An audiovisual allegory on communication – this film follows cable technicians in four different countries (Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova) as they visit their customers. Each client they call on provides a glimpse into their own individual universe. With so many tools for communication, we still inhabit a modern-day Tower of Babel; an ordered discordance of personalities and perspectives.
Follow a classically trained composer as he adapts a dime novel masterpiece into a grand opera. In 1912, Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage flew off bookshelves around the world and today is considered iconic. A century later, Craig Bohmler and a team of musicians, singers, and painters translate cowboy culture and the beauty of the west into the realm of Puccini and Verdi.
The story of the unsung heroes who deliver the 'Stars And Stripes' military newspaper to soldiers in Afghanistan. Part of the film shows the paper delivery to Camp Lightning after 90 minutes on a Chinook helicopter, two miles up a mountain, and further travel on Humvees.
American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel takes audiences into the buckle of Bible belt where a group of defiant ministers, congregations, and community leaders are challenging deeply rooted fundamentalist Christian doctrine in favor of a Gospel of Inclusion. Labeled as "heretics" for their beliefs and actions, they refuse to wield their faith as a sword sharpened by literal interpretations of the Bible. Especially those fundamentalist Christian interpretations that continue to justify nationalism and hack away at landmark civil rights protections for women, minorities, immigrants, and the LGBTQ communities.
The Polygon shines a light on the village of Sarzhal in East Kazakhstan, situated only 18kms from the perimeter of the former Semipalatinsk Test Site, that was home to over 600 nuclear detonations. Between 1949 and 1991 the Soviet Union detonated 116 above ground bombs, whose massive radioactive mushroom clouds were witnessed by thousands of innocent and unsuspecting Kazakh villagers. They gazed openmouthed at the spectacle, completely unaware that nuclear fallout was raining down on them, their children, livestock and homes. 20 years after the closure of The Polygon they are still suffering high rates of cancer, cancer related diseases and mental illness. The Polygon takes us on a journey from the twisted Cold War experiments to those victims who remain today, still suffering despite the emergence of Kazakhstan as a major economic player on the global stage.
Approximately, because so-called "ethnic" statistics are prohibited, there are an estimated 3.3 million black French citizens. Distant descendants of slaves from the Caribbean or "indigenous" peoples from the French colonial empire in Africa, they constitute a minority that is often discriminated against. Isabelle Boni-Claverie, a mixed-race woman raised in the affluent neighborhoods of Paris, daughter of an Ivorian politician and granddaughter of Alphonse Boni, a Black man who became a magistrate of the French Republic in the 1930s, examines what is blocking the social advancement of Black French people and the full recognition of their citizenship.
In 1965 during the Vietnam War, students and teachers from the National Conservatory of Music in Hanoi were forced to flee to a small village in the countryside. With the help of villagers they built an entire campus underground where they lived, studied and played music for five years as the war raged around them. This documentary records the coming together of the former conservatory students and villagers for a reunion concert 30 years after the war, to paint a moving portrait of life in Vietnam then and now.
From an official perspective, marginal youth culture did not exist in East Germany. The topic of subcultures was taboo in the GDR, and groups such as goths, skinheads, anti-skins, punks and neo-Nazis were dismissed as social deviations promoted by western countries. Director Roland Steiner had access to such young East Germans in the late 1980s. Over the course of four years, he brought them before the camera in an attempt to understand what drew them to these groups.
Exploring the relationship between Aboriginal people and their land (including the Dreaming, sacred places), this film was inspired by Silas Roberts’ submission to the 1976 Australian Government inquiry on uranium mining - the Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry. Silas, whose tribal name is Ngourladi, is an elder of the Allawa clan and was the first chairman of the Northern Land Council, established to assist Aboriginal people make land rights claims based on traditional ownership. The film, which moves from Arnhem Land in the north to Yuendumu in the centre, examines the importance of maintaining Aboriginal culture and laws and explains the reasons why they object to the mining being carried out.
A dazzling journey through time via the remarkable images of National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting and his epic "LIFE" project, which presents a stunning interpretation of life on Earth, from the Big Bang through the present.
Set in Rio de Janeiro's most notorious favelas, the underprivileged youth share their perspective on the extremely popular, pornographic favela funk music with respect to their personal (love) lives, situated in a lawless subculture of drug gangs, machismo, violence and sex.
At an exclusive Catholic boys school in Melbourne 1976, Tim Conigrave and John Caleo fell madly in love. Their passionate, tempestuous, operatic romance lasted for 16 years, facing disapproval, temptation, separation, and the looming shadow of the Grim Reaper. Their relationship has been immortalised in Conigrave's posthumous autobiography Holding the Man (now a major Australian film directed by Neil Armfield). This is the true story of how Romeo met Romeo and how first love can not only last but endure.
A documentary tragicomedy of a father-daughter relationship, told by the subjective perspective of the young director. She tries to understand how a revolutionary could have become a criminal and an alcoholic, and why he abandoned his family. Freely juggling between documentary, fiction and animation, the director takes us on a journey around the world. The daughter of a former communists visits the ports of the revolt, where communities are trying to realize the concrete utopia.
The film presents the latest archaeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. This archaeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies: Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one God—the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—emerge?
The producers surveyed the evidence and take positions that are mainstream among archaeologists and historians, although they continue to raise objections among both Christians who believe in the bible as either literal or historical truth and minimalists who assert that the Bible has no historical validation.
Red Dot on the Ocean is the story of Matt Rutherford, a severely troubled youth, who became a sailing legend. Departing Annapolis, MD in a scrappy old 27-foot fiberglass sloop without fanfare, 30-year-old Rutherford braved the icebergs of the arctic and mountainous waves of Cape Horn to become the only person to ever sail single-handed, non-stop around the Americas; a 27,000 mile journey many professional sailors declared "a suicide mission."
An entertaining, secular, and educational look at the benefits of mindful practice, 'The Mindfulness Movie' brings together an unprecedented group of the world's leading neuroscientists, psychiatrists, authors, and others to decode mindfulness. First, they help to define what mindfulness is and how the concept of neuroplasticity plays into the practice. Then, they walk you through eight practical, foundational mindful lessons--like managing stress and mindful eating. Finally, meet some heartwarming veterans and teens who are using mindfulness to overcome issues like PTSD, depression, bi-polar disorder, anxiety, and everyday life stresses. Everyone, regardless of belief system or background, has something to gain from watching ' The Mindfulness Movie.'
Debut documentary featuring a series of portraits of women in hip-hop. Say My Name offers a unique and inspiring view into the though world of hip-hop in which the portrayed women make music, search for their own voice and survive. With Erykah Badu, Estelle, Monie Love, MC Lyte, Jean Grae and many many more.