In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located right in the heart of Harlem. Fueled by the revolutionary fervor sweeping the nation, the strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to the extended occupation of the campus, classes being canceled, students being arrested, and the resignation of the college president. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, we follow the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this and other public universities. The Five Demands revisits the untold story of this explosive student takeover, and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and effect meaningful change.
As the global economics of dairy farming has winnowed out most small and medium-sized dairies, the surviving farmers confront pressures to intensify production, even as they find that getting bigger presents new problems.
The Air We Breathe is an experimental documentary that thinks through the complexities of air pollution by weaving together themes of environmental catastrophe, environmental racism, cultural and political shifts, and conspiracy. Combining research into air pollution along with personal storytelling and speculative imaginings, this project deeply considers the complicated ways in which our air impacts us: from the way that smells travel through it and the memories they evoke; to the physical impacts of pollutants through shared inhalation; to the ways in which the air serves as a metaphor of connection in a cultural sense.
Jim Bouton's 1970 book "Ball Four" was groundbreaking, shocking, and controversial. It sold in the millions. 40 years later, Bouton and former teammates spin hilarious stories from behind baseball's cloistered clubhouses, giving a rare glimpse inside Major League baseball in the 1960s. The book's cultural impact is examined by filmmaker and former pro baseball player Ron Shelton ("Bull Durham"), author Jean Hastings Ardell, and David Kipen, former director of literature for the NEA.
A short film about the enduring meaning of a beloved chocolate soda drink born on the Jewish Lower East Side. The egg cream contained neither eggs nor cream—it was a product of necessity and hardship, but a source of joy and sweetness. Through a tour of egg cream establishments led by a filmmaker and his young daughter, exhaustively researched archival imagery (and an eponymous song by Lou Reed!), EGG CREAM examines the Jewish experience in America and the mythology of a simpler time.
The deep northern forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are home to small villages of Finnish Americans—communities carved out from the forest where Finnish language, cultural worldview, and traditional arts remain crucial to social life more than a century after immigration. In this beautiful and rugged north country, the extraordinary, ordinary descendants of Finnish immigrants still eke out modest lives to this day on old farmsteads, working with the resources they have available to them, showing their creativity and ingenuity in simply getting by and making do, and living in ways not dissimilar from their ancestors who migrated three or four generations ago.
Carving through the heart of the Promised Land is the Biblical spine of Israel, sometimes referred to as the “Path of the Patriarchs” and officially designated as “Route 60.” This trek is far more than a two-lane highway; it is a historic, sacred link to the roots of Judaism and Christianity and the stories of the Old and New Testaments. Follow world-changing diplomats David Friedman and Mike Pompeo as they venture down this sacred road, treading the very ground Abraham, Moses, Jacob, King David, and Jesus once walked. Discover the history, witness the healing, and realize the hope along Route 60, the Biblical Highway.
Leah Penniman, a young Black farmer and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, knows all too well the plight of Black farmers in the United States. From the height of Black-owned farms at 14% in 1910 to less than 2% today, Leah and her Soul Fire Farm cohorts help propel a returning generation of young Black farmers to reclaim their sacred connection to land. All the while, fighting for the passage of landmark legislation: the Justice for Black Farmers Act. This rising generation of young Black farmers find strength in the deep historical knowledge of African agrarianism — and its potential to save the planet.
Twin sisters Tena and Tama Lundquist take to the streets to combat the stray dog epidemic in Houston, TX, and show that it just takes one person caring to make a difference. With catastrophic numbers of stray dogs roaming the streets of Houston TX, twin sisters Tena and Tama Lundquist take matters into their own hands to save the animals they love.
Actor Glynn Turman makes his Broadway debut at 12 years old in the original production of “A Raisin in the Sun” opposite Sidney Poitier and becomes a silver screen legend for six decades.
Kay Wang was a strong-willed grandmother who was reluctantly taken to a StoryCorps booth by her son and granddaughter. Though Kay resisted, she still had stories to tell—from disobeying her mother and rebuffing suitors while growing up in China to late-life adventures as a detective for Bloomingdale's department store. Kay passed away just weeks after that interview, and her son and granddaughter returned to StoryCorps to remember her gentler side, which she kept to herself.
Words and delivery can combine to galvanize an audience, creating ‘I remember where I was when...’ moments. JFK at the Brandenburg Gate or Martin Luther King at the Lincoln Memorial provide unforgettable examples that still stir today. This collection of classic speech excerpts contains not only inspiring orations to democratic freedom and the noblest aspects of human endeavor, but also some of the darkest and most despicable speeches delivered in modern times.
Joshua Littman, a 12-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome, interviews his mother, Sarah. Joshua's unique questions and Sarah's loving, unguarded answers reveal a beautiful relationship that reminds us of the best—and the most challenging—parts of being a parent.
In June 2015, Alex Smith completed a long distance triathlon - a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42km run - known as the toughest single day challenge you can undertake, carrying his 40kg disabled son the whole way. An epic achievement for his son, who is dying from a fatal muscle wasting disease: Duchenne muscular dystrophy.