In the late 1950s, the collectivization of agriculture is in full swing in the East German village of Willshagen on the German-German border. Those in charge have to face many obstacles, especially from a large-scale farmer who is unwilling to join the co-op. All of a sudden, mysterious men in a fancy car appear in the village and show an interest in the rundown manor house. Gossip spreads quickly, and some villagers think there will be a re-parceling of properties and a land swap with West Germany. They assume everything will go back to how it used to be and even expect the count to return to his manor. In preparation, the situation in the village escalates at a fevered pitch.
Like millions of indigenous people, many Native American tribes do not control their own material history and culture. For the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes living on the isolated Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, new contact with lost artifacts risks opening old wounds but also offers the possibility for healing. What Was Ours is the story of how a young journalist and a teenage powwow princess, both of the Arapaho tribe, travelled together with a Shoshone elder in search of missing artifacts in the vast archives of Chicago’s Field Museum. There they discover a treasure trove of ancestral objects, setting them on a journey to recover what has been lost and build hope for the future.
Kelly is a sassy young woman who loves performing and dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. Her devoted brother Brian, an actor himself, sets out to do everything he can to help make her dream a reality. As sometimes happens in close-knit relationships, jealousy and co-dependency threaten to break the siblings apart. Kelly’s Hollywood is a loving glimpse into a tender relationship.
Disenfranchised high school seniors become academic warriors and community leaders in Tucson, Arizona's embattled Ethnic Studies classes while state lawmakers attempt to eliminate the program.
30+ interviews in 10 U.S. states with authors, collectors, journalists, professors, bloggers, students, artists, inventors and repairmen (and women) who meet up for ‘Type-In’ gatherings to both celebrate and use their decidedly lo-tech typewriters in a plugged-in world.
This documentary by Michael Blackwood looks at the development and production of Glass' opera Akhnaten. The film follows two productions by the Württemberg State Theater, Stuttgart, and the Houston Grand Opera.
Who is the new Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, or Gogol waiting to be discovered by the English-speaking world? Hosted by actor, author, and activist Stephen Fry, focuses on six authors whose vibrant, idiosyncratic work continues to gain traction with a global audience: Dmitry Bykov, Mariam Petrosyan, Zakhar Prilepin, Anna Starobinets, Vladimir Sorokin, and Lyudmila Ultiskaya. With contributions from their literary critics, publishers, and peers, the film features extensive interviews with each author.
'Project Censored: The Movie' explores media censorship in our society by exposing important stories that corporate media fails to report/under report. Using the media watchdog group, Project Censored, as their road map, two fathers from California decided to make a documentary film that will help to end the reign of Junk Food News that Corporate Media continues to feed the American people.
Renowned English painter, David Hockney, takes us on a visual journey as he shares with us his treasured photo diaries. Consisting of polaroids Hockney has been collecting since 1967, the diaries act as both a tribute and an artist's notebook, often times including images the painter used for his large canvas works. A fine example of Hockney's pictorial inspiration are several photographs of castles he took during a boat trip down the Rhine that were later adapted for a suite of etchings to accompany six Grimm's fairy tales. Seeing his projects long before the work begins, Hockney used his camera to slow time and capture images that would go on to boast his unique style of realism. In David Hockney's Diaries the artist is seen at work on a large canvas of his friends Celia and Ossie Clark and their cat Percy, commissioned by the Tate Gallery.
Kaveh and Raul are two b-movie co-writers who have suffered a bitter falling out. Kaveh's lost his girlfriend, and spends his days getting high in his apartment, while Raul is off studying at Columbia University. But when one of their films ("Islama-rama 2") is accepted by a film festival, the two ex-friends are forced to tentatively re-connect in order to pitch their script to the mysterious producer, Yukio Tai (James Hong). Along the way, they will have to brave brutish bodyguards, cutthroat colleagues, inept agents, romantic entanglements, prima donna actors, and the trials of their own bitter friendship.
This version of James Thurber's tale tells the story of a young amateur pilot who beats Charles Lindbergh's feat of nonstop flying around the world--with his own unique ways of conserving fuel and energy.
A group of unlikely allies modernized college sports and changed a small Midwestern town, serving as a parallel to the Civil Rights movement that would transform the entire American society.
A group of passionate young environmentalists spend 100 days in the jungles of Borneo in effort to save the rainforests and its endangered orangutans in this Australian documentary...
In this documentary five severely wounded Iraq/Afghanistan veterans work with professional comedy writers and A-List comedians Lewis Black, Zach Galifianakis, BJ Novak, and Bob Saget to explore their personal experiences through the healing power of humor. Writing their own stand-up comedy routines they find new perspectives from which to view their injuries and their lives - all of which culminates in a performance at two of LA's top comedy clubs.
Dying of cancer, former thief Charlie Dawson decides to leave his gold to his namesake Charlene, the great grand daughter of his two former partners. Not wanting to steal from family, the two former partners decide to rob Charlie before he dies. They hire a poker playing buddy, the violent loan shark Eddie, to do the job. Eddie decides to kidnap Charlene to convince Charlie to give up the gold, but Charlene's friend Emma gets in the way and is murdered. With the clock ticking, Eddie goes after the gold but runs afoul of Charlene's protective mother. The soccer mom is forced into a violent showdown to save her daughter and get the treasure.
Shored Up is the story of our coasts where life on the edge of a rising sea has placed our towns and cities on the front lines of climate change. Following frustrated scientists, confused politicians and level-headed surfers, Shored Up follows the conflicts that are erupting from New Jersey to North Carolina as the ocean rises and we challenge nature to an unwinnable duel.
Capturing political theater at its most basic level, this documentary recounts the Democratic Party's stunning takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2006 elections, inspired by the aggressive tactics of strategist Rahm Emmanuel.