Tens of thousands of dogs are transported every year from areas with high euthanasia rates to parts of the country with fewer unwanted dogs and a surplus of adopters. Knowing the happy ending for these lucky dogs is only the beginning of the story, FREE PUPPIES. takes a closer look at where they come from. By following dog rescuers throughout rural counties in the Georgia-Alabama-Tennessee tristate area, we see the challenges that lead to dog overpopulation in the first place and the work being done in these communities to overcome them.
This film shines a light on a sorry and oft-forgotten chapter in US history— the forced sterilization of 7,600 people thought to have “undesirable” genetic make-ups. The film follows researchers & journalists who delved into dusty archives to bring North Carolina’s extensive eugenics program into the sunlight. When the journalists succeed in connecting those files to living survivors and the vast network of perpetrators are revealed, a grassroots movement begins, tirelessly insisting the state confront its nefarious past. The documentary— four years in the making, brings into focus the human tragedy that unfolded behind closed doors for decades and gives voice to survivors who believed their poverty would leave their stories untold and their pain unrecognized.
In September 2005, Afghanistan held its first parliamentary elections in 35 years. Among the candidates for 249 assembly seats was Malalai Joya, a courageous, controversial 27-year-old woman who had ignited outrage among hard-liners when she spoke out against corrupt warlords at the Grand Council of tribal elders in 2003. Enemies of Happiness is a revelatory portrait of this extraordinary freedom fighter and the way she won the hearts of voters, as well as a snapshot of life and politics in war-torn Afghanistan.
Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon narrates this educational installment of the popular "American Experience" series as it examines the 72-year struggle for a woman's right to vote. Segments focus on influential figures in the women's suffrage movement, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul; the country's widespread fear of social revolution; and the U.S. Senate's passage of the 19th Amendment by a single vote.
Does hell exist? If so, who ends up there, and why? Featuring an eclectic group of authors, theologians, pastors, social commentators and musicians, HELLBOUND? is a provocative, feature-length documentary that looks at why we are so bound to the idea of hell and how our beliefs about hell affect the world we are creating today.
Legendary as one of America's greatest horse tribes, the 21st century Nez Perce decided to bring horses back to their land and lives with the unlikely help of a charismatic Navajo horseman, Rudy Shebala. His mentorship guides at-risk teenagers toward the strong medicine of horses, and his equine skills bring historic Nez Perce horse culture to modern renown. But his personal demons imperil both accomplishments.
Public schools don’t have to be a minefield of metal detectors, minimal expectations, and mind-numbing routine. An alternative exists right here in Chicago, at the Dixon Elementary Public School in the Chatham neighborhood, where former principal Joan Crisler and her successor Sharon Dale have implemented the idea that art should be an integral part of the learning environment, with museum-quality works openly adorning the halls. The results, in terms of student performance and morale, have been spectacular, but, as this inspiring but pragmatic documentary demonstrates, there are no miracle solutions: Crisler’s protégé Carol Briggs has an uphill battle applying the same approach at another school, and recent budget cuts have left even the most successful programs vulnerable to the axe.
Ladakh, or Little Tibet, is a wildly beautiful desert land high in the western Himalayas. It is a place of few resources and an extreme climate. Yet, for more than a thousand years, it has been home to a thriving culture. Traditions of frugality and co-operation, coupled with an intimate and location-specific knowledge of the environment, enabled the Ladakhis not only to survive, but to prosper. Then came development. Now in Leh, the capital, one finds pollution and divisiveness, inflation and unemployment, intolerance and greed. Centuries of ecological balance and social harmony are under threat from modernisation. The breakdown of Ladakh's culture and environment forces us to re-examine what we really mean by progress - not only in the developing parts of the world, but in the industrialized world as well. The story of Ladakh teaches us about the root causes of environmental, social and psychological problems, and provides valuable guidelines for our own future.
In the fall of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered a small team of scientists on a clandestine transatlantic mission to deliver his country’s most valuable military secret — a revolutionary radar component — not to the U.S. government, but to a mysterious Wall Street tycoon, Alfred Lee Loomis. Using his connections, his money, and his brilliant scientific mind, Loomis and his team of scientists developed radar technology that would arguably play a more decisive role than any other weapon in the war.
Explores the intimidating terrain of girlhood by following three 12-year-olds over the period of one year. As these girls move from childhood to maturity, it's clear that peer pressure is an important influence, but as the films shows, the greatest influence in a young girl's life is family.
In 1959 New York City announced a "slum clearance plan" by Robert Moses that would displace 2,400 working class and immigrant families, and dozens of businesses, from the Cooper Square section of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Guided by the belief that urban renewal should benefit - not displace - residents, Frances Goldin and her neighbors formed the Cooper Square Committee and launched a campaign to save the neighborhood. Over five decades they fought politicians, developers, white flight, government abandonment, blight, violence, arson, drugs, and gentrification - cyclical forces that have destroyed so many working class neighborhoods across the US. Through tenacious organizing and hundreds of community meetings, they not only held their ground but also developed a vision of community control. Fifty three years later, they established the state's first community land trust - a diverse, permanently affordable neighborhood in the heart of the "real estate capital of the world."
At its heart, it’s a battle for homeland and sovereignty. Bears Ears, a remote section of land lined with red cliffs and filled with juniper sage, is at the center of a fight over who has a say in how Western landscapes are protected and managed.
This fast-paced documentary follows Canadian freelance reporter Jesse Rosenfeld’s journey across the Middle East. Having made the region the focus of his work, he shows us the thorny geopolitical realities on the ground and explores how journalism practices have changed in the age of the Internet. From Egypt to Turkey and Iraq by way of Israel and Palestine, filmmaker Santiago Bertolino captures the ups and downs of a new kind of journalism in action.
“My mind is like someone emptied the junk drawer onto a trampoline.” From post-it notes to keys, pens, rubber bands, & receipts, the unorganized chaos of a junk drawer is the perfect representation of what goes on in the mind of someone with ADHD. In this profoundly personal mixed media experience inside the ADHD mind, Neurodivergent follows the filmmaker’s journey as she discovers her ADHD diagnosis during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. When she turns the camera on herself and her family to process what this diagnosis means, she also discovers why so many women with ADHD are undiagnosed and the dire consequences on their lives.
How does artist Matthew Barney use 45,000 pounds of petroleum jelly, a factory whaling vessel and traditional Japanese rituals to create his latest art project? Barney plowed the waters off the coast of Nagasaki to film his massive endeavor, Drawing Restraint 9. The documentary Matthew Barney: No Restraint journeys to Japan with Barney and his collaborator Bjork, as the visual artist creates a "narrative sculpture" telling a fantastical love story of two characters that transform from land mammals into whales.
A documentary about the UN sex abuse scandal where companies and staff working for the United Nations in the Congo and other Central African countries were involved in rape and sex abuse of local women. There have been over 1700 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse against UN peacekeepers in the last 15 years. Ramita Navai reveals why it keeps happening despite UN promises to stamp it out. It was produced for Channel 4 and for PBS Frontline – and ARTE. The film won the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Journalism award for Television – International. Nominated for 2019 Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Documentary. Shortlisted for 2019 Grierson Awards for Best Single Documentary – International and Best Current Affairs Documentary. In 2020, the documentary won the 22nd Media Awards for “Children’s Rights in One World” in Germany.
Rare, medium rare, medium, medium well and well done. Through intimate and personal stories, five women share their experiences in relation to the body, from childhood to old age.
A Colorado family is thrust into the international media spotlight when they fight for the rights of their 6-year-old transgender daughter in a landmark civil rights case.