, including Maoist Commander Kranti; Royal Nepal Army Officer Rajani; Krishna, a monarchist from a rural community who leads a rebellion against the Maoists; Mandira, a human rights lawyer; and Ram Kumari, a young student activist shaping the protests to reclaim democracy. The Sari Soldiers intimately delves into the extraordinary journey of these women on opposing sides of the conflict, through the democratic revolution that reshapes the country’s future.
Intimate stories of one Rust Belt city's struggle to recover in the post-recession economy. FRONTLINE and ProPublica report on the economic and social forces shaping Dayton, OH, a once-booming city where nearly 35 percent now live in poverty.
A documentary about finding an alternative to falling victim to the rising cost of living. It is an attempt to find out if one can live this way, without what most believe as the necessities of a place they call home. What do his friends, family and film colleagues think of Garth's decision? What are the logistics? How is he going to manage after 34 years of having access to all basic needs? Is he crazy? Casting these questions and judgments aside, Garth decides to find out for himself if it is possible to live in a van. Not only is he confronted by the difficulties of showering, cooking and the general limitations that living in a van requires, Garth has some hazardous encounters with car thieves and junkies. Garth also meets other van dwellers and shares their stories of van ethics, survival and purpose.
The death of my seven-year-old brother when I was nine remains a painful and haunting memory. My parents did not know how to cope with the loss of their child and the entire family experienced indescribable pain. Phantom Limb uses this personal story as a point of departure. Whether it is a loss through death or divorce, the stages of grieving are the same. Individuals often go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, ultimately, some kind of acceptance, in order to heal. The film is loosely structured according to these stages. Interspersed throughout this poetic documentary are interviews with a cemetery owner, a phantom limb patient and an author of a book about evidence for life after death. Phantom Limb reminds viewers that while grief is painful and isolating, it is a reminder to each of us that life is impermanent. - Jay Rosenblatt
"We are the renters of this world, not its masters," reminds Pooshkar, a precocious 13-year-old member of a youth environmental defense group in India. He and his fellow voraciously energetic students actively rally against the use of plastics. In Africa, a renaissance man teaches citizens to harness solar power to cook food. In Papua New Guinea, villagers practice sustainable logging to save their rainforests. A woman in London uses her PR savvy to start a successful environmental communications firm. Self-described "hillbillies" in Appalachia battle the big business behind strip mining. In this rich and inspiring documentary, director Brian Hill takes us around the world to find the ordinary people taking action in the fight to save our environment.
A contemporary portrait of a small Louisiana town created at the site of the world’s largest lumber mill. Captured here in its last days after thirty years, Miss Dixie Gallaspy conducts a charm school for girls in order to teach the young women of Bogalusa the social graces and skills that would guide them into “Ladyhood”. Dixie’s week long school, in a town confronted with many challenges (including a legacy of racial conflict and financial dissipation) preserves fragments of a world that may already be lost.
Mothman sightings in varied locations worldwide challenge the idea that such entities are mere figments of imagination. Instead, they might be omens of change, or possibly entities beyond our current understanding.
There is no question that the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain is the largest in the world, and Richard "Dick" McDonald, along with his brother Maurice, started it all. Enjoy a rare interview with Dick as well as a treasure trove of information, photos, and footage depicting the development of the McDonald's chain and the fast food industry that still dominates our eating habits today.
Is it anyone's business if consenting adults want to pay or accept money for sex? Sex worker and author Maggie McNeill tells her startling tale about the persecution of sex workers based on the false assumption that most of them are exploited victims of pimps and traffickers. Her movement is challenging these assumptions and the powerful political and cultural forces behind them.