On a Knife Edge is a father-son story about Guy and George Dull Knife that unfolds over the course of George’s coming-of-age journey. Under his father’s guidance, George becomes an activist and organizer, and begins identifying with the role of traditional Lakota warrior, which he views as his family legacy. He commits himself to the fight for social justice, but struggles with adapting the old ways and his father’s expectations to the modern-day realities of growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Told largely through George’s eyes, the film offers a privileged glimpse into the youngest generation of the American Indian Movement, as well as George’s own evolving notions of Native identity, manhood, and duty. His story is interwoven with animated sequences that depict five generations of family history, narrated by his father and based on paintings he has created to explore the continuum of their fight through the generations.
A documentary about the Austro-British photographer Edith Tudor-Hart, Tracking Edith follows filmmaker Peter Stephan Jungk’s journey to understand the motivations of his great aunt who, while living a double life as a spy for the KGB, recruited Kim Philby and helped create the Cambridge Five, the Soviet Union’s most successful spy ring in the United Kingdom, which infiltrated the very top of British intelligence (and inspired John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). As Jungk learns more about his aunt and her work, his film demands the question: why is she not recognized alongside Kim Philby and the Cambridge Five as one of the spies that changed the world?
Badger Creek is a portrait of Native resilience as seen through a year in the life of three generations of a Blackfeet family living on the rez in Montana. The Mombergs are a loving, sober family who run a successful ranch, live a traditional worldview and are re-learning their language.
A cinematic sleigh ride deep into the strange but true world of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas, the most exclusive and elite collection of Santas in the world. Anyone can don a red suit and fake beard to play Santa for a day. These men are Santa - all year, every day, and especially on Christmas. Young or old, naughty or nice, this documentary will make you believe all over again!
After 18 years living in Italy, the Cuban Barbara Ramos returns to live in her homeland. In the town of Santa Clara, she discovers through the projects of family and friends what has changed in Cuba but also what has not and will likely never change. Shot over a period of three years - the time it took Barbara to build her dream house - RETURN TO CUBA chronicles her life in the wake of Raul Castro's liberal reforms and reconciliation with the United States of America. A light-hearted yet energetic movie positively demonstrating that finding happiness is possible in today's Cuba!
Music brings joy, but what if your life is at risk when you perform? In Olancho, the most anarchic province of Honduras, the most murderous country in the world, criminal cartels love to vie for the best musicians. Then they have to sing the praises of the most powerful drug baron until a rival calls for them.
Explores the history and mystery of Migraine, and its remarkable place in the human condition. Migraine is a devastating but fascinating neurological condition with a compelling story to tell. Alice in Wonderland, Thomas Jefferson, Sigmund Freud, and Joan Didion all figure into its colorful history.
Carlos Jáuregui, gay rights activist, friend, lover, wrestler, icon, a mass inspiring. His conviction and pride changed the life of the Argentine LGBT Collective and the history of a country and its legislation.
Discover the story behind the man who sparked the Protestant Reformation. Told through a seamless combination of live-action storytelling and artistic animation, Martin Luther's daring life is presented in extensive detail while still making the film relevant, provocative, and accessible.
Australia was rocked on February 13, 1978, when a bomb placed in a garbage bin outside the Hilton Hotel exploded in a garbage truck killing three people. Many years later, Australia's most significant political crime remains unsolved.
Civil strife in Sudan is explored in personal detail in this film from British-Sudanese filmmaker Taghreed Elsanhouri. Eschewing the nightmarish footage so prevalent on nightly newscasts to instead focus on the personal stories of those who have witnessed firsthand the horrors of genocide, Elsanhouri turns her lens on the troubled citizens of Sudan in a bid to understand their plight on a more humane level. By opening the lines of communication with her fellow Sudanese and offering a platform to voice their suggestions for building a brighter future, Elsanhouri exposes truths rarely discussed by the mainstream media.
ONE MIND is an immersive cinematic meditation on Zen monastic life in China, where a communion of nature, meditation, and labor reveals a carefully crafted way of life that reflects the very wisdom it seeks to cultivate.
AN OUTRAGE is a documentary film about lynching in the American South. Filmed on-location at lynching sites in six states and bolstered by the memories and perspectives of descendants, community activists, and scholars, this unusual historical documentary seeks to educate even as it serves as a hub for action to remember and reflect upon a long-hidden past.
Tadao Ando, a self-taught architect, proposes an international architecture that he believes can only be conceived by someone Japanese. His architecture mixes Piranesian drama with contemplative spaces in urban complexes, residences and chapels. This film presents the formative years of his impressive career before he embarked on projects in Europe and the United States.
When we get together it is usually loud. The table is set, we laugh and eat. Just like in every family. Then silence falls. Daily life returns. That’s how life goes on. This finite life. Everyone carries their experiences within. One bends under the weight. Another shares them. Some bury them deep. Everyone does the best they can. I often ask myself how we found one another in our family. What are the ties? What is all of it about?