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.
Ross McElwee sets out to make a documentary about the lingering effects of General Sherman's march of destruction through the South during the Civil War, but is continually sidetracked by women who come and go in his life, his recurring dreams of nuclear holocaust, and Burt Reynolds.
Hunger in America is a powerful documentary tackling the hunger epidemic in America. Narrated by James Denton. What does the face of hunger look like? Is it a child in Ethiopia? An aging man in Somalia? Or a family in poverty-stricken India? This eye-opening documentary will change your whole perception on what hunger looks like. In America today, one in six people, including hard-working men and women, suburban families and children are struggling with hunger. Tonight, over 50 million Americans won't have enough food to eat by day's end. The face of hunger in America is not just the homeless, like everyone thinks. As it turns out, the face of hunger in America is the single mom, it's grandparents raising babies, it's the elderly, it's the infirm. This is their story...
World War II was not just the most destructive conflict in humanity, it was also the greatest theft in history: lives, families, communities, property, culture and heritage were all stolen. The story of Nazi Germany's plundering of Europe's great works of art during World War II and Allied efforts to minimize the damage.
They're Jewish, they're grandmothers, and they're lesbians. But they're also so much more, as you'll find out in Deborah Dickson's powerful and intimate documentary. Ruth Berman and Connie Kurtz first met in Brooklyn in 1959, both young married women raising their young children. Becoming fast friends, they soon both moved with their families near Coney Island, where they became active community leaders. Then, in 1974, something incredible happened - they fell in love.
Renowned Australian artist William Yang traces the labyrinthine web of his family history in this adaptation of his iconic live performance piece. William was born and raised in North Queensland, his grandparents having migrated from China to the Top End during the 1880s gold rush. Yet it was not until mid-life that he claimed his Chinese heritage, which had hitherto been lost to him by his complete assimilation into the Australian way of life. William's transatlantic exploration of his genealogy unites him with scores of relatives from all walks of life, some rich, but most ordinary folk with menial jobs, and most cannot speak a word of Chinese. A visual feast, Blood Links examines how the Chinese diaspora establish roots in foreign soil, and how over the generations, through intermarriage, blood is mixed; yet the intricate bonds of family remain.
Anne Boyd, one of Australia's leading contemporary composers, teaches music at the publicly funded University of Sydney. This documentary chronicles a year in the life of an academic department that's under the financial gun.
Bob Marley's universal appeal, impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet is both unique and unparalleled. Directed by Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland), MARLEY is the definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.
Church & State is the improbable story of a brash, inexperienced gay activist and a tiny Salt Lake City law firm that joined forces to topple Utah’s gay marriage ban. The film’s ride on the bumpy road to equality in Utah offers a glimpse at the Mormon church’s influence in state politics and the squabbles inside the gay community that nearly derailed a chance to make history. Church & State is a story of triumph, setback and a little-known lawsuit that should have failed, but instead paved the way for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized gay unions nationwide.
In Alvaro Siza: Transforming Reality Portugal's renowned architect reviews his work with architectural historian, Kenneth Frampton. While touring his projects Siza discusses his approach to architecture, explaining that it is centered around the idea that setting is integral to design and that a structure should be reinforced by surroundings that both enhance and highlight its potential.
In the wake of World War II, most Germans have been raised with the mistaken belief that the Holocaust had been planned and executed by just a tiny minority of Nazis, namely, the Gestapo and the SS. The sad truth, however, is that Hitler's philosophy of ethnic cleansing, as the Fuhrer so brazenly espoused in his frightening manifesto, "Mein Kampf," had been enthusiastically embraced not only by the entire military but also by most of the civilian population. The long-suppressed proof of their widespread collaboration and participation was unveiled in The Wehrmacht Exhibition, a damning collection of photographs and film footage that toured Deutschland between 1999 and 2004. The show shook the country to its core because it forced folks to face up to the fact that it took much more than a madman and his henchmen to wipe out six million.
Interviews and archival footage profile the life of Dennis Banks, American Indian Movement leader who looks back at his early life and the rise of the Movement.
The film evolves around questions of identity, popular memory and culture. While focusing on aspects of Vietnamese reality as seen through the lives and history of women resistance in Vietnam and in the U.S, it raises questions on the politics of interviewing and documenting.
Captain Thomas Sankara was the leader of the Burkinabe Revolution. This film is a biographical profile of the revolutionary, the improvements he generated in his country and the new socio-political dimension he instituted in Burkina Faso.
There is only one Yul Brynner. No other actor had his looks, his range of talents, his energy and his capacity to draw others into the spell of his charm. A true sophisticate of deliberately mysterious origins, Yul Brynner was at home in a wide variety of languages and social environments.
In the world of football, there seems only two camps when it comes to the greatest player. If you ask 100 soccer fans who that person is, chances are 50 of them will say Cristiano Ronaldo and 50 will say Lionel Messi. In this unique documentary, we examine these two superstars' moves, talent and ability. We hear from the rabid fans, interview the experts and debate which player is the best in modern football.
For more than three decades, transnational corporations have been busy buying up what used to be known as the commons -- everything from our forests and our oceans to our broadcast airwaves and our most important intellectual and cultural works. In This Land is Our Land, acclaimed author David Bollier, a leading figure in the global movement to reclaim the commons, bucks the rising tide of anti-government extremism and free market ideology to show how commercial interests are undermining our collective interests. Placing the commons squarely within the American tradition of community engagement and the free exchange of ideas and information, Bollier shows how a bold new international movement steeped in democratic principles is trying to reclaim our common wealth by modeling practical alternatives to the restrictive monopoly powers of corporate elites.