Why are healthcare costs so high in the United States? Part of the problem lies with the business of hospitals, even those running as nonprofits. InHospitable follows patients and activists as they band together to fight a multi-billion dollar nonprofit hospital system in Pittsburgh that limits vital care for vulnerable patients. Filmmaker Sandra Alvarez explores the perspectives of patients, hospital workers, advocates, and politicians to shed light on an overlooked fight for justice.
This coming-of-age story focuses on Kyle Westphal, an isolated autistic boy who’s fascinated by fabric and emerges from an experimental autism treatment program to become a fashion designer. Westphal’s family looks back on twenty years of his development with candor and humor. The film combines observational footage, archival material, and animation to chronicle how a passion for fashion transformed Kyle and his family.
Explores the role of the MTA in New York City and the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on the vital service it provides: transporting New York’s essential workers. The film acknowledges the decline of the subway infrastructure as a political issue and captures a tumultuous time that impacted every city in America. This film poses the question: what happens when the lifeline of a city goes flat?
In Clarkston, a small town in Georgia, a successful Kurdish doctor and a Muslim-hating white supremacist form an unlikely friendship. Against the backdrop of an exceptionally racially- diverse community, themes of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and forgiveness play out in an intimate and accessible way. Directors Din Blankenship and Erin Bernhard put the focus on understanding, resulting in a moving film with a lot of heart that moves the conversation on racial divisions towards healing.
Born in Dallas to undocumented Mexican immigrants, Trinidad Lopez III fought his way out of the ghetto with a guitar to become one of the first Latino rock stars.
The Path: Evolution is the third film of The Path Series trilogy and explores the theory that human beings are living in a virtual reality system similar to the rules of an assimilated video game. The filmmakers follow former NASA nuclear physicist, Thomas Campbell, as he shares his knowledge and the results of his research of consciousness, physics, metaphysics and morality to explain mind and matter, normal and paranormal, life, death, and purpose, with all of this logically flowing from the concept of reality as information. The Path: Evolution will undoubtedly challenge the viewer's current belief systems and leave a lasting impression on human beings to re-evaluate how they are behaving, treating others, and existing in the world.
There's a massive student loan crisis in America. Millions have found themselves buried beneath a mountain of debt. Entire generations are trapped. Borrowed Future uncovers the dark side of the student loan industry and exposes how the system is built to work against you. We meet a group of high school students as they're about to make one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives, and then the other side: the reality for adults living with student loan debt. Do 17-year-olds really understand their financial decisions today will affect the future in front of them? Borrowed Future proves that you really do have the power to beat the student loan system - but it's up to you. You get to decide to feed the system or fight back.
While locked-up for six years in federal prison, artist Jesse Krimes secretly creates monumental works of art—including an astonishing 40-foot mural made with prison bed sheets, hair gel, and newspaper. He smuggles out each panel piece-by-piece with the help of fellow artists, only seeing the mural in totality upon coming home. As Jesse's work captures the art world's attention, he struggles to adjust to life outside, living with the threat that any misstep will trigger a life sentence.
An investigative filmmaker and global scholars examine the mysterious letters to the seven Churches of Revelation, the roots of persecution in the 1st Century Church, and the connections to our modern day lives.
What makes you travel 500 km with a surfboard to wait for the perfect wave on the cold, dismal Baltic? A captivating story about chasing dreams, friendship, waiting, determination and overcoming barriers.
A love triangle that incites jealous rage. An out-of-control wildfire that threatens lives and livelihoods. A sudden tragedy that upends a close-knit community. You might not expect such intense dramas at a small conservation center in the California desert, yet that’s exactly what you’ll get in the documentary, The Center: Gibbons and Guardians, which includes interview with Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace. Watch it to get immersed in the sometimes funny, sometimes startling story of the Gibbon Conservation Center. There, a determined group of people dedicate their lives to the conservation, study, and care of these endangered apes — and in the process, find courage, laughter, and even romance. The film will keep you riveted as the staff face one challenge after another. The lives of the apes intertwine with those who care for them to create a rich symphony that will make you feel how surprising and passionate life can be.
Before the Food Network and social media, Chef Charlie Trotter revolutionised global cuisine. He was a rock star among the first generation of celebrity chefs, but his meteoric rise came at a price.
Chaos on the Comms chronicles the struggles faced by Civilian FAA and military personnel to take back control of the sky. Official aviation and military recordings paint a picture of the immediate response to the deadliest attack in American history.
Song for Cesar is a documentary film with a unique view of the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez and the farmworker movement. The film tells a previously untold story about the musicians and artists who dedicated their time, creativity and even reputations to peacefully advance Cesar Chavez's movement to gain equality and justice for America's suffering farmworkers.
What if democracy fails citizens by not serving them all equally? What if inequality becomes the norm and the most vulnerable citizens are left behind with no money, no home, no rights, and no country of their own? In Hungary, the government has slashed social benefits and criminalized homelessness, but a group of activists, homeless and middle class, is confronting authorities to defend social justice and their right to be citizens. After the tragic death of two of its founding members, the group feels that Hungary is growing more hostile and their struggle is more important than ever. Despite all odds, their own community keeps them going—a mini-society with democracy and solidarity at its heart, an island of hope, belonging and dignity in a society gradually shifting the other way.
Night falls on an arena in Colorado Springs as two combatants, dressed in 15th century armor, beat each other to a pulp with battle axes. Exhausted and elated, the two women remove their helmets and warmly embrace. This traditionally European sport was brought to present day America by way of a few traveling hobbyists who fell in love with its history and athleticism. Though very much male dominated, a group of female fighters joined the fray and the concept of a knight was reborn. Steel Song follows the lives of three of these women; Shoshana Shellans, a teacher and military veteran, Bridgette Parkison, a writer with autism and essential tremors, and Julee Slovacek-Peterson, a mother and domestic abuse survivor. Together they discover not just the fight but beauty in the fight itself. STEEL SONG tells the story of everyday people who find hope, family and strength in Medieval Armored Combat.
The recent U.S. college admissions scandal is not merely an aberration in an otherwise virtuous system. It lays bare a US higher education culture in which wealth and influence remain the predominant values. RIGGED examines how this obsolete value system favoring wealth in our higher education system grows the disparity between rich and poor and thereby undermines the future of American Democracy.
Writer/Director Gina M. Garcia tells her inspiring true story in her feature film debut Untold: This is My Story of the hate crime that triggered disturbing flashbacks to her childhood traumas causing her to seek treatment for P.T.S.D. within the V.A. system. Gina's journey for the truth implodes her family and nearly takes her life.