Some make documentaries of successful people, while others - like the case of this short film - prefer to look at those who have not fared so well. Herr Shurback is more than just a failed entrepeneur. This is his movie.
The contestants for Miss Snake Charmer are not your typical high school beauty queens. These teens must show they are more than just pretty faces-that they have the guts and grit to win America's toughest beauty pageant. Contestants must prove their bravery by killing, and skinning, a rattlesnake before showcasing their talents and evening wear. The winner then spends the weekend reigning over pits of live vipers during the World's Largest Rattlesnake Roundup.
Disenchanted by the modern world, Michael Lees heads into the forest of Dominica with some basic survival gear, religious texts and a camera. "Why did man ever leave the forest? And what makes for a good life?" Just as he starts to acclimatize to his new life - the unexpected; Category 5 Hurricane Maria, one of the top ten strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history, makes a direct landfall. Michael is caught out in the open in a palm leaf and bamboo hut. With the nation in ruins, the forest destroyed, and essential services knocked out islandwide, the entire country must now return to a past way of life if they hope to survive.
In a household where meal times are a delightful feast full of bonding, fellowship and good eating, 3 members of this tight-knit family are diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus.
Journey through celebrated British band IDLES' determination, friendship and adversity as they fight for a place in a divided sociopolitical environment, unexpectedly inspiring and unifying an international community along the way.
Cemeteries are natural open-air theaters with their own codes, aesthetics, vegetation, visitors, and organization, which deeply reflect the culture and beliefs of the people who live around them. This constant juxtaposition of death and life is what gives them their dynamism, their strangeness, but also their photogenic power. Behind their walls, we can discover stages of life, unique destinies, and intimate stories that we try to capture in the rhythm of the seasons. In "The Eternal Garden: Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris," we also encounter the most famous graves of Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison.
What happened next could never have been anticipated and forms the story line for the final film of the trilogy; Born Under The Red Flag examines China’s remarkable transformation after Mao’s death. In just 15 years, under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership, China raced forward at an astonishing pace to become a never-before-seen hybrid of communism and capitalism. The world’s most populous nation has reinvented itself, changing from a relatively undeveloped and isolated nation into an economic giant and a major international power. For many Chinese, this transformation has brought unprecedented prosperity, but it has also raised troubling questions of national identity and social inequality.
The trilogy continues with The Mao Years, a look at the next period of modern China’s history: Mao Zedong’s rule, from 1949 to his death in 1976. The film begins with the celebrations marking the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, a moment of great hope for millions of Chinese. But the quarter-century of Mao’s rule was as turbulent as the decades which preceded it. Interludes of relative calm and increased prosperity were interrupted repeatedly by violent campaigns, purges, and a famine in which killed more than 30 million people. It culminated in Mao’s colossal and tragic experiment, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. When Mao died in 1976, people were exhausted by the turmoil and longed for stability.
Directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Leora Eisen, TVO Original Rescuing Rex unearths provocative truths about a world-wide phenomenon—international dog adoptions. A new social movement driven by a desire to do good, and fueled by irresistible puppy pics on Instagram, many millennials are bypassing breeders in favour of adopting homeless dogs from around the world. But what does this new trend mean for the animals, their caregivers and society? Told through the eyes of compelling human and canine characters, this film takes us from the mountains of Taiwan to the tarmac at Toronto’s airport, and from a rural kennel in Texas to an urban rooftop in Vancouver.
The war on drugs has failed: is legalization of cannabis the answer? Pot Luck takes a trip across pioneering state Colorado five years after full legalization to see how it's all playing out and what this blazed new world looks like.
After a friend's unexpected suicide, two St. Louis college students formed a non-profit and began a nationwide journey to explore the cultural and institutional circumstances that failed their friend and 40,000+ other people each year.
Montenegro is the newest European country with a proud history, one that is being falsified for current political purposes, thus creating an alternative identity. In a nation where it possible for two brothers to claim different ethnic backgrounds despite having the same parents, everything is on the table: language, church, democracy. Can the truth set Montenegro free?
Heroes Of The Holocaust series profiles those who risked or gave their lives to save others. The word "hero" should never be used lightly, but there are those who embody every letter of the word. Oskar Schindler is one such man. Join us for an in-depth look at Oskar Schindler's humble beginnings, the bravery he showed in the face of extreme danger, and the lion heart he possessed to always put first the well being of others.
The latest in the study of UFOs from well known UFOlogists, I Want to Believe examines how and why they got into the field, the most credible information currently available and the prospect for high-level disclosure.
“Slow News” is a contemporary story, a look on reality. It is an analytical documentary film, with a “destruens part” and a “construens part”: arises from the awareness that digital is one of the concauses of the crisis of journalism. But at the same time, it is in the digital world that there are chances to get out of this crisis, because the web is an ecosystem and, like all ecosystems, contains prey and predators, problems and solutions. Because the digital world is real. Digital is part of reality and as we shouldn’t demonize it. Digital is a medium. Men and women acts. “Slow News” is a journey around the world, looking for all those journalistic realities that have chosen to slow down or be “viral responsibly”.
In the United States, there are more than 2 million people behind bars. That's more than anywhere else in the world. The Anamosa State Penitentiary, granted us exceptional, round-the-clock access. Here, three quarters of the prisoners have been convicted of violent crimes and serve an average of 27 years. How is the prison managed?
This seven year journey chronicles the brash once-respected Canadian comedian Richard Lett, whose addiction to drugs and alcohol lead him to become homeless; estranged from his daughter and community.
Sixty years ago, Norway’s Nazi invaders saw a perfect opportunity to further Himmler’s “Lebensborn” program, by encouraging their soldiers to have affairs with Norwegian women, often with Aryan features, and breed “racially superior children.” After the war the women children were sent to prisons and asylums.
Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary follows families of those affected by the 2013 legislation stripping citizenship from Dominicans of Haitian descent, uncovering the complex history and present-day politics of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the grassroots electoral campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris.
Meteorologist Tetsuya Theodore "Ted" Fujita spent ten months studying The Super Outbreak of 1974, which was the most intense tornado outbreak on record. Mr. Tornado is the remarkable story of the man whose groundbreaking work in research and applied science saved thousands of lives and helped Americans prepare for and respond to dangerous weather phenomena.