Assembled by some of the nation's top documentary filmmakers, this centerpiece film in HBO's 'Addiction' campaign features insights from experts on trends and treatments in the ongoing battle against drug and alcohol abuse. This documentary consists of nine segments that focus on case studies and cutting-edge treatments that challenge traditional beliefs about addiction.
Interweaving footage from the director’s three visits to North Korea with songs, spectacle, popular cinema and archival footage, Songs from the North takes a different look at this enigmatic country typically seen through the distorted lens of jingoistic propaganda and derisive satire. Challenging the meaning of freedom, love, patriotism and ultimately the human condition, it tries to understand, on their own terms, the psychology and popular imaginary of the North Korean people and the political ideology of absolute love which continues to drive the nation towards its uncertain future.
On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.
Made entirely of Scottish film archive, a journey into our collective past, the film explores universal themes of love, loss, resistance, migration, work and play. Ordinary people, some long since dead, their names and identities largely forgotten, appear shimmering from the depth of the vaults to take a starring role. Brilliantly edited together, these silent individuals become composite characters, who emerge to tell us their stories, given voice by King Creosote's poetic music and lyrics
Explores how the quest for an elusive monster transforms those who seek it. Through the stories of hunters, scientists, and believers, the film blurs the boundary between legend and reality, suggesting that Bigfoot might be as much a reflection of human nature as a creature of the wild. Each sighting, rumor, or empty trail becomes a mirror, revealing our collective longing for mystery, connection, and the untamed. Ultimately, the film is less about finding Bigfoot and more about how the search shapes us, igniting a deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the natural world.
Directed by Peter Casaer and narrated by Daniel Day-Lewis, this documentary provides a harrowing look at the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid in armed conflicts. “Access to the Danger Zone” explores the strategies that Doctors Without Borders has employed to save lives in the world’s worst war zones, including Afghanistan, Somalia, and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo—strategies that are tested each and every day. Interviews with key experts from Doctors Without Borders, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations are accompanied by dramatic footage shot in these countries in 2011 and 2012.
A portrait of Ron "Stray Dog" Hall, an aging biker and RV park manager from southern Missouri. A man who has been permanently altered by his tours of duty in Vietnam, who has come to terms with himself and acquired a rare wisdom and patience in the process, and who is now dedicated to helping his friends, his loved ones, and his fellow vets.
Tells the story of Maria, a Central American immigrant who is forced to leave her family in search for a better life. On her way to the United States, she is forced to cross Mexico where she experiences a nightmare.
Documentary - Eighteen years in the making, two-headed cow started off as a black and white film that followed Dexter Romweber and his drummer Crow on a rock and roll tour along the same route as General Sherman. The film was not finished due to many circumstances, but the filmmakers were able to resume the film seventeen years later. After major TV appearances, a stint on a major label, bouts of depression and drug addiction, the film took on a different tone and poignancy. - Neko Case, Exene Cervenka, LaResh Crash
Documentary - Max Kennedy is a Minuteman, one of the many American vigilantes who patrol the border with Mexico. Hunting down illegal immigrants, the Minutemen live a gritty existence in the desert. They do it from a belief that they are at the frontline of a war to save their country. Yet within Max lies a great conflict: a sympathy for the Mexicans. Casting a penetrating light on the US-Mexico border issue, Max's story is a telling insight into human trafficking, first-world poverty and right- wing hate politics. - Li'l Dog, Gadget, Max Kennedy
Documentary - The Shark Con takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride into the big business of shark fishing, revealing the controversial truth about the industry and answering the question: Are sharks really overfished or is this just an elaborate con? - Rusty Armstrong, Gary Adkison, George Burgess
Until recently geometry was 'cold', incapable of describing the irregular shape of a cloud, the slope of a mountain or the beauty of the human body. With fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot gave us a language for our natural world. In this captivating documentary, the man himself explains this groundbreaking discovery.
The life and work of Alice Neel (1900-1984), American portrait painter. Part of the narration is chronological, part consists of interviews with friends, other artists, scholars, and family members, particularly two sons, Richard and Hartley, who are none too sanguine about their childhood and their mother's Bohemian life, and the filmmaker himself, a grandson whose querulous voice is heard from time to time. The film also includes footage of Neel, later in life, painting, talking, appearing on television, and giving lectures. Throughout, we see her paintings, bold, frank, and direct. After years of poverty and obscurity, fame comes as she nears 70.
The film analyzes the efforts by the families of 9/11 victims to create the 9/11 Commission and what information was revealed by it in the 9/11 Commission Report.
Doctors of the Dark Side is the first feature length documentary about the pivotal role of physicians and psychologists in detainee torture. The stories of four detainees and the doctors involved in their abuse demonstrate how US Army and CIA doctors implemented the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and covered up signs of torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Interviews with medical, legal and intelligence experts and evidence from declassified government memos document what has been called the greatest scandal in American medical ethics. Based on four years of research by Producer/Director Martha Davis, written by Oscar winning Mark Jonathan Harris, and filmed in HD by Emmy winning DP Lisa Rinzler, the film shows how the torture of detainees could not continue without the assistance of the doctors.
The puppeteers, performers, and magicians of the Kathputli colony in Delhi are the last slum-dweller–artists of their kind. When their land is sold to high-rise developers, they must fight for the only home they know. Fending off relocation, they struggle to keep their mystical Indian folk arts alive and to conserve what beauty remains as they are forced into someone else’s vision of the future. Tomorrow We Disappear is not just documentation, but ultimately becomes an extraordinary act of preservation. In Hindi with subtitles.
The fire of revolution has spread to Cuba! Director Jesse Acevedo risked his own freedom; using hidden camera methods, he brings viewers inside the brewing Cuban revolution. Those filmed are at risk, even now, of imprisonment but through the courage of those willing to speak out we see the new Cuba rising to the beat of Los Aldeanos. In a small town outside Havana two young brothers, are beaten and arrested in their own home and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for listening to rappers Los Aldeanos, banned by the government. We follow the intermingled stories of the Cruz brothers and the band they love. From the streets of Havana comes the sound of struggle and the voice of a new revolution - Los Aldeanos.
Originally a law enforcement tool, the mug shot has deviated from its fundamental purpose as a source of criminal identification. It has been sensationalized through celebritydom, exploited by the leniency of freedom of information, and has captivated the attention of the art world. Mugshot explores the personal stories of those whose lives have been transformed by these iconic photographs.
Over 350,000 tons of highly radioactive waste and spent fuel rods are in temporary storage on site at nuclear power complexes and at intermediate storage sites all over the world. More than 10,000 additional tons join them every year. It is the most dangerous waste man has ever produced. Waste that requires storage in a safe final repository for hundreds of thousands of years. Out of reach of humanity and other living creatures. The question is, where? Together with Swiss-British nuclear physicist Charles McCombie, who has been searching for a safe final storage site for highly radioactive nuclear waste for thirty-five years, director Edgar Hagen investigates the limitations and contradictions involved in this project of global significance. Supporters and opponents of nuclear energy struggle for solutions whilst dogmatic worldviews are assailed by doubt