Once a star on Broadway, always a star – at least that is what a group of feisty, humorous, and inspirational actors think as they embark on a journey to perform Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at their retirement home. With the help of two enthusiastic New York City theater directors who are not quite sure what awaits them, the troupe is formed among thespians whose skills and minds are not what they once were. As performance day nears, the tension mounts, with the actors battling to overcome crises, as well as themselves. But the show must go on and go on it does, with the troupe clinging to the hope of experiencing the magic and exuberance of performing on stage just one last time. - Sandy Wolf
Healing a Soldier’s Heart transports us into the troubled hearts and minds of four Vietnam veterans as they begin the courageous healing process to alleviate their severe PTSD. Still traumatized 40 years later, the veterans bravely journey back to the sites where they witnessed and committed atrocities of war. In the process, they come face to face with victims and experience Vietnamese culture through a new lens that fosters the compassion and the mutual forgiveness necessary for healing.
Founding father of Anthropology, Bronislaw Malinowski's work raises powerful and disturbing questions today. This is a look at his legacy and the imprints it has made on the generations that followed.
Latin boogaloo is New York City. It is a product of the melting pot, a colorful expression of 1960s Latino soul, straight from the streets of El Barrio, the South Bronx and Brooklyn. Starring Latin boogaloo legends like Joe Bataan, Johnny Colon and Pete Rodriguez, We Like It Like That explores this lesser-known, but pivotal moment in Latin music history, through original interviews, music recordings, live performances, dancing and rare archival footage and images. From its origins to its recent resurgence in popularity, We Like It Like That tells the story of a sound that redefined a generation and was too funky to keep down.
Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon narrates this educational installment of the popular "American Experience" series as it examines the 72-year struggle for a woman's right to vote. Segments focus on influential figures in the women's suffrage movement, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul; the country's widespread fear of social revolution; and the U.S. Senate's passage of the 19th Amendment by a single vote.
Edible City is a feature-length documentary film that tells the stories of extraordinary people who are digging their hands into the dirt, working to transform their communities and doing something truly revolutionary: growing local Good Food systems that are socially just, environmentally sound, and economically resilient.
Documentary - America's most popular and iconic seafood is really a cheap foreign import. Raising Shrimp paints the economic and medical perils of an outsourced food supply,and follows Ted, an engineer, and Andy, an ecologist, on a quest for a better shrimp. In Texas, they find fishermen pushed from riches to rags by imports. In Belize, they find shrimp farmers striving for a natural balance with jungles and lagoons, but again globalization takes its toll, and the best farm collapses. Back home in the U.S. pioneering farmers harness the power of bacteria to grow shrimp inside a darkened warehouse without any waste. Encouraged, Andy and Ted see that raising shrimp this way offers hope for all. - Andy Danylchuk, Ted Caplow
This film records a 12 day ritual performed by Mambudiri Brahmins in Kerala, southwest India, in April 1975. This event was possibly the last performance of the Agnicayana, a Vedic ritual of sacrifice dating back 3,000 years and probably the oldest surviving human ritual. Long considered extinct and never witnessed by outsiders, the ceremonies require the participation of seventeen priests, involve libations of Soma juice and oblations of other substances, all preceded by several months of preparation and rehearsals. They include the construction, from a thousand bricks, of a fire altar in the shape of a bird.
Memories of a Dreamer is a first person account of the hardship suffered by a political prisoner from Chile's 1973 cruel dictatorship. Felix Mora recounts shocking details of the torture he endured, his escape from the dictatorship and the challenges he has faced as an exile in Italy and Canada. The question is has Felix allowed torture and exile to shatter his dreams of obtaining justice and being able to return to Chile? Or has he used that suffering as a force to accomplish that dream?
Shrouded in mystery and long the subject of debate, the amazing story of Loreta Velazquez is one of the Civil War’s most gripping forgotten narratives. While the U.S. military may have recently lifted the ban on women in combat, Loreta Janeta Velazquez, a Cuban immigrant from New Orleans, was fighting in battle 150 years ago — one of an estimated 1,000 women who secretly served as soldiers during the American Civil War. Who was she? Why did she fight? And what made her so dangerous she has been virtually erased from history?
Generally regarded as Australia's finest railway film and winner of many awards the world over, A Steam Train Passes is a nostalgic, imaginative essay on one of the majestic C38 class steam locomotives, 3801. The locomotive has recently returned to service and is currently operating out of the NSW Rail Museum at Thirlmere, south of Sydney.
Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director, choreographer and creator of new opera, music theater, films and installations. She has been proclaimed as a 'magician of the voice' and 'one of America's coolest composers.
Examines how the Immigration and Naturalization Service decides who will be granted asylum in the United States. The applicant must have a "well-founded fear" of persecution in his or her home country. Despite true and terrifying stories of torture and mistreatment, it's often up to how well the translator presents the case and how sensitive are the ears of the asylum officer to decide a person's fate.
Exploring the idea that times of extreme difficulty facilitate increased resourcefulness and creativity, this compelling documentary takes a look at the art, music, literature, business, architecture, sports and entertainment of the Great Depression. The filmmakers also interview both ordinary people dealing with crisis and a diverse group of luminaries -- including Buzz Aldrin, Jesse Jackson, Hugh Downs, Mickey Rooney and Jerry Stiller.
In order to meet future care demands for elderly who are lonely and suffering from dementia, carebot Alice has been developed. Can a robot build a human relationship with someone and thus replace a person of flesh and blood? The three women, all getting on in years, who are visited by her in Alice Cares actually become pretty fond of the robot girl. Carebot Alice leaves the laboratory to visit Mrs. Remkes, Mrs. Schellekens-Blanke and Mrs. van Wittmarschen, each in their own house. The three women are getting on in age and are therefore exceptionally suited for the services of Alice, who has been developed by SELEMCA. This is a research group which tries to discover, with the help of community nurses and family, how 'sociobot' Alice should talk and react to stem the effects of loneliness on older women. The outcome of the experiment is surprising for all involved.
To commemorate the life and time of Australia's twenty-first prime minister, Gough Whitlam, SBS will pay tribute by airing his final ever TV interview. In this documentary, at 86 years of age, Gough shares his revelatory views on 50 years of public life in an in-depth conversation with John Faulkner. Looks at Whitlam's early parliamentary life and his role in the 1960s and the 1970s as Labor's Deputy Leader and then Leader, taking the ALP to power after a record 23 years of Liberal government.
This commemorative video examines the life and political career of the late Ronald Reagan, America's 40th president. Interviews with family members and journalists, excerpts from his many letters (read by his son, Ron) and recordings of some of his major addresses tell Reagan's story and illustrate why the man known as "The Great Communicator" had such a lasting impact on America and the world. Includes memorials and coverage of Reagan's funeral.
From the 1950s until his death in 2008, Robert Rauschenberg's groundbreaking mixed-media pieces mesmerized the art world. This 1998 documentary takes viewers inside Rauschenberg's Florida studio to explore his remarkable life and work. The film examines Rauschenberg's use of unique materials and includes a behind-the-scenes look at The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece, a massive autobiographical undertaking that Rauschenberg began work on in 1981.
Explore the inside story of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear holocaust. In the first major feature documentary on the subject, the film brings to life the three central characters - Kennedy, Castro and Khrushchev - and explores how the world's most powerful men fell into an abyss of their own making and outlines the courage and luck it took to climb out again.