Greg Lutzka is a professional skateboarder who has won countless numbers of contests. From competitive contests to being an entrepreneur and living in the fast lane-it just doesn't get any better than this. A kid, a board, a dream.
For a long time, vessels crossing the High Risk Area on the Somali coastline would hire private mercenaries in order to protect themselves from pirates. Nowadays, the attacks have dropped off and the mercenaries encounter a new problem: the lack of action. Daily training to face a non-existent enemy creates a sense of absurdity, captured by Gregoris Rentisʼ camera with great inspiration and precision.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a religious group with eight million followers in multiple nations, including Australia. A knock on the door and an earnest offer to share their teachings is the only interaction most people will have with this god-fearing organisation. Few would know the extreme nature of their beliefs. The conduct of the religious group came under scrutiny in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Marc Hauser is a visionary. Or is he mad? A record-holding skydiver, Hauser has a grand ambition: to become the first man to jump into a hurricane force jet stream at over 8,000 meters. A big risk, but with potentially huge rewards. Hauser wants to show the power of the jet stream as an energy source, which he believes could solve the global energy crisis. As Hauser's preparations take shape, the scale of his challenge becomes clear.
Can one be happy despite being gravely ill? Nick Difino, a food performer, posed this question to himself. After being diagnosed with a Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, his disease became a challenge to find his own "recipe for happiness". His story - mainly narrated using his video diaries - is alternated with the voices of seven acclaimed Chefs and artists - among which Simone Salvini, Roy Paci, Diego Rossi and others - who portray Nick's struggle, since cooking for him during the treatment has got them closely involved. While preparing the meals they ponder over subjects as disease, happiness, love for life, death and - of course - the role of Food.
When he was an infant, he suffered from the 'Spider Mites of Jesus' (his mother couldn't pronounce spinal meningitis). This caused mental challenges that resulted in his lifelong illiteracy. At 13, he began selling his body on the streets as a drag prostitute. When he was arrested, he took a dump in the back of the police car, leading the cops to give him the moniker: Dirtwoman. Since then he's run for mayor, gotten kicked out of the inauguration of America's first black governor (Douglas Wilder), posed for his own pin-up calendar (weighing in at 350 pounds), offered crabs from his crotch for a GWAR video and hosted the annual Hamaganza fundraiser that provided 'Hams for the Hamless.' When he died last year at 65, it was on the front page, top-of-the-fold of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and was featured nationally on NPR.
The NCAA is the face for college athletics, and it generates billions of dollars every year for the top universities in the United States. This is the first documentary that challenges the NCAA from the perspective of former student-athletes. Director Bob DeMars, a former USC football player, interviewed former student-athletes to find the problems and potential solutions regarding players' rights.
Documentary about the inmates and penal officers of Alabama's Limestone Correctional Facility and Arizona's Estrella County Jail, the first prison ever to put women on a chain gang.
Four young surfers who have endured poverty, abandonment, abuse, and death find refuge in the ocean on a journey to not let their pasts define who they will become.
To mark the centenary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, this documentary offers, for the first time ever, an extraordinary opportunity to meet the Pharoah , and relive those unique moments on the big screen following exclusive coverage of how 150 items from among his treasures, were moved to become part of the biggest international exhibition ever dedicated to the Golden Boy. Tutankhamun is a name that has become part of the collective imagination worldwide. Few people, however, associate his celebrity status with a combination of unique events and the stubbornness of the British archaeologist who discovered the tomb. This documentary film retraces this incredible story and offers exclusive access to some of the places which continue to pulsate with its history. “Please watch them, before they return back to Egypt forever”, said Mostafa Waziry, secretary general of the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities.
From his appearances in Harvey Pekar’s AMERICAN SPLENDOR comic book to MTV segments to movies like KILLER NERD, TOWNIES and the award-winning, big-screen AMERICAN SPLENDOR adaptation, Toby Radloff has achieved fame — for being a "Genuine Nerd!" Underground filmmaker Wayne Alan Harold (TOWNIES) profiles his friend and collaborator in this truly unique, truly nerdy documentary! See Toby’s customized "Nerd Mobile," check out his swinging bachelor pad and hear his hilarious musings on hamburgers, the Internet, world politics and (of course) being a nerd! Featuring appearances by AMERICAN SPLENDOR creator Harvey Pekar, Judah Friedlander (the actor/comedian who played Toby in the SPLENDOR movie) and comic book artist P. Craig Russell!
A documentary that explores how innovation can solve some of the world’s greatest problems and promote human progress. The film tracks four companies on the cutting edge of technological innovations that could help to protect the seas from pollution, solve hunger, eliminate organ transplant waitlists, and reduce atmospheric carbon emissions. The documentary also explores how, in the fast‐paced world of technological development, well‐intentioned regulations can inadvertently hamper beneficial discoveries.
Harlem Street Singer tells the little-known story of Reverend Gary Davis, the great American ragtime, blues and gospel guitarist. Not only is he one of the greatest folk guitar players of all time, he also represents the sweep of popular music in America during the twentieth century. Harlem Street Singer traces his journey from the tobacco warehouses of the rural south to the streets of Harlem, and onto the 1960s folk music scene, a blind street musician and itinerant preacher who rose out of abject poverty to influence a generation of musicians from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott to the Grateful Dead.
They say the lack of sunlight affects our mood - that the natural balance of the human mind state quickly shifts with the presence of the giant solar fireball in the sky. But this isn’t about winter blues or summer depression. Sunny is a mental disposition, and not just one reserved for beaches and fun parks. Level 1 injected a positive mood into the ski season - giving a dose of light therapy to dark northern landscapes of Scandinavia, Alaska, Japan, and British Columbia. So sit back and relax, put your shades on, and soak up the rays - the future looks bright.
Sherente Harris, a two-spirit genderqueer teenager from the Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island, boldly challenges the status quo of what it means to be a queer Indigenous person in a world bound by binary gender roles.
Jackie Jencquel, author and activist, is not terminally ill when she announces her death date—she simply refuses to live beyond a certain age. This unconventional conversation between a mother and her son, the filmmaker, tackles desire, personal autonomy, vanity and money.
BROTHERS OF THE BLACK LIST tells the story behind the longest litigated civil rights case in American history. It all began in September 1992, when an elderly woman in Oneonta, New York reported that she had been attacked in an attempted rape by a young Black male who cut his hand during the altercation. This led to a college administrator at nearby SUNY Oneonta giving the police a list of the names and residences of the 125 Black men who attended the school. Police used this list to track down every Black male in town, questioning them and demanding to see their hands.
Renowned Canadian cave-diver Jill Heinerth, fueled by an insatiable curiosity about Earth's hidden depths, embarks on legendary expeditions - from Mexico's extensive caves to Antarctica's iceberg realms. Amidst hair-raising dive footage, intimate interviews, and animated flashbacks Jill's motivations are unveiled. Despite over 100 personal losses in the deep, each odyssey brings her closer to the woman she aspired to be as a child. This film is a captivating narrative of exploration and self-discovery.