When New York film critic Godfrey Cheshire returns home to North Carolina in early 2004 and hears that his cousin Charlie Silver plans to uproot and move the buildings of Midway Plantation, their family’s ancestral home, an extraordinary, emotional journey begins.
Author Noah Levine uses his personal experience and punk-rock sensibilities to connect with young people within juvenile halls and urban centers around the country. Tattoos, motorcycles, and a punk rock soundtrack are featured in this look at how Buddhism has a place in the world of punks.
Lauren Greenfield returns to Las Vegas - a favorite location of hers, also central to the plot of The Queen of Versailles (2012) - to film this short documentary about "Marquee," one of the country's highest-grossing nightclubs, where the clientele routinely spend thousands of dollars on a single evening out.
Every year, men from across the world arrive in the Pyrenees mountains to undergo a program of extreme physical and spiritual trials in order to be recognised as a ‘Lion of the Pyrenees.
A portrait of the demise and fall of the Soviet Empire as seen through the eyes of the people who endured it. The film explores the power of human spirit in its battle against adversity.
In 2011, Pocomoke City a small town on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore hired Kelvin Sewell, its first African-American police chief. Sewell, a former Baltimore city homicide investigator and narcotics officer had grown tired of the aggressive tactics used by the Baltimore Police Department...particularly those targeting black communities. Determined to deploy a different approach to law enforcement, Sewell implemented an intensive community policing plan. He and his officers parked their cars and walked the streets. Sewell's system worked: crime plummeted. Residents both black and white became ardent supporters of Sewell's new paradigm of policing. But a conflict was brewing; an ongoing dispute over racial discrimination engulfed Sewell and his officers in a battle that would not only cost them their jobs and professional reputations, but would thrust them into an emotional legal battle that would touch all segments of the community.
At the height of the war in Iraq, thousands of Iraqis were fleeing the country each day. Among them was Mohamed, a 23-year-old from Baghdad, whose strikingly Western appearance and manner resulted in threats to his life. Forced into exile in Syria, Mohamed crosses path with Jennifer, a freelance video journalist from Brooklyn, New York, who begins to document his life as a refugee. Drawn into the fantasy world he invents to escape his harsh reality, Jennifer forms a unique friendship with Mohamed, embarking on a series of adventures around the city of Damascus.
A haunting documentary on the pains of growing up male. It explores the inner and outer cruelties that boys perpetrate and endure. The film provokes the viewer to reflect on how our society can deprive boys of wholeness.
An Act of Worship is Pakistani-American filmmaker Nausheen Dadabhoy’s lyrical portrait of the last 20 years of Muslim Life in America as told through the lens of Muslims living in the United States.
During the spring of 2000, eleven girls aged 8 to 16 from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and two classrooms of middle and high school students were interviewed about their views on media culture and its impact on their lives. Their insightful and provocative responses provide the central theme of the film, a half-hour examination of how the media presents girls. Juxtaposing footage culled from a typical week of TV broadcasting with original interviews, WHAT A GIRL WANTS will provoke debate and, ideally, act as a catalyst for change in media content.
When Brooklyn's Kings Theater -- one of five "Wonder Theaters" in the New York area -- closed its doors in 1977, the neighborhood mourned. In a series of interviews, local aficionados of the palace as well as its projectionist, its organist, and former employees, reminisce about the Kings and its charmed days gone by.
Can one person really make a difference? This documentary explores the work of two non profits started by women in Recife, Brazil. Through their grassroots efforts, they help kids get off the streets and women break the cycle of domestic violence, to find a second chance.
'Dear Governor Cuomo' is a concert protest film aimed at influencing New York state's decision to ban hydraulic fracturing - fracking - or adopt it. Featuring local activists including Mark Ruffalo, 'Melissa Leo' , 'Natalie Merchant' , Pete Seeger, Citizen Cope and scientists like Sandra Steingraber, the film - a blend of 'The Last Waltz' and 'An Inconvenient Truth' lays out the science and facts behind the decision and encourages the governor to join the anti-fracking majority in his state. Though focused on the issue in New York, the education, and incredible music, are relevant in the 34 states that already allow fracking.
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
Goes behind the scenes of the first professional women’s hockey league. As the league’s founder struggles to keep the business afloat, the players must come together in the wake of an on-ice accident that leaves their teammate paralyzed.