"While Ceausescu was alive, we knew who was good (the West and the United States) and who was evil. Since then, things have become more complicated." Filmmaker Alexandru Solomon believes the story of this propaganda war can help us discern the shades of grey in contemporary conflicts. "Look at our Radio Free Europe editors: you could be fighting on the right side and still be part of a dirty game."
Join renowned actor Simon Callow as he uncovers the moving origins of the song Silent Night that has been 200 years in the making. A story that begins in humble circumstances, ends with the world's most popular carol. Simon journeys to the Austrian village of Oberndorf as well as the city of Salzburg, where the story of the world's favourite carol had its origins. The First Silent Night introduces us to two impoverished children - Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber - who grew up in Austria's cobbled streets and wooded villages. The hard years that shaped them would also destine them to meet one day in a poor country church to unite Gruber's music and Mohr's text into this classic carol about the birth of a third poor boy on a quiet night in ancient Palestine. Silent Night would speak a message of hope to their country, recovering from the harsh Napoleonic wars that had devastated their cities and villages. The guns would fall silent at last, replaced by the gentle strains of music.
Profiled is a feature length documentary that knits the stories of mothers of Black and Latin unarmed youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Driven by anger when their demands for justice are ignored the women transition from grieving parents to activists participating in the grass roots movement now spreading across the country since the much-publicized deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
This compassionate doc follows concerned citizens living at the frontiers of extreme oil and gas extraction; as they denounce the rise of extreme energy, they also envision the new world that is taking shape in its stead, at the end of the fossil fuel era.
Like millions of indigenous people, many Native American tribes do not control their own material history and culture. For the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes living on the isolated Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, new contact with lost artifacts risks opening old wounds but also offers the possibility for healing. What Was Ours is the story of how a young journalist and a teenage powwow princess, both of the Arapaho tribe, travelled together with a Shoshone elder in search of missing artifacts in the vast archives of Chicago’s Field Museum. There they discover a treasure trove of ancestral objects, setting them on a journey to recover what has been lost and build hope for the future.
In this full-length documentary, Mary Murphy explores the enduring power, popularity & mystery that is Harper Lee. She interviews Oprah Winfrey, Wally Lamb Anna Quindlen, James McBride and others, and with rare cooperation from Harper Lee’s family and friends tells the story of a novel that became an American classic. In the newest edition of the film, Harper Lee from Mockingbird to Watchman, Murphy examines the rediscovered novel and its place alongside To Kill A Mockingbird.
In January 1961, a new generation in the guise of John F. Kennedy moved into the White House. All of a sudden politics were youthful, dynamic and sexy. During the brief period in which he was in office, the first pop star of politics accompanied America through the darkest days of the Cold War. At the same time, his signal to embark in new directions was eagerly welcomed by younger generations all around the world. Later on, Jackie Kennedy was to compare his presidency with Camelot - the legendary court of King Arthur. Yet, there were also dark sides to this popular president's life.
Failed by a healthcare system that is largely ignorant of their existence, four patients with a life-threatening, rare disease learn to find strength in each other and their small, but strong community.
In 1915, estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks, during the Armenian Genocide. In 2015, a Turkish woman named Maya discovers that her great grandmother was survivor of the Armenian genocide. Maya embodies the conflict as she has two enemies living in her body: one side that suffers and the other side that denies. The documentary follows Maya as she decides to go to Armenia to take part in the 100th commemoration of the genocide and to explore her conflicted identity. This film is a universal story of identity, denial, and how the experience of genocide creates a ripple effect for future generations on both sides.
Film deals with the problematic of the water exploitation, contamination and manipulation. The documentary points to the realizations and discoveries that water memorizes and that it is conscious.
Voices of the Transition is an enthusiastic documentary on farmers- and community-led responses to food insecurity in a scenario of climate change and peak oil.
The work of the Flemish choreographer Ann van den Broek is very personal. Her intense choreography is dedicated to her own extreme experiences and emotions. Her approach will spare nothing and nobody. She expects unconditional commitment from herself, but also from her dancers. As a result, we get to witness innovative and highly successful dance performances, but also a complicated hate-love relationship with the people around her. In The Lady in Black, director Lisa Boerstra (L.A. Raeven) shows us the extent to which Ann is interwoven with the choreographies, bringing the artist’s life and work together in a new experience.
Tarbosaurus: The Mightiest Ever is a South Korean adventure drama film directed by Han Sang-Ho. A spiritual prequel to The Dino King, sharing various themes with the movie and also being directed by Han Sang-Ho, this film follows the life of a Tarbosaurus family made up of Patch, (the father of Speckles from The Dino King), his two siblings and their mother in prehistoric South Korea.
More than a genre, salsa was a cultural movement that arose in a time of need for strengthening the Latino culture and spread across the world with such force that, 50 years later, is still moving the feet of dancers in the most inhospitable corners world. At the heart of the movement is the figure of Johnny Pacheco, know as one of the great musical legacies responsible for salsa music.
On a NASA research base in Silicon Valley, there's an organization that's changing the world ... Singularity University (SU). Created by renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, with support from NASA, Google, and others, the university brings in some of the smartest students from around the world, and gives them a crash course in the most powerful exponential technologies on the planet. The students are then given a challenge: create companies that will impact a billion people within ten years. The film follows the students and their companies over five years, as they use the support of scientists, astronauts and billionaires in their attempt to make a dent in the universe.
Cory Mann is a quirky Tlingit businessman hustling to earn a living in Juneau, Alaska. He gets hungry for smoked salmon, nostalgic for his childhood and decides to spend a summer smoking fish at his family's traditional fish camp. The unusual story of his life and the untold history of his people interweave with the process of preparing traditional food as he struggles to pay his bills, keep the IRS off his back, and keep his business afloat. By turns tragic, bizarre, or just plain ridiculous, Smokin' Fish tells the story of one man's attempt to navigate the messy zone of collision between the modern world and an ancient culture.
An assessment of the 20th century's best known artist and his vast achievements through the insights and speculations of over a dozen participants. Filmed on the 100th anniversary of Picasso's birth at MoMA, Musée Picasso, Walker Art Center, Museu Picasso Barcelona. Featuring Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rosenblum, Clement Greenberg, Roland Penrose and others.
"Brother Orange" follows the story of Matt Stopera, a BuzzFeed founding editor, whose life takes an unexpected turn when his stolen phone, lost in a New York City bar, becomes the catalyst for a viral BuzzFeed article a year later. The article launched a viral feel-good story about a lasting friendship that transcends language and culture and has captivated the world with over 100 million views on social media, including over 70 million shares on Weibo, and traditional media such as NPR, Rachel Maddow, and Ellen while propelling Matt into instant celebrity status. As their 10-year friendship anniversary nears, this extraordinary true story showcases the power of personal connection between two ordinary people-one American and one Chinese-who look beyond political tensions to form a profound bond.