Maryam Henderson-Uloho spent thirteen years in prison in Louisiana, seven in solitary confinement. After her release she struggled to find housing or employment. She began selling secondhand goods out of a suitcase on a street corner in New Orleans. In just three years, she grew her business to a brick-and-mortar thrift store—one that also provides housing and employment for other formerly-incarcerated women. She calls those women—and her store—Sister Hearts.
In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, two national motorcycle festivals are held over the weeks around the Memorial Day Holiday. One festival is primarily white, the other is predominantly black. While bikers of both colors enjoy both festivals; the city, community and state view these two festivals vastly different creating a divide among the participants, business owners and residents. Against the backdrop of the historical relevance of the area's segregated past, this documentary explores the opposing viewpoints on segregation and integration, mutual love of motorcycle culture, and racial tensions that reach a boiling point every spring in this southern beach mecca.
THE FOOD CURE presents an intimate portrait of six cancer patients who make the radical decision to turn their backs on conventional medicine and put their faith in a controversial alternative cancer treatment based on food.
This documentary attempts to go beyond the sensationalized media coverage and the stereotypes to examine several key conflicts from the point of view of both Black and Jewish activists.
In a St. Petersburg apartment, every room belongs to a family. The four families share the kitchen and bathroom in shifts. One family decides to sell their room and money hungry agents try to sell everyone else's rooms as well.
Lee Fields is a funk and soul legend 50 years in the making. In this feature documentary, his journey to find his place in soul music history takes you from vinyl to virtual—and back again. His voice has been compared to James Brown, but Lee Fields is no knock-off. He’s the real thing. For decades, he thought his music dreams were dead. But with one phone call, everything changed … Interspersed with striking, never-before seen performances of new and classic Lee Fields songs, the film takes us through Lee’s memories from the moment soul music began, to his hard-won present-day success, and shows how 50 years of changing technology have conspired to create one beautiful but fleeting moment in music history.
Girl on Wave introduces professional windsurfer Sarah Hauser and documents her journey as a New-Caledonian athlete competing on the American stage of windsurfing.
The brilliant writing and troubled life of Californian Larry Levis came to an abrupt halt when he died at age 49. Is self-destruction required for a serious life of art? Featuring an original score by Iron and Wine and film excerpts by award-winning Spanish filmmaker Lois Patiño, this innovative documentary explores his childhood working alongside Mexican-American field hands, three marriages, friendships with America’s greatest poets, and his own words for answers.
Through the lens of graphic design, “Design Canada” follows the transformation of a nation from a colonial outpost to a vibrant and multicultural society. What defines a national identity, is it an anthem? A flag? Is it a logo or icon? How do these elements shape who we are? In the 1960s and 1970s, these questions were answered by an innovative group of Canadian designers, who used design to unify the nation.
From personal healing, inspiration grew to create a positive film about people addressing disease with food. There are a lot of negative messages about the state of our nation's health and diet, and we were inspired by the community of people we found who are fighting back against this downward trend. Food As Medicine is a documentary film that follows the growing movement of using food to heal chronic illness and disease.
Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools in 1950, was still to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were beaten, humiliated or abused if they spoke their language or expressed their culture or native identity in any way. The trauma led many to alcoholism and violence in adulthood. At age 58, Walter began writing his memoirs as a way to explain his own abusive behaviors to his estranged children, but he could not complete the project without confronting the “thick dark fog” of his past so he could heal.
Thousands of three-wheeled motorized rickshaws - called tuk-tuks - zip through the frenetic streets of Cairo everyday, driven by industrious young men, many of them not even teenagers. Across gorgeously photographed sun-drenched streets, Tuk-tuk follows Abdallah, Sharon and Bika, who, while too young to shave or even obtain a legal license, are forced to drive to feed their families. Besieged on all sides by police, thieves and other taxis, the boys take every chance to find a happy diversion or fleeting escape from the prison of poverty. Pulsating with comedy and danger, the film illustrates the resilient outlook of three children who have to become adults before their time, and their struggle to hold on to some semblance of childhood.
Maria Irene Fornes is “America's Great Unknown Playwright.” When she stops writing due to dementia, a friendship with a young writer reignites her visionary creative spirit, triggering a film collaboration that picks up where the pen left off.
The story of former teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, a Seattle grade school teacher, who stunned the world when she fell in love with her 13-year-old former sixth grade student Vili Fualaau. Their subsequent relationship ultimately sent her to prison for more than seven years, isolating her from her children and altering the course of her life forever.
Gabe Weil is a 27 year old born with the most severe form of muscular dystrophy. For his entire life, Gabe had been told he would be lucky to live past 25. But recently, he learned he was misdiagnosed, and may live well into his 50's.