Speech-making is the art of persuasion. Well-honed rhetoric appeals not just to the mind, but to the heart and, deeper down, in the guts. Examining the speeches that provoked radical change, surprised pundits or shocked listeners, poet Simon Armitage dissects what makes a perfect speech. Simon gets the inside story behind some of the famous speeches of the modern age, talking to Tony Blair's speechwriter, to Earl Spencer on his controversial address at his sister's funeral and the woman who challenged the rioters in Hackney. We hear how Peter Tatchell confronted the BNP, Paul Boateng on how Enoch Powell's divisive speech personally affected him as a child, and Colonel Tim Collins, whose charge was to motivate his troops on the eve of the Iraq war. Simon discusses the nuts and bolts of speech writing with Vincent Franklin, aka the blue-sky thinking guru Stuart Pearson from The Thick of It, and gets tips on powerful delivery from actor Charles Dance.
Has Matthew been wasting his life? He’s 29 years old with 4 memberships at adult video stores, 55 tapes of compiled porn, and absolutely nothing to show for it: no girlfriend, no ambition, only a big stack of porn. Run Run It's Him is the true to life story of what happens when man stays too long in his apartment having sex with himself. It is also a funny, honest and optimistic look at the way porn affects people’s lives in the 21st century.
An astounding exposé that gives voice to the unwitting subjects of an infamous American scientific experiment: the 1960s Neubauer-Bernard study of separated twins. Told from the perspective of the Jewish identical twins and triplets who were secretly split up in infancy and adopted through Louise Wise Services, a Jewish adoption agency, the documentary examines the traumatic, long-term effects of the separations — and continuing deception — on the children and their adoptive families.
Young fathers tell how they try to achieve contact with their unborn child. As it is impossible to have any visual connection, the only thing left is everything audible. Since talking to the belly feels quite awkward, playing carefully selected music might feel a bit less awkward. Carefully curated playlist is the best way to tell something about yourself as a father, and also as a human being.
In the stark Labrador interior, a growing number of Filipino workers have recently landed in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, travelling halfway around the world for jobs they hope will offer their families new opportunities and a better life. Becoming Labrador follows a handful of them as they make a place for themselves in Labrador while dealing with the unexpected costs of living far from their family.
They belong to the armed wing of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is also an active guerrilla movement. The mission of these female fighters? Defend Kurdish territory in Iraq and Syria, and defeat ISIS (the armed militants of the so-called Islamic State group), all while embodying a revolutionary ideal advocating female empowerment. As filmmaker Zaynê Akyol follows their highly regimented lives, seasoned fighters like Rojen and Sozdar openly share with us their most intimate thoughts and dreams. Even as fighting against ISIS intensifies in the Middle East, these women bravely continue their battle against barbarism. Offering a window into this largely unknown world, Gulîstan, Land of Roses exposes the hidden face of this highly mediatized war: the female, feminist face of a revolutionary group united by a common vision of freedom.
Provocative, misunderstood, unloved, cynical poet... Serge Gainsbourg as seen by the women in his life: Juliette Gréco, Vanessa Paradis, Jane Birkin, Brigitte Bardot, Régine, France Gall, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bambou... An intimate portrait of the man who could not live without them.
Throughout the 1980s, Miami, Florida, was at the center of a racial and cultural shift taking place throughout the country. Overwhelmed by riots and tensions, Miami was a city in flux, and the University of Miami football team served as a microcosm for this evolution. The image of the predominantly white university was forever changed when coach Howard Schnellenberger scoured some of the toughest ghettos in Florida to recruit mostly black players for his team. With a newly branded swagger, inspired and fueled by the quickly growing local Miami hip hop culture, these Hurricanes took on larger-than-life personalities and won four national titles between 1983 and 1991. Filmmaker Billy Corben, a Miami native and University of Miami alum, will tell the story of how these “Bad Boys” of football changed the attitude of the game they played, and how this serene campus was transformed into “The U.”
One of the greatest, prolific and most influential action directors in history Chang Cheh! Documentary about the Shaw Brother's most prolific director.
From Raleigh to Appalachia, North Carolinians are living with curable cancers, heart disease and other conditions. However, they can't afford to get treatment, because North Carolina didn't expand Medicaid. Left Behind goes deep into North Carolina to explore the economic and social cost of the thousands who are "left behind' by North Carolina's healthcare laws.
Author Arthur C. Clarke and the cast and crew of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey" star in this documentary, released in the film's long-anticipated title year. The origins of the production are traced as we see how the early days of the space race influenced Kubrick and Clarke's vision of a far more optimistic 21st century than we've managed to achieve - at least so far.
The death of punk icon and X-Ray Spex front-woman Poly Styrene sends her daughter on a journey through her mother's archives in this intimate documentary.