Episode Seven of the New York: A Documentary. In the aftermath of World War II, southern African-Americans moved north and Puerto Rican immigrants poured into the city, a trend which would continue for the next thirty years. Robert Moses waged a campaign of urban renewal, including adding highways to the city, hastening white flight to the suburbs. The destruction of the old Penn Station in 1963 and the protests against Moses's plans for the Lower Manhattan Expressway led to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, ensuring the survival of New York's most architecturally important buildings and neighborhoods. Social and financial crises in the 1960s and 1970s took a toll on the city, but New York's revival since the 1970s has been enduring.
Paul Henreid, perhaps most famous for his roles in CASABLANCA and NOW, VOYAGER became a star at Warner Brothers during World War II, as the exotic lead with the European accent. After the war, his contract was cancelled and he was left to his own devices. He continued acting and also began producing and directing. In his choices, both as actor and director, his work evinces an increasing bitterness and cynicism. A personal statement? Or a result of the unceasing political shifts of the times?
Grand Saline, Texas, was a sleepy, unremarkable town—until a white preacher lit himself on fire to protest the town's racism in 2014. The subject of this film is deceptively straightforward: A minister commits suicide by setting himself on fire. He leaves behind a letter that frames his decision as a religious response to the intolerable racism of America's past and present, particularly in his Texas hometown. The aftermath is befuddling: There are townspeople who can recall incidents of racial violence and hate speech, and those who have never seen anything of the kind. Black folk in surrounding towns who share rumors and fears about acts of violence, and white folk who say you can't believe everything you hear. Fellow ministers who share the desire to be liberated from a racist past, and churchgoers who believe only mental illness could explain such a suicide.
A groundbreaking documentary exposing the extent of collusion between Loyalist paramilitaries and the British security forces in Northern Ireland during 'the Troubles'.
This in-depth documentary explores the dark side of American higher education, exposing predatory for-profit colleges and the tactics they use to defraud students and the government.
Miyamoto-cho is a community of Mom-and-Pop stores and family enterprises located near the center of Tokyo. Competition from supermarkets and shopping centers threatens the livelihoods of long-term residents. High land prices tempt owners to tear down old homes and replace them with apartment buildings; this in turn is changing the composition of the population. Against this backdrop, residents strive to maintain the close social ties, symbols of local identity, and community rituals that keep Miyamoto-cho from becoming just another mailing address. Theodore Bestor began his research here in 1979. His prize winning book of the same name is available through Stanford University Press. This documentary is one of a series depicting the variety of life in today's Japan in the context of human problems common to all industrial nations. A comprehensive study guide is available.
The spectacular avant-garde choreographies of flamenco dancer Rocío Molina push at the boundaries of dance and the visual arts. She travels the world to perform her partly improvised impulsos at unusual venues such as modern art museums. This bio-doc follows Molina in the months leading up to a new show at Chaillot National Theater in Paris.
In the movies since he was an infant, Chris Olsen appeared in films by some of the best directors of the 1950's. Even though he never became a famous child actor, he played a pivotal role in some of the most iconic movies of the era. Retired since the age of 14, he looks back on his life as a child actor, trying to find the thread that ties his movie roles together.
In the 1960s, frustrated by the growing problem of urban pollution, Athelstan Spilhaus, a visionary scientist and futurist comic strip writer, assembled a team of experts to develop a bold experiment: the Minnesota Experimental City (MXC). MXC would be the city of the future, a domed metropolis for 250,000 pioneering residents, built from scratch and using cutting-edge technology to prevent urban sprawl and pollution. Things didn’t quite go as planned, as explored in Chad Friedrichs’ fascinating look back at the would-be city of tomorrow.
The incredible story of a man, a mission, and an organization that transcended race and gender to save New York City from a pit of despair in the late 1970's and 1980's.
This is the story of a tiny country that made a decision to do something that no other country had ever done -- it decided to abolish its army and declare peace to the world. And this is the story of a young boy who grew up in that country, and how he ended up challenging -- and sometimes even convincing -- the greatest powers in the world to follow Costa Rica's example. "Oscar Arias: Without a Shot Fired" is a Don Quixote-like saga with great historical touchstones -- Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Cold War politics and Communism, Central American War and Peace. It follows a slight, academic, and most unlikely hero over the course of more than fifty years, as he travels the world in a quest to stop the spread of the weapons of war. In the end, it is a story about the triumph of reason, of the sparrow triumphing over the eagle, and how the impossible dream can sometimes come true.
The Gauchos del Mar brothers perform an unprecedented expedition by foot with 35kgs+ on their backs during 53 days on the easternmost tip of Tierra del Fuego Province, a pristine area where no one lives. The brothers have the goal of surfing a world-class wave never ridden before at the Cape San Diego Lighthouse, the most easterly point. To get there they overcome heavy terrains, scarcity of food and harsh climate. With no communication whatsoever they document the region and decide to share their message of environmentalism, avoiding consumerism and living simply in order to protect Península Mitre forever!
As the Earth's average temperature rises each year, experts warn that we are nearing a fatal tipping point, 2 degrees Celsius above the norm, that will set into motion a cascade of natural disasters that will devastate America and the world. From raging fires to epic superstorms, volcanic blasts and rising seas, will human existence be pushed to the brink?
Traces the new Cold War between Russia and the West from the ban on American citizens adopting Russian children to the Kremlin’s anti-LGBTQ campaign, which positions the international marriage equality movement as a national threat.
MARY JANES: THE WOMEN OF WEED follows female 'ganjapreneurs', who we call Puffragettes (as in Pot + Suffragette), as they navigate the highs and lows of the legal US cannabis industry.
In the land of the Rising Sun, love and relationships are in danger. A quarter of all Japanese aged 30 to 40 are virgins and 50% of the population admits to not having sex regularly. Unsurprisingly, this has led to birth rates plummeting. But what are the reasons for this detachment from the world of love and sex?